Top 10 Boredom-busting Websites
Published on August 18, 2007 - 75 Comments
This is a comprehensive list of the top ten websites that help you pass the time of day, in other words, boredom busters. There is not one on the list that has not engrossed me for at LEAST an entire day. No more boredom at school! From worst to best…
10. Photo.Net
This is a long running website by Philip Greenspun that covers all areas of photography. It includes reviews of virtual all cameras, as well as sample photographs. There are forums and you can even post your own photographs for criticism. It is a very simple site which makes it a pleasure to use. If you are planning to buy a new camera, you will spend hours here.
9. Ebaumsworld
Ebaumsworld is a great site updated daily with hilarious videos, jokes, links, and forums. It has a huge following and you can spend hours lost in the midst of this site. The site also features cool flash games. I should also add that ebaumsworld have sent a generous amount of traffic to this site via the dailydump.
8. Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets of Scientology
I have spent hours in the past reading through this website. It gives a great expose of the horrors of Scientology (the Cult created by L. Ron Hubbard). It has millions of articles on Hubbard, the Cult itself, Dianetics, and even has fascinating stories by people who escaped from the clutches of the organisation. This one is a particularly good read (warning - it is long!) and is the only book I have read from cover to cover online. I would also recommend viewing Lermanet (the site of one of visitors) for more extensive Scientology information.
7. Movie Trailers @ Apple - Latest movies in HD
Apple have the latest trailers for current movies on the QuickTime section of their website. Many of the trailers are in HD and they are all downloadable (if you have QuickTime Pro). Suitable for viewing on any OS. Some of the current films in HD are Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Oceans 13, The Bourne Ultimatum, and many many more. Check them out.
6. The Straight Dope
This site was started up by Cecil Adams. Who is he, you may ask? This is what he says: “Cecil Adams is the world’s most intelligent human being. We know this because: (1) he knows everything, and (2) he is never wrong.” Cecil writes for over 30 newspapers providing the straight dope on virtually any question you may have. This is a brilliant site and I have to confess to having spent whole weekends doing nothing but reading it. I guarantee that you will leave this site smarter than when you went there. Here is today’s question: What’s better for the environment, electric hand dryers or paper towels?
5. Hot or Not
I feel a little dirty posting this - but as much as it is embarrassing to say it - rating people based upon their looks is a great way to pass the time! You can choose from all gender types and ages and rate people’s photos from 1 (not) to 10 (hot). You can even add your own photo to be rated and make dates with some of the people there. I won’t tell you whether my photo is on there or not.
4. Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a social site with a difference - instead of picking the sites you want to see, you tell stumbleupon what your interests are and click a button which takes you to a random site. This is dangerously addictive. It works best with the Stumbleupon toolbar installed. Unfortunately the toolbar is only available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Definitely worth a look.
3. Waiter Rant - Hilarious experiences of a waiter
By far one of the best time wasters on the net. The anonymous waiter who writes this blog seems to suffer all of the worst things you could imagine a waiter suffering. He always puts a funny slant on his activities and experiences and you can just read for hours on end. I assure you - once you get a taste for this blog you will always go back for more.
2. Snopes - Urban Legends
There may be some controversy over whether this one deserves the top rank, but I think it does and this is why: whenever I am bored and need something to fill in a bit of time, this site does the trick. I don’t spend hours there, I don’t go there looking for anything in particular, I just read a few of the articles and get back to what I am meant to be doing. The site is all about urban legends and it covers a wide variety of topics such as Celebrities, titanic, food (there is an section on Cokelore), and much more. Not only do they tell you whether the legend is true or false, they do background research and often provide quite detailed information.
1. Best of Craigslist - Rants and Often Bizarre Posts
Craigslist is a community site where people buy and sell, post personals, and chat in general. The Best Of section contains the finest moments of Craigslist - and believe me, there are MANY. Some of the posts can be a little on the obscene side. I once spent an entire Saturday doing nothing buy reading BOCL. Here is a sample to whet your appetite:
Hello. Here is my couch. I hate this couch and it needs to get out of my house. It is the worst couch I have ever seen. I sat on it and now I’m in a back brace. I let my dog have the couch, but then he died on it, so I don’t really need it anymore. I miss my dog and I hate this couch. I’m asking $3.75 for the couch because thats how much Buck’s favorite chew toy cost me each month. However, I’ll consider other offers. I would just throw this couch into the river, but I hurt my back sitting on the couch.”
I would also like to give honourable mention to the following sites: Digg, Reddit, Fark, Youtube, Wikipedia, and Slashdot. I certainly hope that you find this a cure for boredom and get many hours of interesting surfing.
Oh - and out of humility I haven’t added the List Universe, which is, of course, the real number 1!
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1. Phil - August 18th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
i’m not an ebaums man, i’m a chanman (see 2ch.us definitely NSFW)
2. jfrater - August 18th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Phil: thanks for the link - I haven’t seen it before!
3. Stephen11 - August 18th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Yeah, I agree on ebaum’s being pretty good. And they are the one’s who sent me here originally.
Now I gotta check out these other ones.
4. jfrater - August 18th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Stephen11: that is good to know! They introduced themselves to me via some very controversial comments on one of the articles here - but I am glad because it is a great site and the guys there are awsome.
5. Dan - August 18th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Ebaumsworld is really a thief, and just slaps their name on videos that have been popular on other sites. I just look past that, and they do have some great videos and games.
6. Daniel - August 18th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Ebaum is an evil bastard. It’s not so much that he’s created the whole website without generating or paying for any of the content; it’s more that he goes out of his way to put his own watermark over anything he finds, and deliberately deny its actual creators credit for their hard work.
7. ben - August 18th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Yea, I hate that ebaumsworld takes credit for everything, but theres alot of other ones that do that in smaller doses. And for some reason even though its against all my better judgement and principles, I still go back there.
8. jfrater - August 18th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
aww, poor ebaum
9. Crimanon - August 18th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Anything I wanteed to say bout Ebaums has already been said. That said Snopes Rocks Ive read a bout 3/4 of it. And the Wikipeddia Random Page button is one of the greatest boredom butsers out there, That and Ill Will Press.
10. brennan - August 18th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
collegehumor.com is rising to e-fame. i love it. everyone should check it out because it is better than ebaums.
www.collegehumor.com
11. Crimanon - August 18th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Sorry Brennan Iv’e got a problem with having to text a web page to let them know it’s really me, If Im going to spend money Online in an entertaining manner Ill hit up SomethingAwful.com
12. brennan - August 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
what do you have to pay for on collegehumor.com?
13. Crimanon - August 18th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Brennen: It told me to send a text message to confirm that it was really me who wanted to post something.
14. brennan - August 19th, 2007 at 1:18 am
oh…
i just watch video clips there.
15. Crimanon - August 19th, 2007 at 1:28 am
Bren: whats the point of watching if you can’t comment. If one of your friends does something stupid and you end up see the vid, you’ll say something right?
16. brennan - August 19th, 2007 at 2:31 am
i’ll just laugh or exclaim, “Snap, dog!”, but what’s the use typing “Snap, dog!”
?
he already knows.
he already knows it’s a snap dog situation.
17. brennan - August 19th, 2007 at 2:37 am
my interest in internet humor videos is in seeing what (i’m assuming) a large demographic judges is worth posting and finds funny.
it is amusing to read peoples’ comments (especially if they are dim witted), but that is not the most enjoyable part for me.
18. Lindsey - August 19th, 2007 at 7:43 am
tv-links.co.uk has given me HOURS of entertainment!
19. jfrater - August 19th, 2007 at 7:47 am
I quite like commenting - though I think it is usually more to see what others think of my point of view. Thanks for the additional sites
20. Fe - August 19th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Nice list, I spend way too much time on some of these sites, especially *honorable mention* Wikipedia, waiterrant and Snopes.
21. deadwiiguy - August 19th, 2007 at 9:19 am
transbuddha.com .reddit
22. alt - August 20th, 2007 at 3:40 am
Break.com isn’t on here?!? That site is awesome, they update every single day, unlike ebaums, and they have an entire NSFW section just for when you need to look at some hot women. How dare you not put Break on this list, you disgust me.
23. Crimanon - August 20th, 2007 at 4:10 am
I thought I was pretty hardcore about Enders Game. But, on that note I think I’ll have to stop by. Thank you alt.
24. mix2323 - August 20th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
snopes is great to tell you the truth i love the list j your the best i just can’t wait what new list you put up oh yea www.cryptozoology.com is a good one
25. jfrater - August 21st, 2007 at 8:04 am
mix2323: Thanks
I had a lot to do yesterday so I only got one list up - hopefully more today!
26. Sam - August 24th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I scrolled the page several times, and I double checked the list searching for YouTube.com and I didn’t find it anywhere in this list! it’s well known that YouTube is one of the websites that people spend several hours daily on! and still it’s not on your list …
27. Crimanon - August 24th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Iv’e been a member of Snopes for a few weeks now. Iv’e read almost everything on the site. Odd how much time I have on my hands isn’t it? Problem solved very soon.
28. Cat Skyfire - August 31st, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I have to put my vote in for fark.com, which is how I ended up here.
29. jfrater - September 1st, 2007 at 12:37 am
Sam: it got honorable mention at the bottom of the article. I excluded it because it is currently the 4th most visited site on the internet - everyone knows about it. I was hoping to spread some sites that people might not know.
30. Fruckert - September 1st, 2007 at 12:52 am
newgrounds is awesome for passing the time
31. jfrater - September 1st, 2007 at 1:09 am
Fruckert: thanks for mentioning that site - it looks very interesting.
32. ben - September 10th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
What about this site? this is where i go
33. bill griffith - September 10th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
http://fusionanomaly.net/
…depending on your state of mind, you’ll spend quite a few seconds staring at the opening graphic…
It’s almost like a psychedelic wikipedia. You start by clicking on one of the red flashing nodes.
34. jfrater - September 10th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
ben: I was being humble
bill: I have seen that site - very unusual.
35. ben - September 16th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Neatorama is anther of my favs, its got some lists sorta like this and other media, but its not updated as regularly and some of the stuff is stupid. Quizfarm.com is cool too, go and search randomly for quizzes or search for specific ones.
36. cassady - September 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 am
Hey there,
Love the site, just haven’t commented prior to this. One site that I find myself spending hours on at work is http://www.complaintsboard.com. I love to read the stupid complaints people have about businesses. Granted some are real reasons to complain, but some are unbelieveable. It is a great resource too though. I now do a quick search on there before purchasing from a company I’ve never dealt with before.
37. jfrater - September 23rd, 2007 at 3:31 am
ben and cassady: thanks for mentioning those sites - I will check them out. hopefully they don’t distract me too much from this site!
38. Kelsi - September 23rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
So, I installed stumbleupon after reading this list, and it has changed my elife. Completely. I love it.
39. jfrater - September 24th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Kelsi: I hope it doesn’t distract you from here
40. lostagent - October 3rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
This site rocks! Try this site too. http://maddox.xmission.com/
41. Mercenary Mark - October 4th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Oh my god. I can’t believe that not a single person has even commented on www.newgrounds.com First off, how the hell does it not show up in the top ten, then everyone else commenting on ebaums (I agree, BTW) and other dumb sites, and not a single word on newgrounds. Their content would seriously have you on your ass for a month.
42. jfrater - October 4th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Mercenary Mark: re-read comment 30
43. heavybison - October 9th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Here’s another one i’ve wasted hours on…
www.findadeath.com
Check out the directory there.
44. Scott - October 13th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Ebaums World sucks.
The guy rips off stuff from other sites and had the nerve to slap his logo on them.
He doesn’t belong on this list.
On the other hand, StumbleUpon should be #1.
45. angie - October 15th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
what about overheardintheoffice.com? i spend hours there
46. Oyster - October 17th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu.....nival.html
tons of weird shit, the archives are huge, usually updated bi-weekly.
47. jfrater - October 17th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
angeie and oyster: great links - thanks
48. max d - October 20th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Excellent list. Snopes is, was, always will be brilliant. I’ve wasted a few hours reading a weird online novel about survivors of a bird flu pandemic in Sydney. It’s supposed to be serialized with a few chapters going up each week but the writer appears to be blocked and readers now bait him for new chapters. Pretty funny.
www.ed-day.blogspot.com
49. jfrater - October 20th, 2007 at 6:45 am
max d: that sounds really interesting - is it similar to The Stand by Stephen King? That is my favorite of his novels. Welcome to the site btw
50. HubmaN - October 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 am
Hehe - anyone try to put Master Chief at Hot or Not?
51. Kate - November 3rd, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I just have to be another person here to denounce ebaum. Honestly, you shouldn’t be promoting that kind of dishonest, dirty, thievery. It IS thievery. Do you realize that he’s making money off of ad revenue…and that the material on his site is almost ALL used without permission? If ebaum started posting top ten lists, I somehow think you’d be less of a fan of his…
52. Clues - November 14th, 2007 at 5:13 am
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/
This site keeps me laughing.
53. FPM - November 14th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !
54. Kara - November 15th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
jigzone.com
puzzles galore! I work at a hotel, and me and my coworkers have spent hours. It’s the best puzzle site I’ve found.
55. davo - November 29th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
imdb.com is a good site
56. Sarah - December 8th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
listverse is definatly in the top 10 lol
i love snopes too
and ebaumsworld
57. Spyker - December 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Could never get enough of the stupid criminals:
http://www.clumsycrooks.com
58. Craig - December 12th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Not a fan of Ebaums. Have been visiting College Humour for years now but it’s not was it used to be.
www.zug.com is an excellent and hilarious site, and you will spend many hours in www.cockeyed.com
59. Damian - January 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Tuckermax.com
60. The_Snowdog - January 12th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
One of my all-time favorite websites to spend hours at is www.stickdeath.com
61. evil? - January 15th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
bored.com is pretty good too
62. Satori - January 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
check out also www.funnyordie.com it was created by Will Farrell and has some really crazy stuff on it. I also enjoy www.bertisevil.com really entertaining! Also, I’ve enjoyed www.collegehumor.com and www.churchsigngenerator.com and also, www.theonion.com and www.adbusters.org but one of my top ones is easily (it can be offensive though) www.viceland.com particulary the do’s and don’ts of fashion…hillarious!
all awesome time wasters! I’d have to say though, of the boredom busters, this is probably one of my top ones. Thanks for that!
63. Tom Wang - January 30th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
62 previous comments, 10 countdown spots, and honorable mentions and not one Cracked.com reference?
For shame Listverse (JP), they enjoy “top 10’s” almost as much as you!
64. Polly Odyssey - January 31st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I may just try some of these sites…
65. fishing4monkeys - February 11th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Great list it has ebaumsworld AND snopes! But where is listverse? Definatly deserves a top 3 rank
66. fishing4monkeys - February 11th, 2008 at 4:39 am
O wait I see it is at the bottom
67. Anna - February 20th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Well, as they say - long time reader, first time commenter.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Cracked.com It’s how I got here and I am eternally grateful! Fantastic site! I can’t love lists anymore than I do now (and I REALLY love lists).
68. Anna - February 20th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Whoops, my bad. I see Tom Wang did. Good on Tom Wang!
69. doz - February 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
i think listverse definitely deserves a place on this list.
70. doz - February 21st, 2008 at 9:31 am
i went on Hot or Not…and realized i am a very harsh marker.
71. Dave - March 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I disagree with number one. The best one for me is definately the List Universe. I look at this site often during the day, although I look at it even when im not bored.
72. msmabjab - March 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
What about this site…this one of the sites ive spent the longest on in a long time!
73. k_langjahr16 - April 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I’ve read about every list on here in about a 2 weeks.
I read the new lists.
So I need other websites to go on.
Thanks!
And BTW this is the best site.
I love Top 10 Lists.
74. Lena - April 12th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
www.notalwaysright.com
funniest site ever!!! besides this one…
its a whole bunch of stories from people who have had work place experience with a wierd customer who said something INCREDIBLY stupid.
www.bad-candy.com
im pretty sure this ones name is self explainatory…if not they write articles about bad candy
75. King of the Horizon - April 29th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Dont forget www.thebestpageintheuniverse.com !
isint it obvious from the name?
it has a basic layout but its very very good