There are already way too many of them and most of them suck. Why contribute to the pool of shit? Great question, here's your answer:

Because we're not them. Anyone can have a blog. Anyone can buy or cobble together a web presence. Some people can even build a collection of links and convince rich folks to pay millions for it. We ain't one of those sites. We're either too stupid to see the easy payday or too smart to be part of the problem. It's not your place to decide which. We just want to bend your ear a little. Maybe teach you a thing. Maybe offend you. As long as you're not bored or complacent, our work is done. The Nation's Punched began as a stupid little saying I'd use when I wrote for IGN's DVD site and then at my home base of CHUD.com. It was either indicative of a story or film I was totally indifferent to and just writing about because it was there or it was used in conjunction with an image of someone being punched. Usually the latter. Somehow, the phrase stuck and when it came time to deliver our own little vent site, it came in handy.

There will be a host of topics here at the Smackhouse, many of them right up your alley and some totally not. Some folks gave me hell when I discussed religion or politics at CHUD.com. I advised them to scroll past that stuff. Now they don't have to. If you want to read people venting either in defense of or against a particular topic here, there's a section to do so. If that section doesn't work for you, there's handy navigation at the top and bottom of the page so you can avoid the ones which do not affect you. In theory that should cut back the complaining but in theory the internet wouldn't have so many problems.

The contributors to this site are going to be a diverse and loaded bunch. This isn't like the other sites in the CHUD.com universe fueled by a handful of people but rather a small army of people. That way it's not one vision or even three. It's a think tank, one filled with ideas and opinions and styles, none of which are wrong and all of which are geared towards making this site appropriately fun and aggravating.

Since it's such an outspoken site, we expect our readers to have that same need to vent and as a result each article will have its own little "living discussion" beneath it. The goal is to take the concept made popular in sites the world over and combine it with the intelligent and semi-respectful manner that made CHUD.com's boards so popular. I have faith it'll work out.

Another feature of the site will be the ability for contributors to deliver counterpoints to our articles. If we say something another of the pugilists here doesn't agree with, BAM, a rebuttal can be formed. The result is something I hope will allow for this site to inspire discussion and at times treat a few viewpoints on an argument with equal respect.

You know that saying "we're all friends here" when someone is trying to distill a conflict. Not a problem at NationsPunched. Nope. We're not all friends. You know that guy who writes about that stuff on here? Fuck him.

I'm sure this thing will take some time to get its legs up under it, but I think we're in pretty good shape.

Enjoy it, suckers.

- Nick Nunziata
- Published at 11:54 PM on December 02

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