You’ve probably heard of the website PostSecret. It’s been around for a while now and has developed almost a cult-like following which has spawned books, events and media attention. A regular little business empire.

What’s not always immediately noticed is the business model it follows, which is right in line with social giants Facebook and Myspace. Basically it follows a simple principle that lets it grow exponentially:

Let the users create the content.

Think about this simple math for a minute. Let’s say the average person can create one page of content per day. Theoretically, working every single day one person can create 365 pages in a year. Now, using that same estimate of one page per day think about how many pages can be created if 10 people are generating content. How about 1,000? One million?

You get the point. Even though there are other contributing factors, this one principle is what’s allowed Facebook and Myspace to blow up. Facillitate more, create less. It’s brilliant, really. So brilliant, in fact, that many others are starting to follow the model. Some on the scale of the social networking kings and others narrowing their niche a la PostSecret. Those are the sites I’m focusing on today.

*Today’s collection of links are sites that have found focused niches on the humor surrounding the English language. There are loads of them, in fact (which is surprising and not at the same time), but this edition of Friday Fun Links is only going to list a few of my favorites. I encourage you to comment on some of your favorites I may have missed.

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks

If you appreciate tongue-in-cheek type humor, you’ll love this site. The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks is a collection of reader submitted photos and images where quotes were completely misused and/or unnecessary.

The commentary by Brittany, the webmaster, is terrific and the submissions seem to be neverending, which is great news for Brittany and not-so-great news for the future of mankind. There’s something about misguided attempts at intelligence that is both funny and extremely sad at the same time. I can talk about it all day, but until you actually see for your self the site can not be done justice.

On the sidebar you’ll see a list of links to other similar sites, some of which made my list, and others that are really good too, but didn’t fit my theme. They’re all worth a look.

Engrish.com

The next site is Engrish.com. This blog has “politically incorrect” written all over it, especially in its title. And even though part of me does think it’s racially insensitive, it’s so humorous it’s hard not to laugh. I don’t get the impression that it’s intended to be mean spirited, so I gave myself the okay to enjoy it.

The concept is simple: take a sign or package that is written in an Asian language and then translated to English and laugh about how the intended message gets twisted. Going a step further (and this is where it toes the PC line) a moderate amount of fun is poked at the way those with an Asian accent speak English. There are a variety of puns and wisecracks that present themselves during this process and the site does an excellent job of delivering the content.

Passive Aggressive Notes

PassiveAggressiveNotes.com showcases notes from people who have perfected the ability to yell at you without you even realizing you’re being yelled at. If you don’t think that’s a talent, you’re wrong. Covering things from moms leaving letters in their child’s apartment “nicely” telling them they live in filth and to clean it up to calling out the Hot Pocket thief, this site is absolutely hilarious…and scary.

Literally, A Web Log

I’ve subconsciously been terribly annoyed with the rising use and subsequent misuse of the word “literally” (quotes OK there Brittany?). It’s like, um, like totally the new Valley girl term and now that I’ve found this site I’m completely aware of how much I hate it. The site I’m talking about is called Literally, A Web Log.

I included it on my list even though I can’t decide whether I like it or love to punish myself. Either way, I get lost reading through some of the ridiculousness and before I know it an hour has passed…literally. I’ve got more important things that I should be doing like organizing my desktop recycling bin into folders before I empty it and other fun stuff, so I shouldn’t spend so much time agonizing over how other people’s attempts at smart end up making them look stupid, but I just can’t help myself sometimes.

That’s Punny!

I’m a sucker for puns. I appreciate the wit involved in coming up with them and think it’s proof that humans have evolved, despite some of the content on Literally, A Web Log. It gives me hope, I think. Over at That’s Punny! you’ll find a great collection of puns found on signs, storefronts and products. The titles are equally punny and enjoyable as well.

One of the most refreshing parts of this blog, and many others of this sort do the same thing, is the blogroll on the right sidebar that lists “Other Geeky Blogs We Love”. Links to a couple other pun blogs can be found in that list, too. A nice gesture by the site owners to share some link love.

Acronyms Sometimes Suck

The sister site of That’s Punny, Acronyms Sometimes Suck is a collection of unfortunate marketing situations faced by a number of non-profits and specialty organizations. The common scenario, I’m assuming, is the association comes up with a name that sounds really good and covers their main objectives, has the legal paperwork filed making them official, and brings the concept to a marketing firm for logo design. Probably sometime around then they realize that the four letter acronym formed by their official name would make Andrew Dice Clay blush.

Oops.

Rather than spend the money and effort to rebrand their club they decide to tough it out, hoping it won’t be made into a huge issue. Sometimes they may even fly under the radar of most people, but not A.S.S. (that’s an acronym, too!). They find it, and post it on their site for the enjoyment of everyone but the poor company and a bunch of old people. Good stuff.

lowercase L

One of the world’s great mysteries, yet it happens all the time. People love to capitalize all the letters in a word or sentence, but for some bizarre reason, the ‘L’ stays small. Of course the lowercase ‘L’ can easily be confused with an uppercase ‘I’, especially when all the other letters are capitalized. Despite the confusion this causes, people still continue to do it. I’m not sure why, but it fascinates me. And apparently others are intrigued as well because there is a steady flow of content to the lowercase l blog.

That’s all I have for today, but those should keep you pretty busy. There are plenty of laughs in the archives of those sites, too, so be sure to dig around a bit. Oh yeah, don’t forget to add some of your favorite links in the comments below. I know there are other great ones I missed.

What I noticed first was the simplicity of the site. When you log in you’re presented with posters from two different movies. You choose the one you like better and your given two new choices. Choose again and continue on in the same way. Sounds pretty easy, right?

The part we don’t see, and where the true magic of Flickchart happens, is behind the selections. When you choose which movie you like better, the site applies a ranking to it based on your previous selections for that movie and those it’s been compared to. What you get in return is a complete list of your favorite movies. From there you can drill them down by year, genre or decade.

I can talk all about this site, but it is really something that needs to be experienced for yourself. Even as I write this post, I’m going back and forth and making a quick selection. As I said, it’s in Beta stage so you’ll need to apply for a membership. If you’re interested in receiving a referral from me, leave a comment below and fill out the SiteRoast contact form.

Anyone who would like can create a prediction which becomes a bet when someone accepts it. Each side then chooses a charity that the other will donate to if they win. Each bet is carefully documented and detailed so there’s no arguments. The bet must go at least two years from the time of agreement and much be societally or scientifically important. There are other rules as well, but you get the idea.

Although I haven’t placed a prediction or taken a bet yet myself, I’ve been amused reading some of the current and completed predictions. I was reading a few that made me a little concerned, though. For instance how badly does Mr. Rees want to win this bet?

Most of the bets on LongBets.org will spark some thought if nothing else and make you ask the question “How will Mr. Keane collect if he wins?”

I took about a hundred quizzes between last night and this morning and earned just over 2,000 points which I used to buy a spin of the wheel. On my spin I won $1.00, which puts me at an hourly rate of about 97 cents. Not quite enough to quit the day job. There is a pie slice on the wheel that gives you ten dollars, though, so if you earn enough points and get lucky with the spins you can win a nice chunk of extra cash.

There are two kinds of quizzes, Sprint Quizzes and Search Quizzes. Sprint Quizzes are timed and the quicker you answer the more points you get for a correct answer. If you ace a Sprint Quiz you get bonus spins on the wheel. I aced a quiz on The Simpsons (I only got 2 out of 5 on the History quiz, but breezed through The Simpsons. Go figure.) last night and got two bonus spins. On the first I got a $1 bonus quiz, which if I remember correctly means I would win a dollar if I aced the next quiz. I didn’t, so it was bye-bye dollar. The next spin netted me 2x powerup which meant my points would double for the next ten quizzes I took.

Judging by the leaderboard there hasn’t been much participation up until now. The all-time cash leader has only won $972 as of today. This is probably a sign that it takes an awful long time and a lot of quizzes to get to a point where you’re winning anything significant. Since I’ve already told you my meager winnings this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

If you’re going to enjoy Nation Trivia you need to think of the money as a bonus and try to enjoy the game itself. Take the quizzes (you’re allowed up to 200 per day), earn as many points as you can, spin the wheel from time to time, and maybe you’ll win a few bucks.

At first I thought it sounded kind of silly and couldn’t see a practical use for it. But after thinking it over a bit and reading some of the public entries, I realized how this website could be a really useful goal-setting tool. I then wrote a one year goal recap to myself. In it I stated the things I hoped to have accomplished by the time the email was sent to me. I was actually pretty surprised at how well I had done.

If you read the public entries you’ll also see many more types of emails; from humorous to sad to scary. You really can use it in a number of different ways. Your email doesn’t have to be public either. You can keep it unlisted which allows you to be specific (i.e. using names and places). I went that route and made my goals as specific as possible.

Of course you don’t have to use FutureMe to set goals for yourself. You could just write them down on a piece of paper, like they used to do in the stone age, but who wants to do something so old fashioned? I will admit that it is a fun surprise to see your message in the inbox months or years after you wrote it. If you’re like me you forgot what you wrote the minute you hit send, so the email serves as a nice reminder of what you intended to achieve that year.