Rotten.com
 Screen shot from March 18, 2010 | |
Type of site | Shock site/News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| URL | www.rotten.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | No |
| Launched | 1996 |
| Current status | Defunct |
Rotten.com was a shock site with the tag line "An archive of disturbing illustration," active from 1996 to 2012. It was devoted to morbid curiosities, pictures of violent acts, deformities, autopsy or forensic photographs, depictions of perverse sex acts, and disturbing or misanthropic historical curios. The site was founded in 1996, and its format changed little over the years. It was run by a developer who called himself Soylent, via the company Soylent Communications.[1] The site's updating slowed in 2009, with the final update in February 2012[2]. The site was down as of November 2012.
Legal matters
Rotten.com has been threatened with many lawsuits over the years, mostly in the form of cease and desist notices. These range from serious matters (such as requests to remove pictures of dead relatives from the site) to Burlington Coat Factory asking to take down trenchcoat.org, which was bought as a Trenchcoat Mafia reference, but simply linked to Burlington Coat Factory's webpage.[3] On June 24, 2005, the US federal government ordered that the "Fuck of the Month" section of the site be removed (along with content from several ancillary sites). In posting the page's removal notice, the site's moderator criticized supporters of both Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration for the enablement of censorship.[citation needed]
Publications
- The I Hate Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice Reader. Avalon Publishing. 2004. ISBN 1-56025-620-6. (pp. 194–204 consists of the Rotten Library entry for John Ashcroft)
Rotten Library
The Rotten Library contains the hundreds of articles presumably by the owner of the rotten.com site with sarcastic and entertaining views under the headings of Culture, Art, Medicine, Crime, Travel, The Occult, Sideshow, Language, Cryptozoology, Sex, Imagery, Conspiracy, Religion, Death, Hoaxes, History, Biographies. In the words of the author "... an unforgettable collection of all that mankind swore to forget, but which we have trapped in agonizing clarity to remember always"
Ancillary sites
The Daily Rotten
In late 1999, The Daily Rotten was started by Thomas E. Dell.[4] This site, updated daily with links to news articles that cover the more bizarre, macabre, and unpleasant side of life. Stories of terrorism, murders, suicides, cruelty, excrement, and abuse are the staple fare of this site. Daily Rotten, also known as Rotten News, is driven by user submissions which are edited by a self-described "Rotten Staff Duder". This also features comments for each one of the articles, posted by the registered members; they usually bring similar histories or gruesome images. They refer to themselves as "rotteneers", a satirical reference to Walt Disney's Mouseketeers, and/or "rottentots".
The events of September 11, 2001 were featured heavily on The Daily Rotten pages, a fact that the creators acknowledge as contributing to the popularity of the site. Additions have been increasingly sporadic since late 2011 and, as of February 11, 2012, appear to have stopped altogether with the last entry of "Today in Rotten History" (a sidebar feature of the news site) set at June 3.
Boners.com
Rotten launched Boners.com in response to those viewers who wanted a page with daily pictures alongside the news articles of Daily Rotten. Generally, a page will be updated with five or so viewer submitted pictures. The word "boner" suggests an embarrassing mistake or a male organ in a state of arousal. Usually containing a funny sign or street name, juveniles horsing around, depictions of the male organ in a natural cloud, rock, or tree formation (art or decoration), snowmen in sexual positions, and accidental public displays of nudity. The site was shut down June 2001[citation needed]
The Gaping Maw
In 2000, the Rotten staff started up The Gaping Maw, an editorial/commentary archive. Most of the articles were written by cartoonist Tristan Farnon under the alias "Spigot" (from Leisure Town) or by other associates. The pages contained news, satire, and general rumination on modern society. Along with the Rotten Library, this has improved Rotten's standing in many communities since it has introduced an intellectual, humane[dubious – discuss] aspect to what was otherwise considered a purely "shock" site.
On the afternoon of June 22, 2005, The Gaping Maw went dark to comply with new governmental bookkeeping requirements regarding the distribution of pornography, specifically governmental age-verification of models, under 18 U.S.C. § 2257. All articles were taken down, and the site's title page was replaced with a statement lamenting the passage of the laws, headed by the banner, "CENSORED BY US GOVERNMENT!". In January 2006, The Gaping Maw came back online with some articles still unpublishable, others heavily edited.
Rotten Dead Pool
In November 2003, Rotten Dead Pool was launched.[5] This is a game in which players pick 10 people they believe will die over the course of the next 12 months. A point is awarded to a player for each of their picks who dies over the 12 months (unless the deceased is executed and was awaiting execution at the time they were picked, is murdered by the player, or is picked after their death). It has not been publicly stated by the site what the winner gets, if anything.
NNDB
In mid-2002, Rotten launched NNDB, an online database. This was a growing website that contains information about thousands of notable people. It suddenly stopped updating its news section on January 16th, 2016.[6] It stopped updating its celebrity deaths section on December 31st, 2016.[7] although the site itself is still live.
Sports Dignity
An ancillary site off Rotten is Sports Dignity, a gallery of pictures, most of which are of athletes exposing their genitalia, flipping off the camera, or sporting huge gashes and injuries.[8]
Other ancillary sites
Among Rotten's many ancillary sites are several "Rate my" sites such as "rate my kitten", "rate my finger", "rate my boobs", "rate my boner", and "rate my poo".
References
- ^ "The Internet's public enema No. 1". Salon. 2001-03-05. Archived from the original on 2018-05-28. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
- ^ "The legacy of Rotten.com - The Kernel". The Kernel. 2014-10-26. Archived from the original on 2018-05-26. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
- ^ Rotten.com legal Archived 2006-07-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Daily Rotten legal". Archived from the original on 2006-02-10. Retrieved 2006-01-08.
- ^ Dead Pool Archived 2005-11-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ https://nndb.com/
- ^ https://nndb.com/lists/166/000399963/
- ^ "Sports Dignity". Archived from the original on 2005-11-04. Retrieved 2005-11-04.
