Smalltown Football vs. The Internet
Topic: Fun
In October of 2006, the town of Snohomish, WA made the news: A Junior ROTC student whose leg was blown open in a grisly accident when the traditional cannon used to blast off a football game exploded on him.
Townspeople, with their Traditional Values, sent him heartwarming messages such as "Stay quiet about this or we'll break your other leg."The story made the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, then the internet, then
Fark.com. After several months of internet ridicule,
an arrest had been made and the town apparently is trying to clean up its tarnished reputation for being heartless hicks. Farkers not only sent emails and phone calls to the town and the high school complaining about their poor treatment of the boy, but also had other kinds of fun while they were at it.
First, they went to the high school's football website (!?) and all voted, repeatedly, that they "will not be attending any games" in the on-line poll. At one point, a town that has about 8,000 residents had an on-line poll showing over 20,000 people will not attend any games. I mean, according to the
(now legitimate again, see below) wiki, the team last won a state championship in 1978, so a lot of my fellow Farkers didn't see why the town was so damn proud of the team to begin with.
And then Wikipedia got involved. Wikipedia, "the encyclopedia anyone can edit", enjoyed extensive free editing for the Snohomish Senior High School entry until an administrator wised to the Fark and locked the page down and cleaned it back up.
While it was going on though, it was great times . No, really, it was bleedin' fantastic. Compare the two wikis; I'm still laughing.
Posted by conniechai
at 8:36 PM PST