Fark NotNewsletter: Update to the TotalFark & BareFark membership drive

This is a multi-part message in MIME format... ------------=_1484680998-11692-64754 Content-Type: text/html Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [3D"The] [3D"Facebook"] [=3D"Twitter"] [3D"Totalfark"] Having trouble reading thi= s email? View it online [here]. Comments thread: [] Unsubscribe links are at the bottom of this message. =20 =20 A message from Drew Curtis: Well that was one of the busier weeks we'v= e ever had. So [last week] I announced Fark had its ads shut off for Google fo= r about five weeks and we needed to do a subscription drive to make things = whole again. You can read about all that [here]= . We were hoping to get 10,000 subscribers or so - if we hit that mar= k, I'll schedule a night where I attempt to drink an entire bottle of bourb= on and delete the politics tab again. So far we've gotten about 1200 new [TotalFa= rk] accounts and 600 new [BareFark] accounts. That ma= y not sound like much, but it's a really good start. Please continue = to tell your friends in social media that you read Fark, and if you could a= lso sign up for one of the two subscriptions that would be fantastic. = n> I'm also way behind in person= ally thanking everyone who bought me a subscription - I'm trying to catch u= p. I'm worried that I'm going to miss someone, so if that happens fee= l free to drop me an email to thump me on the head about it. &nb= sp; One huge unexpected benefit of the rea= ction to the announcement last week is that suddenly I'm seeing names in th= e comments sections that I haven't seen in years in some cases. It's = been like a high school reunion for the past week - assuming you really lik= ed the people you went to high school with. People continue to return= ; it's truly amazing. Welcome back, everyone, we've missed you. = n> Folks have asked if I've hear= d from Google or not - I haven't and I don't expect to. They didn't s= hut our ads off last week when we re-posted the same image that led to our = ads being shut off in October, which I think speaks volumes about the whole= situation in general. F= olks also asked why is it exactly that Fark has trouble bringing in new use= rs from both social media and search traffic. For social media, peopl= e usually share the link that we share rather than a link to Fark. This is = understandable - they find an interesting article on Fark and share the art= icle. Even if they use a Fark link to share it, without an explanation of w= hat Fark is, that's not often going to bring a new member to Fark. With search, the reason we get so= little traffic has to do with Fark's layout - our main pages are an endles= sly moving stream of links. There's nowhere to hook traffic into. &nb= sp;Think of it as a context problem - if you wanted your friends to go visi= t Fark how would you do it? You'd start by saying "I like this place,= it's been around awhile, you'll read some good stuff there," which probabl= y would get some people to click. After that, though, how and where w= ould you send traffic? A traditional digital media website has thousa= nds of articles of content, you could make an argument to visit each one of= those. It's as easy as "check out the article on this site." W= ith Fark, there are no articles. We've got comment sections, but thos= e usually don't present a unified theme, either. So it's no mystery t= o me as to why we don't get much traffic from search - we never have. = n> There's an expected benefit t= o not having search and social traffic, mainly that we're not vulnerable to= Google or Facebook deciding to change the rules all of a sudden. The= re was a time where Facebook wasn't using an algorithm to limit the reach o= f posts on FB, but these days anything you put on their platform has = about a 7% reach (last time I looked). Small changes to these algorit= hms can have outsized impact on news media platforms. Fark's audience= comes to us directly, so we're less vulnerable to changes on other platfor= ms. I'll post another up= date next week - meanwhile thanks so much for all you've done so far.  = ;I know it doesn't seem like $5 a month makes a huge difference, but when l= ots of people do it, it moves the needle for us. Please continue to s= pread the word - especially media folks who use us as a resource. I c= an't tell you how amazing it is to see familiar names back on the site agai= n. ________________________ We now return you to= your usual Fark NotNewsletter. ________________________ Note: dugitman = ong>says there's a mouse somewhere in his office.  = ; Comment Mentions &nb= sp; The number of comments these words were mentioned in on Fark and Tot= alFark in the past week Golden shower - 462 BuzzFeed - 689Google - 1697 Newsletter - 165 Bacon - 548 = Comment Voting = Some of the top-voted smartest and funniest comments from the past week = Funniest: clodcomplex revealed [what Bernie Madoff is really doing with his time = in prison] Beerguy shared [a cop joke] shanrick posted a [troubling Trump animated gif] Diogenes = g>showed us what it might look like [when som= eone finds out they have Obamacare] Drew reacted to = the [tab changes on Fark] Augu= st11 noticed some [things that Trump= is doing right] tuskahoma man posted [a man who's in the dog house] Sin_City_Super= hero proved that [there are ways of = dealing with parking space hogs] Bathia_Mapes found = another way to [punish parking lot jerks]Learned Hand Job came in with [the obligatory xkcd] Smartest: Po= cket Ninja had helpful [advice for p= eople who park over two spots] to limit damage to their cars = markie_farkie discussed [wasted welf= are dollars] brap thought something [stopped being funny] Weaver95 noticed= something about [people who want to restrict= gay rights] LordJiro disagreed with the assertion t= hat [Trump is a moderate populist] sithon saw [the appeal of poli= tical correctness] poorjon pointed out what everyone= should already know about [hooking up with d= runk people] fusillade762 posted [a meme about prayer] vudukungfu suggeste= d a [response to instances of police abuse= a> kimwim applauded][a wo= man's decision to fight back] CSB Sunday Morning: [Hangouts] Smartest: timujin= had [an adventure one night in Phno= m Penh] Funniest: Roman Fyseek [admitted to committing a crime a long time ago]= If you would like to suggest a topic for a CSB Sunday Morning= thread, please email [dugitman]. &nb= sp; Politics Funniest: ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha p= osted a [cartoon relevant to the Trump dossie= r published by BuzzFeed] PirateKing had an [alternate headline for the BuzzFeed story] Burchill shared [a hint of what = was to come] markie_farkie figured out something abo= ut [Donald Trump's hair] meye= rkev shared a [tweet defending Trump=] Politics Smartest: shower_in_my_socks= gave reasons to [not discount somet= hing just because it's on BuzzFeed] docpeteyJ saw on= e news story as [a warning sign] raius thought some [FBI decision= s looked shady] Benevolent Misanthrope thought [Trump's decisions are following a rule book]markie_farkie thought the [end of Obama's presidency] would be the end of more than that = Contest Votes Some of the top-voted contest entries from last week, listed f= rom highest number of votes down Photoshops: Surly U. Jest posted [photos of Drew and his brothers] Iggie found a= [cat making a filthy storm] Re= dZoneTuba showed us [what the model = for the Mona Lisa really looked like] Pure Weapons-Grade Bolo= nium [made traveling much more pleas= ant] Yammering_Splat_Vector found [a place to ask for directions] Herb Utsmelz = strong>showed [the best way to exit your car wickedfish discovered][a Peanut growing on a tree] FarkNUSA [gave this lonely woman some company] Yammer= ing_Splat_Vector [taw a puddy tat]= > RedZoneTuba visited [a = forest you won't get lost in] Farktography: Linguine won Farktography Contest No. 610: "[Nighty Night 2]" = with a [moonrise near Moab]. Be sure to ch= eck out all the entries. Looks like we have some new people participating, = as well as some who've returned after having been away for a while. Lots of= great photos! If you would like to suggest a theme for = a Farktography contest, you can contact [Elsinore]= ong> or stop by the [Farktography Forum]. = Headlines of the Week (bro= ught to you by ox45tallboy) These are some of= Fark's favorite headlines of the Week from last week. You can view the res= t of them [right here]. [Man shot in laun= dromat fight. Let's see how agitators in the media try to spin this one in = the next news cycle] [After you open a bottle of re= d wine, it's okay to store it in the refrigerator. Although why anybody wou= ld put an empty bottle of wine in the fridge is beyond me] = [Large mudslide blocks Interstate 80 near Truckee. No word on statu= s of carees, vanees, and pickupees] ["Knights of Ma= lta condom scandal stretches from Myanmar to the Vatican." That's some impr= essive elasticity] [Fish fraud running rampant in= LA; CHiPS called in to investigate] [Cubs choose t= o come to Obama's White House instead of having Trump shower them with prai= se] [So what's the evolutionary advantage of CRISPR= anyway, aside from keeping your lettuce fresh?] [I= s Aaron Burr gonna hafta choke a biatch?] [Trump a= ide Monica Crowley has plagiarized from so many sources that this headline = will probably appear in her next book] [Under Armo= ur launches Tom Brady line of pajamas aimed at people who still believe tha= t an NFL quarterback who is married to a supermodel goes to bed every night= wearing pajamas] Weird News Quiz Results (brought to you by ox4= 5tallboy) Our quiz masters were at it again this week= , shutting everyone out of the 1000 club. Our top scorer was e= ikni who just missed it with 983, followed by da= llylamma with 935 and Twilight Farkle right = behind with 932. In 4th was abhorrent1 with a very respect= able 915, and a 884 from propasaurus rounds out the top 5.= The always room for improvement - the highest possible theore= tical score is 1100. You can try your hand at last week's quiz [right here=]. This week's most difficult question was about where the = exiled King of Rwanda used to hold court; only 21% knew it was outside of a= theater, while 69% thought it was in his bathtub. Because, you know, if I were king... but then again, it would have to be one seriously big= bathtub. I'm talking Roman spa size. Like we're tossing some Mr. Bubbles i= n one of those leftover pools from the Olympics. When you're king you can d= o that. This week's easiest question was about the shutdown of= Lake Tahoe ski resorts. A whopping 92% of quiz takers knew that there was = so much snow, it was not safe to ski due to low visibility and avalanche co= ncerns. And finally, a huge thank you to your quizmasters who = made this quiz possible - Sim Tree, Jesus Farking = Christ, phlegmmo, and Henry Fnord= >. --------------------------------------------------------------- ([Fark.com] sent this newsletter email= to: {EMAIL}) To stop these emails, go to the Notifications tab of your [MyFark profile] to change your subscription preferences. Or, [click here to unsubscribe] from newsletter emails, even if your Fark login isn't '{NAME}'. [Click here= to unsubscribe from ALL Fark emails]. Fark, Inc. 333 West Vine St Suite 210, Lexington KY 40507 = ------------=_1484680998-11692-64754--