The Bad Boys of Computer Science
A sporadically updated web comic from your friends at HotZP.
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Sporadic Rant:
I wasn't planning on updating today, but something came up which I thought I should address immediately. Basically, I found out via the forum that I had been selected as Something Awful's Awful Link of the Day. Ouch. Yes, as you may have guessed, I was mildly upset when I found that out. I'm a fan of the site, but I don't visit it religiously like its legion of frothing zealots do, so the news was somewhat stunning. I wasn't exactly angry, but I wasn't what you'd call pleased, either. I decided not to lose my cool over this and just mailed the site's maintainer Lowtax instead.
Here's my original e-mail:
From: Nicholas Yu
To: lowtax@somethingawful.com
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 12:29 AM
Subject: Awful Link
Hrm, how do I begin this? Let me say I'm a pretty big fan of the site, especially the priceless ICQ pranks. I'm the person who does The Bad Boys of Computer Science, and I was semi-horrified at first to see my comic as the Awful Link of the Day. Later, upon a few moments of reflection, it became somewhat amusing.
Now, I realize that my comic isn't the greatest as I don't take it that seriously or update that regularly; but I was hoping not to be one of the absolute worst links on the internet. I mean, over a thousand people a day visit the site. Granted, that's not really explaining anything away; lots of people take what George W. Bush says seriously.
The premise of the comic is admittedly unoriginal, and seems to almost follow your online webcomic guide/parody, but I think it's somewhat undeserving of the Awful Link of the Day. I'm not going to plead with you to take it off, because that clearly won't happen nor do I really want it to. Heck, I appreciate the extra traffic it'll send my way, despite all the flames that will no doubt appear in the forums.
What I'm really interested in is why you thought it was so God-awful that it deserved the Awful Link of the Day. I'm not totally adverse to criticism, but the comment next to the link was a joke and didn't really offer anything constructive. I mean, if the comic is truly that horrible in many people's eyes (this is the first time since February when the strip began that I've had any negative feedback), then I probably don't need to waste my time doing it.
--Nick
I realize now that the last paragraph I wrote (especially the concluding statement) was a bit extreme, and I changed my mind about it almost immediately after I sent the e-mail. Lowtax himself chided me for such thoughts as we can see in his reply:
From: Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka
To: Nicholas Yu
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 3:48 AM
Subject: Re: Awful Link
Well, I just didn't find it funny. I have a particular dislike of geek-centric web comics (aka "User Friendly") which seem to revolve around the consistant, "hey look! Geeks do this different than 'normal' people do!" Nothing personal against you, I just find geek-centric humor to rank up there with making puns or lighting your own pubic hair on fire. It's not to say your site/cartoon is the absolute worst (God knows, it's not even in the bottom 100 of awful web comics), but I just didn't care for it myself.
I intentionally didn't post a link to your message board/guestbook/whatever, because I didn't think it was bad enough to warrant that. Sure, some idiots will go there and post anyway (because they're fucking morons), and I apologize in advance for them. Guestbook/forum flamers aren't the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.
So anyway, don't take it personal. I'm just another jackass with another jackass' opinion. If anything, you'll get a few extra readers from the link. If you like doing what you do, then keep on doing it and ignore idiots like me, because my opinion ultimately shouldn't matter to you one bit.
-Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka
Now, Lowtax's e-mail made me feel better for several reasons. First of all, the reason he disliked the strip was more about ideological differences than anything else. He doesn't like "geek humor" in general, it's not just isolated to my strip. That's fine by me, my strip isn't meant to be widely applicable. I would think the title itself would tell people what niche audience it was primarily meant to address, but I digress. The second reason it made me feel better is that he denounced the people who flamed the forums without provocation. I wasn't that angry about that in the first place, because I got just as many people warning me about it and posting without flaming as people who did actually flame (at least at the time of this writing), a rarity if not a unique event in the history of SA Awful Links of the Day from what I've been able to discern. I also started to notice how the hits counter was rocketing up much higher than it usually does. Most of the new visitors will disappear as soon as Lowtax posts a new site to ridicule, but there may be a few brave souls who stick around. I just wish I had been in the middle of a funnier gag when the link went up. And in the end, he was right. His opinion really shouldn't matter so long as I enjoy what I'm doing. And I do. And my friends do. So as far as I'm concerned, we're all cool, and I'm still a big fan of the site, especially the ICQ pranks I mentioned earlier. I guess I'll just never be 1337 like Jeff K.
But you want to know what really made me feel a whole lot better? After seeing me staring intently at the computer monitor for such a long time, my fiancee pulled me away and I had some pretty fucking good sex before I went to bed. It's all good. This comic is not my life. My fiancee is my life. My family is my life. My friends are my life. My schooling and future career are my life. And my life is going quite well, I must say. And that, they say, is that.
Comics which are guaranteed* to be non-awful:
Penny Arcade
PvP
Sluggy Freelance
Etherlife
Avalon
Funny Farm
*Not really guaranteed