That Time I Got In Trouble With The Government

The first part of "How To Be Popular On The Internet*" is all about an old saying: if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And if you do succeed... well, you're still going to need to do that.

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

This is the first of a trilogy! Part two is out on Wednesday, and part three on Friday. They're three different stories, with three different messages, in three different locations, but with one overarching story. Hopefully it's worth the effort!

[pk]

good to see that even Toms career started off with a shitpost

[Lugmillord]

"Mom, Tom Scott says I should get in trouble with the government to become popular."

[oberhaldenwegnews]

The funny thing is that his website is still online, the original one from the government isn't.

[ard-janvanetten]

"I did it because the alternative is not doing it" - Tom Scott, 2018

[usernotfound-jwxs]

"That Time I Got In Trouble With The Government
"
i'm surprised this isn't about how you flew a kite in a public place

[differentlyabledmuslimjewi]

I'm starting a channel named Scott Tom, wearing a slightly off red shirt and speaking in a vaguely welsh dialect visiting odd places and doing neat things.

[landoflogic]

Tom, do you just travel to random locations simply to use them as a back drop, then go home?

[rossfreakes]

Government: Take down your joke, it isn't funny.

Tom: Haha, No.

Government: :o

[Quantum]

Even hearing Tom say the words "incredible facts about cartoon series you won't believe!" made my heart sink a little bit. Tom is the pinnacle icon of having passion for his craft on this platform.

[xxbeatuupzz]

I think the best part about it is that the parody outlasted the original

[CardCaptorKaren]

The instant you mentioned that freaking leaflet I knew exactly where this was going. I remember that page doing the rounds of my high school ICT class.

[bonecanoe]

How to become successful on YouTube:
Step 1: Go back in time to 2008.

[austinbaldwin]

How to get famous online:
Step 1: Buy a red shirt
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit

[madscience]

Fun fact: Tom's website has outlasted the British government's for a while now.



Edit: As it should

[cdsaylor]

The most popular thing I did was done while working as a contractor for the US Air Force right out of college.

We were going to have a table at an event. So I had one night to get a sign for the table. All the logos I found online for the Air Force had an awful background that was just slightly off white or made a printout off the office printer look awful.

So I took some time learned a bit of GIMP, and made a mask and very hastily cut out the logo and put some WordArt underneath it to look generically like the air force logo. You can tell this because the edges of the letters are so incredibly sloppy cause I was individually picking pixels.

A believer in open source tools and fresh into it, I threw it up on creative commons for anyone to use who'd like to.

To this day its still the #1 result for "Air Force Logo", I've seen it on all sorts of articles talking about the Air Force, and even offical government newletters. And I can always tell BECAUSE it's so sloppily done that it is mine.

[terrotorotbart]

It's strange to imagine 1, 300, 000 people all subscribed to a channel about one person. I guess Tom's been doing good for himself.

[krzyy]

Unrelated note: There is a practice called Cybersquatting, where Cybersquatters, people who buy domains close to popular domain names, hold on to these domains and sell them for way much more that they bought the domain name for just because the domain name is sought after.

[LonkoYT]

"...the chances of a project succeeding aren't really coupled to how much time, effort, and money you've spent on it... You will see people complain that the thing they've poured all their heart and soul and effort and time into, that thing sank, but something quick and dirty that they slapped together has become popular... If you spent $10 and 1 hour on an idea, it is likely to fail. But if you spend a million dollars and a year on an idea, it is still likely to fail..."

- Tom Scott, Aug 27, 2018 - "That Time I Got In Trouble With The Government"



I assembled the quote straight from this video. This really hits hard as a game developer.

[-__-_-_--__--_-__-_____--_-___]

"Some moderate hits when I was younger"
Makes national news and starts beef with the government.

What do you consider a big hit