Rotten.com

rotten.com
Screenshot from March 18, 2010
Type of site
Shock site
Available inEnglish
CommercialNo
RegistrationNo
Launched1996
Current statusDefunct

Rotten.com was an American photographic sharing shock site, promoting morbid curiosity and death, active from 1996 to 2012, known for hosting macabre images of blood and gore, death and decomposition, and graphic violence. Founded in 1996, it was run by a developer known as Soylent Communications.[1] Site updates slowed in 2009, with the final update in February 2012.[2] The website's front page was last archived in February 2018.[3]

History

In late 1996, Soylent wrote a program that identified unregistered Internet domain names consisting of one word with a corresponding dictionary entry. "Rotten" was one of the unclaimed words, and Soylent went on to register Rotten.com in the same year.[4] Rotten.com presented itself as a bastion of online free speech, in an era when censorship rules in some countries had begun to restrict internet access.[2]

Rotten.com had a sparse layout; no thumbnail images were present next to links, and the links had one-line descriptions couched in morbid humor, often carrying no hints at their content. Content consisted of user-submitted images, with developers rarely posting content themselves. Though submissions were marked as "real", often they were misattributed; in one instance, a file submitted as "motorcycle.jpg" was given the description of depicting a motorbike crash but the developers admitted it was probably an attempted shotgun suicide.[4]

Rotten.com received an alleged image of medical personnel recovering Princess Diana's body from a car crash, though this was later confirmed as fake. However, due to wide interest in the crash, the image was posted anyway, resulting in a large traffic spike.[5] The website was also one of the first to publish images of the September 11 jumpers from the Twin Towers, under the title "Swan Dive".[6][7]

Rotten.com also hosted autopsy videos and forensic case and crime scene videos taken by coroners and forensic services worldwide. Users could submit material via email or request that developers post images or videos that were not publicly available. Rotten.com was one of the earliest adult/graphic content websites to feature pornography (both fake and real), violence, gore, decomposition, and the promotion of death and morbid curiosity.

On June 24, 2005, Alberto Gonzales, then US Attorney General, ordered the removal of the "Fuck of the Month" section along with content from several ancillary sites.[8] In response, the site's moderator posted a removal notice criticizing supporters of both Gonzales and the George W. Bush administration for enabling censorship.[9]

Ancillary sites

The Daily Rotten

In late 1999, The Daily Rotten was started by Thomas E. Dell,[10] which published news stories on a daily basis, focusing mostly on terrorism, murder, suicide, abuse and excrement.

The Gaping Maw

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 improved Rotten.com's standing in many communities since it 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!".[9] In January 2006, The Gaping Maw came back online with some articles heavily edited.

Rotten Dead Pool

In November 2003, the Rotten Dead Pool was launched. The Dead Pool was a game in which players picked ten people they believed would die over the course of the next 12 months. A point was awarded to a player for each of their correct picks.[11]

NNDB

In mid-2002, Rotten.com launched NNDB, an online database. NNDB is a steadily-updated website that contained information about thousands of notable people. The news section ceased updating on January 16, 2016,[12] and the celebrity deaths section last updated on December 31, 2021.[13] The website itself is still live.

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)

References

  1. ^ "The Internet's public enema No. 1". salon.com. March 6, 2001. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Audra Schroeder. "The legacy of Rotten.com". kernelmag.dailydot.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  3. ^ "rotten.com". February 10, 2018. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "FAQ @ rotten dot com". Archived from the original on May 16, 2005. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  5. ^ "diana fallout @ rotten dot com". Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  6. ^ "The Awful Forums - the World Trade Center is on fire". truegamer.net. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 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.
  7. ^ Junod, Tom (September 9, 2016). "The Falling Man". esquire.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  8. ^ Jardin, Xeni (June 22, 2005). "Rotten.com: our gapingmaw.com and other sites shut in anticipation of 2257". Boing Boing. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  9. ^ a b "The Gaping Maw - rotten.com Editorial". June 25, 2005. Archived from the original on June 25, 2005. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  10. ^ "Daily Rotten legal". Archived from the original on February 10, 2006. Retrieved January 8, 2006.
  11. ^ Kennedy, Kathleen (February 1, 2008), Who's in your celebrity dead pool?, Maclean, archived from the original on January 12, 2014
  12. ^ "NNDB: Tracking the entire world". Archived from the original on October 14, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  13. ^ "Died in 2021". Archived from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
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