
Modern life means existing both in the "real" world and as an online version of yourself. We often criticize and cancel people over the stupid stuff they post online, but we rarely celebrate people's internet accomplishments.
Let's change that.
One Reddit user asked:
What's your greatest internet accomplishment?
Come, my fellow citizens of internet. Let us applaud one another for these mundane moments of e-greatness.
Not my Domain
I sold a domain name for $1,500 a couple of months ago. That was pretty great. It was a company I owned briefly several years ago but ultimately closed. I kept renewing the domain because it was cheap, but sold it in a heartbeat when someone offered to buy it. It's now a parked site with crappy ads.
In the UK
I had the first authenticated twitter account in the UK. Well... it was MANY years ago (obviously) and it was for a company I was running. Twitter hadn't really come to the UK but I knew folks there. I wanted to get my company the badge so asked a mate that worked there. We ended up being the first in the UK to get it. I know this because like a month a later a BIG UK company got a verified account and it was in the trade press. No one would have cared about my little business.
Creative Family
Establishing a creative writing group that lasted about 10 years. There are still active friendships between members, but the creative writing part has been dropped due to various factors.
Smut.
I wrote a story on a website and it got so popular it was translated in two different languages and my mom also found it and read it.
Very awkward because it was VERY smutty lol
Keep in mind this story is dated and written in 2012, I was 16 years old lol
If you want to check out my new project, click here. You all have sparked my creative flame!
Dog Famous
NASA follows my tumblr which I use to post photos of dogs I meet in the streets. I'm not even from the US. dogsinthestreet.tumblr.com.
The Tossup....
- a guy DMed me about an old comment I made on another account about parenting. Said he looked at it from time to time when he felt like he needed guidance as a new dad. It was the sweetest thing.
- one time I apparently made someone pee outside of the bowl because they were laughing at a comment. The comment was one word, and it made my day.
- got a bunch of awards and like, words of encouragement a few months ago for an angsty dumb poem I posted.
If I had to pick the one I'm proudest of, it's definitely the one on top. The second is a tossup.
I'm 38 and my badge says NASA.....
I wrote a bull white paper/how-to back in 98 or 99, while still in high school, on how to install Linux on a particular Dell laptop. (Y'all kids laugh but 40yr olds know what I'm talking about! Crap took weeks of fiddling to get work!)
Some dude who worked for a small IT consulting company found it and reached out with questions. I helped him. He offered me a help desk position at his company. I quit my job at Kmart and commuted to NYC for work that summer. College time came but I'd already established myself as the kid who can do anything IT, so they were using me on big projects like pen testing banks.
They offered me $65k plus bonuses for certifications (they were a VAR for many vendors). I told mom and dad I wasn't going to college for music (Tuba performance!)
I'm 38 and my badge says NASA and I have ~20 PhDs under me.
I'd say that stupid paper on how to install Linux on a laptop was my greatest internet accomplishment.
American Idiots
Mike Dirnt from Green Day replied to me on Instagram multiple times. Commented on a picture of my bass guitar. He was my inspiration to pick up the bass, so I'd say that was one of my greatest accomplishments on the internet. #MikeDirntHomies.
krunker.io
A few years ago I was playing some random game on the computer called krunker.io, I was playing so good that the number one clan in that game invited me
Edit: I also forgot to add that almost every time I played I would get accused of hacking because I was that good with the sniper
I don't play anymore since the new updates made it just feel weird and I don't think the clan exists anymore, it was called opal.
"I am the captain now"
I created the original Captain Phillips "I am the captain now" meme in high school ~6 years ago. It got big enough to be stolen by dory all those other damn accounts. I ended up deleting the tweet because I hated comment notifications, since it got around 20k of each interaction. That was the biggest mistake to date because now no one believes that I created it besides a few classmates I don't speak to anymore smh.
Original caption:
"When you're in a group project with unreliable people"
Hey O!
Barack Obama followed me back on twitter back in 2007/2008 when he was running for President.
Popularity!
Thanks to PSN I knew so many new friends! I was also able to help one of this friends, who is paraplegic, to get better at Destiny2! In November he didn't know that much about this game, and a week ago he was able to complete 2 raids (6 players activity) with us. :)
Pip-Boy?
I made this classic Pip-Boy mod for Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3. It's a mod that replaces the default arm-mounted Pip-Boy with a handheld one that harkens back to the model used in Fallout 1 and 2.
It turned out to be pretty popular, but frankly I was surprised that no one had made it already. At the time, there was a super futuristic PDA/tablet mod (which was cool, but not lore-friendly), and no classic Pip-Boy? Strange!
Thank You, I'm Next.
I've had a couple celebrities like my comment/tweets. The biggest being ariana grande. I don't know why. I'm not that interesting.
Making Beats....
I've "made beats" as a hobby for 15 years or so.
A rather large producer stumbled on one of my beats and wanted to buy it from me (apparently this happens quite a bit).
So I sold him the rights to the track for what I'd consider an absurd amount of money.
Like a year and a half later my track; remade with higher quality samples was on a rather popular rappers album. You may have heard it, by no means a #1 hit but it was around. Heard it bumping in ppls cars a few times.
I legally can't tell anyone what song it is, and it doesn't really matter.
Point is it took me like an hour and a half to make a track, I posted it up somewhere then by chance this guy heard it. From there I was able to pay a full years rent up front when I got my money, to start with.
Really don't think I'll ever top that.
Actually, like right when the original X-box came out I got this pop up ad on a site "YOU WON AN X-BOX". I was stupid and I gave them my information.
I actually received an xbox like a month later. The fact that random pop up was legitimate and not a scam might be even more impressive than selling a track.
Linkin Park
1.Grey Daze followed me on Instagram for a while. It was after I posted a Linkin Park mashup in honor of Chester Bennington. He was the singer for Grey Daze until they broke up in 1999. Then he went on to join Linkin Park. Him and Grey Daze had been talking about reuniting shortly before his suicide in 2017.
2. Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park liked a vocal part I submitted when he asked for fans to sing on one of his songs. I cried on both of these days.
Evil Dead Wiki
I'm a moderator of the Evil Dead Wiki. Tons of information I've added to articles over the four or five years I've been at it has started recently appearing in officially licensed merchandise (mainly the comics and prop replicas), directly copied and pasted from the site. It's been pretty surreal for me as a fan of the franchise to see how something I started doing out of boredom one summer has started having an impact on how people treat the mythology of the series.
The Homer Theory.
Came up with a Simpsons fan theory about Homer being in a coma. It went viral, featured on Buzzfeed, Yahoo, TMZ, etc.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/2usu70/the_simpsons_homer_simpson_is_a_vegetable_in_a/
You can google "Simpsons fan theory" today and it'll still pop up.
Band of Friends
Not entirely via Internet, but I met a couple members from my favorite band in a bar and they invited me to their table. I asked the lead singer if he would follow me on Instagram and he did instantly and we chat every once in a while.
Edit: I am a skinny 21 y/o dude from Argentina. I met them again a couple more times among other friends and we all went to have dinner. The singer remembers me and comes to say hi when he sees me in the crowd. I think they're just that friendly.
Hey Arnold.
I did a cartoon about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Someone posted it here on Reddit and Arnie saw it. He liked it and complimented me on it. This is also the reason I joined Reddit in the first place. I didn't really know what it was about until that happened.
Easy A
Getting straight A's on difficult courses I would have otherwise failed if the pandemic didn't push for online education.
I was in Trig, and I'm proud because it's not even that I'm bad at math, just had a god awful professor. I'm on Calc 1 right now and it's going much smoother, now that the professor isn't total crap.
Fun AND $$$.
I paid to play a game, not sure I'm allowed to say it, on two occasions. It is totally free to play but unless you're a genius or have no job and never sleep, you pay for guns/ammo/mining tools/ships/mind implants etc. and any loot you get is worth real money on a fixed exchange rate with the US Dollar. Well I used to invest around £100 to £200 a month. I was single at the time and lived at home.
During that time I had 2 big loots, worth roughly $4k each (real money, 40k game money). I reinvested some but wanted to move out, so I sold everything bar my actual character and ended up with over £4,500 in total after conversion. A few months later and the money was in my bank and I used it as a 5% deposit on a mortgage for a flat that I now own. Fun AND monies.
Toxic Reports
This is kind of the opposite, but my friends and I used to play CS:GO religiously. They thought it would be funny to constantly report me for toxicity. To this day, the only way someone can talk to me through the game is to unmute me. Like the game has me automatically muted. Lol
The Star Dragon
If we count online gaming I got the world first mage solo of a Mists of Pandaria world of Warcraft raid boss. It was the star dragon it was killable almost as soon as the next expansion launched provided you took the correct equipment (the stamina buff scroll was very important).
The Stalked.
I have a story on my profile here about how I was stalked by the same man that stalked my mother. I got some messages from podcast owners asking for my permission to read it, and I was so excited. I waited all week and kept checking Spotify for it, and when I saw they had a new episode my story wasn't in it. I was really disappointed, but happy I got an offer.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Said yes to everything a scammer asked me yesterday. I'll try my best to reenact the conversation:
Me: hello?
Scammer: hi I am calling to help you resolve your debt on a credit card.
Me: yeah I do have debt
Scammer: and what is the pin number on this credit card so I get the right one
Me: yes
Scammer: sir, the pin?
Me: yes
Scammer: I am asking you nicely to please state the pin number of the credit card that has debt
Me: yes
Aggravated Scammer: Your mom is a b***h?
Me: yes
Aggravated Scammer: hangs up
Had my friends laughing, not my proudest thing but really wanted to tell someone so enjoy. :)
A Toast to the Band.
My best friend HATES Linkin Park. One morning in college, I woke up and messaged quite a few mutual friends to please message him something about Linkin Park (image, video, comment...). And then I forgot.
Apparently he woke up to easily 100+ notifications. Everyone had sent this to other mutual friends and then other strangers chimes in as well.
This guy had so many messages of "hey I heard you love LP so I thought I'd send you this".
One friend was a photography editor and edited his face into multiple photos as the lead singer. It was talked about for so long and I brought it up as best man at his wedding last year.
RIP forever Zoila.
I posted a pic of my corgi sitting in the car with a seatbelt on tumblr and it gots hundreds of thousands of notes. spread to other sites, lol buzzfeed used it too
edit:here is the pic!
Not Alone.
I found a comic I posted in a website referenced in a girl's blog about her struggle with diabetes. It was pretty heartwarming to see that, given it is the one and only comic I've ever written (I'm an economist).
Synonyms....
A friend's last name is Klotz. Me and another friend started a campaign in the late 90s to turn his last name into a synonym for loser. We used it whenever we could. The friend helping to spread this was a corporate trainer so he used it in front of people from all over the country. At some point I check urban dictionary and it was on there.
Club Penguin
I attained 2000+ subscribers on my Club Penguin focused YouTube channel as a kid, back in 2009, when 2000 subscribers was a pretty high amount.
The Best Block!
I got blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter for calling him a "mad b**tard!"
The Jolly Parade.
I once played WoW during Christmas and started a Christmas parade that circled old Orgrimmar. At its peak, I was able to follow the back of the parade and most people were on reindeer mounts following each other at rp walking pace.
Technically my most famous internet thing is actually a hearthstone highlight on the hearthstone subreddit, but the Christmas parade always makes me laugh when I think about the hour or 2 i spent on christmas starting a thing I hadn't yet seen.
Way, way, wayyyy back when....
Way, way, wayyyy back when the World Wide Web first came into existence, I was the author and owner of the world's first Amish Web Page.
It was a joke page, obviously, playing on the fact that the Amish would likely not be online or using a computer (at least not then).
It was sparse. It had a section on "tending thy livestock", and one on "raising thy barn", and another on "fixing thy computer", and finally a section titled "tourists and how to hide their bodies".
It disappeared sometime in the 1990s. I can't find it on Wayback. It's truly lost to the ages. But it was very definitely the very first of its kind on the WWW.
Flood Escape.
Alright. So. During Hurricane Harvey I posted a snapchat to the "our story" so that everyone could see it. It was hundreds of cockroaches escaping from the floodwaters in Houston. I deleted it from my own story bc I was like eh this is dumb and I hated the sound of my voice in the video. Well it stayed on the "our story" and got 1.2M views. My biggest internet accomplishment and I didn't even save the video as proof! And my 10 seconds of fame was due to... roaches.
Edit: Oh! Just remembered. A few years ago Aaron Carter followed me back on Twitter. Childhood crush. Not adulthood crush though.
"internet police"
I played Minecraft when I was younger and joined a server where I met someone I've now known online for around 8-9 years. We managed to trick some kid we were the "internet police" and had reason to believe he was hacking. We ended up getting his dad on the microphone and trying to explain that we believed his son was cheating. He replied "I'm sergeant something something with the New Jersey police department" and we immediately left the call scared AF, looking back, smart guy.
Tracing Figures.
I draw actors, for fun, and if they come to a local convention, I'll get some of those drawings signed. Those drawings get framed and hung up on my wall. I also try tagging them on IG so they can see. While my favorite actor doesn't have IG, his wife does, and one day, she actually favorited both drawings. I didn't know it was her at first. So, even though I'll probably never meet him in reality, he at least saw my work.
Before El Camino
Before the release of El camino, Jesse Pinkman - Aaron Paul did a Video (4:16) for vanity where he breaks down fan theories of breaking bad... And one my fan theory got featured in it... I am happy about that.
I remember watching that video! I totally believe your theory, because if it's true that means Jesse didn't suffer so much.
Kylie for the Win!
It was 2013, a mobile phone company called ZTE, hosted an online quiz to win a "Blade III" smart phone.
The question was something to do with Kylie Minogue.
Being the extremely gay 17 year old I was; I answered first, and correctly.
I won the smartphone, the only catch was, that I had to use it on Virgin Mobile. I'm so proud of myself, even to this day!
A Threat With Merit
Someone threatened a school shooting on WoW forums about 12 or 13 years ago, and I saw it right when it was posted. I managed to figure out where the guy was an alerted the proper authorities. All I did was talk to the guy and tried to relate to him. He flat out told me what town he was in and I just made a few phone calls.
I couldn't get any traction so I sent a message to a local newspaper, on the advice of someone else. The reporter reached out to me and then he ran with it, in terms of law enforcement. I don't know exactly what happened after that but I had an email thanking me for the heads up from the PD. The threat had merit and the guy got busted.
Overthrowing Clan Leaders
I joined a minecraft server back in ~2012 which had a clan system but there was only 1 clan and it had about 40 people in it because every other clan was immediately squashed by them.
Myself, my cousin, and one friend completely overthrew them and cemented ourselves as leaders of the server for probably the next year after that.
I came back like 2 years later and people would be like "holy sh*t, you're THE TrickDaddyRed? I've heard stories about your clan!"
The Thread Lives On
I started a joke thread on the official forum of a video game back in 2008. It was just something whimsical and satirical that I didn't think too much about at the time, but it absolutely exploded. Not only did it get about 50 pages of responses, but once it died it would get re-bumped every few months (at the end of every 'season' of the game).
I quit the game about 6 months later, but some years later I came across the link to the thread and I clicked on it. It turned out the post lived on and carried on getting bumped and generating a ton of responses all the way until the game eventually died in 2014. Which you would think would be the end of it. But I found out some years later that the game ended up having a sequel, and some of the players from the original game recreated the original thread on the new game's forum and it was still generating traffic. There are probably people commenting on it who weren't even born when the thread was originally posted.
Wikipedia Senator
I changed my school district's Wikipedia page. I created a section titled "Notable Alumni". I was a U.S. Senator for six months before they caught on. I even made a campaign website as a corroborating source.
Domain Names
I had a friend who was offered $1,000 for a domain. He called his attorney and his attorney said, "hold out for more."
He held out until $50,000. They paid $50,000... He used that $50,000 to start a business now worth millions.
My friend's sister misspelled her domain name when she registered it. Ended up being a sexual innuendo. Sold it to a adult film company for $15,000 and used that to help with start-up cash for a storefront.
Matchmaker
I made a bootleg comic book site back in the 90's. I used geocities and used each registration to host one comic book, then used another one to link them all together. I scanned all the comics from my collection. I even had an html template with the page numbers embedded so I would upload the same site with images. That's not the accomplishment part.
I had a phpBB forum for conversation and requests with a few thousand members... 2 members met there and got married from it. I think they lived in different countries too. That was cool, the rest was a waste of time I guess.
Exceeding His Karma
My husband has been on Reddit for years, he finally convinced me to get it, and I bet him within the first 2 weeks I would exceed his 1200 karma.. on the 13th day I made a comment that got over 27k upvotes that put me at 10k karma :)
He was in utter disbelief sitting beside me watching the comment grow and reach top comments haha.
OG Minecrafter
I found Minecraft VERY early in development thanks to a browser addon called StumbleUpon! that put a "random" website button on your bar. I've been playing almost since the game went public in dev stage thanks to it. I'm not sure if that qualifies as an accomplishment or not.
You could fly by default and maps were just these tiny squares. Everything was one punch, there were no water physics to speak of, and I think there were 8 blocks XD
- Emu_pie
Humanist Scum
I got David Barton (crazy Christian nationalist that at least used to screw up Texas school books) to publish an article about how I was what was wrong with the youth in America.
I went to a fundamentalist college and was a Christian at the time when everyone at my school was excited by his website, I think it was called Wallbuilders. He wrote this article insulting people who didn't think the US was founded intentionally to only ever be for Christians.
I responded with a seven page sourced paper on how most of us now wouldn't consider the founding fathers "real" Christians and that while some likely wanted a Christian nation others were vocally against it so making the argument on intention would necessitate cherry picking who you cite. I also referenced how his extra sources he cites are dubious as he won't let anyone verify their authenticity.
My core argument was just that we don't know what they overall wanted and since they didn't explicitly make the US a theocracy it seems weird to take 2-3 founding fathers and apply their beliefs to all of them.
For this he made a post talking about how 19 year old user threedm was literally what's wrong with the youth in America and also was an idiot and also secular humanist scum.
- People Confess The Silliest Thing They're Strangely Proud Of - George Takei ›
- People Explain What Began As A Joke But Then Became A Legitimate Thing - George Takei ›
People Share The Best Examples Of 'The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions'
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
An aged old proverb reflecting on when people perform what they think are well-meaning, helpful acts, but in reality, only worsen a bad situation.
A day seldom goes by when people won't notice an example of this, either on the news, in the book they're reading, or simply walking down the street.
This could be anything from someone making promises to help out, but never delivering on them, to saving money for a less expensive cleaner, which turns out to radiate toxic fumes, resulting in the building being closed for an indefinite length of time.
Ideas which might seem good in theory, but are impractical, illogical, or even harmful, in practice.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," what is a real life example of this?"
Controlling Erosion By Causing Erosion...
"The introduction of Kudzu for erosion control."
"It has become invasive and girdles and kills plant life above ground without establishing proper roots, therefore causing soil erosion."- Aldous_Hoaxley
When Honesty Is NOT The Best Policy...
"Once upon a time, I found a wallet on the beach."
"Having lost my own more than once, and not having it returned to me, I am aware that it is a stressful life event."
"So, my first thought was how to return it quickly."
"Looking through the contents, the owner was from out of state and there was no contact information other than the drivers license."
"Aside from that, only a few credit cards and some cash."
"Not knowing how long ago the owner had left, I thought let's just sit here for a while and maybe he will return looking for it since it is the first thing I would do."
"After a couple hours of fun and sun we needed to move on."
"My next best idea was to turn it into the local police station which we found easily enough just down the street."
"What I thought would be a quick in and out turned into a full on interrogation session during which I was, at one point, accused of theft/robbery."
"It was a bizarre experience, to say the least, which wasted an hour of our day."- notawhingymillenial
Think Carefully About Where You Donate...
"The Unexpected Consequences of your donations."
"TOMS Shoes, a company that pledged to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased."
"Turns out that the company's donations disrupted local shoe markets in developing countries, putting local shoe makers out of business and creating a dependency on foreign donations."
"Additionally, the shoes donated by TOMS were not always appropriate for the local climate or culture and were not always of the same quality as the shoes being sold."
"Reportedly, they have ended up in landfills."- EditorNo2545
Not Helping Anyone If You Can't Adequately Care For THem
"Trying to rescue too many cats."- Tackybabe
When One Crisis Leads To Another
"Haiti did not have cholera."
"A disastrous earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, after the earthquake humanitarian forces from the UN arrived to help, and the Nepalese contingent reintroduced Cholera to Haiti."
"This epidemic has since infected approximately 850,000 people and killed over 10,000."- scootarded
It's The Only Way They'll Learn How To Solve Them
"Sheltering your kid from every possible problem."- Easywood
"Those parents who solve all their kids issues and don't make them 'stress' about consequences of their own actions."
"Their kids just turn into inept and entitled adults who still act 15 for decades and not only have a harder life for themselves but make life miserable for everyone around them too."
"Yes it's bad to go too far the other way, raising a child is a balancing act."
"I get that, but ignoring a child isn't usually from good intentions while spoiling them often is and that was the prompt."
"If this sounds like it happened to you, I promise you that you can get yourself out of the cycle."
"It sucks and it hurts and it's unpleasant, but you can do it if you want to."
"Get ready to fail, and then keep trying anyway."
"Persistence will be a new skill, and you will be bad at it."
"And that's okay."
"You didn't do this to yourself, you don't need to feel shame."
"Digging yourself out however is something you'll be doing yourself, and you can take pride in every step you make it the right direction."- EisConfused
When Some People Just Can't Be Helped
"My neighbor who is supposedly getting evicted soon."
"Basically she saw young drug addicts (30 year olds) as people she could change for the better."
"She’d find them somewhere and bring them home."
"Evidently the idea was that she could show them a warm apartment and good food and they would realize the error of their ways and change for the better."
"That or a safe place to do their drugs."
"We had a door code so they could come in and knock on her door until she answered."
"It was a constant stream of strange people going in and out of her room all night long."
"I figured it wasn’t my problem, people can do what they want if they aren’t hurting anyone else."
"But then three of the men decided to take advantage of her because it’s not like she could physically kick them out herself, and she wouldn’t call the police."
"These are people who don’t want to change, they like their lifestyle and she gave them an upgrade."
"We are pretty sure they are doing meth in there."
"They come back at 1:30 am and either snort something or smoke something that from the hallway smells like cat pee or paint thinner."
"Then they scream bloody murder, throw things, and have domestics until 11 am, like clockwork."
"Police can’t actively go into the room and even people on the top floor are calling them."
"Landlord and management is doing his best to get them out but that’s a lengthy process."
"They disabled the door code but they are still getting in."
"Even the girl has been taken to the hospital for overdosing a few times."
"Anything not nailed down in the gym and lobby are getting trashed and stolen."
"Lobby bathroom is trashed constantly."
"Cars in the parking lot are being broken into and catalytic converters are being stolen."
"These men stalk around the parking lot watching people."
"We do have visitor rules, which are being broken."
"It’s going to get worse before it gets better."
"My goodwill is gone, we want her out."- RotaryMicrotome
Always Do Your Research
"The introduction of non-native species as a means of solving an environmental problem."- Addwon
Not All Issues Can Be Solved Surgically
"Lobotomy."
"Surgery to fix the mentally unwell."
"It sounds so good: no more reliance on medication, you’re good from now on."
"But it didn’t work."
"The outcomes were awful and it was frequently done without any sort of consent."
"It all could have been shut down fairly quickly if people were honest about what was happening, but careers and money was at stake."
"So many unnecessarily suffered."- raftsa
Ironic How Low The Success Rate Was
"Since the abysmal performance of American schools has been in the news recently, 'No Child Left Behind' and it's replacement 'Every Student Succeeds Act'."
"America has never had really good public education, but it used to be serviceable.'
"NCLB came in to try and create some milestones and accountability."
"Instead it made the problem worse.'
'ECSS came in and tried to address its problems, but changed the stuff that wasn't the problem and left the bad parts unscathed."
"Taken all together 57% of high school GRADUATES can't read at a 7th grade reading level and over a quarter are functionally illiterate."- Twokindsofpeople
We all want to help others, and make the world a better place.
But before we jump into action, it is important to stop and reflect who exactly we would be helping.
If anyone or anything at all.
Toys People Always Wanted Growing Up But Never Actually Received
Unless you grew up with the most doting parents on the planet, there's probably a toy or two that you really wanted as a kid, but never received.
Whether it was too expensive for your parents to afford, or something like a noisy toy that was going to be way too annoying for your parents, there are probably some toys that you really missed out on as a child.
Redditor Moist-Patience-4989 asked:
"What is a toy you always wanted growing up, but never got?"
Power Wheels
"The Barbie Jeep that you could actually ride in. But once I had kids, I bought them one (not the Barbie version, but still). And guess what? I was five pounds under the weight limit so I was able to ride in their battery-powered Jeep. I mean, it was a couple decades late, but I eventually got to do it."
- smugmisswoodhouse
"Lol I never got one of those as a kid either. It still haunts me till this day. I have no idea why but it still does. My mom bought me a car for my 16th birthday but I still bring up the freaking power wheel. I guess it really scarred me."
- Annonme123
Easy - Bake Oven
"Easy - Bake Oven"
- Antibara
"Me too. I wanted one so bad. When they came out with the real retro looking ones a while ago, I was sooo tempted. LOL"
- Real-Web8925
"I was a child of the 70s, and wanted the Holly Hobbie version. My parents were poor and/or didn't want me cooking in my bedroom, so they dodged by pointing out it was for ages 8 and up. By the time I was 8 I was cooking real food in an actual oven so the request was dropped. Still low-key want one though, entirely to indulge my inner child."
- pepperminticecream
"Easy bake oven. Parents didn’t think it was a toy for boys. I still became a baker anyways"
- Soggy-Juggernaut-569
Mini Bike
"A mini-bike like they advertised in the Sears Christmas catalog."
- XploringTheWorld
"Same. I wanted one so bad. All the guys on my street had one and to get into the woods they drove their bikes between my house and the neighbors. On our lawn! I was so pissed off they got to do it but my dad didn’t think it was safe for a girl (in 1968)."
- SnowinMiami
Tamagotchi
"Always wanted a Tamagotchi"
- DuracellCosmonaut
"They were banned at my school. I think there was a bit of controversy with them at the time."
- Maso_TGN
"I have mine! Just put fresh batteries in it a couple weeks ago and I still can’t keep the dumb thing alive 😅"
- IJustWantWaffles_87
TMNT Pizza Shooter
"The ninja turtle pizza thrower van."
- Ph33r-Enigma
"My friend brought his TMNT Pizza Shooter over. We then spent the next 2 hours shooting my older sister. I asked for one and my parents (for very good reason) told me absolutely not."
- HoopOnPoop
"I just used it to shoot pizzas at my little brother. Thing was amazing
- MrJimBusiness18
American Girl Dolls
"An American Girl doll. Loved the books so much. I've been tempted to buy myself a Samantha now that she's out again, but I like the original outfit better."
- horseruth
"I read that catalogue cover to cover every time I got it (which is back when there were only three dolls and nothing ever changed). I was convinced when I grew up and had kids, my daughter would have all three dolls, each in its own room so that the historical eras didn't get mixed up. Spoiler alert: that did not happen. No kids, and my house doesn't have three extra bedrooms to devote to dolls."
- jleebeane
Castle Greyskull
"Castle Grayskull, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."
- Maso_TGN
"My brother had it and I played with my strawberry shortcake dolls in it."
- GlamSpam
"By The Power Of Grayskull, sacrilege!"
- Maso_TGN
"They actually made a new one recently, and it’s identical to the original 80’s one, just with modern details. You can get it here."
- IncreaseWestern6097
Rock Tumbler
"A rock tumbler"
- Picklesgal111
"I was looking for this one. We are two rocks in the tumbler together."
- Independent_Cut8651
"Not really a toy, but I’ve wanted a rock polishing kit for as long as I can remember and would ask for one every Christmas and birthday."
- awesquirrel
Pokédex
"a pokedex. I wanted one so bad, but NoOoOo, mom and dad thought pokemon was annoying"
- CptJaxxParrow
The Big Box of Crayons
"The Crayola 64-pack with the three metallic colors."
- wholewheatscythe
You may have missed out on these toys as a child, but the great thing about being an adult is that you can do what you want. If the toy you desperately wanted as a kid is still available, you are totally allowed to just go out and buy yourself one.
When it comes to fast food places, no two places are the same. Wendy's spicy chicken nuggets are far superior to those from McDonald's, while no one does milkshakes quite like Dairy Queen.
I have always preferred burgers from In-N-Out, but my brother will always go for Five Guys.
There will always be debates when it comes to which establishment does fast food the best.
The biggest debate surrounds the ultimate side dish: french fries.
No one can ever seem to agree on which fast food chain has the best french fries, but that doesn't stop the debate. Redditors are engaged in that very debate as we speak!
It all started when Redditor Seraphicly329 asked:
"Which fast food chain restaurant has the best fries?"
Perfect Sauce
"In and Out. Watching them slice up them fresh potatoes makes me feel something special. Especially when dipped in that thousand island special sauce mmmmm"
– bathofknives
Don't Know What You're Missing
"Checkers!!! My current pregnancy craving. Thanks alot for reminding me to get the fry lovers size on my way home from work."
– jerri89
"Anyone who doesn't say checkers has never had checkers' fries."
"But to expand on this... anyone notice how all of their other foods suck?"
– murrepe321
"I haven’t had these fries since I was a kid vacationing in Florida. I’m from the great white north and I totally came here to say that checkers fries are the bomb!!"
– bluerodeosexshow
Fries Of Yore
"I've had this debate with my dad a lot."
"He says it's McDonalds."
"I don't have a definitive favorite, but if I had to choose, I pick the old Wendy's fries, before they did this Crispy version. I just loved the Sea Salt flavor they used."
"(I don't dislike the new fries, but I vastly prefer the older ones)"
– F19AGhostrider
"Wendy's sh*t the bed with their new fries. Now it's McDonald's."
– SteelTumbler
"Wendy's old ones 100% I love how the were thick cut and when they got all floppy they were the bomb."
– Rahtgooves
Curly Is Aways Better
"Ngl I’ve always been craving Jack in the Box curly fries. But that’s just me."
– SignalOk1538
"Arby's curly fries are GOATed."
– einherjar81
"I like my fries to have a crispy outside, and a soft fluffy inside. Arby's Curly Fries do meet that specification, when you get the big long curls, however every time I order them, I get 1-2 good curls on the top of the box, then 3/4 of the box is filled with all short hard bits. Ugh."
"And the Krinkly Fries are exactly the opposite, all soft and fluffy, with no crisp whatsoever."
"IF I could get a box of all long curls, they would be #1 on my list."
– Stormblade73
"McDonald’s for skinny"
"Jack in the Box for curly (which is a shame because I live 6 hours from the nearest jbox these days!)"
– Steph_Boyardee
KFC International
"KFC Australia. The UK KFC fries are horrific"
– stuloch
"Don’t know about either but the US KFC fries are delicious"
– Keyguin
"The KFC fries in the UK are actually nice now. They used to need 4 sachets of salt to make them edible."
– TheCubeOfDoom
Once You Go To Five Guys...
"Five guys. The fact that these fries haven't forced the entire industry to adapt is crazy to me."
"Going to any other fast food place, getting a large fry makes me laugh and wonder why the hell I didn't go to 5G."
– Hank___Scorpio
I Dare You To Argue
"Bojangles, if anyone disagrees I will fight you"
– chaosbones43
"Took me way too long to find this but 100%! Especially when they are fresh and seasoned just right. No other fast food restaurant even comes close IMO"
– TheSocialButterfly11
Cajun Is The Best
"Five Guys cajun fries. Those fries are some of the best GD fries you'll ever have in your life"
– Present_Rip7556
"overall? i think wendys [MA] but a close second is popeyes. Cajun fries are amazing"
– TJzzz
"It’s not fast food, but if you ever come across a restaurant called Hot N Juicy, get the Cajun fries. I don’t think it’s too big of a chain, but they set up shop in Cali, AZ, Florida, Vegas, idk which other states but good God it’s some good fries every time"
– double_decker_taco
Only One Right Answer
"It is funny to see all the people who have never been to Runza give answers that aren't Runza"
"The correct answer is Runza."
– elting44
God-Tier
"I don't care what anyone says, In N Out fries on a good day are God-tier. There is no better fast food french fry. Consider that they use Kennebec, the superior fry potato, and sunflower oil, which is top tier frying oil. They cut potatoes on site.
Of course there is going to be some variation compared to the mass factory-produced shake shack fries that are formed from a batter, but you can hardly call those fries."
– tornato7
Best For These Reasons
"Hear me out, I think Nacho Fries from Taco Bell are the best for 3 reasons:"
- "Crispy. If you get them fresh they are fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They're on point."
- "Seasoning. Cajun seasoning is also pretty decent where you can get it, but nacho seasoning is better in my opinion."
- "Sauce. Comes with Nacho Cheese, which is perhaps the best pairing for spuds, followed closely by ranch variants. Chilli cheese fries are better, but in my opinion are a different category of food item."
– malik753
A Full Analysis
"I've found Wendy's fries are usually pretty good but I'm not a fan of their morning wedges or whatever they're called."
"Arby's are okay. The crinkle-cut fries are meh. The curly fries are slightly better but not as good as they used to be when the stores made their own in-house (a very long time ago)."
"Sonic fries are okay."
"I haven't been to an A&W or Long John Silver's in a while (they moved out some years ago) but I liked the fries okay."
"McDonald's are thin and often cold and sometimes quite greasy and over-salted."
"Burger King fries are no better than McDonald's."
"I despise Five Guys. They're usually soaking wet."
"Haven't had In-and-Out in a long time but I always felt they tasted a little better than cardboard. Even with salt on them."
"I haven't had KFC, Popeyes or Taco Bell in a while so I can't rate them. Haven't been to a White Castle in a long time either... I usually just went for the burgers."
"There are probably others but I don't remember or haven't tried."
– md724
Only When Fresh
"McDonald's fries when they're fresh and properly salted are no joke. We've all been eating them forever so we're just used to them I think."
– jew_biscuits
"I think McDonald's fries are the best if they're fresh and prepared correctly . . . which seems to be rare these days."
– Dr_Edge_ATX
"Properly salted McDonald's fries, they're literally heaven."
– chucked___cheeze
"McDonald’s for me and it’s not close"
– jewishMILFhunter2
In The Area
"Where I live, McDonalds first, Wendy’s second."
– ijeanofdreammie
There are a lot of different opinions here!
I think what I learned is that it's less about the establishment and more about the location. The fries from my Popeye's may be far superior to one in the next state over, but their Shake Shack may show up the one in my area.
One thing we can all agree on: the mission to find the perfect french fries will never end!
Some people will just believe anything.
And if you call a statement a fact long enough, many people take it as gospel.
Some facts are absolute truths, others can be malleable.
Science changes.
History evolves.
Lies are exposed.
And research is an actual art form.
Redditor OfficialVickiLuv wanted to share the truths we need to know, so they asked:
"What is a common 'fact' that you know is bulls**t?"
There is no such thing as an alternative fact.
So let's start there.
Not a Forest
"Shaving makes your hair grow back thicker."
Heavy_Educator9822
"I used to believe this one. I was very disappointed when I learned it was BS."
leebon427
Both Sides
"There are two kinds of thinkers: Right brain people are who are creative, and the people that use the left side who can do math."
Beaver_Buster
"Try telling that to psychologists/psychiatrists who do research/clinical studies/trials. I’ve been denied dozens of times to partake in research studies revolving around mental health, specifically depression, and anxiety."
"Why did they deny me [even tho I was a perfect candidate]? Because I write with my left hand. And apparently it would make their study 'invalid' because they 'don’t want to interfere with results.'"
"Please tell me how excluding a large amount of people from a research study would somehow give you the correct answer for treating mental health for everybody?"
asianstyleicecream
Find them...
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Zatiebars
"Especially with children, the quicker the police can get to the 'crime' scene the fresher the evidence and easier to follow leads. I used crime in quotes because there could have been a crime or the kid might have just wandered off."
"But it's not just for kids though... If you know someone is a home body and never leaves home and you know something has happened, by all means call the police. Even if they like to take random trips, it never hurts to inform the law."
Zatiebars
Crackle... Pop
"Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis."
Famous-Background329
"Probably just normal. Cracks are just little bubbles of nitrogen that settle where there's space. They don't build up over time, once the space is occupied by a little bubble then no more can join it. A knuckle that hasn't been cracked in 50 years is the same as a knuckle that hasn't been cracked in a few hours."
ConstantSignal
Give a Howl
"Alpha wolves being real. The guy who did the original study disproved his one study and gets mad when people get it wrong now... lol."
Silverj0
"Came looking for this, also extrapolating this BS to human beings and 'sigma,' go read. The articles are all available. It's nonsense that people still believe s* like this with access to everything in their hands."
artemispock
The wolf pack is always ready.
Trivia
"A 'factoid' is an often repeated statement that isn't true, but is now believed to be true due to people saying it all the time. Its not a mini fact, or like, fun piece of trivia."
JackofScarlets
Breakfast Companies
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The quote was made by Kellogg's to make people buy more cereal. If you search up articles that say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, most are sponsored by Kellogg's."
Jazzlike-Caramel7103
"I’m not sure Kellogg’s made it up. In my country there’s a saying that’s been around forever that alludes to the importance of breakfast that goes 'have breakfast like a king and dinner like a poor person.' Kellogg’s might’ve simply exploited an existing popular belief."
kaleidoscopichazard
Hey Stumpy
"Caffeine makes you short."
CForey62
"This one makes me laugh. I've been drinking coffee since I was like 9 years old and turned out 190cm tall."
TurquoiseBeetle67
Spuds
"Potatoes absorb toxins. The amount of people that believe putting potato slices in your shoes or wear them around your neck as a holistic medical treatment is shockingly high. It’s just oxidation."
wheresmychin
"I recall seeing a antivaxx meme that said if you had to get a COVID shot to put a potato slice at the injection site to absorb all the toxins. I’m all for sharing that idea if it makes people get vaccinated."
OrangeTree81
Look Out
"Bats are blind."
IWantOneSpatula
"I remember getting into a really stupid argument shortly after high school with a friend over this who just couldn't believe that bats weren't actually blind."
__M-E-O-W__
"Fine. Bats are legally blind."
shifty_coder
Now I've learned more.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.