This article is written from a personal viewpoint and all statements made are either correct at the time of publication or an expression of opinion.

Encyclopedia Dramatica has to be one of the most offensive websites I have ever had the displeasure of coming across.

I never had any personal experience as a participant of the place beyond one small action mentioned further down – and frankly I wouldn’t have wanted to. They were and remain Autistic Enemies for one reason, and one reason only;

Their article on Asperger’s Syndrome.

It was one of the most intolerant pieces of trash I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. Playing off every single negative stereotype imaginable. The sort of thing that hinders the understanding of AS in much the same way the mercury poisoning crew does.

It would appear that the website was created to make fun of Wikipedia in a very offensive way, and poke fun at the Internet as a whole. There is a difference between fun and offensive, and I guess this website showed in all it’s glory just what is wrong with being offensive for a joke – and the incorrect definition of “satire”. It didn’t shy from upsetting people and just claims in it’s defence the usual American rhetoric about freedom of speech.

They also didn’t know the law. For example, they made the claim that “If you feel as though someone has committed harassment or defamation against you – please pursue your remedies against that poster as encyclopediadramatica.com is not responsible for their words.” Oh yes they were! Just like a newspaper – the website CAN be held responsible for allowing defamatory content and harassment!

However karma hit them in early 2011 when the site was shut down and replaced with something called “Oh Internet”. Not enough people on the Internet supported what they were doing, and at least four times they had pleaded for financial help. They lucked out each time – but their day arrived as indicated! It was also likely that ED would have fallen foul of the controversial Australian Internet filters if they ever went ahead. As an aside Oh Internet went down in 2013 and hasn’t been back.

But on the minus side those who didn’t like the new site successfully restored ED with a dot ch extension (Switzerland) and resumed their offensive work. The Asperger’s article was included in this restoration. The extension was later changed to dot se (Sweden) after Switzerland kicked them off their top domain in March 2012. They then moved again for reasons unknown to dot.es (Spain) in September 2013 before returning to dot.se in October 2014, again for reasons unknown. Finally they moved again in March 2017 to dot.rs (Serbia).

It was a shame that former Phil’s World member Flardox decided to attack because of this article. The result of that was that he got an article on himself – and that was his own fault. However the fact that there was also an article on this website on there isn’t. I didn’t worry about it though, because in it’s final form it wasn’t much. I did have to get a few images removed though through my ED ID “Yogi Bear” – and that reflects on the legal page. I know who created the article and I do have the edits that he made, which were far worse than it’s final form. On October 9, 2009 thankfully the article was deleted and I thanked the user responsible.

However it is still the case that Encyclopedia Dramatica is an enemy of Autistics. I kept an eye on the restored website and in mid 2017 it was revealed that they were being sued for copyright infringements that could have forced the site to be shut down once and for all. No such luck. In May 2018 they lost their website provider but this issue was somehow rectified. In March 2019, Australian service providers blocked access to the site, which was a very sensible move albeit primarily because of their commentary about the Christchurch shootings – which knowing them was totally out of line and unacceptable. It could still be accessed via proxies however. In September 2019 the site lost it’s dot rs extension and they moved back to the dot se domain again claiming it was temporary. This proved to be true as they went to a dot wiki domain.

Finally it looked like they were getting theirs, as in late August 2020, Kevin Mann sued ED for defamation in the Second Judicial District Court in Washoe County in Nevada. The filing was publicly accessible with the file number CV20-01361. The site disappeared at the very end of September probably pending a result of the matter although there was no note of any order shutting the site down due to the non removal of information about Mr Mann. It did come back but then disappeared again, and another version popped up at the dot online domain. Unfortunately early in 2021 the lawyer for ED filed an order dismissing the matter with prejudice which was approved. The article about Mr Mann has been blanked however. Nevertheless they escaped again.

PHIL GLUYAS