The Sect of Homokaasu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sect of Homokaasu is a Finland-based web site. A lively online community has formed around the site — the members (or sectarians) communicate using chat, forums and even external sites. As of 8 February 2006 there were 119,235 registered users, although there are many users who have multiple accounts. In April 2005 there were 530,000 visits to the site.
The site hosts several experimental features and web applications, often humorous and sometimes of poor taste. The most famous of these are The Rasterbator, The Kill Everyone Project and the collection of simple abstract flash games called GasGames. Most of the features are in English, but some are in Finnish, most notably a list of disgusting things, which has proved to be very popular - at the time of writing there are over 62,000 items on the list.
Religious conspiracy is a prevalent theme of The Sect of Homokaasu. As a logo, the site uses a collage image of former Finnish president Urho Kekkonen wearing the ceremonial papal head-dress, mitre. Homokaasu refers to urban legend which has been a running gag in Finnish Usenet groups. According to the legend, the Catholic church uses a special gas to prevent their opponents from procreating.
The people who run Homokaasu wish to remain anonymous — therefore the exact reasoning why it was founded remains unclear - although the anonymity is less strongly enforced as it was before. In ReadyMade Magazine issue 14 a few of the founders were interviewed with their real names. According to the article, the web site is developed to promote artistic experiments. The developers have admitted being strongly influenced by the Finnish humor magazine Pahkasika. It is known that most or all of the founders were students at Helsinki University of Technology.
The site, or parts of it, have been featured in several very prominent media such as BBC, ProSieben, The Guardian, The Independent, TechTV and Helsingin Sanomat.
