OK, maybe it didn’t go down like that. It actually started with a casual conversation on Gawker about starting a blog so the Gawker commenters could have a little place of their own to write and amuse one and other.
Bots: So how did Crass come about? Here’s how I remember it.
Back in late 2010, there was a general sense among the denizens of #crosstalk that Gawker was starting to feel like a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop. Any sort of weirdo could stiop by at 2:30 a.m. and poop on the floor before hitting the road again. Around that same time, Nick Denton gave an interview to some magazine (I can’t even remember which one at this point) where he described the burden of entertaining Gawker’s “self-aggrandizing” regulars.
So a few of us started thinking about what would happen if we started our own site. Wouldn’t it be neat if we could write our own blog posts about stuff we cared about instead of merely responding to Richard and Moyland and HamNo all day?
First, there was the Tumblr. However, Botswana Meat Commission FC soon realized the Tumblr was for dirty hipsters and he decided to launch a proper website. He just needed a name.
And then, inspiration!
Bots: Yeah GFB had a stroke of genius at that moment. Fun fact: For the longest time I thought GFB was like a 6’8″-tall drag queen or something, based on her screen name. It turns out she’s 100% lady. Who knew!
Crasstalk was launched a few hours later. Botswana was soon joined by a mysterious West Coast playboy, a 1337 haxxor, and an over-educated drunk. This team began to build a little settlement on the wild plains of the internet.
Part One: The Quiet Beginnings
After a couple of introductory posts the gang was off to win the internet. The first few months were a peaceful affair. Booze was consumed, television was watched, Reptilians were summoned, and Leprechauns were vanquished.
Bots: Early on we didn’t take Crass seriously at all. Why would we? First of all, I expected that everyone would lose interest within a few weeks. I remember when we we first set up the site and we were using a generic WordPress theme. We needed a header image so I just did a Google image search and picked the funniest one I could find. We ended up stealing some Christian author’s header.
Then a bit later we found this crazy site template that would basically tile all of the posts up onto the screen. It looked kind of cool but gave everyone a headache.
I think fairly early on it became apparent that a lot of people really wanted to be involved in this little project of ours. Of course I couldn’t have even gotten it off the ground without GrandInquisitor and Dogs of War. But I also should thank Bens and DontMakeMe (one of the original three who signed on to (and did) help, you thankless prick) and Dancing Queen and Durers Rhino and GFB and Lucky and Dahl E. Lama and Ms. Stabby.
Things were harmonious and the site even got a few new users when Gawker let hackers steal everyone’s passwords. However, little did the settlers know that things were about to get really interesting.
The Great Migration
The day after the Superbowl someone at Gawker decided to launch a disaterous redesign. Refugees flooded to our little outpost. Chaos reigned. Hundreds of commenters joined Team Crasstalk over the course of just a couple of weeks. The CT server was overwhelmed and crashed. It was time to grow.
Bots: I remember that first day after the Gawker redesign. I went to the gym and then after my workout I looked at my phone and it had blown up. There were about 50 messages from GI, Dogs, Bens and everyone else. Of course, within hours our original host had shut the site down due to too much traffic. That kicked off about a week of round-the-clock work on the site. It was really incredible. Luckily I was unemployed at the time. I don’t know how I would have done it if I had to be in the office during the day.
This was an exciting and confusing time. Initially, writers posted whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Sometimes this caused problems. However, a mascot was found, fun started to happen, and a community was born.
Shit Gets Real
As the community grew, new faces appeared and outsiders started to take notice. Important lessons were learned. For instance, we learned never to talk about book club. At this point Crasstalk developed a regular schedule, got some editors, and even started to run some advertising. There was much drama, but also a bunch of new writers, and some really great posts.
As the months have passed we have continued to grow. We have been picked up by Slashdot, The Huffington Post, and CNN. We are Stumbled, Tweeted, and Facebooked, and we continue to showcase some great writing and (of course) snarky commenting. We clearly are poised to win the internet.
Bots: One thing I’m not sure most Crassholes fully understand is the extent to which our own GrandInquisitor makes this place run. She edits most of the posts, schedules them, sets up new authors, supervises the social media marketing and SEO stuff and handles an amazing amount of chatty email from you guys. (You’re all lucky she’s here because that shit would just sit in my inbox for months…) It’s incredible. So really you shouldn’t be thanking me…
On behalf of myself, Bots, and Dogs of War, I want to thank all of you for making this a great place. Many of you have put in a lot of time and love to make this site a lot of fun. We clearly couldn’t have done any of this without your efforts and support. Here’s to another great year.
