HumorFeed


HumorFeed is a satire and humor news aggregator website founded in 2003 by Bill Doty and Uncle Sharky, who brought together a group of around 20 news satire webmasters. It displays headlines submitted by its members in a list generated daily in an RSS feed which many members also include on their own sites. At present it includes approximately 60 members.

Background

The idea behind HumorFeed was to create a fair and equitable system that would enable members to effectively cross-link with one another's content. Each member is allowed to submit one headline per day; the headlines are randomly sorted when the feed is generated at midnight EST. This is to help ensure that all contributors receive equal exposure on the feed. In addition, HumorFeed is a selective organization, screening applicants via an anonymous peer review process designed to ensure that member sites are able to meet standards of talent and professionalism consistent with the existing members. Approximately a quarter of all HumorFeed applicants reviewed are accepted. The feed is also moderated daily and screened for inappropriate material. At present it averages 10 to 12 headlines a day.

Features

In addition to listing headlines in the actual RSS feed, HumorFeed promotes its members via social media. It also periodically produces "Check Please!", an ezine which publishes serious articles on satire news and journalism. There is also a blog run by HumorFeed members which tracks issues of interest to satire webmasters in the news, "The Bitter Cup". As of 2017, HumorFeed content includes satire/humor news, webcomics, videos, and pop culture reviews.

Annual Satire News Competition

In January 2006 HumorFeed initiated an annual competition for its members using a panel of independent judges. The awards panel for the first two years included a range of noted humorists and journalists including Andrew Marlatt of SatireWire, John Markoff of the New York Times, Robert Zelnick of Boston University, Eric Weiner of National Public Radio, and Madeleine Begun Kane of "Mad Kane's Humor & Satire". For the third and fourth competitions, Fox TV reporter Dave Kartunen replaced Markoff.
Winners, best stories of 2005:
Winners, best stories of 2006:
Winners, best stories of 2007
Winners, best stories of 2008
Winners, best stories of 2009
HumorFeed was founded in 2003. Uncle Sharky, the webmaster for U.S. Press News, and Bill Doty, the webmaster of Broken Newz, did the initial site design and coordinated the community of sites that began HumorFeed. Sharky managed the day-to-day operations of the site from 2003 until August 2005, when he appointed Watley Review webmaster E.F. Watley as the new HumorFeed webmaster. Sharky remains active as the HumorFeed business manager.
On January 18, 2006 the Sacramento Bee included HumorFeed in a timeline of notable satire publications and shows ranging from the founding of Mad Magazine in 1952 to the debut of the Colbert Report. In July 2007 the Al-Jazeera English news analysis show Listening Post interviewed several members of HumorFeed in a feature on news satire and its relationship to mainstream media. On April 20, 2008 HumorFeed was listed as a recommended site in a NY Times Magazine column, "Broadcast Spoofs".