Lots of reasons.

Remember the unfriendly clown in Poltergeist -- or the movie Killer Klowns?

Perhaps you know that John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer, was a clown. Or maybe you just ate a bad batch of brownies while watching the Bobcat Goldthwait vehicle "Shakes the Clown."

If that list provoked within you the feeling of terror -- or even hatred -- then you'll be right at home at "The No Clown Zone" -- IHateClowns.com.

The site was launched in 1996 as a self-learning project by site owner and administrator Rodney Blackwell, a self-proclaimed clown-hater, who lives in California.

"There aren't too many clowns in my area, but unfortunately, I have a job that is right across the street from a Shriner's Hospital for kids," he told us in an e-mail interview. "Now, they do amazing work for children and all, but they do have a major flaw: Shriner's clowns."

The site has developed to include a bulletin board service where clown-haters (known technically as coulrophobics) can share their disdain with like-minded persons. The site even offers free e-mail and Web-hosting services -- what staunch clown-hater could resist having the ability to append an "@ihateclowns.com" to their e-mail name?

Blackwell says that, soon after the site was launched, he started receiving a growing flow of e-mails from people with, as he puts it, "real experiences with clowns."

Eventually he started adding the e-mail responses to the site and giving away "I hate clowns" T-shirts to people who took a survey on the site. More and more people asked if they could get a T-shirt without winning the contest, so Blackwell obliged and started selling them.

How Can Hate Be So Much Fun?

Blackwell handles all the design and updates for the No Clown Zone himself, stating, like many Webmasters, that it is a labor of love ... er, clown-hate.

"It is so much fun to have new games created and add new content to the site that it doesn't seem hard at all for me to keep it up," he e-mailed.

That's right, games. The games section on IHateClowns.com is Blackwell's favorite part of the site, in particular a "Clown Invaders" game animated by Shockwave software.

Blackwell's hard work seems to have paid off. He reports that the site receives more than 100,000 unique visitors monthly; its free e-mail service boasts more than 28,000 active members.

Send In The Clowns

Blackwell is surprised there hasn't been more clown backlash against the site. He has received a few nasty letters from clowns and clown lovers, mostly, as he says, of the how-could-you-hate-clowns-they-make-people-happy variety.

He also receives mail from fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse who mistakenly believe his site is a statement against the band (it's not).

In the end, the No Clown Zone is both focus group and help group at the same time. Created as a tool to learn web design and implementation skills, it is now a large and thriving community of people with one thing in common: the belief that the world would be a better place without people who smear greasepaint all over their face and go to little kid's birthday parties.