Trivia / The Best Page in the Universe

• Banned in China:
  • The site is banned in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And he's proud of it.^note Turns out he was banned for a technicality, not content, but he thinks it still counts.
  • In a case of Un-person, the site is also banned in stores or other workplaces associated with Apple, in such a way that suggests the site doesn't even exist at all (attempts to access it from those IPs instead redirect to a MacBook Pro ad).
    Yes, the company that once alluded to an Orwellian future with controlled media, is now controlling media.^note This is referencing Apple's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" ad campaign.
• Creator Backlash: In March 2020, Maddox posted a variation of his "I hope I get swine flu" article (in which he talks about how swine flu's mortality rate is overblown), except with references to swine flu replaced with the COVID-19 Pandemic. One month later, he walked back on his words ("Changed my mind. I'm good.") and made a much more sincere video talking about the reliability of COVID-19 statistics.^note Most likely he assumed that the virus was going to blow over relatively quickly like swine flu and SARS did, but after coronavirus proceeded to spread like wildfire with no sign of stopping, realized that he spoke too soon and didn't want to downplay one of the biggest global pandemics in decades.
• Doing It for the Art: He doesn't get paid to write, and he pays out of pocket for his hosting to ensure that fans never have to see a single advertisement on his site. He does take donations if people really want to give, as mentioned on his FAQ, but he doesn't "hold this site hostage to donations."
• Dummied Out: Looking at the HTML source of many of his pages reveals many bits omitted through <!— HTML comments. —>
• Follow the Leader:
  • The success of the site back in the late '90s spawned a whole genre of sites that follow the pattern of "I run an angry blog where I write offensive things". Many even go as far as to title their pages akin the original with examples like, "The Second Best Page in the Universe", or even, "The Worst Page in the Universe". Most ignore the original site's satirical edge and instead just aim for shock value.
  • To a lesser extent, the site popularized the concept of blogging. Ironically, Maddox hates the term "blog" and refuses to label his site as such.
• Schedule Slip: Over the years, Maddox has updated the site less and less, and at points gets an update about 1-2 times per year. As of now, his most recent post on the site was in April 2020.
  "Now that my book is finished, I can get back to regularly not updating my website."
• Vaporware: There was once talk of making The Best Game in the Universe into an actual game, but it hasn't been mentioned for years and seems to have been abandoned.

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