Available in English Commercial No | Created by Rich Buhler Launched 1999 | |
Alexa rank 38,590 (September 2016) | ||
TruthOrFiction.com (also TruthOrFiction.org) is a "mythbusting" website about urban legends, Internet rumors, "erumors", e-mail forwards, and other questionable pictures or stories.
Contents
TruthOrFiction.com was founded by Rich Buhler, a journalist, speaker, and author who was also known as the "Father of Modern Christian Talk Radio" at KBRT.
The topics are researched by TruthOrFiction's staff, and rated "Truth" (if true), or "Fiction" (if untrue). When the accuracy is not known with certainty, the stories are rated "Unproven," "Disputed," "Reported to be Truth" or "Reported to be Fiction." Partially true stories are rated "Truth & Fiction," "Truth But Inaccurate Details," or similar.
History
As a talk show host, Rich Buhler would often be asked to comment on amazing but unproven stories. He had almost 30 years of experience investigating such stories, often contacting eye witnesses and identifying primary source documents or pictures.
With the rising use of email, Buhler noticed that many email forwards made fictional or unverified claims that he dubbed "e-rumors" (or "erumors").
Buhler decided to found a new site in 1999, at the end of the Dot-com boom, in order to capture the results of his investigation of commonly-reported erumors. Instead of "truth or falsehood", he named it "Truth or Fiction." The site enjoyed early success with moderate growth over the next decade.
Buhler also did 30-second television spots debunking or confirming a particularly popular e-rumor.
Main site
TruthOrFiction's intentionally Retro style site design includes a list of the latest erumors, categories, and a search bar.
TruthOrFiction consists TruthOrFiction has been referenced by news media and other online websites such as the Florida Times Union which said that:
TruthorFiction.com was founded in 1999 by the late Rich Buhler... who researched and wrote about urban legends for more than 30 years, according to various media reports. Its staff researches the rumors; original sources are usually listed or linked, so it is a good site to corroborate facts.
Unlike other similar websites, TruthOrFiction.com does not primarily provide fact-checking about current events. Rather, it often addresses wild and amazing claims, pictures, or stories that resurface cyclically. Some stories resurface every year, or every election year, while some suddenly re-appear after years of dormancy.
Traffic and users
In late-2016, TruthorFiction's Global Alexa Rating was near 50,000, and US rating was near 18,000.