Silly net-static ???aire.

[SpaceMonkey]

Yup, all the GOOD messageboards have them. Why not this one? A 'get ta know meeeee' questionaire!!!

1. How didja first hear about Freakylinks?

2. Were you 'fooled' by the site? & if so,

3. ...for how long, before you found out the 'deeper truth' about Derek?

4. Did you ever start your own Freaker site ( Like Freakyresearch, Freakopeida)

5. Favorite entry

6. How many screen-names did you use on the FL board?

7. Best story from your Freakylinks days-- doesn;t have to be related to freakylinks...

Lastly....

8. "Has anything freaky happened to anyone today"... (remember Beleiver?)

[SpaceMonkey]

My answers....

1.

lOOOOONG story.

I saw Blair Witch-- loved it.  There was a song in that movie, 'rigors'-- you only hear it for a sec. I loved it, too.. sat thru the credits to get the band's name : 'Digginlilies'.... &  I looked 'em up on the web. Sent 'em an e-mail-- they sent me a free cd, their ep 'Popula'. Loved it, too.

Spent a year or so, wishing I lived in Orlando, Fl.

Meanwhile, Dan Myrick showed up at UAB, a college near me, and talked about  TBWP-- during the talk, he mentioned a little tv show the Haxan guys were working on, called 'Fearsum' ...

Remembering the wacky 'play with reality' Blair Witch website, I guessed there would PROBABLY be some kind of online component to this new show, too -- so I wrote to the Digginlilies guy again & asked.  He sent me the addy for Freakylinks.

I saw that flash intro, and knew I'd just arrived at the coolest site on the web.

Sorry; the others won't be this long

[SpaceMonkey]

...

2. Yeah, alittle-- somehow I got the impression Derek  Barnes was one of the Haxan guys, and the show would be a fictional  story, based on his 'real'  brother Adam, who'd passed away.

3. About an hour-- when I saw a post by Derek, saying he  just didn't have ANY idea about any show based on his life.-- then he put "(nudge, nudge.. wink, wink) " after the denial.

4.  Other than the Fever, no... I wanted to do one called 'MonkeyShines'; I even designed a logo. You've seen it, it was the first FreakyResearch logo-- I changed the words 'Monkey' to "Freaky" & 'shines' to "Research".

5. "A stripper with something extra" saw that one  that first hour, when I still thougth the site was real.

6.  Maybe five? Bluesman,  Spacemonkey... a few more I  only used once. Like  'Rorschach'. I forget the others.

7. Has to be the Fever-- All the trolls I 've fought with in other chatrooms... NOTHING beats being the moderator of yer own!

8. Not today, sorry.

[idbeholda]

 
1. Was sitting in my room watching TV with my cat after getting stoned.  I saw the commercial for it as an upcoming show (the one where they're looking for the head in the jar).  2 days later, went to freakylinks.

2. No, but it was fun to play along with it.  It added to the magic of the site

3. I knew it... damn communists... always up to something (mumbles something about Billy Graham not realizing that God is dead)

4. Nope

5. My favorite entry was the one where the man puked up a frog.  I like puke stories.

6. I used approximately 4 names on the board.  Some of the older people know what sn's they were

7. Don't really have one.

8. Um... does seeing one of your friends in sparkly shiny underwear (disturbing) count?

[Linsey]

1. I saw the ad for the show on tv. I thought "hey, that kinda looks good. Maybe I'll watch it." It's strange because it didn't look like something I'd be totally interested in, and suddenly on the friday night it started, I forgot it was on (I also think I put the ad out of my head right after that one thought) and suddenly I remembered, for some reason I set up my tape, and I watched the episode while taping it...why? But I think a day or so after the episode, I went on over to the site and fell in love.

2. Oh, I was fooled alright. I thought the thing was real, but the show was based on it (note that I was in 8th grade at the time, but I'm oh-so-advanced anyway). I thought that since "derek" never really mentioned the show itself, but mentioned a fake show called something like "creepy geeks" as a sort of joke, maybe FOX told him not to mention the real show. It seemed real enough.

3. I think I found out it was fake maybe a month after it went down? Not sure. But I think I always thought there was a real derek barnes and then one day something was posted about brian cain... "No derek? Wha-?"

4. No.

5. Well, I did really like Derek's dream diary, also the one where he had the video of himself skating and messing up the moves. Basically I think I liked all of them.

6. Just one, the one I usually use with all message boards, "Linsey." I just wish I never put my parents's e-mail on there when I wrote replies or posts. I didn't need to, but I did...they got all that junk mail because of it.

7. Best story? What kind of story? Okay, well, I remember around the time of the last 4 episodes I tried getting my new friends (I was involved in a play and I made some) to watch FreakyLinks. Some did, and they liked it. I've intoduced it to a few people since the show. My friend and I have Derek Barnes inside jokes. But basically I am still involved with FL stuff, so the whole thing is a giant story. Too long!

8. Haha, I remember that guy. Freaky...hmm...well, sadly, not really. I can't think of anything freaky...I guess meeting the people behind the freakylinks scene is freaky...um...well, lastnight Richard Simmons on "whose line is it anyway" and laughed my ass off...freaky enough.

You know, I always wished that I had been mentioned in the FL diary. Spacey, you're lucky.

Also, I talk alot on here.

[HaxanMike]

I saw Blair Witch-- loved it.  There was a song in that movie, 'rigors'-- you only hear it for a sec. I loved it, too.. sat thru the credits to get the band's name : 'Digginlilies'.... &  I looked 'em up on the web. Sent 'em an e-mail-- they sent me a free cd, their ep 'Popula'. Loved it, too.

SpaceMonkey,

The guy behind digginlilies, Klaus, is a designer here in Orlando. I have my edit suite in his studios -- check out their website:

http://www.juicytemples.com

I told Klaus he should check out the board a say hello, so maybe he'll drop in soon.

[HyperX]

Hello hello hello freaks and freaksters!!!

1. I believe I first heard of the tv show from a preview for fearsum, stumbled on the website .

2. No , but I wanted to be fooled

3. I do not remember

4. Well I never really created a site, but I was one of the original people to work on FreakyResearch, and most of the first story was mine ( My original Draft was much better). I also started the freakology101 boards to try and help all of us displaced freaks stay together while FreakyResearch was down(which was more often than not) and 'The Fever" went away.

5. I like them all, I loved reading them and then finding the hidden links and all. I really liked the newsletter The whole Asphlund(?) thing freaked me out because I had never heard of them before and then all of the sudden I was seeing them everywhere

6. On the freakylinks board I only used HyperX, but in the fever I was many, Mr.E , BigBadVoodooDaddy, and my personal favorite TheIncredibleInedibleExplodingWhale to name but a few.

7. Well there was this one time when "DerekBarnes "showed up in the Fever, that was cool even though it did not last very long.

8. nope nothing freaky today, but yesterday now that was a different story, but you did not ask about yesterday

Hyper"Nothing really happened"X

[PaperDollyBurned]

1.  I was at a game site and they had a page of links.  It was a giant cat litter box and you went over a lump and it had the site names.  FreakyLinks was mentioned and I recalled hearing about that from somewhere.  So, we clicked on the poop-link.

2. Yes.  All I knew was the site, though I was curious how a site could get so many people and be so GOOD, I dismissed it.

3. When FL began advertising their show in a box ad on the page, I realised it was part of the T.V. show and that they were all characters.

4. Not a "Freaker" site, I thought about it but realised that no one would come to my site.  Except now I have a non-freaker-freaker site project.

5. I remember something about Adam's house and writings all over the walls.  and a dream with Adam and whatnot.  I think I was into the whole "contact with adam" thing.

6. Two.  The first one I will never mention because I was a stupid 13 year old, the second was after I had grown and changed.  PsychoAngel.

7.  My favorite story was when the site was going down, actually.  Everyone was in "The Fever" freaking out, watching the pages being ripped away.  The last thing being the message boards where people posted things of hope to each other, always wanting to stay together and remember this.  Three years is a long time...

8. I could only be so lucky.

[Tyson]

1. How did i first hear about freakylinks, hmm i think it happened when i was watching tv and i saw a commercial for it in the summer and i went on the net searched up up on it and there i was on freakylinks.com

2. a little but never the less it was a fabtacular site, and how could you not be fooled with how far back some of the entries went back

3. about a minute after i started watching the show i realized it wasnt the same derek barnes as the site as this was ethan embry of empire records

4. every one remembers the short lived life of seektheunknown.com then the message boards to follow

5. everything

6. i dunno mikeyb, mikey_burns, desert_lyon,  and i craked the derek barnes password

7. the conspiracies of the boards and chats and chillin' with Dragonzzz online

8. i woke up without a hangover lol

[Edain]

hmmm, forgot to do this again, had replied to this a couple days ago, almost finished it when it got wiped out, here I try again.  

1. Can't remember whether it was through a portion of a TV ad, or a link from another website.

2. Yes

3. I think right up until they added the "you are now leaving the fictional world of Derek Barnes" message on leaving the site.  Up til then I thought the TV show was just based off the site.

4.  No

5. Heh, can't pick just one, would have to say the road-trip entries, the shoe salesman head ones, and the L.A. to Seattle road trip.

6. I wasn't really active on the web board, if I ever posted on it, it would be under this name.  So 0 or 1, I guess.

7.  My favorite would have to be just after the first episode aired, and the whole thing about "CreepyGeeks" was posted.  Just for the fun of it, I came up with this wild conspiracy theory about how Fox was secretly videotaping the Freakylinks gang, and tampering with their TVs so they would show the CreepyGeeks show, all in a vast attempt to discredit them.  (Course, at this time I didn't realize there were still people who believed that it was all real, and that they might think I seriously believed the conspiracy I sent in.)    The cool part was the next day, when I checked my email, I had a reply in there, from Derek.  Just a short little message, but I thought it was really cool.  For me, that summed up the magic of Freakylinks.  Sure, the characters were fictional, just like with almost any TV show, but here, you could go online and talk to the characters, and there was a chance you could get a reply.  You could join in, become involved in the story.  For that, I don't think I can ever thank Brian Cain and everyone at Haxan and GMD enough.  It's also one of the reasons I don't care too much if they have to get new actors to play the characters, to me, Brian Cain is Derek Barnes, who plays him on the TV show doesn't matter as much as who plays him on the site.  

8. No, unfortunately, would've made for a nice distraction too.  (Looks at clock, notices it's past 1).  Well, I guess technically this day is still young, so who knows, maybe some hideous monster will jump out and attack me later on (One can only hope).

[brian]

Oh, some of these answers made me chuckle and brought up little details that might amuse you:

First off, my favorite Freakylinks moment is actually Spacemonkey -- who was the one that suggested a Freakylinks feature that, internally, we still call a "spacemonkey". In order to keep down the chatter about the television show, we had been *censoring* some of those words. It was Spacemonkey's brilliant idea to actually REPLACE those phrases with new phrases that just made the posters sound insane (how many of you remember all the message board posts about "a recipie for Chupacabra that is both tasty and good for you"?)

I thought that since "derek" never really mentioned the show itself, but mentioned a fake show called something like "creepy geeks" as a sort of joke, maybe FOX told him not to mention the real show.

CREEPYGEEKS! Okay, you just made me start cackling remembering the day that Brian Cain showed up at our offices, costumes and props in hand, wanting to shoot the GMD folks as the Creepy Geekers ... heh heh. There are a hundred Easter Eggs in the site like that (including what, about 40 pictures of Brian Cain?)

On the freakylinks board I only used HyperX, but in the fever I was many, Mr.E , BigBadVoodooDaddy, and my personal favorite TheIncredibleInedibleExplodingWhale to name but a few.

HyperX = TheIncredibleInedibleExplodingWhale? Everything makes sense now!

The cool part was the next day, when I checked my email, I had a reply in there, from Derek.  Just a short little message, but I thought it was really cool.  For me, that summed up the magic of Freakylinks.  Sure, the characters were fictional, just like with almost any TV show, but here, you could go online and talk to the characters, and there was a chance you could get a reply.  You could join in, become involved in the story.  For that, I don't think I can ever thank Brian Cain and everyone at Haxan and GMD enough.

Wow, that's exceptionally cool, Edain. That's one of the things that we really loved about Freakylinks as well: the connection to the community.

Okay, my answers:

1. Gregg Hale called me and said, "I've got this new project I want to talk to you about ..." When one of the Haxan guys has a new project, you just know you're in for an interesting rollercoaster.

2. Fooled by the site? You mean ... it wasn't real?

3. I figured out the truth about Derek the first time I saw Brian Cain's pictures of the giant head he bought off EBay (FLers might remember Derek had a whole story about that, including it catching on fire, which is actually all based on Brian Cain's real experience.)

4. Heh heh heh

5. When the site first launched, the ones I couldn't stop cackling over were The Mother-In-Law and Cookies for Satan, but my all-time favorite was Fear & Misery In Seattle, especially all the diary stuff (start reading in the Diary right about when the road-trip ended in LA.)

6. Oh, I had too many to mention. The one I probably posted with the most was Lan (ah, the joys of conducting technical support "in character") but the one I stirred up the most trouble with was KraftMacaroniSurprise.

7. My favorite Freakylinks moment was when the Weekly World News totally ripped us off and published the thunderbird photo (along with a massive number of made up expert testimony) and didn't even mention Freakylinks.com! We laughed, we cried, we plotted revenge

The other favorite was time was when the "web cams" finaly paid off. We had built this elaborate series of scripts with tons of photos of each site at different times a day. Then, we had 2 or 3 "payoff" shots where you actually saw something mysterious, and had the scripts have a really low chance of ever displaying that. The first time we got email from a totally flustered FL user because THEY HAD SEEN THE SKUNK APE and then had their roommate check on their machine and THEY HAD SEEN IT TOO ... that part actually got added to the Skunk Ape Freakopedia page


Brian

PS: It's so nice to be able to link to those pages again

[MiaUofL]

1. How didja first hear about Freakylinks?
•      I was still depressed over getting all excited about 1999's Harsh Realm, having that be cancelled.  Then I was totally into NBC's The Others, and that got cancelled too.  I guess each year I'd pick a show to get "addicted" to and I read about Freakylinks, and being a huge fan of Ethan Embry, decided to watch it.  Went to the website and became instantly intrigued.  (btw after FL I picked 24 and Alias... figures, they're both still around, lol)
2. Were you 'fooled' by the site? & if so, 3. ...for how long, before you found out the 'deeper truth' about Derek?
•      I knew that the site was "fake" but I let myself believe it was all true.  You know, play along.
4. Did you ever start your own Freaker site ( Like Freakyresearch, Freakopeida)
•      phreakylinx was, what, at angelfire first?  then after the show was cancelled I moved it to its own domain.  I don't have time to update it anymore (or any of my sites, 24fans.com) because I'm busy with school and all, but yeah, I think I had phreakylinx from during the show was on, possibly before it premiered?
5. Favorite entry
•      Chupacabra.  Something about mexican goat suckers.  Hmmm....
6. How many screen-names did you use on the FL board?
•      Just one... probably "xdanabass"
7. Best story from your Freakylinks days-- doesn't have to be related to freakylinks...
•      What was that last word displayed on the site after it went down?  And it had something to do with some video game?  Right?  Well, I checked the site and for the first time saw that "close it down" entry when I was checking it at school with my journalism buddies, and I think then I got them all hooked.  Too late.  Bastards.
Lastly....
8. "Has anything freaky happened to anyone today"... (remember Beleiver?)
•      *thinks* nope.  *sad*
•      Unless the fact for the past three days we've been promised two inches of ice and had a delay schedule on Monday but that's it.  Bastards!

-Mia

[Freak_O_Pedia]

1. How didja first hear about Freakylinks?

I believe I saw a tv ad.

2. Were you 'fooled' by the site? & if so,

Partly yes and partly no... yeah a mixed up answer but it's hard to explain.

3. ...for how long, before you found out the 'deeper truth' about Derek?

ummm.. I refuse to answer that...hehehehe

4. Did you ever start your own Freaker site ( Like Freakyresearch, Freakopeida)

Well see above quote and see my name.... yeah I started www.freakopedia.com which is still up and running.

5. Favorite entry

It's got to be Fear & Misery In Seattle.

6. How many screen-names did you use on the FL board?

For a very short time there was Rip2020 but for almost the whole time and to date it's been Freak_O_Pedia.

7. Best story from your Freakylinks days-- doesn't have to be related to freakylinks...

Well it would have to be when 'Lan' had writen back to me over some technical situation that I can't remember.

8. "Has anything freaky happened to anyone today"... (remember Beleiver?)

See my website.. that says it all

Hurdy gur,
Freak_O_Pedia

[Gndasqua]

1. Watching too much t.v.
2. Not I said the fly.
3. I missed the final episode if the "deeper truth" was told then.
4. Sort of.
5. All of them.
6. Love this question: JD, MF, Barzo, KillerPenguin, and some other others I can't recall.
7. "The Muncher Conspiracy" - to which I can proudly admit that I'm not the Muncher. I don't think the truth was ever discovered.
8. Not today, but in my old apartment I had a ghost-boy named Edgar Price... I really miss him.

Later...
~G~

[JayVitolo]

1. How didja first hear about Freakylinks? A friend showed me the site after stumbling across it.

2. Were you 'fooled' by the site? Yeah.  

3. ...for how long, before you found out the 'deeper truth' about Derek? I found out after they put the TV show on FOX.  I coulda sworn I saw the webiste they had on that show before...and then it hit me.

4. Did you ever start your own Freaker site ( Like Freakyresearch, Freakopeida) Never had the chance

5. Favorite entry I honestly don't remember much of freakylinks.com  I've been reliving it since I just found out the site was reposted lastnight.

6. How many screen-names did you use on the FL board? They had a message board?!?

7. Best story from your Freakylinks days? Um...that would be seeing a twisted reflection of my face in a high school bathroom mirror.  I was looking straight at it, but my face in the reflection was kinda twisted.  The neck and shoulders were perfectly aligned, but the head was looking off to the left.

Lastly....

8. "Has anything freaky happened to anyone today"... (remember Beleiver?) Nothing today.  I've actually noticed a bit of wierdness happening on my college campus around 1 am though.  I'm never calm enough to check them out.