General Mayhem
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General [M]ayhem, nicknamed by its users Genmay or the "[M]", is an Internet forum containing general discussion forums; its title aptly describing the character of these discussions. General Mayhem has very few rules. Genmay is currently one of the largest message boards on the Internet, with over 18,000,000 posts (considering the relatively small number of registered users). [link]
Community
General Mayhem is administrated by two members - M|22(Pronounced Mr. Tew) and Sanjay. However, General Mayhem is mostly moderated by its users in the form of a unique paid-banning service which generates income for the forum and culls the obnoxious at the same time. Recently, Genmay has implemented a new donation system, allowing automated changes of usernames (name-rape), thread subject lines, user titles, user avatars, along with automated banning and the ever-popular [H]-mode (essentially, some creative scripting makes browsing genmay a slow and tedious process for the [H]-moded user). These are also used as secondary forms of punishment, or in some cases, rewards. [link]The forum tends to segregate users based upon their userid, which were assigned to them upon joining. The general rule is that the higher the UserID is, the newer the user. The usage of UserID as an insult, previously a common practice, has since become an offense that is generally looked down upon and punished by the community, but seniority still garners respect.
Genmay's posting follows a daily cycle to a far greater degree of precision than most forums. Most posters being in North America, most posts are made during the daylight hours, giving the forum its greatest burdens around the noon and evening hours. Posting then sharply falls off around 1-2am PST.
Forums
The discussion board is divided up into sub-forums as follows:
General [M]ayhem - This is the main forum which shares its name with the site. This forum is for posting anything (hence the name).
CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet - (CGHMN for short) This forum is for posting anything computer and electronics related. CGHMN is home to many professionals (and would-be professionals) working in these areas. The name of this forum is based on an episode of The Simpsons where Homer decides to start his own internet service provider.
Games - This forum used to reside in CGHMN as a subforum. The popularity of this forum has warranted a shift to the main page. As the name implies, it is for the discussion of electronic games, whether it be PC, console, handhelds, or some other form.
Automotive [M]ayhem - If it has a combustion engine, it is probably posted about in this forum.
Dangerous Toys - A forum purchased by user 'wolf' for discussion of guns, knives, paintball, air soft, and other weapons.
Home, Garden, and Personal Finance - A forum for sharing recipes and various types of household and financial advice. The least popular of all subforums. Formally House and Cookery
Photography and i[M]aging - Like the name suggests, a forum specifically made for the discussion of imaging, photography, and cameras.
Altered [M]inds - A recent forum addition used for discussion of drug related subject matter. Until now, "drug threads" as they're called were posted in the main forum. The new forum is strictly moderated to keep discussion mature and to promote education about drug use. Asking a member for drugs, and where to obtain them on the forum is forbidden and will result in immediate and permanent ban.
The Pit - The forum for any heated debate, including political, religious, conspiracy theory, and racial discussions. It is also the home of callouts, where two members may debate publicly over a disagreement. Callouts can be over real life disagreements between members or simple attempts to destroy someone's credibility. The most common use of the Pit is for discussion of opinions on news items.
Bone Closet - Serious discussions about relationships and social interaction, sex, and personal fitness. Like the games forum, sometimes considered a forum within a forum; many users who post here do not post in the other forums often. In contrast to the General Mayhem, this forum is strictly moderated, and only mature and sensible replies are allowed. Spamming and personal attacks are strictly forbidden within this forum and will usually result in banishments if posted.
Babe Forum - A forum for posting pictures of beautiful women (and sometimes men). Pornographic material is strongly prohibited.
Premium [M]embers Only - Also referred to as the P[M]O and formerly called Adult Eye Candy, this is a hidden forum for posting pornographic pictures and videos. $10USD is required for admission, but female members can get free entry if they plan to post self-portraits. Also contains a subforum called Penis Palace (Abbreviated PP) where male forum users are encouraged to post pictures of themselves. The $10 payment also allows the user the ability to use the search feature of the forum.
Deals and Steals - Generally the least viewed subforum on the site, this is where members can sell and buy various things from each other.
RMTC's Pigsty - (Formerly the Kiddie Corral or KC) Named after permanently banned member RedManThatCould. A forum where banned users are allowed to post.
"Trinity" - A computerized bot that lived in RMTC's pigsty. Was once known for her witty responses inside Kiddie Corral and often tricking the unsuspecting poster that she was indeed a real person. Trinity has since been turned off, possibly for performance reasons.
Vault of [M]ayhem - Notable and otherwise funny posts are kept in here for archival and easy access, it is often suggested that newbies read this forum in order to understand some of the references used on General [M]ayhem. Once a thread is "vaulted" it cannot be posted in anymore. Often members will sarcastically request for a poor thread to be vaulted.
One complaint some users, especially newer ones, have about the current set of sub-forums is that a lot of serious or obscure threads are "doomed to death" by being only suitable for Genmay - where they are quickly spammed off-topic. Others take this as part of the atmosphere, and feel that only the most popular threads should survive, and new subforums would only "dilute the [M]ayhem."
Registration
Before recently it was thought as rather difficult to gain membership to Genmay. This was because one would have to have a non-free e-mail address, which helps prevent spamming and duplicate accounts. After this, each and every registration would have to be approved by an administrator before the user would be able to post. Other than this, registration is closed a large part of the time, so no one can make new accounts at all. In mid January 2006, registration was opened again. New users were also allowed to post immediately. It is believed that this was done to help raise Genmay's rating on [Big-Boards.com] (a forum ranking site). Some people are concerned that this will reduce the quality of the forum with more spam.History Of General Mayhem
The current General [M]ayhem was founded after the original forum, hosted by HardOCP owner Kyle Bennett, shut the forum down without warning during a server upgrade and banned users who disagreed with his decision.Three forum members jumped on the idea of creating a new forum for the displaced community. FLECOM registered genmay.com, M|22 registered genmay.net, and James Crivellone registered genmay.org. The first controversy happened when the 3 domains were consolidated into one forum run on M|22's computer, a dual Pentium 3 which was frequently unable to handle the load that was required, and a question of ownership and control came up between the 3 leaders of the forum. FLECOM was eventually de-admined "from [his] own fucking forum" and disappeared from the site. Crivellone gave up his control over the domain and left as well (going on to administer the more regulated forums of [Rage3d]). The control of the forum currently rests in the hands of M|22 and sanjay. Lately Genmay.org no longer works, although the Whois says that it still belongs to James Crivellone.
The site is now owned and operated under the name General Mayhem, LLC, of which Sanjay holds a 51%, interest, and M|22 the remaining minority interest. Genmay is run off of a large database server with two Opterons, 8GB of memory, and a large RAID array that's UPS backed, and has two channels. Then there's four 1U Dell boxes that serve Genmay via Squid proxies and Apache.
External links
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