The End

Originally I had planned to write a history of PFB. Though parts 1 and 2 of this history have been published I have abandoned this plan in toto.  Instead I will cut to the chase about the demise of PFB and forgo a long history lesson. At the end there is a surprise for all. 

In November 2016 Trump won the election and some members of PFB were quite thrilled that war criminal and corrupt-beyond-belief Hillary Clinton did not win the election. I have no idea the conversation that occurred in the comment section of PFB because I did not read them. One day out of the blue the website disappeared.

In it's place was a message telling all that the website was no longer available and had been abandoned for a new website which would focus exclusively on Donald Trump.  This website, http://www.intrumpetence.com, is no longer functional and the twitter page has been abandoned https://twitter.com/InTrumpetence.

When it became clear that PFB was not returning I knew something must be done to fill the void. Another site must rise in it's place. The fact is Philippine culture is not going anywhere while Trump will only be president for 8 years max.  There will always be a space for PFB or something like it. It seemed foolish to me that the webmaster would abandon a website that was one-of-a-kind and likely profitable.

Are these figures for real??

It was then that I started my blog. It was to be a placeholder until PFB came back or something better came along. It was at this time I thought it would be interesting to research and write about the history of PFB. That was January 2017.  By mid-February PFB had returned and was now a social media site. This is a project CaptainPFB had attempted in the past but had also abandoned.

Slowly old members and new began to trickle in.  It was in March that a user signed up and had a conversation with CaptainPFB wherein he laughed at him for "vaporising" the website and ridiculed anyone who would return because the website could vanish again at anytime.  What follows is only CaptainPFB's side of this conversation because by the time I thought to document it the user had deleted his account. So here in his own words is CaptainPFB on why he shut down PFB in November 2016.

Notice two things.  He says he had a meltdown and that there were issues with the server and code injection.  When he restarted PFB he was quick to assure everyone that the website was secure and was "here to stay."

 A few months after this two things happened.

1. PFB underwent maintenance several times in a just a few days. I asked about this and the reply was that an unnamed country was attempting to hack the site and all ISPs originating from said country were now banned but that the website was secure.

2. Donald Trump issued a ban on transgendered soldiers in the military. This prompted CaptainPFB to post a picture in support of transgenders in the military. Being that many of the users of PFB are ex-military expats they were not inclined to agree and voiced that opinion.

There was a total meltdown in the comment section again and only two weeks later the website was shuttered once more.  This time without a note. 

I think it's obvious what happened.  CaptainPFB did not want to play host to a group of old men who do not share his political or moral views.  I do not think it had anything to do with hackers.  And I am not inclined to believe that the website was the target of so many hackers.  It could be true but...well who knows? 

NOW FOR THE SURPRISE

The day after the website went offline I took the following screenshot.

Now you might be thinking: So?

Well I googled that number and this is what came up:

I am not a hacker or a programmer and I have no idea what this number is.  Content delivery network?  Common domain name?  Everything I have tried searching and reverse searching comes up empty.  Probably because I don't know what I am looking for.  But don't you think it's pretty hilarious that PFB is tangentially associated with gay asian sex sites?

The Trials of Philippinefailblog

In our last post we detailed the origin story of philippinefaiblog.com from humble wordpress blog to a domain with it's own name.  In this post we will look at the troubles that plagued PFB leading to its first shutdown in November 2014.

http://itsmorefuninthedark.blogspot.com/2014/11/philippine-fail-blog.html

Now how did PFB go from a website that was only pointing out the deficiencies in Filipino culture and allowing foreigners to vent to a hate blog??

On December 16, 2013 FiloFail declared emphatically that PFB was in fact not a hate blog.

This is evidence that PFB was in fact facing accusations of being a hate blog. The accusations likely coming from Filipinos who had happened upon the site. So what was the source of these accusations of hate?

Perhaps it had to do with the subject matter of the articles and the comments descending into stereotypical ad hominem.

Take this article for instance.  "If you could have a Filipino brain for 5 minutes..."

What is the purpose of this article but to ridicule Filipinos? There is always a place for comedy that exaggerates stereotypes. But is this the purpose of PFB?  

The purpose of this blog is partially for my own personal therapy and venting my frustrations. Many of the comments by readers completely agree and identify with my posts. This blog is just one of many which express the same frustrations and opinions.

Surely there is a fine line between stereotypical jokes and venting frustrations.   But filofail, now FiloFail, claims that PFB has beomce a hate blog.

Did FiloFail want to stop his slide into hating Filipinos? Was the hate beginning to flow through him?Was he beginning to feel the dark side?

Is this venting or is this hate?

Let's look a little further.  Here are examples of posts on PFB before the shutdown and which might give credence to the notion that PFB was becoming a hate blog.

   

 

It's really hard to pin down what exactly caused FiloFail to state categorically that PFB had become a hate blog.  Nearly every post has the same formula: state a problem, curse and rant about it, note how dumb Filipinos are. And the comments follow suit with all kinds of exaggerated stereotypes brought out.  

It's all usually pretty funny. No one is specifically directing hatred towards the Filipino people. I can understand how cursing and ranting can be venting and therapeutic. It's much harder to locate with precision what it is that caused FiloFail to declare PFB had become a hate blog.

Nevertheless, the shutdown only lasted a day.  There is an article posted on Novemeber 5, 2014 and then the next article posted is two days later on the seventh.

With the first resurrection of PFB also came this exciting news:

Now PFB had become a social network. This particular website is now defunct but the current iteration of PFB fully integrates the social network aspect and in fact PFB is more a social network than a blog.

Thus we have a brief look at PFB from March 28, 2013 to it's death on November 6th, 2014 and it's resurrection one day later.