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Ghost Sites 23
----- GHOST SITES #23 [January 9, 1999]
----- by Steve Baldwin
(steve_baldwin@hotmail.com)
It's been a wild month here at Ghost Sites - several sites (including
Upside.Com, Slashdot, and the Boston Globe) linked to us, which caused a
flood of Dead Site Tips to pour in through the Ghost-O-Meter. The result
is the single biggest crop of Web Death that I've ever seen.
This issue's listings reflect only the very tip of the iceberg - as I
plow through the rest of this vast, morbid cache, I'll try to accelerate
our (more or less monthly) publishing schedule to get these new Ghost
Sites out to you more quickly.
A few years ago, when I was just starting Ghost Sites, Bruce Judson (a
person I consider very wise who's also been very supportive) cautioned
me that the biggest problem I'd have in making Ghost Sites sustain
itself was running out of dead sites to write up. And while Bruce's
probably right in the long term, I can safely say that your recent spate
of tips have provided enough fuel for our skeleton crew of Webleologists
to keep firing out reviews for at least three months - an eternity of
time in this breakneck-fast medium.
So thank you people - I really couldn't do Ghost Sites without you.
Two final, crassly cross-promotional notes: first, if you're interested
in meeting some of the benighted people who labored in some of the Net's
great fiascos, please check out NetSlaves - a new project concocted by
myself and co-editor Bill Lessard. Also, one or two of you might want to
check out an MP3 single that I've recently released to the Net - its
theme, while not directly related to Ghost Sites, is characteristically
morbid in tone.
Related URLs:
http://www.growyourprofits.com/
http://www.disobey.com/netslaves/
http://www.mp3.com/music/Pop/6412.html
*---- STALE ----*
----- http://www.stale.com/
This high-profile parody of Michael Kinsley's well-funded e-zine, Slate,
was put up in August, 1996, and it captured the look, feel, and tweed
jacket editorial sensibility of Slate so well that (legend has it) a
clueless newspaper mistakenly attributed one of its fake features to
Slate itself.
Seventeen months later, Stale's parody articles are still pretty funny,
but the passage of time is making its visual parody much less effective.
For starters, the parody site doesn't look much like Slate anymore,
because so many MSN logos, Microsoft-sponsored links, and other
promotional flotsam deface the genuine article that Kinsley's poor site
now more closely resembles a 3rd-tier MSN channel page than it does The
New Yorker.
As was the case with Crapfinder (an infamous parody site of
Time-Warner's Pathfinder) historians will need to resort to this parody
site if they need to study Slate's earliest electronic incarnation.
Thanks to guyjr for this tip, submitted through the Ghost-O-Meter.
Related URLs:
http://www.stale.com/cmp/coc.html
http://www.c3f.com/crapfina.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- HIFI ON WWW ----*
----- http://www.unik.no/~robert/hifi/hifi.html
Here's an unfortunate Ghost Site whose author explains "has lately not
been updated due to all the problems with the criminals in Hong Kong".
The author goes on to say that "Someone from Hong Kong has been sending
numerous spam messages with faked headers to users all over the world
pretending to be me." Mysterious spam attacks, bulletin board
impersonations, and mailbombing followed, and the unfortunate webmaster
gave up the HiFi on WWW site (which was reportedly very
well-trafficked), in late 1996.
Who were these unnamed Hong Kong Criminals? What were they trying to
stop this Web site from saying? Until a latter-day Lemmee Caution steps
forward to protect the innocent and punish the guilty in Hong Kong's
shadowy e-commerce districts, HiFi on WWW's corpse serves as a chilling
warning.
Thanks to Danny van Dam for this tip.
Related URLs:
http://www.unik.no/~robert/spam/
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cybercinema/alpha_vis.htm
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- MICHELLE SHOCKED: SHELLSHOCK ----*
----- http://www.shellshock.com/
"She could have let a corporation own her music, seize it and shape it
and crumple it up and throw it away. Instead she put up a fight, and she
won, bloody but unbowed."
What this site's hyperbolic copywriter is trying to tell us is that
Michelle Shocked, who apparently suffered many ills and abuses when
signed to her bloodthirsty record label, was lucky enough to break free
and put out a CD on a small indie label. To promote the CD, the
ShellShock site was launched in late 1996, and we hope it served its
purpose.
Now, however, this site is a desultory wreck - its weekly updates were
abandoned years ago, its link to Shocked's label is broken, and its
merchandising section is still under construction.
We frankly don't know much about Shocked's brand of music, but suspect
that if she knew how moldy her Web presence is, she'd write an angry
protest song about it. In the meantime, this Ghost Site brings up a
troublesome question: is having a major corporation "own, seize, shape,
crumple, and throw out" one's music any worse than putting it up on the
Web yourself, and letting it grow a beard of fungus?
Thanks to jwmacneill for this tip, submitted through the Ghost-O-Meter.
Related URLs:
http://www.shellshock.com/msbio.html
http://www.shellshock.com/news.html
http://www.shellshock.com/merch.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- EYECANDY.ORG ----*
----- http://www.eyecandy.org/
Once upon a time, "eye candy" was something many Web surfers actively
sought out as a refreshing change from the slate gray drudgery of
1994-era HTML pages.
The legitimate desire of users to see something more interesting than
basic H1 and H2 formatting commands was, unfortunately, not lost on Web
designers, who used it as an excuse to cram sites with as many animated
gizmos, plug-ins, and useless applets as humanly possible.
The ultimate result of the eye candy craze is the Web we see today - a
blighted wasteland of unwanted billboards, gratuitous rollovers, and
maddening interstitial marketing messages. Perhaps the whole sickness
started with Eye Candy - a Ghost Site whose garish lights went out in
October, 1997, but whose creators, in their infinite wisdom, willed it
to the Net as a permanent "design resource" (and source of eternal eye
strain).
Thanks to LordVague for pointing out Eye Candy's demise to us.
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE HIGHWAY 17 PAGE OF SHAME ----*
----- http://www.got.net/~egallant/the_road.html
This fascinating site redefines "road rage" for the Internet Age by
telling the tale of "two geeks with Apple Quicktakes" who mercilessly
documented the idiotic driving habits of their fellow motorists on
California's Highway 17 - the main artery between Santa Cruz and San
Jose.
Although they blurred out the license plates of each clueless driver
they photographed (to avoid lawsuits), the authors pull no punches when
describing what they see as the true bane of the highways - bad drivers
behind the wheels of expensive foreign cars.
BMW drivers ("marketing dweebs - all hair and teeth, but no brain"), and
Volvo drivers (who believe that their safety equipment means they have a
right to drive at "ramming speed") bear the brunt of the authors' wrath,
but minivan drivers (who have a penchant for teasing their hair in the
fast lane), and drivers of SUVs ("Silly Ungainly Vehicles") don't do
much better. Each is well represented in the authors' Jerqe du Jour - an
illustrated gallery of driving pathology.
The Highway 17 Page of Shame ran out of petrol in April of 1996, after
its authors relocated closer to work, and while they probably saved
their lives in doing so, their abandonment of this project deprived the
Net of a horrifying, entertaining, and throroughly educational resource
whose gauntlet we can only hope will be taken up by other motorists
seeking a way to avenge themselves against America's worst drivers.
Thanks to darren for this tip, submitted through the Ghost-O-Meter.
Related URLs:
http://www.got.net/~egallant/bmw.html
http://www.got.net/~egallant/road_test.html
http://www.got.net/~egallant/winner_archive.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE 1996 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION ----*
----- http://www.dncc96.org/
If you've ever wondered what happened to that famous "Bridge to the Year
2000" the Democrats were building a few years ago, you owe yourself a
trip to this frozen site, where the span's shattered girders still
shimmer in the gloom.
Remember "A Place called Hope?" Although you can't learn much about its
exact location, you can still listen to mind-numbing convention
speeches, download a customized "DNCC News Ticker" that installs itself
on your task bar, play a "Jammin' with Bill" Saxophone Java applet, and
even print out a beautiful, highly optimistic souvenir T-shirt image
that you can transfer to your favorite article of clothing.
Cache this site, my friends, and do it soon. My bet is that digital
relics of the Dem's August 1996 lovefest will soon be very scarce -
scarcer than hope, decency, and common sense.
Thanks to markbyrn for this tip, sent through the Ghost-O-Meter.
Related URLs:
http://www.dncc96.org/clinton28.ram
http://www.dncc96.org/advisor/
http://www.dncc96.org/sax/
http://www.dncc96.org/joni/wear.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- GEEZER GEAR ----*
----- http://www.geezergear.com/index.html
This modest commercial site sought to channel the incipient rage of
aging Baby Boomers by offering them T-Shirts, Golf Caps, and BBQ Aprons
emblazened with the words "Outta My Way, Kid!".
We agree with Geezer Gear that young people shouldn't be the only ones
to wear offensive messages on their chests. But we also know that as you
get older, you spend a lot less money on clothes, which is perhaps why
Geezer Gear's site shows so many signs of approaching mortality,
including a "Best Viewed with Netscape 1.1" warning, a broken traffic
counter, and a date stamp from September, 1996 - a time when everyone
was a lot younger, and probably a lot nicer than we are today.
Thanks to jwmacneill for this one.
Related URLs:
http://www.geezergear.com/product.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- QUAKE CAFE ----*
----- http://www.quakecafe.com/
"1/30/98 - Dear g0d make it STOP!" screams this page, and the Quake Cafe
crumpled to a bloody pulp eleven long months ago, after providing Quake
files, Quake-fests (also known as "LAN Parties"), and other Quakephilia
to the gaming community for several carnage-ridden months.
As a recovering Quake addict, I'd like to think that this site's author
made a clean break with this evil game, found a job, a girl, and a
peaceful, well-lit place somewhere in the real world, out of reach of
the tentacled armies of the night.
But I also know that there's an equal chance that he's now playing it
24x7, and won't ever make it back.
Thanks to chrismcc for notice of the Quake Cafe's demise.
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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