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Ghost Sites 41
----- GHOST SITES #41 [October 31, 2000]
----- by Steve Baldwin
(steve_baldwin@hotmail.com)
Well, it's time once again to join hands, burn some incense, say some
mumbo-jumbo, and pay tribute to those unfortunate Web sites that have
fallen along the way.
This month, we ask that you pause for a few precious moments to honor
those Web sites that have given their lives so that yours and mine might
live. Those sites which, were it not for this column and your
contributions to it, would die in utter obscurity - unmourned and
unsung.
Bitrotten wonders of the Internet - we salute thee! And if you'd like
to salute them, please forward any news of their passing to me, Steve
Baldwin, or use our patented, one-click Ghost Site Notifier service, the
Ghost-o-Meter.
Jeff Bezos - eat your heart out.
P.S. I'd very much like to bring back the Ghost Sites T-Shirts that were
a modest success back in 1998 in new colors, a new design, and possibly
some other products (mousepads and mugs). If you know of anyone who can
help me manufacture these items (and take a sizeable chunk of the
revenues), please let me know - it's really my only chance of making a
dime from this site (and yes, my kid really does need braces). Thanks!
Related URLs:
http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/shirt.shtml
*---- FRANCE 98 WORLD CUP ----*
----- http://www.france98.com/
Passions in the superheated world of international soccer run deep, but
do they have to run this long?
More than two years after France attained the World Cup by defeating
Brazil in a 3-0 battle, this stadium-sized Web site soldiers on,
complete with a moldy News Page, antique advertorial material, and
atavistic GIF89A animations from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Sybase,
EDS, and Frances Telecom.
Truly fanatical sports nationalists who've become completely unstuck in
time can go so far as to download several different France 98 screen
savers, but will be disappointed by the fact that the site's Chat, Fan
Mail and Trivia Contest sections have all been shut down.
One unintended consequence of surfing around this relic for the better
part of an hour was that several of our researchers became hopelessly
attached to Footix, a likeable rooster mascot who seems destined to
become as important a Gallic symbol as General DeGaulle. (We'd take
Footix over that out-of-shape Linux Penguin any day.)
Thanks to R.Lee.Sullivan for finding this Ghost Site.
Related URLs:
http://www.france98.com/english/index.html/
http://www.france98.com/english/frntpage.htm
http://www.france98.com/english/news/newsubject105.htm
http://www.france98.com/english/images/nav_logo_sponsors.gif
http://www.france98.com/english/playing/download/download.html
http://www.france98.com/english/playing/chat.html
http://www.france98.com/english/playing/hpeng_fanm.html
http://www.france98.com/english/playing/trivia.html
http://www.france98.com/english/playing/mascot/mascot.html
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- NETSCRAP.COM -----*
----- http://www.netscrap.com/
NetScrap ("Stuff and Things for You") is a mid-sized electronic
potpourri of humorous, largely unrelated information that runs the gamut
from Animal Jokes to Workplace Humor.
Some of this material is amusing - much of it you've doubtless read
before if you've ever been "blessed" with a friend suffering from an
insane compulsion to forward you jokes via e-mail.
Nothing on NetScrap actually appears to be broken, which makes it appear
to be alive and well. But the most recent scraps added to the site date
from late 1998, and its FAQ is also from that year - both fairly
reliable indications that its webmaster has turned his or her attention
to other pursuits.
Thanks to Morbus (a man who is forever shaking the cobwebs from his
bookmarks), for finding this site.
Related URLs:
http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap.cfm?cat_show=Animal
http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap.cfm?cat_show=Work
http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap_faq.cfm
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- THEATRE DES VAMPIRES ----*
----- http://members.aol.com/mishian/nosferatu/TdV.html
Theatre des Vampires is a small, gothic-oriented site that's been lying
in suspended animation for just about a year. TDV's webmaster, M.
Nishioka, took the trouble to post a brief statement explaining her
reasons for letting things slide, which distinguishes this site from
other Web projects that go to their grave without their creators making
a peep about what caused their creations to stop breathing:
"Please Note: As of September 18, 1999 this site is no longer updated. I
just don't have the time to give it the attention it needs or deserves.
Thank you for visiting and supporting it over its four year existence.".
As expected, TDV's link pages to Vampire-related resources have drifted
badly in the last year, reducing their value to Vampire enthusiasts. All
in all, a typical Ghost Site whose webmaster had the good sense to make
it clear that its cryptlike store of information is gloriously obsolete.
Related URLs:
http://users.aol.com/mishian/nosferatu/SL.html
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- THE OPEN ROAD ----*
----- http://www.sideroad.com/openroad/
The Open Road, a small weekly e-zine that reviewed e-mail publications,
was written by Todd Kuipers, a software designer based in Calgary,
Alberta. It ran on schedule from May 25, 1998 to April 1999, and then
simply stopped running, with nary a note from Todd to explain what
happened.
Kuiper's reviews, while out of date, remain thoughtful and well-written,
and what he has to say about the strength and efficacy of e-mail 'zine
publishing remains valid.
Kuipers seems to very good at creating Ghost Sites - in addition to The
Open Road, two other projects with which he was involved -
http://propagandist.com/, and http://www.canbeer.com (see below), appear
to be in an advanced state of suspended animation.
Thanks (again) to Morbus for this find.
Related URLs:
http://www.sideroad.com/openroad/column1.html
http://www.sideroad.com/openroad/column39.html
http://www.sideroad.com/openroad/contents.html
http://www.sideroad.com/openroad/column5.html
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- THE CANADIAN BEER REVIEW ----*
----- http://www.canbeer.com/
When sifting through the wreckage of The Open Road, we happened to click
on one of Todd Kuiper's other projects: the Canadian Beer Review, "a Net
based publication dedicated to the discovery, promotion, enjoyment and
review of all things Canadian in beer".
Judging from its dusty News Page, CBR seems to have been abandoned in
September of 1999. Before giving up the ghost, CBR's small but
well-motivated staff managed to put together a remarkably complete
section reviewing and rating many of Canada's micro-brews, along with
better-known Canadian beers such as Molson.
This is one failed Web site that I wouldn't have minded working for.
Related URLs:
http://www.canbeer.com/news/
http://www.canbeer.com/about/
http://www.canbeer.com/beer/
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- COLEMAN'S MUSIC INDUSTRY & RADIO BIZ LINKS
----- http://www.mindspring.com/~coleman/charts.html
Beth Reiten, a librarian with Oklahoma State University, sent us word
that this small site, maintained by David Coleman, is a dead one:
"I stumbled across this site this morning in the middle of a really
messy reference question. I haven't looked through all of the sites for
the other countries, but the links for the US are dreadful! The only
two that still work are the MTV site and the Concrete/Soundscan Hard
Music Charts, but the latter one is a redirect. Last update was Jun 14,
1996."
Other areas of this site, including link areas for Internet
Broadcasting, The Radio Business, and Careers, are slightly newer
(1998), but this is still a long way from being fresh.
We e-mailed David Coleman in early October to ask him about what caused
his site to succomb to the forces of entropy, but he didn't reply. We
can only conclude that the task of maintaining all these links in
operating condition somehow become an onerous one.
Related URLs:
http://www.mindspring.com/~coleman/netcast.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~coleman/radio.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~coleman/career.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~coleman/about.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- THE CHARLIE HORSE MUSIC PIZZA ----*
----- http://www.pbs.org/charliehorse/
Chris Stamper sent us a very sad note the other day:
"Remember Shari Lewis? The lady with the sock puppet Lambchop? Well, a
few years ago she was making a comeback with a PBS kids' show just
before dying of uterine cancer. The site is still there."
It's hard for us not to get teary-eyed about Shari Lewis. The stuff she
created for TV was heads-and-shoulders above the dross that passes for
childrens' television. And everything we've read about her suggests that
she was as nice a person off-screen as on, which is extremely rare in
showbiz.
Although production on The Charlie Horse Music Pizza ended when Shari
died, the show can still be seen at many PBS affiliate stations around
the USA. So in a funny way, this site isn't really dead, as long as kids
can still interact with Lamb Chop and the gang.
Which is fine by us.
Related URLs:
http://www.stamper.com/
http://www.pbs.org/insidepbs/news/sharilewis98.html
http://www.childrensmusic.org/shari.html
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http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/
Copyright 1996-1999 Steve Baldwin Associates.
Webdesign, hosting and publication by Disobey.
http://www.disobey.com/
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