Difference between revisions of "SocialDeviancy.com"

Description

Social Deviancy (or "SocDev", as it is often casually abbreviated) is a free, open, uncensored web community, which aims to provide a place where social taboos, cultural expectations, and political correctness have no place and hold no sway. The site is mainly comprised of a phpBB discussion forum, a live IRC chat room with Java console integrated into the site for convenient clientless usage, and a free-for-all anonymous "graffiti wall". Every part of the site is operated with a strong emphasis on freedom of speech - absolutely no topic whatsoever is considered taboo, "against the rules", or even in poor taste. As a result, typical conversations on the forum or chat room range from the most mundane chit-chat, to topics that most conservative people may consider extremely offensive to discuss openly. However the right to freedom of speech and freedom from censorship is the core principle of the website, and no user has ever had a forum post deleted, edited or censored, nor been banned or silenced from the chat room, for speaking their mind on any topic. Social Deviancy is a place where users can feel free to deviate from society's expectations and guidelines and say what's on their mind without fear of censorship, reprisal, punishment or retribution. The worst repercussion anybody can expect at Social Deviancy is that another user might disagree with their point as view with as much right as they had to state it.

The operator of and main contributor to Social Deviancy is "Venomous", a cynical 20-something guy with a jaded yet nihilistic view on life. His period articles and contributions to the forum portray a narcissistic, "I'm right, you're wrong, and in the unlikely event I'm proven wrong, I still stand by my statement because your opinion of me means nothing anyway!" attitude made popular by more well-known web writers such as Maddox of TheBestPageInTheUniverse.net, TuckerMax of TuckerMax.com, or Lowtax from SomethingAwful.com. In fact, to quote directly from the Social Deviancy site, Venomous describes Maddox as "a cooler, funnier me". This is typical of Venomous's attitude, which seems to be a strange blend of narcissism and nihilism - his writing is littered with self-deprecating humor, in contrast with the "nobody is better than me" attitudes of writers like Maddox, but he shares the same arrogant "you may not like me, but you're so unimportant to me I couldn't care less" perspective. It is clear that the Social Deviancy site was born from his own desire for a place online that he could openly say exactly what wanted to, and then formed a community of like-minded individuals around that concept.

The demographic of Social Deviancy's users is most predominantly single, white, 15-30 year old males, who are either unemployed, IT freelancers, or in other "geek" careers, with high levels of technical knowledge and poor real life social skills. Most are either virgins, or have been jaded by repeated poor experiences with women. In fact much of Venomous's writing contains deprecating comments towards women as a result of his own experiences with failed relationships, infidelity, and a general distrust of women and relationships as a result.

While not intentionally an "adult" or "shock" site, such as StileProject.com or Rotten.com, the open, uncensored nature of Social Deviancy results in some of the site's content not being suitable for minors, or in fact many conservative adults. To quote the site's main page, "We're not nice and conformist and clean, but nor are we hardcore and badass and tough. Like most things in life, we just exist. So don't expect to be impressed. And don't expect to be offended.".This is not to say that things like pornography, offensive images, or controversial topics are intentionally and deliberately published, only that if in the event that are brought up, they are respected by the site's free speech policies as opposed to being censored or removed like the majority of other "safe" web communities are likely to do. In fact, the administration/moderation of the site's forum and chat are generally limited to the removal of spam and spambots, and general maintenance (removing accidental double posts, etc.). No post or user is ever removed for the actual topical content of their post. As a result, SocDev is somewhat of a niche site, as this philosophy will be seen as vastly liberating to some people, and highly offensive to others. As a result, some conservative viewers may wish to block this site from minors using their preferred website blocking software.

Language

English

Contact

Additional Information

Social Deviancy was originally launched in April 2001, but was forced to shut down in June 2002 due to web hosting difficulties. The site was revamped and relaunched in February 2005, and has been online steadily and growing in membership and content to this day. Since the relaunch several new interactive features have been added to the site, such as QuoteDB, a repository of user-submitted quotes from the chat room, similar to Bash.org. In March 2007, Venomous tentatively announced plans to possibly introduce a semi-regular podcast segment to the site.

Similar Websites

External Links

• Alexa: SocialDeviancy.com
• WHOIS for SocialDeviancy.com

Featured Page Nomination

SocialDeviancy.com is nominated to be a featured wiki page. Please discuss this nomination below.

• First nominated on 00:48, 22 March 2007 (PDT)