B3ta
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| b3ta | |
|---|---|
 |
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| URL | http://b3ta.com/ |
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Digital Arts Community |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | Rob Manuel Denise Wilton Cal Henderson |
| Created by | Communal |
B3ta is a humorous British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian [1] It was founded by Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson.
B3ta's main feature is a newsletter featuring the latest work of the B3ta community and
other interesting things found on the Web. Also popular is a merge
To inspire creative works, B3ta poses a weekly image challenge, such as "if cats ruled the world", and a "question of the week", for example asking "what's your most embarrassing injury?".
In March 2006, it was announced that The Friday Project would be publishing a B3ta book entitled The Bumper B3ta Book of Sick Jokes. The book was published and made available 20th October 2006. The book consists of a series of "sick jokes" that were submitted and illustrated by B3ta contributors.
Rob Manuel
Rob Manuel (born December 5, 1973) is the co-founder of B3ta. He is responsible for numerous quizzes and Flash animations. He also works with Joel Veitch animating videos for Tomboy Virals.
Together with Jonti Picking he released a mini-album Pure Yak Frenzy consisting of various tunes and earworms created by one or both of them.
Newsletter and messageboard
The weekly newsletter is usually published on Friday afternoons. It features the best work by members of the B3ta community. Examples include Rob Manuel's "Female or Shemale," Jonti Picking's "Badger Badger Badger," and Joel Veitch's "Punk Rock Kittens."
There is also a messageboard where users can post images they have created.
Bandwagons and bandwagoning
Bandwagoning is the act of posting images related to a certain theme, or of a similar nature to a group of previously posted images. Bandwagon posts are generally unwelcome, unless they are particularly clever or inventive. Some bandwagons are started based on various cultural references such as advertisements, news items, etc. The B3ta FAQ explicitly prohibits, or at the very least strongly discourages the use of bandwagons, yet they are still common. On the Talk board, text-based bandwagons include "YOUN ARE" and "rice on the hob."
Talk board
The talk board is identical to the main message board except for the fact that it is not possible to post images. The site owners wanted a place where people could banter without worrying about creating images.
Challenges
There is a weekly image competition, where images are posted along a certain theme. The entries are posted as normal threads on the message board, but are marked with a "C" icon to differentiate from normal posts. All the entries also accumulate in a central repository that can be browsed anytime, with the highest voted images displayed first. The three 'special mentions' are chosen by the site mods, and are posted along with the theme of the new challenge in the Friday newsletter. See also Photoshop contest.
Recognizing that not everyone wishes to use Photoshop, the site asks a question each week hoping to provoke amusing anecdotes. It was originally used as material for the radio show and the newsletter, but realising the popularity of the content, the site owners decided to continue the questions after the close of the show. A new topic is begun every Thursday and, as with the other areas of the site, Question of the Week (QOTW) attracts regulars known for their characteristic posts.
B3ta Radio
From August 2003 until July 2004, B3ta had its own radio show, which was broadcast from Resonance FM (104.4 FM in London, also available via streaming broadcast from the Resonance FM website) between 4PM and 5PM. The show was presented by Rob Manuel and David Stevenson. There were often special guests – sometimes contributors to the site, sometimes semi-famous people, such as the drummer from Blur and Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff. Manuel announced the end of the radio show in July 2004, after falling out with the producer over whether stories about masturbation were suitable material for broadcast.
Controversy
Virgin asked B3ta to run an image competition where board members could win PlayStation Portables and an Xbox 360 for creating something on the theme "What would happen if you said Yes to everything?". However, Virgin cancelled the challenge early because they didn't like some of the images being created, including Richard Branson urinating on Rob Manuel, dressed in baby clothes.[2][3].
On 10 May 2007, an image competition on "Top Trumps" included a joke entry with abducted child Madeleine McCann as the subject. The image was shown on the front page, but later was removed by the editors of the webpage.[2]
On 4 June 2007, a b3ta member posted an "alternate logo" for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which alluded to the goatse Internet meme. The BBC then posted this logo on its website and ran it on its BBC News 24 channel as part of a viewer-submitted contest.[4]
References
External links
- B3ta web site
- http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/shark.asp – Snopes' discussion of the "Is it Real?" meme.
- B3ta Radio Includes archived B3ta radio shows.
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