Like a fragile flower, continually littered by link rot, the web is not helped at all when outfits like Storify just rip their content out of the web’s fabric.
Three years ago, for no real reason beyond the imagination in my head, I published a video featuring 35 web site skeletons dancing to the beat of that toe-tapping Queen song (a midi version).
Storify, and maybe more need to get in the act. I tweeted a call out asking for suggestions as comments to the video
I'm going to update Another Web Bites the Dust for 2018, all the "free web stuff" that has died or been buried. Please add names of corpses to the comments. https://t.co/nt53jVYd75
— Alan Levine (@cogdog) December 12, 2017
So far, I got…
Zero.
I’m not impressed by Impression Data
The massive activity, all the data on my tweet, all of which produced no responses to me request. **** I forgot to say “please”
I gotta say, if I were designing a BloomDog’s taxonomy for social media activity, the value of a “like” or a “retweet” would be some crumb way off to one corner of the pyramid.
The Like/Retweet mentality produces a nano shot of endorphin with the illusion we have done something. The actual impact of this activity, especially if it is the limit of your online contributions, can be easily rounded down to Nada.
Can I shame anyone into helping me? All I am looking for are once free web services that have been shuttered, mothballed, trashed. Just URLs. Is that too much to ask for?
Here was the 2015 list, that even than, was paltry. Some of these came from the Island of Dead Toys in 50+ Web Ways to Tell a Story, some came from some Wikipedia searching.
Help me, Obi Web Kenobe, tell me more. Use the comment form below. Or tweet me. But for ****’s sake do something beyond liking or retweeting this post (which means I will end up now with zero likes/retweets). Some links still work, but usually not to the original content, often a redirect to the web axe that chopped it down.
- Anyhub anyhub.com
- AskJeeves ask.com
- Aviary aviary.com
- blo.gs blo.gs
- Clipmarks clipmarks.com
- Connotea connotea.org
- Fotopedia fotopedia.com
- Friendster friendster.com
- furl furl.com
- Geocities geocities.com
- Google Answers answers.google.com
- Google Buzz buzz.google.com
- Google Helpouts helpouts.google.com
- Google Lively
- Google Notebook notebook.google.com
- Google Reader reader.google.com
- Google Wave wave.google.com
- iGoogle
- Jaiku jaiku.com
- Jaycut jaycut.com
- Jumpcut jumpcut.com
- ma.gnolia ma.gnolia.com
- Orkut orkut.google.com
- Posterous posterous.com
- pownce pownce.com
- Qik qik.com
- simpy simpy.com
- SixDegrees sixdegrees.com
- Tabblo tablo.com
- Technorati (blog search) technorati.com
- Trovebox trovebox.com
- Twitpic twitpic.com
- Xtranormal xtranormal.com
- Yahoo Auctions auctions.yahoo.com
Bring Out Your Dead Webs!
Featured Image: Bring out your dead….. flickr photo by pmarkham shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
Alan – a recent closure that has impacted the work I do scheduling meetings with teachers across the globe is Timebridge.com – I used this tool for years, and now it is gone.
https://indieweb.org/site-deaths lists a bunch more.
Thanks Steven (and others) That Indieweb site death will more than help
I have attempted to help.
Limnu Limnu.com digital whiteboards. We ran the collaboration pods at the Taylor Institute on it. Poof. Pivoted.
You know about Storify already. I used it for a digital essay in my MEd study. Other students in the same course report that Tackk has gone the same way and sadly for them, without the notice that at least Storify have given us.
Thanks! Never heard of Tackk but their web site is gone now. Fortunately, the Way Back Machine has a record http://web.archive.org/web/20160304050020/https://tackk.com/
Friendfeed http://friendfeed.com
https://paper.li/ … wait, damn … one can only hope …
“The latest Another Web Bites The Dusty Daily is out!” Yes maybe we need a list and a song for Web we wish would just go. This one? Yup
Really depressed at the moment. I can’t find my Tackks, despite your tip, and Storify will say goodbye soon!! I’ve started 2018 dressed in black…Here’s another one: http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/
It’s not ‘dead’ but Photobucket killed off all ability to direct link from other sites to your own Photobucket hosted content unless you were prepared to pay them so truly eye watering annual fee.
I wasn’t, so thousands of forum posts going back a dozen years or more that had embedded imagery now only show the broken link icon.
wikispaces if you don’t already have it is another scandalous one
Oh yes! They announced right after I made this new version
https://cogdogblog.com/2018/02/wikispaces-poops-the-web/
This was a big hurt all around, so many dead wikispaces. They could have easily preserved them, or put them into the Internet Archive.
The next one will be jam packed of dead webs/