FACEBOARD: A Case Study in Community-Led Information Exchange - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

Skip to main content

McSWEENEY'S INTERNET TENDENCY'S PATREON

Join our Patreon for as little as $5 a month and get access to author interviews, content calls, discounts at our store, and more. Help support our writers and keep our site ad-free.

August 10, 2026

FACEBOARD: A Case Study in Community-Led Information Exchange

by Adam Fletcher

Sillicombe Valley Public Beta,

November 1650

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Eight-week public beta completed successfully. Eight hundred and forty-seven community posts. Eighty-five percent village adoption. Twelve fatalities, all community-led.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Sillicombe is an underdeveloped village consisting of seven hovels, one tannery, and a small church. It is famous for its mud.

Prior to Faceboard, the village’s information infrastructure was controlled primarily by Father Thomas.

A position retained through storytelling, spectacle, worries regarding eternal damnation, and a productive relationship with the feared regional administrator, Lord Gove.

Faceboard Founder Mark Zuckerberg attended a funeral in the village and identified a clear market opportunity for community-led information exchange.

THE PRODUCT

Faceboard is a decentralized public message board installed on a raised platform beside the village well.

Due to widespread illiteracy, users were invited to communicate via pictographic wooden tiles suspended from iron hooks in rows. Launch tiles included:

Livestock and vegetables

Likeness of all village residents

Plague, pox, disease, death and war imagery

The board was designed and constructed by village carpenter and Faceboard Head of Operations, Eduard Mountbatten.

Eduard has since left the company and the earthly realm. His equity has been reabsorbed into the Founder’s Pool to optimize runway.

DAYS 1–3: ONBOARDING

Initial adoption was limited. The founding team populated the board themselves until, on Day Three, Faceboard received this contribution from Heinrich (farmer/royalist), who posted his likeness and:

GOAT + ?

Shortly afterward, community user Agnes replied with her likeness, then:

EYE + GOAT + WILLEM’S FARM

Heinrich recovered the goat and added a THUMBS UP symbol beneath Agnes’s post. This gave the Founding Team the idea for reaction hooks, which were installed beneath every post row.

Engagement increased substantially. This led to the following editorial guidelines:

Posts accumulating three or more reactions were granted extended display periods.

High-performing posts were relocated to prime board positions.

The tile basket beside the board was regularly sorted so tiles of an emotional, occult, or heretical nature were nearer the top.

DAYS 4–6: INSTITUTIONAL ENGAGEMENT

On Day Four, under cover of darkness, the board received its first politically seditious, anonymous post:

LORD GOVE + NOOSE

The Founding Team agreed to leave the post visible, citing commitment to free expression.

Similar anonymous posts began appearing whenever the Founding Team stepped away from the board. That evening, Otto (blacksmith/anarchist) posted:

ANVIL + OTTO + LORD GOVE + NOOSE + HEART + ANVIL

By evening, ANVIL symbols appeared across fence posts, door frames, and the side of the tannery. The Founding Team painted thirty-seven additional ANVIL tiles.

Users gathered around the board after dark. Posting quality deteriorated as ale consumption increased.

Lord Gove arrived the following morning accompanied by two trumpeters and eight men with long swords.

A search was conducted for Otto. He emerged from a bush and addressed the assembled villagers, encouraging them to "take back what was theirs."

It was not clear to the Founding Team what precisely belonged to the citizenry.

The eight men with swords were visibly moved—moved to unsheath their swords.

Otto departed with Lord Gove’s men.

Lord Gove expressed enthusiasm for the board’s potential to help him communicate with "his loving citizenry." He requested "Verified Official" status and a permanent, top-of-board placement.

This caused disagreement within the Founding Team. Resolved after Lord Gove observed that the village had "a very nice well and wouldn’t it be a shame if someone were to fall down it?"

Otto did not participate in the beta again. He did observe it from the castle rampart upon which his severed head had been displayed on a pike.

DAYS 7–14: PEAK ENGAGEMENT

Week Two saw the emergence of Faceboard’s leading creator, Esme Smith (poet/clothes washer). Esme posted frequently and with strong stylistic consistency. Selected content included:

EYE + MUD + MUD + MUD + EYE

HEAD + ? + Lightning + ? + HEAD

While engagement remained moderate, several users described the work as "important." Head of Operations Eduard Mountbatten noted concern that Esme had begun arriving at the board before sunrise and checking reaction counts throughout the day.

Esme’s father separately reported...