In the infancy of the Hail Ming website, there was an “About Ming” link from the homepage. The intent was to give a bit of background info. To explain simply: “Hail Ming!” was a taunting shout made after a suitably nasty kill (or string thereof) in a LAN game. The quote pays homage to the classic 1980 version of Flash Gordon. In the movie, some toady of the Emperor Ming (himself ably played by Max von Sydow) would shout “Hail Ming!” to which the loyal subjects would respond in a mighty Nazi-reminiscent chorus of “HAIL MING!” Indeed, a grudging, Pythonesque response of “Hail Ming” by other players in the game would be a tip of the hat to compliment particularly superb play. Even today amongst friends separated by many miles on a Net game, it is not unheard of to hear a “Hail Ming!” or two crackle over RogerWilco, TeamSpeak or what-have-you.

The website and blog were started with this idea of good-natured banter among friends.