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Ghost Sites 32
----- GHOST SITES #32 [November 4, 1999]
----- by Steve Baldwin
(steve_baldwin@hotmail.com)
We were a bit taken aback when Morbus, Disobey.com's Webmaster, informed
us that BESS, an Internet Filtering Product of a company called N2H2,
was blocking Ghost Sites from being seen by five million children across
the U.S.A.
Internet porn is, of course, a serious issue, and so is being silenced
by BESS-style censoring software. We even went so far as to write a
long, pleading letter to BESS's Cyber-Censors, but received nothing in
reply, which is typical of the response you get when Big Brother decides
he doesn't like you for some reason.
Let's face it though, Ghost Sites really is a pretty corrupting
influence, and maybe we deserve to be blocked, shut up, and crucified by
some evil piece of software whose logo is a slavering guard dog. After
all, think of what might happen if every kid in America started
seriously scrutinizing the ancient cheese that's served up in this
medium, and started loudly complaining about it. Just about every Public
School and University server in America would have to update its ancient
curriculum pages, faculty lists, and other outdated whatnot. Pandemonium
would break out!
If the Updating Revolution spread far enough, even those sneaky
Cyber-Censors might have to update their blacklists more than once a
decade. Unthinkable!
P.S.: We have another abbreviated Dead Site list again this month - the
Netslaves Book Tour is still taking its toll. Within a month, however,
all the hoopla will end, and our entropy level will return to normal
around here.
Related URLs:
http://n2h2.com/products/bess/index.html
http://censorware.org/reports/bess/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071352430/disobeycom
*---- THE UNIVERSITY CENTER ----*
----- http://www.evolvetech.com/uc/
As long as Ghost Sites finds itself at war with the educational
establishment, let it be known that the College of William and Mary is
harboring a liberal dose of bit rot within its ivied walls. Take a
gander at the University Center, which dates from 1996-97 and is
optimized for Netscape Navigator 2.0. Take a step further into this
strange college catacomb and you'll be greeted by the University Center
Menu Page : it's a little newer (April 1998), but no less bitrotten.
In fairness to the College, this Ghost Site isn't an officially
sanctioned project - it's just a bunch of pages that some college kid
turned out for a class project as a homage to "The Spot" (God help him).
But you know what? The official site of the College of William and Mary
isn't much better. Take a look at its current Commencement Schedule Page
- it's from May of 1999.
See, this is the kind of stuff that BESS doesn't want your kids to know!
Thanks to Amey for pointing out this one.
Related URLs:
http://www.evolvetech.com/uc/entrance/
http://www.evolvetech.com/uc/info/press.html
http://www.wm.edu/news/commencement99.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE YORK FREE GUIDE ----*
----- http://www.eveningpress.co.uk/ep/yorkfreeguide/index3.html
DLeonard was kind enough to let us know that The York Free Guide, a
cyber-product of The Evening Press, a British newspaper, stopped
updating its monthly guide to York, England back in August of 1998.
The site's bit rot is particularly evident when visiting its once
bustling Gig Guide, its Cinema Section, and its Theatre area.
Fortunately, the Historical Attractions Area, which discusses York's
famous medieval walls, can probably be relied upon. York's
fortifications, which apparently retain "something like 95 per cent of
their medieval circumference", probably haven't changed much in 15
months, which makes them a safe bet to visit if you're in the
neighborhood.
More recently, the Evening Press launched a new site devoted to York
called This is York. With luck and a few strategic fortifications, it
will hopefully stay a lot less medieval than the York Free Guide now is.
Related URLs:
http://www.eveningpress.co.uk/ep/yorkfreeguide/thismonth/gigguide.html
http://www.eveningpress.co.uk/ep/yorkfreeguide/thismonth/cinemas.html
http://www.eveningpress.co.uk/ep/yorkfreeguide/thismonth/theatres.html
http://www.eveningpress.co.uk/ep/yorkfreeguide/thismonth/historicalattractions.html
http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE TACOMA REPORTER ONLINE ----*
----- http://www.tacoma.net/
The home page of the Tacoma Reporter Online is quite a depressing place,
because it features a grim story about drug addiction entitled "High
Times in the City of Destiny" published on January 14th, 1998. It's
actually a very well-written, horrifying article, but is it so
well-written and so horrifying that it deserves to stay up for 22 months
after its initial publication date?
The site's Reviews Section isn't any fresher. All of the movies,
musicians, and performers have long since departed "The City of
Destiny". It's an eerie feeling - like touring a town whose population
has been mysteriously wiped out by an evil plague.
We hope someday to get up to Tacoma to see if there's anybody left up
there, but it isn't exactly a priority right now. We're too busy
wrestling with the FTP Monkey that's always gnawing at our back, begging
us to shoot up our Web site with a freshly intoxicating injection of
fresh content. Some life, eh?
Thanks to LSkaggs for this Ghost Site tip.
Related URLs:
http://www.tacoma.net/reviews.html
[4 GHOSTIES] Site is Dead, Shows Advanced Decay
*---- PRESIDENT '96 ----*
----- http://www.pres96.com/
Hey, did you know that some guy named Hamilton has been running America
for the last three years? That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?
The President '96 site is, of course, an elaborate, completely fake
election "game" that was built at enormous expense by various digital
visionaries at CNN, AOL, Time-Warner, and Crossover Technologies during
the frantic early days of the Web, when hare-brained interactive schemes
were rife and reality-challenged corporations spent megabucks producing
them.
I imagine that the main reason President '96's creators have kept this
site hanging around for so long is because they needed to prove to their
subsequent employers how good they were at wasting money. Large parts of
the ersatz 1996 campaign are still up, including a 10-part Timeline, a
News Archive Page, and naturally, Candidate Profiles.
This whole silly mess will probably be up forever, which will provide
historians of the Year 2099 with a lot of interesting revisionist
possibilities for interpreting our political history.
You don't think this will happen? Just wait!
Related URLs:
http://www.pres96.com/time1.htm
http://www.pres96.com/narc.htm
http://www.pres96.com/cand.htm
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
*---- THE COOL MOOSE PARTY ----*
----- http://www.brainiac.com/coolmoose/
As long as we're rewriting political history, let it be known that The
Cool Moose Party, led by one Robert J. Healey, attempted to establish
itself as a credible 3rd Party force in Rhode Island back in 1995, and
launched a small Web site to promote its efforts. We don't know what
happened to the Party, but the Web site is a wreck, which suggests that
the Cool Mooses never effectively seized power.
Unless you're a fanatical historian of Libertarianism, I doubt you'll
find much content of interest amid the Cool Moose Party's platform
documents, its Charter and By-Laws, and its program for economic
redevelopment in Rhode Island. But it seems, at least from outward
appearances, that these people were serious about their political
objectives - at least a lot more serious than they were about keeping
their Web site up to date.
Related URLs:
http://www.brainiac.com/coolmoose/healey.gif
http://www.brainiac.com/coolmoose/platform.html
http://www.brainiac.com/coolmoose/c_and_b.html
http://www.brainiac.com/coolmoose/econdev.html
[5 GHOSTIES] Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum
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Copyright 1996-1999 Steve Baldwin Associates.
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