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Ghost Sites 39
----- GHOST SITES #39 [August 19, 2000]
----- by Steve Baldwin
(steve_baldwin@hotmail.com)
Welcome back, ye Sons and Daughters of Bit Rot. Set here a spell, lay
down your browser, and listen to a tale of rust, dust, and
cyber-mortality. Ponder the Web's lost dawn of miracle and wonder, folly
and delight. Sing of great Web sites sucked under by the clutching
currents of cyber-indifference.
Yes, friends, it's time for another monthly installment of Ghost Sites
of the Web - your personal graveside guide to the lost, unburied, and
unmourned Web sites that Time Forgot. I'm Steve Baldwin - your
sepulcheral Ghost Host.
Ask not for whom the Web Counter Tolls - it tolls for me and thee!
*---- TIMES SQUARE 2000 ----*
----- http://www.timesSquare2000.com/
Ghost Sites correspondent DrLorenz identified this moribund monster: a
slow-loading, banner-waving, hyperbolic "Official Millenium Site" that's
clearly outlived its usefulness to the 21st Century.
Only true masochists need to put themselves through the emotional torpor
generated by its tiresome countdown splash screen. Even those
pragmatists choosing to skip this awful ersatz Chron Job will find
themselves waist-deep in another ridiculously outdated, bandwidth -
sucking page laced with hundreds of useless tables, advrtisements, and
other garish graphical flourishes.
This mouldering site ranks with the most hideously overblown
cyber-stinkers produced by Hollywood. Steer clear of this digital
morass, forget millenial madness, and get on with your life.
Related URLs:
http://www.timessquare2000.com/static.html
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- CLERKS: THE CARTOON ----*
----- http://www.clerksthecartoon.com/
Doug Sheppard notes that ABC/Miramax has recently produced a Ghost Site
to accompany one of its defunct animated TV shows. He writes:
"Remember Clerks, the funny indie movie by Kevin Smith? Remember Clerks,
the not-quite-as-funny- but-some-still-liked-it animated series by Kevin
Smith, that got yanked after two episodes?
Let's see how long they can keep promising that next week's episode
(it's "every Wednesday on ABC") is the one that was scheduled to air on
June 14th."
Although Clerks: The Cartoon is dead, Kevin Smith's own site,
Newsaskew.com, is very much alive, and Smith is evidently not letting
ABC's rejection go unanswered. Recently, he created an online game
called "Poke an ABC Executive in the Eye".
Sure it's stupid, but so is trying to work in television.
Related URLs:
http://www.newsaskew.com/
http://www.newsaskew.com/misc/abc.html
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- ETOPIA COMMUNICATIONS ----*
----- http://www.etopia.com/
According to its Web page, eTopia Communications "creates free
interactive, web based virtual offices and classrooms for businesses and
educational institutions."
OK - no problem there. But why has eTopia's site not been updated since
12/06/97? Why are the links to its Virtual Office area, Virtual
Classroom area, and Online Discussion area all broken?
We can't begin to explain the exact nature of the tragedy befalling
eTopia's site. Nor can we explain why its stillness diminishes our mood,
destroys our faith in distance learning, and makes us question whether
all etopias are in fact dystopias.
Thanks to wflinstone for this Ghost Siting.
Related URLs:
http://www.etopia.com/vo/index.html
http://www.etopia.com/vc/index.html
http://www.etopia.com/eboard/index.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- WHATELSE.COM ----*
----- http://www.whatelse.com/
This obscure hunk of noise (AKA "Digitally Incorrect") ground to a halt
way back in 1997, but at least its webmaster had the good sense to
explain why he let it die: He writes: "I don't really know, but right
now, I'm too busy and can't find the energy to keep writing columns on
multimedia."
What's left in the wake of the webmaster's neglect is eight months'
worth of free-ranging commentary on yesterday's multimedia fads, a dusty
Web review section, and a moth-ridden "Kultur" column.
We can't say what value future historians will place on such materials,
but can only hope that they see considerably more significance than we
ourselves can appreciate right now.
Thanks to thomrr for this Ghost Sites tip.
Related Sites:
http://www.whatelse.com/archives/archives.htm
http://www.whatelse.com/favourites/favourites.htm
http://www.whatelse.com/kultur/kultur.htm
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- DEEP ELUM - DALLAS, TEXAS ----*
----- http://www.ondaweb.com/deep_ellum.
Ghost Sites correspondent Paul T. Riddell sends word that a once
bustling regional site has gone to rack and ruin:
"The Deep Ellum district of Dallas used to have quite a history, as it
at one time had more of a reputation as a jazz center than Memphis or
even New Orleans. The area declined after World War II, but saw a
revival as an artists' neighborhood in the mid-Eighties. As with the
East Village and all of San Francisco, Deep Ellum is now a yuppie
playground, full of overpriced lofts, horrendously overpriced
restaurants, and a police presence that screams "If you're not an MBA,
we don't want you here." On Friday and Saturday nights, the area
resembles the first ten minutes of George Romero's "Day of the Dead".
Anyway, the zombies walking through the streets aren't the only thing
dead around here: I went to the official Deep Ellum site looking for
information on the Deep Ellum Film Festival, and found only a Ghost
Site. The site still proudly lists the Deep Ellum Arts Festival, which
happened back in April (of 1999), and about a third of the bands listed
in its "Band listings" are now defunct.
Have fun with this one: if you thought you heard shrieking before, wait
until the crew in charge of this finds out that their site is about as
relevant as its subject."
[4 GHOSTSITES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- ARAB NEWS ONLINE ----*
----- http://www.arab.net/arabnews/welcome.html
Credit Ghost Site correspondent J. Bruce Veale with this finding:
"The Arab News is an English newspaper in Saudi Arabia and I used to
read it (for about the same reasons as one keeps probing at a cavity: it
hurts but you can't help it).
Anyway, at the time I returned from Saudi Arabia in 1996, the site was
'soon to be completed' and as far as I can see, nothing has been done
for the last 4 years. Sort of on-par though for the Saudis -- the work
required with keeping a Web site up to date is just not something they
would be interested in after the initial rush of creating the site's
framework. The site's Email link works but no one seems to be checking
it or at least, I've never had a reply."
Although our own investigation into the bitrot at Arab News Online
doesn't completely support Mr. Veale's claim that the site has remained
unchanged for four years, its "What's New" page isn't exactly fresh -
its most recent entry dates from February, 2000.
Related URLs:
http://www.arab.net/whatnew/whatnew.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- AFTER THE BUG ----*
----- http://www.sfgate.com/thebug/
"After The Bug" was an experimental serial written by Alexander Besher
that appeared prominently on the servers of the San Francisco Chronicle
in 1998 - back when the Y2K Bug most completely engaged the popular
imagination.
This work of post-apocalpytic fiction followed "five 20- and 30-
something roommates living in a three-level Victorian house on Potrero
Hill in San Francisco as the (Y2K) "Bug" turns their world topsy-turvy."
After just 10 episodes, however, the plug was pulled, leaving After The
Bug a moribund, half-completed wreck of a literary work.
We hope that Mr. Besher was paid a lot of money to pen this opus, and we
hope that he's moved on to better things. Being a fiction writer in
these reality-obsessed times is difficult enough without having to see
one's incomplete manuscript cruelly laid out for all to world to see.
Related URLs:
http://www.sfgate.com/thebug/episodes/bug_bio.shtml
http://www.sfgate.com/
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved
*---- TAKE FIVE ----*
----- http://www.planetoasis.com/take5/index.html
Speaking of disastrous Web-based serial projects, here's a youth-crazed
cyber-serial that's so old and moldy that its teenage subjects are
probably well on their way to becoming grandparents.
Housed on Planet Oasis (a site that remains among the most
bandwidth-unfriendly areas of the Web), this "teensploitation" site
seems to have been built sometime in 1996 - certainly no later than
1997.
You thought High School was hell? Immerse yourself in this
oddly-designed, hard to navigate, bandwidth-sucking monster for a few
minutes. Cryptic, pointless and designed without any regard to even the
most basic notions of usability, Take Five deserves a wide berth.
To borrow a favorite phrase of today's teenagers, "Don't Go There!"
Related URLs:
http://www.planetoasis.com/
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
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The website edition includes images, a nice design, and all the latest
news about Ghost Sites. Go there to read the latest:
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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