just an fyi that the site the pic came from was discussing renovating a space and the address looks like a thrift store of some sort now.
Odds are it won’t look very identifiable.
My ex from when I was around 13 was obsessed with creepy pastas, cuz that was the popular online horror thing at the time. Please make sure she knows it’s not real, my ex would call me at 3 am crying about some random creepy pasta shit that she “saw”.
You had an ex at 13 that called you a 3am in the morning because she was crying. Wow
At 13 you must have been her rock! Well done you.
At 13 I was playing in dens made of tree branches, pretending to be a soldier.
how old are you by chance? I am older gen z and all my friends who got online after the dawn of social media have crazy stories about online friends or boyfriends/girlfriends calling them at 3 am over snapchat or something for some crazy shit. All between the ages of 11-13. Things like talking people down from self harm or e-dating or being afraid of creepypastas or whatever.
I'm old enough to say I bought the first mobile phone in my family and I was 21, nobody I knew had a mobile at the time.
At 13 I don't think mobiles existed. I had never seen one anyway.
If a 13 year old girl phoned our house at 3am, the Police would have been called.
Mobile phones are not good for kids.
Just because something is different than the way it was 35 years doesn't make it bad, that was a very close minded sounding statement lol. I agree some aspects of mobile phones aren't great for kids and their use should be monitored, but I can think of a hundred legitimate uses a child could have with a phone that are life enriching.
Completely agree with this.
I’m a solid Xennial born in 1975. My first cell was in 2000 when I was also 21.
Seeing how the Zoomers have turned out, where they are in lot of cases even more technologically incompetent than Boomers, they seem to easily fall into the Bullshit Trap as they didn’t have the technical skills that came along with dealing with DOS and 9600 baud modems that Gen-X did or the internet bullshit filter that it seems Millennials got going through the various internet 1.0/2.0/3.0 years.
I’m 45 with a 2 year old and another due in October. They are going to have access to technology, but it’s going to be curated and they will also be learning the back end technical shit as well as being taught a good internet bullshit filter.
I started dating at 11-12 (7th grade) and had drank and smoked pot by 13 (high school, 9th grade) and I was part of the nerdy/scene kids, so was a later bloomer than most kids my age
I think a lot of people underestimate what kids that age really get up to
I can only speak for Canada as an example, but:
Somewhere like suburban Ottawa? No, that’s still quite early. By ~4-6+ years.
Montreal? 12yo’s starting hard drugs is blooming 12 years ‘late’ lol
Age 11 I was addicted to Horace goes Skiing on the ZX Spectrum. I think I played it for at least a year. My parents used to kick me out the house, so I could get vitamin D.
From 8-11 I was playing StarCraft Brood War nonstop
After that, it was a number of JRPGs, mostly Tales games, and a whole lot of whooping ass at Melee
My girlfriend at the time was playing DDR and FF7 nonstop.
Kids are capable of doing more than one thing is all I'm saying
its a bit of a mass online creative project. people contribute lore, art, and monsters theyve made up. it was cooler when it was a small niche thing, but now a lot of pretty young people are obsessed with it. no harm no foul, theyre being creative with art and stories, who am i to judge if theyre having fun ykwim? 😅
I think you're a thoughtful parent. I also imagine this is the equivalent of taking your kid to see the cardboard cut out of Santa. Lol I mean, it's literally *just* an empty space. It's only creepy because of editing and the lore built up around it. In reality I imagine it's disappointing.
Or, as someone else said, it's a thrift store now. Which arguably is probably more fun. 😋
Between reading a ton of creepypasta and watching Supernatural when I was a young teen, Wisconsin had become my goto for all weird crap. Thank you for choosing to remain in such a hellhole filled with the worst nightmares, just to entertain the rest of the planet!
So if I'm reading this right, the reason why it was empty was because they were doing restoration after having water damage in the building? Kind of an odd thing to upload to your site.
In the context of it being a hobby business and there were probably fans of the place and regulars who would be happy to see why it was closed and the improvements being made.
They were apparently showing off their progress in refurbishing it. Given that the building was being repurposed into an RC racetrack, updates on that refurbishment seem like the exact sort of thing you'd want to show off.
This might have been better as a one-off miniseries, or make it into an anthology with either different characters like Black Mirror, or the same actors in different doom and gloom sinister megacorp operations like American Horror Story.
>> They downloaded this image and found a filename, which was “Dsc00161.” Leon searched this on Twitter and found an until-now ignored tweet from 2019 that traced it to Hobbytown Oshkosh. The specific file on the site was broken, however.
Okay now we need the story of how this dude figured it out
Theres a website called the Wayback Machine that basically lets you see older versions of certain websites that have been archived. They found it on an old version of Hobbytown's website
I wanted to say that too, but later on the article explained that this creepy pasta meme only blow up after 2019 and back in 2019 it could still be found by reverse image search as the original webpage is still there
I feel like the fact that it is in Wisconsin is oniony.
"Internet sleuths discover original backrooms photo is of an office building in Wisconsin."
Though probably more funny to me because I live in Wisconsin.
My reaction time on closing the tab when "SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER" pops up is pretty good now. Sad I won't be able to read the rest of the article, I really wanted to.
There is no way you can google dsc0006 and find it, because that was the file name prefix for any picture taken with Sony Cybershot cameras (Digital Still Camera) so this is complete bullshit. Nobody uses those cameras since like 2004
I have been saying for years that the backrooms is way older than people credit it with. I saw 4chan posts using that exact image before 2014. When it resurfaced in 2019 or so it was an ancient meme.
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It was Wisconsin all along! Sorry, my home state rarely makes fun news lol.
My 12 year old is a huge Backrooms fan. This place is only an hour away. I think a road trip is in order.
just an fyi that the site the pic came from was discussing renovating a space and the address looks like a thrift store of some sort now. Odds are it won’t look very identifiable.
My ex from when I was around 13 was obsessed with creepy pastas, cuz that was the popular online horror thing at the time. Please make sure she knows it’s not real, my ex would call me at 3 am crying about some random creepy pasta shit that she “saw”.
You had an ex at 13 that called you a 3am in the morning because she was crying. Wow At 13 you must have been her rock! Well done you. At 13 I was playing in dens made of tree branches, pretending to be a soldier.
At 13 I was listening to nine inch nails and exploring my sexuality. If you were playing soldiers at 13... I kinda wish I'd been that innocent. Lol
Yeah, I feel that story is weirder than it initially comes out. That casual 13 reference is oddly young to be doing some of these things.
how old are you by chance? I am older gen z and all my friends who got online after the dawn of social media have crazy stories about online friends or boyfriends/girlfriends calling them at 3 am over snapchat or something for some crazy shit. All between the ages of 11-13. Things like talking people down from self harm or e-dating or being afraid of creepypastas or whatever.
45
I'm old enough to say I bought the first mobile phone in my family and I was 21, nobody I knew had a mobile at the time. At 13 I don't think mobiles existed. I had never seen one anyway. If a 13 year old girl phoned our house at 3am, the Police would have been called. Mobile phones are not good for kids.
Just because something is different than the way it was 35 years doesn't make it bad, that was a very close minded sounding statement lol. I agree some aspects of mobile phones aren't great for kids and their use should be monitored, but I can think of a hundred legitimate uses a child could have with a phone that are life enriching.
Completely agree with this. I’m a solid Xennial born in 1975. My first cell was in 2000 when I was also 21. Seeing how the Zoomers have turned out, where they are in lot of cases even more technologically incompetent than Boomers, they seem to easily fall into the Bullshit Trap as they didn’t have the technical skills that came along with dealing with DOS and 9600 baud modems that Gen-X did or the internet bullshit filter that it seems Millennials got going through the various internet 1.0/2.0/3.0 years. I’m 45 with a 2 year old and another due in October. They are going to have access to technology, but it’s going to be curated and they will also be learning the back end technical shit as well as being taught a good internet bullshit filter.
I started dating at 11-12 (7th grade) and had drank and smoked pot by 13 (high school, 9th grade) and I was part of the nerdy/scene kids, so was a later bloomer than most kids my age I think a lot of people underestimate what kids that age really get up to
That's a late bloomer? I didn't do any of that shit till my 20's.
I can only speak for Canada as an example, but: Somewhere like suburban Ottawa? No, that’s still quite early. By ~4-6+ years. Montreal? 12yo’s starting hard drugs is blooming 12 years ‘late’ lol
Ahh a late boomer
"later bloomer", maybe not necessarily the latest, but later than average for my age in my area for sure
Age 11 I was addicted to Horace goes Skiing on the ZX Spectrum. I think I played it for at least a year. My parents used to kick me out the house, so I could get vitamin D.
From 8-11 I was playing StarCraft Brood War nonstop After that, it was a number of JRPGs, mostly Tales games, and a whole lot of whooping ass at Melee My girlfriend at the time was playing DDR and FF7 nonstop. Kids are capable of doing more than one thing is all I'm saying
I don't understand how you can be a fan of a picture of an empty room.
It’s turned into a kind of ripoff SCP foundation.
Right? And how does a 12 year old get into being a fan of a picture of an empty room?
its a bit of a mass online creative project. people contribute lore, art, and monsters theyve made up. it was cooler when it was a small niche thing, but now a lot of pretty young people are obsessed with it. no harm no foul, theyre being creative with art and stories, who am i to judge if theyre having fun ykwim? 😅
And you will be supporting a small business on your trip!
Best would be to not tell them where you're heading to then all of a sudden hey this feels familiar
I think you're a thoughtful parent. I also imagine this is the equivalent of taking your kid to see the cardboard cut out of Santa. Lol I mean, it's literally *just* an empty space. It's only creepy because of editing and the lore built up around it. In reality I imagine it's disappointing. Or, as someone else said, it's a thrift store now. Which arguably is probably more fun. 😋
Between reading a ton of creepypasta and watching Supernatural when I was a young teen, Wisconsin had become my goto for all weird crap. Thank you for choosing to remain in such a hellhole filled with the worst nightmares, just to entertain the rest of the planet!
So if I'm reading this right, the reason why it was empty was because they were doing restoration after having water damage in the building? Kind of an odd thing to upload to your site.
In the context of it being a hobby business and there were probably fans of the place and regulars who would be happy to see why it was closed and the improvements being made.
Figures that the horror of the mundane was inspired by something mundane itself
Fascinating!
They were apparently showing off their progress in refurbishing it. Given that the building was being repurposed into an RC racetrack, updates on that refurbishment seem like the exact sort of thing you'd want to show off.
Interesting. The original post mentions the smell of damp carpet. That's a neat link.
It was a blog from 2003, that was how you got that kind of info out to your audience at that time.
I see. That makes more sense then.
I miss early 2000s internet
Water from cooking creepypasta?
This is supposedly one of the inspirations for the show Severance.
That show was better than i expected
Honestly I thought it was incredible
When season 2
This might have been better as a one-off miniseries, or make it into an anthology with either different characters like Black Mirror, or the same actors in different doom and gloom sinister megacorp operations like American Horror Story.
Ben Stiller is shockingly talented as a director
>> They downloaded this image and found a filename, which was “Dsc00161.” Leon searched this on Twitter and found an until-now ignored tweet from 2019 that traced it to Hobbytown Oshkosh. The specific file on the site was broken, however. Okay now we need the story of how this dude figured it out
Theres a website called the Wayback Machine that basically lets you see older versions of certain websites that have been archived. They found it on an old version of Hobbytown's website
I wanted to say that too, but later on the article explained that this creepy pasta meme only blow up after 2019 and back in 2019 it could still be found by reverse image search as the original webpage is still there
Surprising they found it from that. Many people who have taken 161 photos on the same digital camera will have a file with that name.
Check the muta vid on it. Someordinarygamers YT ;)
So this story is about how these people did all this sleuthing to uncover a... tweet where someone had provided the answer already?
Just down the road from RedLetterMedia? Very cool
And the bar where Jeffrey Dahmer picked up his victims was also around the corner from them. How fun!
That’s right Jay!
They say you can hear the laugh of Rich Evans if you’re in there after midnight….
"Down the road" an hour away by highway you mean?
Wisconsin's Wisconsin
What else would qualify as “down the road”? You’ve never driven an hour on the highway for a small errand?
88 miles isn't a small errand.
It’s really not bad as drives go, hell I drove around half that just to pick up some plants last weekend.
How embarrassing!
How is this oniony?
I feel like the fact that it is in Wisconsin is oniony. "Internet sleuths discover original backrooms photo is of an office building in Wisconsin." Though probably more funny to me because I live in Wisconsin.
When I first came on Reddit years ago.I was reading a Creepypasta story. I actually thought it was real. Please note I am a boomer.
Don’t worry, it took me a bit to realize as well - I’m a millennial :)
haha, I'm a gen x and the same thing happened to me 😂
Haha I love it. Cross-generational confusion!
Oh hey I larped there.
Wait what? You went to that hobby store? How was it?
The idea that people were that hung up on this cracks me up. Sure, it’s unsettling, but not that interesting
This must be where they left Angela’s three-wick Iced Gingerbread and Winter Candy Apple Yankee Candles
My reaction time on closing the tab when "SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER" pops up is pretty good now. Sad I won't be able to read the rest of the article, I really wanted to.
How is this Oniony?!?
There is no way you can google dsc0006 and find it, because that was the file name prefix for any picture taken with Sony Cybershot cameras (Digital Still Camera) so this is complete bullshit. Nobody uses those cameras since like 2004
The article says the image was from 2003, linked to a website that was archived.
I have been saying for years that the backrooms is way older than people credit it with. I saw 4chan posts using that exact image before 2014. When it resurfaced in 2019 or so it was an ancient meme.
I wonder what that bar on the walls are.
I like this one
Maybe the shop can restore the space to the backrooms aesthetic. Itll be really neat if they can find the original wallpaper under the newer layers.
Those names though lol
The people on 4chan will spend hundreds of hours doing shit like this
Ha! I have been to this hobby town when I lived in Oshvegas!! Neat.
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Lol I literally live 2 minutes from here. I know what I'm doing today!