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Ghost Sites 20
----- GHOST SITES #20 [October 3, 1998]
----- by Steve Baldwin
(steve_baldwin@hotmail.com)
As the worldwide economy continues its nosedive towards the depths of
gloom, Ghost Sites wonders how the inevitable layoffs, restructuring,
and downsizing will affect the World Wide Web. Will Russian sites
become lifeless shadows as their webmasters desert cyberspace to beg for
Rubles on street corners? Will American sites devoted to $1,500 Beanie
Babies shut their doors for lack of well-heeled clients?
The prospects for many "big brand" Web sites are grim - after all, if
your entire investment portfolio is wiped out, why surf for stock
quotes? Who needs to read about celebrities at People.Com when the only
person in your life who really matters is your angry landlord? And once
you've lost your $90,000 brokerage job, even the best X-rated site won't
do much for your ardor, will it?
As you can tell, Ghost Sites is in a dark, ruminative mood this October.
As chilly clouds of uncertainty gather on the horizon, we're hunkering
down, and scrawling the names of dead sites on the walls of our
dimly-lit cave. Our grim obsession might not stem the coming whirlwind,
but it sure passes the time.
(P.S.: Regular readers of Ghost Sites will notice that we've recently
launched the "Ghost-O-Meter", a piece of Javascript designed to make it
easier for you to report dead Web sites you've seen. It's the brainchild
of Disobey's webmaster, Morbus. If you have a few extra minutes, please
check out the rest of Disobey.Com - your personal Portal into the
Underworld.)
*---- THE GLOBAL BUSINESS NETWORK ----*
----- http://www.gbn.org/
It's long been rumored among the truly paranoid that GBN (The Global
Business Network) is a sinister international organization plotting to
co-opt the Internet for its own nefarious ends.
Like any self-respecting international conspiracy, GBN operates at the
very fringes of society's awareness, yet its tentacles are everywhere:
its elite membership includes academics, influential media
personalities, and industrialists. (GBN's members include Esther Dyson,
Kevin Kelly, John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, William Gibson, and several
strategic planners with strong connections to Royal Dutch Shell).
Ghost Sites, however, has major doubts about GBN's ability to dominate
the world, because they seem so completely inept at updating their own
site. GBN's home page hasn't been updated since June, and its
members-only Book Club hasn't been updated since April.
GBN is going to have to work a lot harder before they can do for the Net
what OPEC did for oil.
Related URLs:
http://www.gbn.org/principals.html
http://www.shell.com/i/i.html
http://www.gbn.org/bookclub/sortByDate.html
http://www.opec.org/
[2 GHOSTIES] Site is Dying in ICU
*---- MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE ----*
----- http://www.missionimpossible.com/
Mission Ridiculous, actually. Like a pockmarked roadside billboard,
Paramount's promotional site has long outlived its usefulness to
humanity, although it continues to scream that the film is playing "all
over America."
Like many Hollywood sites, missionimpossible.com tells you much more
about Paramount's expansive merchandising plans for MI than it does
about the movie. (Did you know that the studio expected to flood America
with a whole raft of MI dolls, LCD handheld games, toys, and even a
youth agent training program?)
If I were Peter Graves (an original Mission:Impossible cast member
excluded from participating in the movie), I'd seriously consider
placing some C4 in the vicinity of this server.
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- CAROLYN'S DIARY ----*
----- http://carolyn.org/
Carolyn's Diary had a pretty good run. Launched in early 1995, this
self-penned, self-important autobiographical epic was given a
once-in-a-lifetime PR boost when it was featured in "24-Hours in
Cyberspace" (itself a legendary Ghost Site). Boosted by the kind of
media attention most webmasters don't even let themselves dream about,
Carolyn sailed to fame and fortune on the TV and lecture circuit.
In the meantime, however, Carolyn's Diary has been a drifting wreck
since she stopped updating it in late 1997. Her last words include this
troubling passage:
"I see myself as a lingering energy drain on others. There is this sense
in me that I don't want to contribute my own energies to the happenings
in the world - they will be redistributed by others into ends I do not
want to support."
Web historians will appreciate the ghostly gallery of award GIFs dotting
the site's home page, including a "1996 CyberStar Award" from Newsweek's
defunct Virtual City magazine, and an award from something called
"SpinWebbe" - a long-forgotten award organization.
Farewell, Carolyn. I doubt you'd approve of the way that Ghost Sites is
"redistributing your energies" now, but that's our job.
Related URLs:
http://www.cyber24.com/htm2/6_18.htm
http://carolyn.org/as-featured-in.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE SECRET LIFE OF BILL GATES ----*
----- http://www.billg.org/secretdiary/diary99/
Todd Geiger tells us that the weekly updates to Bill Gates' "secret
diary" mysteriously ceased in mid-July of this year, which earns this
site a "Calling in Sick" award.
We doubt this site will remain a Ghost Site for very long. The Diary's
anonymous author has repurposed many of the site's phony diary entries
into a book, and few authors can resist the temptation to shamelessly
promote their hardcopy works online, even if it means updating their
sites.
[1 GHOSTIE] Site is Calling in Sick
*---- ZINE NET ----*
----- http://www.zine.net/
Here's a depressing site that once billed itself as "The Place for Zines
on the Web", before its heart stopped in July of 1996 (as revealed in
both its "News" and "What's New" sections. Roy Batchelor's basic idea
was to scan in and fetch up hardcopy "zines" in order to give their
bottom-feeding publishers a little cyber-exposure, and let readers
sample each 'zine before they subscribed.
Unfortunately, too many zine publishers decided to put their own stuff
online, or eschew the Web entirely, leaving Zine Net without a
compelling reason to exist.
Thanks to Disobey's vigilant Webmaster, Morbus, for identifying Zine.Net
among the fallen.
Related URLs:
http://www.zine.net/newsinfo.htm
http://www.zine.net/whatsnew.htm
http://www.zine.net/overview.htm
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- FREEWILLY.ORG ----*
----- http://www.freewilly.org/
The star of the "Free Willy" movies is a cute Killer Whale named Keiko,
and his captivity-to-freedom story is the subject of several Web sites.
If you're a whale-lover, Keiko's life story makes for inspiring reading,
but you'd have to work very hard to learn much about Keiko at
FreeWilly.Org. This unfortunate site looks like it's been hit by
multiple harpoons, which shattered every link, GIF, and other trace of
environmental activism.
Related URLs:
http://www.keiko.org/home/index.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- CiAS (SCANDINAVIAN CENTER FOR ARAB INFORMATION) ----*
----- http://www.i-cias.com/
Senior Ghost Site Correspondent David Mediavilla Ezquibela recently
filed the following report recounting the slow death of this site, based
in Norway:
"This site will be a ghost soon, if they don't get the money they need.
The site stores the Encyclopedia of the Orient, a course of Arabic and
other very useful information about the Arab countries and the Middle
East. It's a pity because there is a lot of information and, as you can
see from the guestbook they are getting visitors constantly."
Ezquibela's gloomy report is borne out by the site's recent announcement
that it is suspending its news services, and cancelling all future Web
projects.
It's terribly sad to see scholarly sites dying on the vine in the midst
of so much profitable cybertrash designed for morons. But if the Web
weren't such a cruel, unjust, and depressing medium, we probably
wouldn't be attracted to it.
Related URLs:
http://www.i-cias.com/e.o/index.htm
[2 GHOSTIES] Site is Dying in ICU
*---- SPIRITUALIZED ELECTRIC ON-LINE ----*
----- http://www.spiritualized.com:81/
What can you say about a site that proudly announces that it's optimized
for Netscape 1.1? Whose newest News Release is from February (we can
only hope it's February '98)? Whose Tour Schedule is from 1995
(Spiritualized is a rock band)?
Actually, there's very little to say that we haven't already said,
except to thank several readers of Ghost Sites for pointing out this
dead turkey to us.
Related URLs:
http://www.spiritualized.com:81/whatsnew.html
http://www.spiritualized.com:81/band/tour.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- AMERICA OFF-LINE ----*
----- http://www.southland.net/users/americaoffline/
America Offline was an electronic newsletter launched in June of 1995 to
"analyze, critique, and discuss America Online and other online
services", and it ran until June, 1997. Its early issues focussed on
tips and tricks for AOL-ers, but toward the end of its life, it became
much more strident in terms of demanding refunds, apologies, and other
penances from the service.
Now this site just sulks - a grumpy virtual shrine to the long-standing
umbrage that many AOL members seem ready to carry for the rest of their
lives.
[3 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, but Well-Preserved
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The website edition includes images, a nice design, and all the latest
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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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