The Daily WTF

The website was started on 17 May 2004, when Papadimoulis posted an entry entitled "Your Daily Cup of WTF" on his blog as a means of simply complaining about the quality of development at his then current employer.[http://weblogs.asp.net/alex_papadimoulis/archive/2004/05/17/133406.aspx Your Daily Cup of WTF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908113917/http://weblogs.asp.net/alex_papadimoulis/archive/2004/05/17/133406.aspx |date=2006-09-08 }} (Alex Papadimoulis' .NET Blog, 17 May 2004) On his third such post, a reader of his blog suggested that he start a new website dedicated exclusively to such humorous "bad code" postings.{{Cite web|url=https://weblogs.asp.net/alex_papadimoulis/136018|title=Your Daily Cup of WTF - tblStaffDirectory|website=weblogs.asp.net|date=20 May 2004 |access-date=2022-09-10|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624095632/https://weblogs.asp.net/alex_papadimoulis/136018|url-status=live}} A few days later, he registered TheDailyWTF.com domain name and began posting stories from readers of the site.

The content of the site kept evolving, and the body of articles was split into several columns. On 2 November 2006 Papadimoulis starting running code samples as articles entitled the "Code Snippets of the Day", "CodeSOD" for short. Originally edited by Tim Gallagher, the column was taken over by Derrick Pallas (now the sole editor of CodeSOD) as well as Devin Moore and Mike Nuss on 2 January 2007. On 12 February 2007 Jake Vinson started a new column, "Error'd", based on the old monthly series "Pop-Up Potpourri".

The site was renamed to "Worse Than Failure" on 24 February 2007 because "'Daily' and 'What The F*' didn’t quite describe it anymore". Papadimoulis also did not enjoy explaining the meaning "WTF" to people unfamiliar to the phrase, as it contains profanity.{{Cite web|url=https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Announcement_0x3a__Website_0x2e_RenameTo(_0x201c_Worse_Than_Failure_0x201d_)|title=Announcement: Website.RenameTo("Worse Than Failure")|first=Alex|last=Papadimoulis|date=February 24, 2007|website=The Daily WTF|access-date=September 10, 2022|archive-date=May 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503203058/https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Announcement_0x3a__Website_0x2e_RenameTo(_0x201c_Worse_Than_Failure_0x201d_)|url-status=live}} This was not without controversy, and some readers threatened to stop reading the site because of this.{{Cite web|url=https://thedailywtf.com/articles/comments/Announcement_0x3a__Website_0x2e_RenameTo(_0x201c_Worse_Than_Failure_0x201d_)|title=The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology|website=thedailywtf.com|access-date=2022-09-10|archive-date=2016-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724003405/http://thedailywtf.com/articles/comments/Announcement_0x3a__Website_0x2e_RenameTo(_0x201c_Worse_Than_Failure_0x201d_)|url-status=live}} The change was reverted on December 12, 2007,{{cite web|title=Announcement: A New, New, New Name!|url=http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Announcement-A-New,-New,-New-Name!.aspx|date=2007-12-12|accessdate=2007-12-12|archive-date=2007-12-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213104925/http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Announcement-A-New,-New,-New-Name!.aspx|url-status=live}} after a short and tongue-in-cheek stint as "The Daily Worse Than Failure".{{Cite web|url=https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Announcement-2007-Survey-Results--Site-Changes|title=Announcement: 2007 Survey Results & Site Changes|first=Alex|last=Papadimoulis|date=December 11, 2007|website=The Daily WTF|access-date=September 10, 2022|archive-date=April 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416141937/https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Announcement-2007-Survey-Results--Site-Changes|url-status=live}}

Olympiad of Misguided Geeks at Worse Than Failure (abbr. OMGWTF) was a programming contest to "solve an incredibly simple problem using the most obscenely convoluted way imaginable".{{Cite web |url=http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/119538.aspx |title=The OMGWTF Programming Contest |access-date=2007-11-13 |archive-date=2007-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009095715/http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/119538.aspx |url-status=live }} It was started by Alex Papadimoulis because he wanted "to try out something new on [the] site." Contestants for the OMGWTF contest were encouraged to focus on writing "clever code" (code which is unconventional and solves a problem that may or may not be solvable with conventional means) as opposed to "ugly code" (single letter variable names, no subroutines, and so on).

The goal of the first (and so far, only) contest was to "implement the logic for a four-function calculator." It ran from 24 April 2007 to 14 May 2007{{Cite web |url=http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/FAQ.aspx |title=OMGWTF FAQ |access-date=2007-11-13 |archive-date=2007-04-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427013350/http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/FAQ.aspx |url-status=live }} and received over 350 submissions“[http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/121494.aspx Going Through the Entries...] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927215920/http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/121494.aspx |date=2007-09-27 }}” which were then judged by popular technology bloggers Raymond Chen, Jeremy Zawodny and Joel Spolsky.{{Cite web |url=http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/TheJudges.aspx |title=OMGWTF Judges |access-date=2007-11-13 |archive-date=2007-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908225545/http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/TheJudges.aspx |url-status=live }}

The winning entry was Stephen Oberholtzer's "Buggy 4-Function Calculator",{{Cite web |url=http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/Entries/ViewEntry.aspx?id=100043 |title=Entry #100043: Buggy 4-Function Calculator - OMGWTF Programming Contest |access-date=2008-02-23 |archive-date=2007-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070917050432/http://omg.worsethanfailure.com/Entries/ViewEntry.aspx?id=100043 |url-status=live }}{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928055452/http://www.linux-mag.com/id/3545/ Olympiad of Misguided Geeks Announces Winners of 'Worst Software' Creative Coding Contest]}} which, according to judge Joel Spolsky "best exemplifies what real-world code looks like ... [it's] not just bad code, [it's] believable bad code." In addition to "a High-Resolution JPEG of an Official Olympiad of Misguided Geeks at Worse Than Failure First Prize Trophy," the winner received a 15-inch MacBook Pro.

In addition to the mostly anonymous stories, several prominent figures have written stories they’ve encountered in their professional experience such as Blake Ross who wrote of the failure of Netscape 7.{{Cite web|url=https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Blake_Ross_on_Popup_Suppression|title=Blake Ross on Popup Suppression|first=Alex|last=Papadimoulis|date=September 15, 2006|website=The Daily WTF|access-date=September 10, 2022|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519034205/https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Blake_Ross_on_Popup_Suppression|url-status=live}}

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