Let's see, ridiculously high standards,
Um, that's a good thing. High standards produce quality content and discussion.
OR it produces a bunch of snobs that think they're superior because they're SomethingAwful.
Bearing in mind, "standards" are highly subjective.
a fee to join the community,
This is true. It's pretty much the only reason I haven't joined yet. The fee is supposed to keep the shitheads out. It ensures that people only join if they are interested in positively contributing to the community. When you have actually paid to be a member, being banned is a much more serious threat, and it tends to keep people on their best behavior.
And it also tends to make people follow a herd mentality because they don't want to risk pissing off a moderator or admin by disagreeing with them.
absolute snobbishness towards Youtube LPs,
And rightly so. The vast majority of YouTube LPs are shit, precisely because there is no quality control.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh, you're serious, let me laugh harder.
Let's Playing should be something that's free for anyone to do. It should not be the domain of a bunch of elitist assholes who enjoy their exclusive club, while whoever runs the damn site gets money for hosting a forum that most other people do for
free.
They can take their quality control and shove it. I'll take the freedom to make crappy LPs over the anal-retentive elitism that is SomethingAwful ANYday.
For the record, when I mean snobbishness, I mean BECAUSE they're on Youtube, not because of their actual quality. I'm sorry that you missed that.
SA are the ones who popularized LPs in the first place. If anyone knows how to make a good one, it's them.
Being the originator of something does not mean make you the BEST maker of something.
and part of their history was rooted in making fun of other people for being different.
Huh?
You mean... you don't know?
BAHAHAHAHAAH! This is rich!
Let me inform you. Essentially, SomethingAwful had its origins in making fun of people on the internet for reasons such as
1. Being a furry
2. Being a foot fetishist
3. Being gay
4. Having gay friends
5. Talking about any of the above on a forum
And probably much more, I didn't hang around their site any longer.
That's actually
why it's called Something Awful. Because it was meant to be a showcase of Something Awful on the internet.
They were essentially like a stupider version of Encyclopedia Dramatica.
Oh, and they would also review fetish fanfiction. Because nothing says "I hate this" than reading it and re-reading it and re-reading it to point out how absolutely disturbing something is.
I was on a forum that was targeted once by them, so I have personal experience with them! Can we say "Yaaaaaay"?
To be honest, I do credit SomethingAwful for producing Let's Plays. And that's about it. That's literally the only good thing that came out of SomethingAwful.
Oh, I'm not saying there aren't good people that post on SomethingAwful. I'm just saying that the site, as a whole, is pretty much a no-zone :3
So, in short, feel free to mention SomethingAwful. They deserve it. However, do not, under any circumstances, labor under the delusion that they are superior to everything ever. They're not.