Rotten.com was a

shock site A shock site is a website that is intended to be offensive or disturbing to its viewers, though it can also contain elements of humor or evoke (in some viewers) sexual arousal. Shock-oriented websites generally contain material such as pornograp ...

active from 1996 to 2012. The website, which had the tagline "An archive of disturbing illustration", was devoted to

morbid A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

curiosities, pictures of violent acts, deformities, autopsy or

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

photographs, depictions of

perverse Perversion is a form of human behavior which deviates from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although the term ''perversion'' can refer to a variety of forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are co ...

sex acts Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...

, and disturbing or

misanthropic Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from the Greek words μῖσ ...

historical curiosities. Founded in 1996, it was run by a developer known as Soylent Communications. Site updates slowed in 2009, with the final update in February 2012. The website's front page was last archived in February 2018.

History

In late 1996, Soylent wrote a program that identified unregistered Internet

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

s 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. Rotten.com presented itself as a bastion of online

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

, in an era when censorship rules in some countries had begun to restrict internet access. Rotten.com had a spartan layout; no

thumbnail image Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and imag ...

s 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 accident, but the developers admitted it was probably an attempted shotgun suicide. Rotten.com received an alleged image of medical personnel recovering

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

's body from a car accident, 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. The website was also one of the first websites to publish images of the

September 11 Events Pre-1600 * 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends: The Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hu ...

jumpers from the Twin Towers, under the title "Swan Dive".

Legal disputes

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 Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...

asking to take down 'trenchcoat.org', a domain bought by Rotten.com as a Trenchcoat Mafia reference, though it simply linked to Burlington Coat Factory's webpage. 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.

Rotten Library

In 2003, The Rotten Library was created as an encyclopedia to supplement the website. The Library contained hundreds of articles under 17 different headings, including culture, art, medicine, crime, travel, and the occult. Articles contained detailed research, timelines, and occasionally included previously unseen images of various well-known events. The headings inside of entries are humorous in nature, with a description of the subject (for example, a medical condition) in an informal and often insulting tone. In the entry dedicated to eating disorders, the heading above the section for bulimia is titled "Betty Bulimia."

Merchandise

Rotten.com had a store that carried t-shirts, mousemats, stickers, magnets, and bizarre DVDs.

Ancillary sites

''The Daily Rotten''

In late 1999, ''The Daily Rotten'' was started by Thomas E. Dell, which published stories on a daily basis, focusing mostly on

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, murder, suicide, abuse and

excrement Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relat ...

. ''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 Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

Mouseketeers ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised fo ...

, and/or "rottentots".

Boners.com

Rotten.com 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''

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 Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

, 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 . 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

In November 2003, the Rotten

Dead Pool A dead pool, also known as a deadpool or death pool, is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved. Modern application In the early 20th century, dead pools were popular i ...

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. A pick did not count as correct if the pick was executed or murdered, or died some other way, after the 12 months had passed.

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, and the celebrity deaths section last updated on December 31, 2021. The website itself is still live.

''Sports Dignity''

''Sports Dignity'' was a gallery of pictures showing embarrassing or NSFW incidents in sports games and tournaments.

Publications

* (pp. 194–204 consists of the Rotten Library entry for

John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...

)

References

External links

Original Rotten Library
* * {{cite web, last=Brown, first=Janelle, url=http://www.salon.com/2001/03/05/rotten_2/, title=The Internet's public enema No. 1 , work=

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

, date=2001-03-05
Original Source Code/Mirror
Shock sites Internet properties established in 1997 Internet properties disestablished in 2017 Online obscenity controversies