General Mayhem

Genmay.com is the homepage for General Mayhem Forums currently the 46th largest message board on the Internet with over 22 million posts and over 141,000 members; it currently has a ranking of 17,990 on Quantcast. Genmay is a general discussion internet forum which has gained notoriety for internet memes and controversy. The site is visited by over 128,000 people per month, of which 73,144 (57%) are in located the U.S. The site appeals to a predominantly young male following.
The merger resulted in General Mayhem merging into CrowdGather, Inc., CRWG.OB.
Hoaxes, memes and controversy
E3's booth babes
In 2005, forum member Alex Lorenze ("kfc") attended E3 and suffered a sprained ankle while jumping into the air to catch swag as it was thrown out to the crowds. The following day Alex returned to E3 in a wheelchair, and many others assumed his disability was more serious in actuality. Using the opportunity, Alex was in the unique position to take photos that would generally be frowned upon by the media, and proceeded to post these photos on the General ayhem forums. This resulted in the exhibitor Planet Wide Games threatening legal action by the embarrassment it caused their company, as both the attire and physical contact with event patrons dictated in the photographs were against E3 protocol. Lorenze avoided legal threats by making a public apology. As a result of the publicity, Lorenze was banned by the E3 conference. In 2006, E3 "banned" booth babes by requiring them to adhere to the preexisting dress code, and some speculate that this was linked to the 2005 incident. E3 in 2009 has reinstated "booth babes."

"The E3 dress-code rules remain identical to what they have been for the past several years and are similar to dress-code policies of the vast majority of other major trade shows," Doug Lowenstein, ESA president, said in an e-mail statement to CNET News.com. "What's new in 2006 is an update and strengthening of the show's enforcement policies for these rules, which was communicated to exhibitors as a routine update."

Christoper Walken for President Campaign
General Mayhem was responsible for an Internet meme, the Christopher Walken for President campaign. While the eccentric screen star played a member of the White House in the hit comedy "Wedding Crashers," rumors began to circulate that he was aiming to take over George W. Bush’s job in 2008.
The hoax began in August 2006 when a satirical website was created by members of Genmay.com in which they announced that Walken was running for President of the United States. This hoax gained awareness across the internet being covered by news media like Eonline.com
Also, was a question on the popular NBC show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" by Reggis Philman and was widely attributed to the General Mayhem forum.
By September the hoax became large enough that Walken was requested to comment on it during an interview with Conan O'Brien. Walken denied the hoax was real but was amused; and when asked to come up with a campaign slogan, he replied, "What the Heck?" and "No More Zoos!". The site , remains online.
Some believed it was authentic, until Walken’s publicist dismissed the claims. "The person who put this together was just trying it as a hoax, I presume," said Mara Buxbaum, Walken’s publicist. "My take on it is it sounds like the person who put this on the Web took his role."

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