Damn Interesting
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Owner | Alan Bellows |
| Slogan(s) | A collection of fascinating true stories from history, science, and psychology. In text and podcast form. |
| Website | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | September 2005 |
| Current status | active |
Damn Interesting is an independent website/podcast founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form original essays, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. Each article is accompanied by a narrated version in the form of a podcast. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.
In July 2009, Damn Interesting published the book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing Company. The book features some of the most popular content from Damn Interesting, as well as some book-exclusive content.
On August 24, 2009, Damn Interesting published the article The Unfortunate Sex Life of the Banana by Matt Castle, after which nothing new appeared on the site for an extended period. Over the following months the comments section of the Banana article filled with hundreds of comments, some of which expressed anger regarding the lack of updates, and others coming to the site's defense. Bellows eventually entered the comments section to explain, "To those complaining of the lack of new content: I apologize. I am experiencing some personal difficulties at the moment that are interfering with my ability to do anything that I normally take comfort in (including writing/editing/etc)," but the comments continued.
On August 25, 2011, two years and one day after the Banana article was published, a new post appeared titled "It's About Damn Time". It contained only a countdown timer which would reach zero approximately two weeks after it appeared. When it reached zero, a new design and a new article appeared. The site has resumed posting new content since then, though less often than the period prior to the hiatus.
On July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter on DamnInteresting.com addressing "the writers of the Dollop." In his letter Bellows accused the Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution.Dave Anthony, the writer of the Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by the Fair use exception to copyright law, and that "historical facts are not copyrightable." In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, "Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based." Curt Hopkins, writing for the The Daily Dot, concluded, "This incident provides a lesson in how different the expectation [sic] are between different parties on the Web, even those like writers and comedians that consumers might expect to react the same way, as well as how complex issues of attribution and copyright are online, where things move fast and little is static."
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