Something Awful
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 17 discussion forums by recommenders
A long-running forum that people credit to its $10 sign-up fee and moderation, which keeps out spam and keeps quality high.
A long-running forum that people credit to its $10 sign-up fee and moderation, which keeps out spam and keeps quality high.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 20 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 16 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
$10 fee keeps out spam
“The software and standards and moderation style is approximately unchanged, complete with 10 dollar sign-up fee to keep out the spam.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Jurassic Park - Tablet device on Nedry's desk? (2012)” “History also shows you can take a $10 fee and maintain quality on SomethingAwful for quite some time.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “The dead Internet is not a theory anymore” “The :10bux: requirement did seem to do a good job of weeding out the lowest-level trash/spammers”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities” - Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting”
- Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Finland to end "uncontrolled human experiment" with ban on youth social media”
Consistent moderation and content standards
“The software and standards and moderation style is approximately unchanged, complete with 10 dollar sign-up fee to keep out the spam.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Jurassic Park - Tablet device on Nedry's desk? (2012)” “it was moderated by dozens of actual humans who operated transparently”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon” “enforcing good moderation and content standards”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums” Running for 20 years
“Both sites have survived and continue to work well for their users.”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities” “SomethingAwful had a great system for this 20 years ago”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Vouch” “At least Something Awful is still around.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney” - Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums”
Approach actually worked well
“Very surprisingly, it actually worked.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “I'm Tired of Talking to AI” “definitely made a huge difference”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “The dead Internet is not a theory anymore”
Other discussion forums people recommend
The four most recommended other discussion forums, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News | 361 | 156 | 70% | 12 | 10 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| 261 | 988 | 21% | 13 | 14 yrs54 owners | — | |
| Lobsters | 105 | 31 | 77% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Old Reddit | 60 | 47 | 56% | 12 | — | — |
| Something AwfulThis page | 16 | 1 | 94% | 9 | 20 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“You could also look at SomethingAwful as a reasonable strategy?”
“enforcing good moderation and content standards”
“it has disappointed me greatly”
“It's been my main hangout for 20 years.”
“Very surprisingly, it actually worked.”
“The :10bux: requirement did seem to do a good job of weeding out the lowest-level trash/spammers”
“Both sites have survived and continue to work well for their users.”
“At least Something Awful is still around.”
“I actually paid for the "Platinum" membership for Something Awful so that I would have access to search, and a custom icon”
“History also shows you can take a $10 fee and maintain quality on SomethingAwful for quite some time.”
“definitely made a huge difference”
“It worked for years for the SomethingAwful forums. A nominal charge for the ability to post”
“Something Awful was fun to be on”
“SomethingAwful had a great system for this 20 years ago”
“retained a weirdly high level of quality these days by (still) charging”
“The software and standards and moderation style is approximately unchanged, complete with 10 dollar sign-up fee to keep out the spam.”
“SomethingAwful boards and up until a few years ago”
“it was moderated by dozens of actual humans who operated transparently”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.