Rotten.com
 Screen shot from March 18, 2010 | |
Type of site | Shock site |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Website | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | No |
| Launched | 1996 |
| Current status | Defunct |
Rotten.com was a shock site with the tagline "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 curiosities. Founded in 1996, 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 website's front page was last archived in January 2018.
History[edit]
In late 1996, Soylent wrote a program that surfaced all Internet domain names that appeared in a dictionary, but were not yet registered. 'Rotten' was one of the unclaimed words, and Soylent created the website after paying for the domain name.[3] The website introduced itself as a bastion of online free speech in an era where censorship rules had begun to strangle the internet.[2] Rotten.com had a spartan layout - no thumbnail images were present next to links, and the links themselves had one-line descriptions that dabbled in morbid humor and often carried no hints to the content behind them.
Rotten.com's content was composed mostly of user-submitted images, although in rare cases the developers would submit content themselves. The submissions are all marked as real, but could often be misattributed; a file emailed in as motorcycle.jpg was reported as the result of a motorbike accident, but the developers admitted it was most likely caused by an attempted shotgun suicide.[3] Rotten also received an alleged image of medical personnel recovering Princess Diana's body from a car accident, but confirmed it as fake. However, due to wide interest in the crash, they posted the image anyway. Various news outlets attempted to contact the website afterwards, resulting in a large traffic spike.[4]
Rotten.com was one of the first websites to publish images of the September 11th jumpers from the Twin Towers, under the title Swan Dive.[5][6]
Legal matters[edit]
Rotten.com was threatened with many lawsuits over the years, mostly in the form of cease and desist notices. These ranged 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.[7] 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]
Rotten Library[edit]
The Rotten Library was created as an encyclopedia to supplement the website. The Library contains hundreds of articles under seventeen different headings such as culture, art, medicine, crime, travel, and the occult. Articles contain detailed research, timelines, and occasional unseen images of events.
Merchandise[edit]
Rotten had a store that carried t-shirts, mousemats, stickers, magnets, and bizarre DVDs.
Ancillary sites[edit]
The Daily Rotten[edit]
In late 1999, The Daily Rotten was started by Thomas E. Dell.[8] Stories were published daily, focusing mostly on terrorism, murder, suicide, cruelty, excrement, and abuse. 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".
Boners.com[edit]
Rotten launched Boners.com in response to viewers who wanted a daily pictures page alongside the Daily Rotten newsboard. The word "boner" suggests an embarrassing mistake or a male organ in a state of arousal. The images typically consisted of amusing public signs, phallic imagery, and members of the public in embarrassing situations.
The Gaping Maw[edit]
In 2000, The Gaping Maw - an editorial/commentary archive - was founded. Most of the articles were written by cartoonist Tristan Farnon under the alias "Spigot" (from Leisure Town) or by other webmasters. The pages contained news, satire, and commentary on modern society. Along with the Rotten Library, this has improved Rotten's standing in many communities since it has introduced a humane and intellectual aspect to the website. On June 22, 2005, The Gaping Maw went dark to comply with new government 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 heavily edited.
Rotten Dead Pool[edit]
In November 2003, the Rotten Dead Pool was launched.[9] The Dead Pool was a game in which players picked ten people they believed would pass away over the course of the next 12 months. A point was awarded to a player for each of their correct picks. The only exceptions were that of the pick being executed, murdered, or dying after the 12 months had passed.
NNDB[edit]
In mid-2002, Rotten launched NNDB, an online database. NNDB was a steadily-updated website that contained information about thousands of notable people. The news section ceased updating on January 16, 2016,[10] and the celebrity deaths section ceased updating on December 31, 2016.[11] The website itself is still live.
Sports Dignity[edit]
Sports Dignity was a gallery of pictures showing embarrassing or NSFW incidents in sports games and tournaments.[12]
Publications[edit]
- 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)
References[edit]
- ^ "The Internet's public enema No. 1". salon.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ a b Audra Schroeder. "The legacy of Rotten.com". kernelmag.dailydot.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ a b "FAQ @ rotten dot com". archive.org. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ "diana fallout @ rotten dot com". archive.org. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ "The Awful Forums - the World Trade Center is on fire". truegamer.net. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019. "Soylent from Rotten.Com has posted a series called "Swan Dive." These are people jumping from the burning World Trade Center, floor 60 and above. I have seen Stile's kitten video. I have seen videos of castrations. I have seen "Train Girl." And these three blurry, still photographs are the most horrible things I've ever witnessed. Soylent also claims that the fourth airliner, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, was shot down by a military jet. That, so far, is unconfirmed by the BBC."
- ^ Tom Junod (Sep 9, 2016). "The Falling Man". esquire.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ 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
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2019-10-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2019-10-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Sports Dignity". Archived from the original on 2005-11-04. Retrieved 2005-11-04.
