From time to time, something really weird, really screwed up happens to someone. From time to time, that someone is you.
Whether you find out your daughter’s starring in hardcore pornography, your wife used to be a man, or your dad walked in on you and a seventy-year old transvestite – there’s a commonly accepted reaction-protocol.
After you’ve cried like a little baby, smashed your head against the wall and moved to another town, you want to tell someone. It’s because you realise the ‘uniqueness’ of your situation, or just want to wail in self-pity, that you need to share the experience and complain about life.
There are sites that allow you to vent these experiences. To tell them to other people, and demonstrate how much your life sucks — it’s therapeutic. In complete anonymity of course — otherwise you’d have to switch towns again. We’ll take a closer look at three of these sites today.
FMyLife
FMyLife (FML as a double abbreviation) was launched late 2008, and quickly turned in an internet phenomena. It’s a place where you can share stories and complain about your life, always starting with ‘Today,’ and ending with ‘FML’. Thousands of horrible recollections have been gathered on this site, some worse than others, but none pleasant.
All stories can be rated by reader-visitors. You can choose between “I agree, your life sucks” and “you totally deserved it”. Here are some of the all time top stories. Earlier this month, they released the first F My Life book bundled with some of the best stories, some of them accompanied by great illustrations.
Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML.
MyLifeIsAverage
MyLifeIsAverage works on the same principles as FMyLife, though with milder stories. The site’s recollections focus on the pointlessness of life’s experience. The site’s not nearly as popular as FMyLife, but it’s an entertaining spin-off and another great place to complain about life.
In reality, instead of extreme happenstances, MyLifeIsAverage houses apathic users who are extremely unsatisfied with their lifes (and often with reason). Like on FMyLife, you can vote for the stories to be either “Average”, or “Meh”.
Today, I realized the word bed actually looks like a bed. MLIA.
Ventnation (Beta)
Ventnation is probably the most extensive site in row. You must create an account to ‘vent’ your message, after which anonymity is an option. Vents can be enriched with videos and pictures, and classified in a number of categories. These messages can then be commented on, or rated by other users. Additionally, Ventnation also allows users to give advice to others.
This site is obviously way more seriously about its cause. It houses people who have bottled up frustrations and a daily need to shout them out to the world. The positive side here is that people can actually ‘complain productively’ about life, if they get other people to react. If you constantly use Twitter and Facebook to vent your problems, this site is your alternative.
Payday, and i can’t seem to find cash to burn cus the government is taking it before i get it :(
Do you know any other great and helpful venting sites? Don’t be shy and let us know in the comments section below!
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Simon, I can’t believe that you didn’t mention Make Use Of Contributors very own website, ShareMyLife.
If you want to say something anonymously, or read what others have posted, have a browse to sharemylife.info
But… that’s not true at all. MLIA isn’t a place to whine about stuff… not even a little. I can’t even think of a reason why you would include that website in this article. I can’t even think of anything insulting enough to say to you.
Of course it’s also a humoristic site, but are you saying MLIA isn’t a place where people whine about how ‘average’ and meaningless their life is?
Okay, if you actually READ mlia you’ll notice that most of the stories are just amusing things that happen to people. They’re not complaining, they’re happy and often proud of these average moments in their lives.
I agree it isn’t a place to whine about how meaningless someones life is. Most people write about how something spontaneous happened to them, For example- Today at my school, we had a lock down drill to prepare for any intruders. We had to lock the door and sit quietly in the corner for ten minutes. About half way through, the door bursts open and my principal dressed in a Darth Vader suit shouts, “Fools, I have a spare key!” and runs out. It was the single most frightening yet thrilling experience of my life. MLIA. I don’t think it was a person complaining about how meaningless their life is.
MLIA is humorous and light anecdotes about day to day lives. FML is people bitching about their crappy relationships, crappy sex and crappy lives. I believe MLIA pwns FML’s crappy arse.
Despite the fact MLIA might not be “nearly as popular as FML”, its fans clearly kick ass.
In addition, “This site is obviously way more *seriously* about its cause.” Way to be incorrect, FYL Simon.
Also, @Tansy “I believe MLIA pwns FML’s crappy arse.” You win at life.
MLIA makes you laugh. FML makes you want to bask your head in with a rock due to human stupidity.
MLIA is for people with a sense of humor, who don’t get hung up on the negatives in life.
Clearly, you did minimal research prior to writing this piece. Know a website before you pass judgements on it, please.
Actually, I do read MLIA frequently. Guess it’s a difference of interpretation.
I have already seen it somethere…
MLIA IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN FML!
MLIAers don’t complain about life-we are all satisfied with whats been given to us. The lame FMLers are the ones who need to get over themselves.
What about this new site Ventnation?.. it seems pretty cool, and it looks 10 times better than fml and mlia!!
hrmm… I can’t believe that http://www.muttr.com is not up there. It’s already been noticed as being Twitters Evil Twin and people are even saying use Muttr INSTEAD of FML. And as for ventnation, another site to sign up for? C’mon now, I am registered with too many sites as is. Well, it’s okay I guess…it’s just poorly structured in my opinion, my eyes go crazy looking everywhere.
The thing i love about Muttr is I can go to the site, click “muttr now”, vent away, submit, and be on with my day. Anonymous venting at its finest! You actually get to see what piss people off on a daily basis, nothing better than that.
Everyone saying FML sucks is the very reason FML was made.
When life goes wrong, there’s NO WHERE TO GO. Strangers immeadiately call you an attention whore and ignore you. Friends will give you the standards its okay, who cares, no biggie, or may even be as cruel as strangers. Curling up in a ball in the corner until you turn emo is not always the best option to everyone, and sites like FML are the best.