FMyLife is an English-language blog that serves as "a recollection of everyday anecdotes likely to happen to anyone". Posts on the site are short, user-submitted stories of unfortunate happenings that begin with "Today" and end with "FML".[1] At its peak in 2009, FMyLife received more than 1.7 million hits each day.[2] A book containing stories from the site and illustrations[3] was published in June 2009.[4]
 | |
Type of site | Blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian and Turkish |
| Owner | Ouiche Lorraine SARL |
| Created by | Maxime Valette, Guillaume Passaglia and Didier Guedj |
| Editors | Ray Chase, Ben Girou, and Logan Burdick |
| URL | http://www.fmylife.com |
| Launched | January 2008 |
| Current status | Active |
From 2013 to 2015, their video team, FML Video Guys, produced weekly videos featuring different FML stories.[5]
History
editFMyLife was created on January 13, 2008 by Maxime Valette, Guillaume Passaglia and Didier Guedj. The site is the English version of the creators' original website in French, Viedemerde.fr, which translates as "shit life". VDM has become one of France's top ten sites. Anybody who visits the site can decide if the writer of each anecdote's life indeed "sucks" or if he or she "deserved" what happened. Members can submit stories and leave comments. Not every story submitted is posted on the blog.[6]
FMyLife has drawn attention from some social commentators, such as sociologist Pierre Mannoni, who has stated, "Even if it's done with humour, it can be dangerous to describe oneself endlessly as a loser; it can prevent you from succeeding."[6]
The website experienced a rapid increase in traffic in February 2009, according to a breakdown of web traffic by Alexa Internet.[7][8]
In March 2009, FMyLife announced that they had secured a book deal.[9] The book was released on June 9, 2009[4] and was available for purchase at Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble stores.
In 2009, FML also released an iPhone/iPod Touch application, in which the user can submit their FMLs, rate them, comment on them or just read them. They released apps for Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and Java-based cell phones.[10]
In 2013, FML began unrolling their new videos created by Ray Chase and Ben Giroux, known as the "FML Video Guys".[11] The videos are directed and edited by Logan Burdick. Chase and Giroux had previously worked together creating web content for Awkward Universe, which FMyLife had been publishing on their site during 2012.[12] As of February 2, 2015, their YouTube channel became inactive with Ben Giroux claiming new FML videos were coming to his channel.[13] As of March 4, 2019, no new FML videos have appeared since on either the FML or Ben Giroux channel.
References
edit- ^ "FML: Frequently Asked Questions". 2009-10-04. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
- ^ Aucoin, Don (2009-05-30). "The culture of failure". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2009-06-03. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
- ^ "FMyLife, the book!". FMyLife. 2009-05-17. Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
- ^ a b "The book is now available". FMyLife. 2009-06-09. Archived from the original on 2009-08-01. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
- ^ "FML Video Guys". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2024-03-20. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
- ^ a b Bremner, Charles; Marie Tourres (2009-03-06). "French cash in on internet despair as depression builds across Atlantic". London: Times Online. Retrieved 2009-03-18.[dead link]
- ^ "FMylife.com - Traffic Details from Alexa". Alexa. Retrieved 2009-03-18.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Milian, Mark (2009-02-10). "FMyLife lets you sound off on everyday problems". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
- ^ Carlson, Nicholas (2009-03-17). "'F*** My Life' Gets Book Deal". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
- ^ "FML: All official applications for mobile phone". Archived from the original on 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
- ^ Guedj, Didier (2013-02-04). "The FML Video Guys". fmylife.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
- ^ "Awkward Universe". comedytvisdead.com. 2013-02-15. Archived from the original on 2013-06-26. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
- ^ "FML Update!". YouTube. 2 February 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
External links
edit- FMyLife
- FML Video Guys, the video team
- VieDeMerde.fr, the original French website
- VitaDiMerda, the Italian version
- VayaMierdaDeVida, the Spanish version Archived 2012-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
- FMyLife, the Swedish version
- FMyLife, the Russian version
- FMyLife, the German version
- AMKhayat, The Turkish version
- FMyLife, The Romanian version