Ghost Sites of the Web: Where Dead Sites Live On... Where Web Disasters Are Still Fresh

UrbanExpose.com Has a Serious Case of Rigor Mortis

2008-05-05T17:37:00.000-04:00

Remember UrbanExpose.com? Back in the late 1990's, it was the place to go to get the inside scoop on all the mad goings on in the world of hip-hop, hip-hop zines, urban TV and radio, and (especially) "urban" web sites such as 360hiphop.com and hookt.com. Its owner/webmaster, John Lee, AKA "Crispus Attucks," served up the snarky content with humor, a barbed wit, and hilarious graphics (which usually consisted of a pompous subject's head lopped off, decontextualized, and left hanging, like a de-stringed puppet, in whitespace).

In its day, UrbanExpose.com's self-appointed task of unmasking inner-city entrepreneurs seeking to cash in on the Web 1.0 boom accomplished with delicious, hip hopping hilarity, and rap impressario Russell Simmons was reportedly one of the site's biggest fans. Sadly, the site stopped updating in July of 2003, and today it's a frozen, albeit well-preserved cyber-corpse.

Too bad, becuase there are plenty of fast-talking Web 2.0 hucksters out there who deserve their share of unmasking. UrbanExpose.com - we need you more than ever today!

The Improbable Ascent of Mike Daisey

2008-04-21T14:35:00.006-04:00

Call me an old-timer, but I remember Mike Daisey from the days when he secretly broke into Amazon.com with a camcorder and scandalized himself by opening a peephole of light into Amazon's cult-like confines. Mike was such an inspiration to all of us dammed and displaced dotcom workers that we wrote up his life story; this article still languishes somewhere on disobey.com's servers.

But look at Mike today: he's got a new show that just opened in New York and the New York Times gave it a glowing review. Who says that netslaves never have a nice day?

Yes, Virginia, Blogging Can Actually Kill You

2008-04-07T13:54:00.002-04:00

After the sudden and unexplained recent deaths of two prominent Bloggers, The New York Times has revisited the "Can Blogging Kill You" issue, and the equivocal answer appears to be "yes" (the newspaper first raised the issue in January, after the much-publicized heart attack of GigaOm's Om Malik). The Times takes an unusual slant to the story in its follow-up, framing the new class of information worker as a post-industrial equivalent of uninsured, unhealthy piecework labor, in other words, as something we used to call a state of "Netslavery."

Tina Brown Returns to the Web: Train Wreck Ahead!

2008-04-04T12:59:00.003-04:00

Tina Brown knows absolutely nothing about running Web sites, and her disastrous record with Talk.com should have resulted in her being banned from the Web forever. Unfortunately, it's impossible to do this, and so Brown is reaping tons of press with her plans to launch a new site that's going to blah blah blah. Big deal - she hired away the creative director from nymag.com - if this guy's such a hotshot, why can't Nymag.com beat Gawker.com in the traffic wars? The whole thing is a joke and I'm sure that whatever Brown comes up will be a ghost site within 18 months of its launch.

Mcom.com (the original site of the Mozilla Corporation) is Back Online!

2008-03-31T15:16:00.002-04:00

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Mozilla, a fellow named Jamie Zawinski, who has an interest in Web history, reconstituted mcom.com, the original Web site of the Mosiac browser. Doing this wasn't easy, in fact it took some high-level exchanges with both Time Warner and AOL; the full story is here. If you've ever yearned for the glory days of 1994, back when the Web was truly interesting, check out mcom.com!

Video Ghosts of Enron Online

2008-03-24T04:18:00.000-04:00

Here's a fascinating 30-second spot created by Enron to promote Enron Online, its online extension. Its copy reads: "Enron Online will change the markets worldwide for many, many commodities. It is creating an open, transparent that replaces the dark, blind system that existed. It is real simple: you turn on your computer, and it's right there. If you want to do business, you push the button."

Obviously, the phrase "push the button" is ambiguous; in certain circles, it indicates "execution," which is what a lot of people who lost their life savings wanted to do to Enron's executives once the bubble burst.

Ancient DEC Video Depicts the Web of 1994

2008-03-19T16:05:00.000-04:00

I found this great video on Blogoscoped.com, Philipp Lenssen fascinating, frequently updated Blog. Created by DEC (the Digital Equipment Company), it shows a succession of early Web pages, accompanied by portentous narration. Of course, these battleship gray pages (they seem to have acquired a greenish tint, perhaps from mold) look hopelessly antiquated to us now, but this video does recapture the initial sense of absolute wonderment that many felt when seeing the Web for the first time.

In Praise of Hand-Typed HTML Dinosaurs

2008-02-19T13:21:00.000-05:00

A Ghost Sites correspondent named Jorg sends word that his Web page, devoted to the albums, songs and lyrics of George Harrison, is still alive and ticking after 10 years of faithful service.

I really like this ancient page, which despite a few updates, hasn't changed its basic form in more than 10 years. Check out that fabulous tiling background graphic, the centered text, and the complete absence of trendy Web 2.0 artifacts such as Adsense code and social widgets. Sites like this remind me of the shark, a life form so efficient that it hasn't evolved in hundreds of thousands of years.

This site is clearly an exception to George Harrison's rule that "all things must pass."

Astounding Incompetence Seen at FoxBusiness.com!

2008-02-04T14:13:00.000-05:00

On Monday, February 4, users clicking on any of the right-most links on Fox Business expected to see a story on Microsoft/Yahoo.

Instead, these hapless clicking saps saw this!

I've been following the Yahoo-Microsoft acquisition/merger/hostile takeover closely and went over to FoxBusiness.com to sample their reactionary take on the deal.

Lo and behold, all of the links on the right side of the page (to something called "EMac's Stock Watch" are broken. They link to the incorrect URL "http://emac.blogs.foxbusiness.co/" (should be ...foxbusiness.com, of course).

This error, which resulted in the diversion of millions of hits to a broken link, tells us a few things about Fox's Web operations: first, they don't have any kind of error-checking in their CMS, second, the people running the CMS are bad typists, and third, nobody at FoxBusiness.com even reads their own site, much less makes sure the links work. Fourth, FoxBusiness.com's webmasters don't think enough of their property to install a customized "Error 404" page. "Let them read MSNBC" must be their corporate mantra.

Truly appalling, incompetent webmastering. Rupert, it's time to clean house!

DailySonic.com, Pioneering Podcasting Site, Falls Silent

2008-02-04T13:23:00.001-05:00

DailySonic.com, "a free mp3zine / podcast for the hip-clectic crowd" has gone silent. Launched in early 2005, DailySonic uploaded device-agnostic MP3 files whose content was an NPR-like mix of news, narration, and licensed underground music content.

DailySonic's four New York-based founders, Aaron Taylor Waldman, Adam Varga, Anni Katz, and Isaac Dolom, didn't seem to care too much about whether DailySonic.com ever made money; they just wanted to do something cool on the Web, and it was precisely this quality that gave DailySonic purchase with its listeners. Unfortunately, the Web's very voraciousness augers against the pure of heart; the fun and cool can turn into a hellish grind in just a few months, unless of course, one can motivate people through fear or greed, which usually destroys friendships. Perhaps the four friends decided that they wouldn't let a Web site get between them.

Sadly, nothing remains of DailySonic's quirky podcasts, so it will be impossible for the world to know just how cool this site really was.

Steve Gilliard's Timeless Tips For Avoiding Valentine's Day Depression

2008-01-28T04:07:00.000-05:00

Steve Gilliard, who died far too early last year, had a lot to say about Love in the Age of the Modem, and his classic, laugh-until-you-cry treatise on the Valentine's Day blues, "Valentine's Day: The Meaning of Hell," written for Netslaves.com, is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 2001.

Steve's recipe for evading Valentine's Day depression was straightforward. Instead of wallowing in your misery, take steps to distract your mind from your wretched isolation. So watch movies ("romance will not be on your mind as the Germans shoot it out with hordes of Russian infantrymen"), play video games ("Unreal Tournament, Rainbow Six, Diablo"), drink ("the catch-all solution to personal pain"), watch TV ("there is no Valentine's Day on ESPN"), and if necessary, work, perhaps by "building some code for a doomed website." Don't think, don't brood, find a way to pass the time and you'll be OK, because Valentine's Day, despite its acute horror, is just "one intensely painful day which reminds you of your flaws and failures like no other." So get through those nasty 24 hours, people, and remember: as amazing as it might seem, things could be worse.

Mindjack.com, Influential Cyber-Culture Blog, Has Not Been Updated Since November, 2006

2008-01-27T08:41:00.001-05:00

Mindjack.com, a venerable New York-based cyber-culture ezine that went live in 1999, has been lying in a state of suspended animation for fourteen months, leading observers to believe that it has posted its last story. Founded by Donald Melanson, a self-described "media junkie and technological inquisitor," Mindjack.com faithfully chronicled the rise of cyber-culture with the aid of a stable of high-profile contributing writers, including Justin Hall and Cory Doctorow.

As recently as November, 2007, the site contained a notice that the site was "retooling and should be ready to go in a few weeks" but no signs of life have emerged from the servers of Mindjack.com since that time. The site might still rise from its current coma; but because this seems unlikely, we award it our "Dead But Well Preserved" award.

Three Ghosties (Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved)

"Internet '96:" a Jaundiced Look Back at the Late 20th Century Web

2008-01-26T16:38:00.000-05:00

What was it like surfing the Web of 1996? A fellow named Wickensworth who runs a site called ekarj.com has put together an amusing exhibit called "Internet '96" which purports to answer this question using screen shots culled from the Internet Archive. "Internet '96" provides a fun, eye-opening trip down memory lane, when website designers didn't know a JPEG from a GIF, big brands didn't have a clue, 14.4Kbps modems ruled the on-ramps to the "Information Superhighway" (remember that corny phrase?)" and the world had somehow gone batty for "101 Dalmatians."

Ghost Blogs of Yahoo

2008-01-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

Ghost Blogs of Yahoo)" src="http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/images/ghost.gif" border="0" />Of Yahoo's 26 "official" Blogs, eight of them haven't been updated in the last month. Two of them were last updated in September of 2007. We're not sure why these Blogs are "calling in sick;" could it be low morale among the Yahooligans? A lack of things to say? Burnout? Whatever the reason, it's not a healthy sign for Yahoo.

Bix Blog
I'm not sure what "Bix" was, but this Blog was last updated on 11/1/07
http://blog.bix.com/

JumpCut Blog
This service is still online, but the Blog is showing its age; it was last updated more than a month ago.
http://blog.jumpcut.com/

Upcoming.org News
Not sure what "Upcoming" was or is, but the Blog is definitely dead (last updated 11/22/07)
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/news/

Yahoo! 360° Product Blog
A Blog about Yahoo's failed social network; last update 10/24/07
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/product_360

Yahoo! Digital Home
The product is still alive, but the "Happy Holidays" message marks this Blog as severely underutilized; updated 11/20/07
http://ydigitalhomeblog.com/

Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog
This Blog is looking tired, and was last updated 12/18/07.
http://www.ylocalblog.com/

Yahoo! Research Berkeley Blog
This crusty Blog was abandoned last September.
http://www.yahooresearchberkeley.com/blog/

Yahoo Music Blog
The music world is falling apart, and so is this Blog, last updated 9/30/07.
http://ymusicblog.com/

Whatever Happened to... BabyPressConference.com?

2008-01-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

BabyPressConference.com was a prize-winning business idea. It offered parents a chance to stream live pictures of their newborns to other folks who couldn't be at the hospital. What better way to tap into the ego-stream of proud mothers and fathers? But it failed in 2002 and few even remember this site, which before it died had become a bona fide media darling.

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The Dead Roam Here (Dead URL Report, January 15-21 2008)

2008-01-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

The following sites can no longer be found, which means that the sites have been abandoned by their owners. There's no necessary evidence of foul play here, just the usual phenomenon of the Web, snakelike, sloughing off its dead skin. Caution: the dead roam here!

http://www.aberlaw.net
http://www.charminbilly.com
http://www.conciergetech.com
http://www.endeavor-mortgage.com
http://www.eflondon.org
http://www.directpizzacompany.com
http://www.effectivecampaigning.com
http://www.gowithdiamond.com
http://www.highbankracing.com
http://www.jeffreyarcher.org
http://www.kingsbanquet.com
http://www.legaltx.com
http://www.londonconstructionco.com
http://www.matthewslandgroup.com
http://www.paradisedeli.com
http://www.productpop.com
http://www.scorpionpower.com
http://www.selectpayment.com
http://www.seodriver.com
http://www.salesrecruitment.com
http://www.southsidelending.com
http://www.tenhomebusinesses.com
http://www.tokyojoesstudios.com
http://www.toltecfabrics.com
http://www.towersupplies.com

The Dead Roam Here (Dead URL Report, January 1-15 2008)

2008-01-18T11:24:00.000-05:00

Quite a few sites have mysteriously disappeared in the past few weeks. Has the Web, having reached its outward boundaries, beginning to collapse inward? Without further ado, here are the latest sites to enter the "realm of the disappeared" where only the dead roam:

Absolute Movies
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Includes movie news and reviews."
URL: http://absolutemovies.com/
Current URL occupant: CPC Advertising Squatter (caution: pop-up alert)

As a Man Thinketh
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Inspirational thoughts."
Current URL occupant: Generic ISP hosting page
URL: http://www.books.neweb.net/

Clean Pigeon Society
Description: (from Yahoo directory): "Founder, Byron Priebe, wants to marshall creative expression in order to arrive at an altered interpretation of the world."
URL: http://www.cleanpigeonsociety.com/
Current URL occupant: GoDaddy.com Parked Page

Didn't I Already Pay for This Movie?
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Calling on all moviegoers to boycott the companies that advertise at the movies."
URL: http://www.didntialreadypayforthismovie.com/
Current URL occupant: Nothing

Evolution of the Universe
Description (from Yahoo directory): "An axiomatic set for a mathematical model of the evolution in the universe."
URL: http://www.dakhi.org
Current URL occupant: CPC Advertising Squatter

God Dimension
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Letter written by Ryan Roe to explain God, the mind, and the universe."
URL: http://www.goddimension.com
Current URL occupant: CPC Advertising Squatter

HumanPath
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Forum for remaining human in a world of machines."
URL: http://www.humanpath.com/
Current URL occupant: Server Not Found Page

Interface Monthly
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Business technology magazine. Online subscription."
URL: http://www.interfacemonthly.com
Current URL occupant: "For Sale" notice

The Company Project
Description (from Yahoo directory): "A social and human project mandating that the human life is a unique and unrepeatable treasure and should belong to each one of us."
URL: http://www.thecompanyproject.com/
Current URL occupant: ISP login page

Vortex.net
Description (from Yahoo directory): "Source for news, information and analysis on the convergence of the Internet, telephone, and television networking industries, as well as the equipment and service industries."
URL: http://www.vortex.net/
Current URL occupant: redirect page which points to a "File Not Found" page

"10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed" Site Shut Down for Maintenance

2008-01-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

The Website entitled "10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed," located at http://www.10reasons.org, is "down for maintenance for a few days, possibly weeks." So far, the site has tallied 5,777 reasons for civilization's demise -- could it be that the site's founders concluded that this was enough to prove their case?

Conde Nast's Flip.com Flops, Will Be Downgraded to Widget Status

2008-01-12T21:36:00.000-05:00

Flip.com was an elaborate social network for girls created by CondeNet, the digital arm of Old Media powerhouse Conde Nast. Its beta launch in late 2006 was for girls only, but it allowed those of the male persuasion in when it officially opened in early 2007.

Flip.com used an attractive scrapbook-like interface for its members to express their thoughts. Reviewers judged its feature set well-executed, and naturally, CondeNast brought out all the big PR guns to promote it, resulting in ample coverage in Old Media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal.

Unfortunately, Flip.com flopped when it came to attracting enough traffic to justify CondeNet's investment in it. In fact, according to Alexa, Flip.com's current rank of 75,513 made it less popular than disobey.com, the site you're reading now. So it was inevitable that the plug would be pulled, and it was last week, when it was announced that Flip.com would be downgraded from a Website to a mere application that would parasitically attach itself to Myspace.com and Facebook.com.

Flip joins recent social networking casualty MingleNow.com (bankrolled by Yahoo) as the latest high-stakes social networking catastrophe. Others will surely follow suit as consolidation in the social networking space continues throughout 2008.

From The Steve Gilliard Files: "How to Read a 10Q" Financial Reporting

2008-01-07T16:41:00.000-05:00

By the Spring of 2001, Steve Gilliard had come to the realization that the only way to win online arguments with his many critics on Netslaves.com was with facts, not assertions, and so was born his "How to Read a 10Q," which ran from April through May.

"How to Read a 10Q" was a big hit on Netslaves.com, and I encouraged Steve to market the concept as a short business book. Steve was receptive to the idea but was less enthused with writing an actual proposal, so the book concept was still-born. Still, we are left with nine marvelous articles (plus an intro) providing a blend of hard facts, terse (and often hilariously funny) commentary, plus Steve's keen-eyed analysis that's eminently readable today, even though most of the companies Steve discussed are gone and forgotten.

These articles are being made available as a complete online set for the first time since their initial publication on Netslaves.com in 2001. Make sure you scroll down to read the comments that Steve made during post-publication discussion -- he would often lurk and strike with an able epithet when you least expected it!

Introduction (Exploring Public Documents (A Forensic Analysis of Failed Internet Companies) (April 22, 2001)
"I only learned how to do this over years of training and research. It was not easy to learn, so there is no reason to feel bad about not knowing it. Examining the earnings of small, public companies can prevent you from making serious errors in the future."

Part 1: IVillage.com (April 19, 2001)
"IVillage has lost $384.3 million since it began operation in 1995. It has lost $351 million of that sum since 1998. This is the largest single loss of any dotcom and could go higher. "

Part 2: Salon (April 20, 2001)
"In our look at Salon, we see a company which is losing money steadily, with no real hope of profitability, not now or in the future."

Part 3: Razorfish (April 23, 2001)
"Word on the street, and from former Fish employees, is that their customers were pissed with both attitude and delivery."

Part 4: Juno.com (April 24, 2001)
"One gets the feeling that they are nibbling at the edges of solutions and they may never be able to capture the audience they need to survive."

Part 5: AskJeeves.com (April 27, 2001)
"Watch the losses climb. $6m to $52m to $189m. Wow. You have to wonder what management was doing to get their losses to exponentially increase every year, besides their silly commercials and marketing campaigns which no one seems to remember."

Part 6: Webvan.com (April 28, 2001)
"So who doesn't it compete with? Crack dealers and gun stores? This is everyone from Kroger and Piggly Wiggly to CVS and Rite Aid to Wal-Mart and K-Mart. They are taking on American retailing."

Part 7: LoudCloud.com (May 3, 2001)
"We are a high falutin' Web hostin' kind of company. You will pay us a lot of money to use our software, which seems to have had its genesis in technologies Netscape was using in 1996."

Part 8: TheGlobe.com (May 4, 2001)
"By going public, the Globe ensured that a few key investors would get rich, but as we all know, the stock has dropped to being nearly valueless today."

Part 9: Agency.com (May 7, 2001)
"They aren't as embarassing as Razorfish, but because the recipe is flavored differently doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't eating liver. Nor does it necessarily mean that they are hiring experienced people who actually know what they are doing."

Can Blogging Actually Kill You?

2008-01-07T03:07:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has a short but interesting article triggered by the much-publicized heart attack of Om Malik, who runs the popular GigaOm Blog (note: I have been linked to by Om and consider him an online friend, although we've never actually spoken or even e-mailed each other).

As the article notes, being a successful Blogger means being a one-man (or woman), "twenty-four by seven content machine" in an environment wherein there is no fixed publishing deadline. Instead one is in a constant race with competitors (many of whom may be in different time zones) for link-worthy posts. Add the pressure to "monetize" one's pages and to publish frequently enough so that unforgiving Google (which counts newer pages as more significant than old ones) keeps you spidered every hour or so and you've got a prescription for a heart attack. I don't even need to mention how Blogging can reduce your intake of fresh air or Vitamin D through sunlight; the average American only spends 10 minutes outdoors and I'd imagine that the average Blogger only spends about a minute outdoors every two days.

One of my online buddies used to drink two gallons of diet cola each day as he created his online content, smoked a pile of cigarettes and continuously inhaled laser toner fumes. He's still alive after years of Blogging but another good friend, Steve Gilliard, died before he was 40. I can't say that Blogging killed Steve but it sure didn't help his health any. What I can say is that when you're Blogging in a conversational way, i.e. via the "comment" function or in a non-Blogging environment such as a Bulletin Board, your adrenaline levels spike and ebb violently during the day and night. Flame wars (which can be highly addictive) play havoc with your serotonin levels and sleep habits, which everybody knows is bad for you. Add to this the kind of substances (legal and perhaps non-legal) that you have to consume to stay "in the Blogging zone" (a zone slightly to the East of total Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and it's obvious that Blogging isn't just dangerous: it's a killer with the power to take out an entire generation.

I suppose one can make an argument, Freakonomics-style, that Blogging may have saved as many as it's killed. After all, when you're Blogging you're not likely crash your car into a pole or be run down by a bicycle messenger. But the same could be said for any activity that keeps you off the streets and roads.

I firmly believe that as we enter what techno-optimist Bill Gates calls "our second digital decade," we'll learn enough about the long term effects of our increased dependence on technology to scare us to death. The larger question is whether these revelations will be sufficient to cause many to rethink their total immersion in cyberspace and follow the course of Jennifer Ringley, who at the peak of her cyber-fame chucked it all and disappeared back into the analog world.

MSNBC.com Pays Homage to CourtTV.com and the Museum of Interactive Failure

2008-01-04T15:55:00.000-05:00

Thanks to MSNBC.com writer Helen A.S. Popkin for linking to the Museum of Interactive Failure in her lengthy (and very funny) online memorial to CourtTV.com, which was published today on MSNBC.com. I agree with Ms. Popkin that Time-Warner's decision to shut down CourtTV.com was "lame" but unfortunately it seems to have no shortage of lameness when it comes to interactive media.

You Can Own a Genuine Piece of Web 1.0 History

2008-01-03T10:59:00.000-05:00

If you're in Chicago next week, you're well-positioned to own a genuine piece of Web 1.0 history, because the assets of Bolt.com, a Web 1.0-based, teen-oriented social networking site will be sold at auction.

Like latter-day social networks such as Facebook.com and Myspace.com, Bolt moved quickly from its user-generated grass roots to a commercial site with major brand sponsors eager to relentlessly target Bolt's young, male audience. Because a sizeable percentage of this demographic think nothing of stealing copyrighted material, in 2006 the site was targeted for massive copyright violations by Universal Music and folded in August of 2007.

The lesson from Bolt's demise is clear: those who live by the teen may well die by the teen. In fact, I'd say that there's at least a 50-50 chance that we'll be poring over the Facebook.com auction by 2011 (after all, about half of the images on Facebook.com are stolen; all that's needed is a few strategic lawsuits). In the meantime, enjoy the pickings at the Bolt.com auction.

Look Back in Anger (The Netslaves New Media Caste System Revisited Nine Years Later)

2008-01-01T04:55:00.001-05:00

The simple concept behind the Netslaves Project (1998-2003) was that there was a hidden "caste" system which invisibly controlled the career mobility possibilities of tech workers. Now that almost a decade's gone by since The Netslaves New Media Caste System was formulated, it's time for a quick look back at how each Caste has fared. While many have fallen and a few have risen, the system remains remarkably intact.

Mole People (Level 1)
Back in 1998, "Living Large" meant burrowing out a virtual cave on "obscure chat channels, restricted-access newsgroups, abandoned BBS' -- basically, anywhere far away from the maddening crowd." Today, however, while Mole People live "in the crowd," on social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, their penchant for narcissistic paranoia remains intact: the only thing that's different is that it's easier for marketers to reach them (which makes them even more paranoid). While Mole People used to be flat broke back in the late 1990's, today many of them are making up to $.60 per day via Google Adsense, just enough to keep these tiny mammals alive.

Social Workers (Level 2)
Social Workers ("the tireless servants who endure the endless stream of nonsense emanating from the Net's Tower of Babel") have taken a major hit in the past decade, because chats and BBS's have been replaced by texting and ephemeral Notice announcements on social networks. But members of this long-suffering Caste are still around, breaking up fights on mailing lists, controlling comments on Blogs, and otherwise keeping anarchy at bay. One would think that Social Workers would have flocked to Social Networks, but most of them are so frightened by the idea of a random unmoderated Facebook-style encounter that they continue to huddle in their own lonely sites, from which they offer words of wisdom that nobody reads.

Cops & Streetwalkers (Level 3)
The career possibilities of both Cops and Streetwalkers have actually improved in the past nine years, because their role is now to manage primal urges in a total surveillance society. This can mean big bucks for Cyber-Cops, especially in places like Iran and China, where U.S. technology is being used to round up people who just can't adjust to a totalitarian life. Streetwalkers have taken a hit, given that online porn's subscription model is weakening, but all you have to do is peruse Craigs List in any U.S. city to see that the world's oldest profession is very much alive online.

Garbagemen (Level 4)
Very little has changed in the world of Garbagemen (AKA "techies") in the past ten years, because software (especially the Microsoft variety) continues to be buggy and users continue to get dumber (especially the young ones, who've never even seen a circuit board). But the hellish life of your average troubleshooter is still brightened whenever he thinks of Linux, which remains a beautiful, unattainable dream he'll probably take to his grave.

Cab Drivers (Level 5)
Freelance contract slaves took a major hit during the dotcom downturn, and a fair number of them are driving real cabs today. But there's still a vast need for low-level content production people, and Google is employing vast numbers of them today (without any fancy benefits, of course). Living hand to mouth will never go out of style, here or in Bangalore.

Fry Cooks (Level 6)
The past nine years haven't been kind to Fry Cooks (AKA project managers and mid-level managers). Those which escaped the technology downturn by getting a "sane job at a stable company" have often seen the rug pulled on these same companies by disruptive external forces, including outsourcing, the endless need for more profits, and yes, the Internet itself. But there will always be a need for Fry Cooks in this business. After all, if they really went extinct, Microsoft would have nobody to sell PowerPoint to.

Gold Diggers and Gigolos (Level 7)
The depraved social butterflies of Web 1.0 have been almost completely wiped out, which is a very good thing, because these invasive species were responsible for more waste in the party-crazed culture of the late 1990's than anyone. Unfortunately, they've been replaced by an equally evil caste of smooth-faced, jargon-spouting miscreants who continue to shmooze unabated at conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and various Web 2.0 conferences. These shows waste more money than all the parties conducted from 1995 to 2000, but as long as Google's footing the bill nobody cares.

Hustlers and Sharks (Level 8)
The big consultancies that ruled Web 1.0 (Sapient, Viant, MarchFirst, Razorfish) are history, so this Caste is virtually extinct. Few miss them; even fewer understand what they ever really did to earn their massive salaries. But many of these sharp-eyed predators are still employed, often in the digital subdivisions of massive advertising holding companies. Sharks can smell blood oozing from a big brand from miles away, and they're still first in line with a "turnkey solution traced in blood."

Street Vendors (Level 9)
Street Vendors ("executives of countless New Media start-ups who hawk their wares from dusty roadside dives along the Information Superhighway") are still around, although their lingo has changed profoundly, and so have their wares. Anyone using the words "viral, social media optimization," "conversation," "behavioral targeting," "widgets" or "monetization" is likely affiliated with these guys, whose only mantra is "Exit Strategy," and whose only chance of success is a shot at another IPO or an acquisition by Google, Microsoft, or perhaps even a bumbling Old Media conglomerate.

Priests and Madmen (Level 10)
You don't hear people mentioning Mark Andreeson, Steve Case, Kevin Kelly, Howard Rhinegold, Jaron Lanier, or Esther Dyson much anymore, but just because these Web 1.0 visionaries are old hat doesn't mean that they haven't been replaced by a younger, hipper crowd, many of whom now work for Google. Ego and psychotropism is very much alive in Silicon Valley, and that hasn't changed a whit in nine years.

Robots (Level 11)
Robots did very well in the past nine years. While lesser Caste members were tearing their hair out over lost paper wealth and crushing AMT rates, the Robots simply soldiered on in mechanical fashion and built multi-billion dollar companies whose growth is fueled exclusively by the destruction of all prior human institutions. Google's founders typify the new face of "Kill, Crush, Deploy" in a particularly frightening way, because they appear to be actual human beings. But this illusion is just the result of better simulation technology. To these perpetual winners, humanity is merely a resource to be scanned, indexed, and reconfigured, a temporary problem that will be transcended someday by a more elegant solution.

God bless them all.

An Interesting Thread on Steve Gilliard's Early Writings

2008-01-01T02:35:00.000-05:00

As you may know, I was Steve Gilliard's editor for several years when we were both associated with the Netslaves project. Some might call Netslaves.com a pioneering pre-Blogospheric experiment in controlled high-pressure rage channeling; others an incredibly botched attempt at building a bona fide Web brand. By the time it was all over I was hopeless, penniless, and emptying dumpsters in Yonkers to stay alive. Steve wasn't doing much better, and neither was Bill Lessard, Netslaves.com's co-founder.

The irony that those who sought to chronicle the worst of the dotcom era were undone by the same destructive madness that took down the "New Economy" has never been lost on me. But that's all ancient history now: what counts is that Netslaves.com incubated the great writing talent that became Steve Gilliard (1964-2007), and some very talented folks are keeping the Gilliard flame alive at a site called The Group News Blog. This week, they're looking back at Steve's early writings, many of which have been archived here. Check out the discussion for a good look at Steve's work both while at Netslaves.com and elsewhere.