In this house we call it Football, not Soccer!

Another top screamer

Rotten.com: Difference between revisions

From Screamer Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(69 intermediate revisions by 17 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{TOCDefault}}
{{Featured}}
{{ContentWarning}}
{{Closed}}
{{Closed}}
{{Infobox
{{Infobox
|name = Rotten.com
|title = Rotten.com
|Picture = Rotten.png
|image = Rotten.png
|Maker = Soylent
|imagecaption = Snapshot of '''rotten.com''', before closing down.
|Type = Shock site
|maker = Thomas "Soylent" Dell
|Release date = 1997
|type = Shock site
|Quote = the snapshot of '''rotten.com''', before closing down.
|date = 1996
}}
}}
'''Rotten.com''' was a [[shock site]], which collects real pictures of dead people, disgusting diseases, deformed bodies, and more, After a long closure, the site has been closed, this is the first [[shock site]] ever created on the internet, most of the pictures are sent by many people, asked in the question
{{quote|
<choose uncached>
<option>PURE EVIL SINCE 1996</option>
<option>Flush please</option>
<option>When Hell is full, the dead will walk the earth</option>
</choose>
|One of the many quotes on Rotten.com.}}
<div style="overflow-wrap: anywhere;">
'''Rotten.com''' was a [[shock site]] that collected pictures of dead people, diseases, deformed bodies, violent acts, perverse sex acts, and other [[wikipedia:Curiosity#Morbid_curiosity|morbid curiosities]]. It stopped getting new articles in 2009, and was eventually closed in 2018.<ref name=":0" /> It was one of the first shock sites to be created on the Internet. Pictures were largely submitted by the site's userbase, but staff would occasionally buy images or take images themselves.<ref name=":1" />


The website was first registered in 1996, and was first hosted by a person "Soylent", he made a program that can easily identify unregistered internet domain names, only consisting of one word on a dictionary entry, after searching, he found a word ''Rotten'' was one of the unclaimed words on the domain, so he later went on to register with ''Rotten.com'', this is where it starts off, Rotten.com has based itself as an online free speech, in a time, when censorship rules had begun to restrict internet access from many people.
==History==
The website was first registered in 1996 by a developer named "Soylent".<ref><nowiki>https://www.salon.com/2001/03/05/rotten_2/</nowiki></ref><ref>knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/rottencom</ref> He wrote a program that could easily identify unregistered internet domain names consisting of a single dictionary word. After some searching, he found that the word "rotten" was one of these unclaimed names, and later went on to register Rotten.com.<ref name=":1">web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/<nowiki>http://www.rotten.com/FAQ/</nowiki> (<u>NOTE</u>: This link contains graphic images!)</ref> Rotten.com postured itself as an online free speech platform, in a time where [[wikipedia:Internet_censorship|internet censorship]] laws and regulations had begun to restrict access to material online.<ref name=":0">web.archive.org/web/20191005094145/<nowiki>https://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/10700/rotten-history-shock-site/</nowiki></ref>


The site receives a lot of popularity, resulting in a lot of huge spikes for a couple of months, due to the post of medical personnel recovering Princess Diana's body from a car accident<ref>web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/rotten.com/about/press.html - a picture of Princess Diana</ref>, after a while, the picture was revealed to be fake, The website was also one of the first websites to publish images of the September 11th jumpers from the Twin Towers, under the title 'Swan Dive'.
The site received a lot of attention and coverage following an incident in which the site posted alleged images of medical personnel recovering [[wikipedia:Diana,_Princess_of_Wales|Princess Diana]]'s body from her fatal car accident. This picture was eventually revealed to be fake.<ref>web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/rotten.com/about/press.html</ref> The website was also one of the first websites to publish images of jumpers from the September 11 terrorist attacks, under the title "Swan Dive".<ref>esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/ (<u>NOTE</u>: This article contains graphic images!)</ref> The site hosted a picture, named "Motorcycle" because it arrived as "motorcycle.jpg". The picture featured a man with his face blown off because of an attempted shotgun suicide. A attorney wrote to the site to take down the picture, however the attorney did not provide enough details for the request<ref name=":1" />.


They are also known for the images used from the infamous article of [[Encyclopedia Dramatica]] known as [[Offended]] and [[The Pain Series]], which is a montage of vulgar content including medical photographs, animal cruelty, gruesome and surrealistically abhorrent images, and pornographic artworks.
The website has also had multiple legal threats. In March 2000, the website received a legal threat from The Coca-Cola Company because of an image on the site featuring a Coca-Cola bottle up a woman's anus<ref>web.archive.org/web/20080219061733/rotten.com/legal/desist-coke.html</ref>. On May 17th, 2000 the Pillsbury Company sent a legal threat to Soylent Communications because of an image featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy in an oven looking at a woman cooking their species.<ref>web.archive.org/web/20080215160253/rotten.com/legal/desist-pillsbury.html</ref>.
=='''Infamous Images from Rotten.com'''==
*PenisBird, a first picture that features a Bird, the image depicts a Scarlet Macaw standing on a man's penis, there is an animation version of this image, where the bird is animated to make it look like he was ejaculating on man's penis.<ref>'''Penis Bird''': - web.archive.org/web/20030407100400/smoke.rotten.com/bird/</ref>
*Helicopter.jpg, the picture depicts a man with his head completely open, the name implies that the man dies from the helicopter accident, although it doesn't almost resemble someone's death on the helicopter, it was likely to be a shotgun, the release date of this image remains uncertain, the image is also featured on Ebaumsworld.<ref>web.archive.org/web/20040113023130/poetry.rotten.com/helicopter/<br>cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/366987/787508.jpg</ref>
=='''Frequently Asked Questions'''==
*'' Motorcycle.jpg ''<ref>web.archive.org/web/20050110102438im/rotten.com/FAQ/motorcycle-th.jpg </ref> is a very gruesome picture that was particularly used on every gore sites, including [[Encyclopedia Dramatica]], and more, the owner got received tons of email after this, for being the most disconcerting things people have ever seen, on his "Frequently Asked Questions" page<ref>web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/rotten.com/FAQ/ - Frequently Asked Questions page</ref>, the owner answers this question, and describes the whole content of the shocking image, the owner asks that it was more likely to be attempted shotgun suicide, the man surprisingly lived after finish recovering, the attorney wrote a message that the owner demanding to take the picture down, but it was unable to provide enough details for us to comply with his request.


They also have a merchandise site that includes T-Shirts, mugs, mousemats, stickers, magnets, as well as their strange Dvds, mentioned on the FAQ page.{{Cite}}
Soylent Communications also registered a site, named '''trenchcoat.org'''<ref>web.archive.org/web/20000901050221/trenchcoat.org</ref> because of the [[wikipedia:Columbine High School massacre|Columbine High School massacre]]. The site depicted as the official site for the Trenchcoat Mafia. At the bottom of the page, there was a link titled "who to sue" which linked to the website of the [[wikipedia:Burlington (department store)|Burlington Coat Factory]]. This would result in a legal threat from Burlington<ref>web.archive.org/web/20080219054935/rotten.com/legal/desist-trench.html</ref>.
=='''Reference'''==
 
<u>NOTE</u>: The following links contains extremely [[graphic content]]!
==PenisBird==
PenisBird''',''' also known as the "The Incident With The Bird" is a shock image hosted on Rotten.com and [[Encyclopedia Dramatica]]. The image displays a close-up picture of a naked man standing in the middle of a concrete parking lot with a [[wikipedia:Scarlet_macaw|scarlet macaw]] perched on the man's erect penis. Links to the image and ASCII versions were spammed on the [[wikipedia:Slashdot|Slashdot]] messageboards<ref>hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=6240&cid=977380</ref>. There is an edited [[GIF]] version of PenisBird which shows the macaw masturbating the man's penis with semen discharging from it<ref>{{EDDomain|File:Jackoff110we.gif}}</ref>.
==Soylent Communications==
'''Soylent Communications''' is a web-hosting company that hosted multiple shock sites and pornography sites.
===Rotten Library===
{{Quote|We are all in this together, but we all die alone.|Rotten Library}}
The '''Rotten Library''' was created in 2003 as an encyclopedia to supplement the website. The library contained hundreds of articles written in a humorous fashion under 17 different headings, including culture, art, medicine, crime, travel, and the occult.
===Celebrity Morgue===
[[File:Celebrity Morgue.png|thumb|The Celebrity Morgue in 1999.]]
The '''Celebrity Morgue''' was created on March 6th, 1999 dedicated to dead celebrities with pictures of their corpses or information about their death. It featured multiple celebrities and historical figures such as [[wikipedia:Tupac Shakur|Tupac Shakur]], [[wikipedia:Adolf Hitler|Adolf Hitler]], [[wikipedia:Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln]], [[wikipedia:Joseph Stalin|Joseph Stalin]], [[wikipedia:Kurt Cobain|Kurt Cobain]], [[wikipedia:John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy]] and [[wikipedia:Jason Thirsk|Jason Thirsk]]. The site was last updated in 2005 and stayed up until 2018.
===Sports Dignity===
{{Quote|Thoughts and ruminations from your fearless leader and other various minions|The Gaping Maw}}
The '''Sports Dignity''' was another site hosted by Soylent hosting shocking or offensive photos related to sports, such as athletes flipping off the camera or exposing their genitalia.
===Rotten Dead Pool===
{{Quote|FEEL THE PAIN BABY|Rotten Dead Pool}}
The '''Rotten Dead Pool''' was a game released in November 2003, where players would pick around ten people who would die in the next 12 months. If a player was correct with celebrity dead, a point would be given. However, a player would not be given a point if it was incorrect. The Number 1 player before the site shutdown was named MitchellStirling, who had a total score of 7<ref>web.archive.org/web/20180104140228/<br>deadpool.rotten.com/winners/</ref>.
===[[Rate My Poo]]===
[[Rate My Poo]] was a website where people could vote pictures of other people's fecal matter from a scale of 1 to 10. In 2019, the site shutdown and every page redirected to a picture of Donald Trump. Later in 2020 when Joe Biden won the election, the site redirected to [https://bonequest.com bonequest.com] and later another pornography site known as "Rate My Pussy". There were multiple variations of Rate My Poo aswell, such as:
* Rate My Kitten
* Rate My Vomit
* Rate My Kitty
* Rate My Puppy
* Rate My Boobies
* Rate My Boner
* Rate My Finger
===The Gaping Maw===
{{Quote|Thoughts and ruminations from your fearless leader and other various minions|The Gaping Maw}}
[[File:Gapingmaw.jpg|thumb|left|A screenshot of The Gaping Maw.]]
'''The Gaping Maw''' was a [[shock site]] affiliated with [[Rotten.com]] that gained attention for its offensive content. It was established in 2000 as an editorial and commentary archive. The majority of the articles were written by cartoonist Tristan Farnon, known by the alias "Spigot," who was also involved in projects like Jerkcity and Leisure Town. These articles often featured news satire and reflections on modern society. The inclusion of The Gaping Maw and the [[Rotten.com|Rotten Library]], which provided intellectual and humane perspectives, helped improve Rotten.com's reputation beyond being just a puerile "shock" site.
 
However, on June 22, 2005, The Gaping Maw was forced to shut down temporarily due to new governmental regulations related to the distribution of pornography. These regulations, specified under 18 U.S.C. 2257, required age verification of models. In compliance with the law, all articles were removed from the website, and the site's title page displayed a statement expressing disappointment with the passage of these laws. The page was prominently labeled "CENSORED BY US GOVERNMENT."
 
The Gaping Maw eventually returned online in January 2006, but with some articles remaining unpublished and othersh heavily edited to comply with the regulatory requirements. Despite these changes, the website continued to offer its distinct brand of content to its audience. The site was eventually shutdown on a unknown date.
===Bonsai Kitten===
'''BonsaiKitten.com''' was a hoax shock site made in December 2000 by a graduate student at [[wikipedia:Massachusetts Institute of Technology|Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. It claimed that kittens could be "raised in [[Jarsquatter|jars]]". Multiple people thought the site was serious, leading to the site being reported to animal rights organizations and later investigated by the FBI. The ownership of the site [[Encyclopedia Dramatica|changed multiple times]] before finally being picked up by Soylent Communications in March 2001. The site raised concerns about free speech and animal cruelty on the internet.
==References==
<references />
<references />
== Link ==
==Videos==
*'''Wikipedia''': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten.com
<center><youtube width="320" height="180">ndE7vOqmKuY</youtube><youtube width="320" height="180">Yy2QJTo6LY8</youtube></center>
<u>NOTE</u>: The following [[shock site]] contains extremely graphic images!
==Links==
* web.archive.org/web/20040113023130/rotten.com/
<font color=yellow><u>NOTE</u>: The following [[shock site]] contains extremely [[graphic content]]!</font>
*web.archive.org/web/20040113023130/rotten.com
*'''PenisBird:''' web.archive.org/web/20000815234302/smoke.rotten.com/bird/
** '''[[GIF]] version''': edramatica.com/File:Jackoff110we.gif
*'''Rotten Library''': web.archive.org/web/20170824154553/rotten.com/library
*'''The Gaping Maw''': web.archive.org/web/20081205091013/gapingmaw.com
===Further reading===
*'''Wikipedia article:''' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten.com (This article contains content derived from this page, which is licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA].)
{{RetroScreamers}}
[[Category:Shock sites]]
[[Category:Shock sites]]
[[Category:Pornography]]
[[Category:Pornography]]
[[Category:Graphic content]]
[[Category:Graphic content]]
[[Category:1996]]
[[Category:1990s]]
[[Category:Hosts]]
[[Category:Hosts]]
[[Category:Gore]]
[[Category:Gore]]
 
[[category:Zoophilia]]
{{Comments}}
{{Comments}}
[[Category:Soylent]]

Latest revision as of 14:29, 1 April 2026

Content Warning!
 The following work contains content and material that some may find shocking. Reader discretion is advised.

Closed Website
 This article is about a website that no longer exists. Links to its archive on the Wayback Machine or a saved copy are provided.

“

Flush please

”
One of the many quotes on Rotten.com.

Rotten.com was a shock site that collected pictures of dead people, diseases, deformed bodies, violent acts, perverse sex acts, and other morbid curiosities. It stopped getting new articles in 2009, and was eventually closed in 2018.[1] It was one of the first shock sites to be created on the Internet. Pictures were largely submitted by the site's userbase, but staff would occasionally buy images or take images themselves.[2]

History

The website was first registered in 1996 by a developer named "Soylent".[3][4] He wrote a program that could easily identify unregistered internet domain names consisting of a single dictionary word. After some searching, he found that the word "rotten" was one of these unclaimed names, and later went on to register Rotten.com.[2] Rotten.com postured itself as an online free speech platform, in a time where internet censorship laws and regulations had begun to restrict access to material online.[1]

The site received a lot of attention and coverage following an incident in which the site posted alleged images of medical personnel recovering Princess Diana's body from her fatal car accident. This picture was eventually revealed to be fake.[5] The website was also one of the first websites to publish images of jumpers from the September 11 terrorist attacks, under the title "Swan Dive".[6] The site hosted a picture, named "Motorcycle" because it arrived as "motorcycle.jpg". The picture featured a man with his face blown off because of an attempted shotgun suicide. A attorney wrote to the site to take down the picture, however the attorney did not provide enough details for the request[2].

The website has also had multiple legal threats. In March 2000, the website received a legal threat from The Coca-Cola Company because of an image on the site featuring a Coca-Cola bottle up a woman's anus[7]. On May 17th, 2000 the Pillsbury Company sent a legal threat to Soylent Communications because of an image featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy in an oven looking at a woman cooking their species.[8].

Soylent Communications also registered a site, named trenchcoat.org[9] because of the Columbine High School massacre. The site depicted as the official site for the Trenchcoat Mafia. At the bottom of the page, there was a link titled "who to sue" which linked to the website of the Burlington Coat Factory. This would result in a legal threat from Burlington[10].

PenisBird

PenisBird, also known as the "The Incident With The Bird" is a shock image hosted on Rotten.com and Encyclopedia Dramatica. The image displays a close-up picture of a naked man standing in the middle of a concrete parking lot with a scarlet macaw perched on the man's erect penis. Links to the image and ASCII versions were spammed on the Slashdot messageboards[11]. There is an edited GIF version of PenisBird which shows the macaw masturbating the man's penis with semen discharging from it[12].

Soylent Communications

Soylent Communications is a web-hosting company that hosted multiple shock sites and pornography sites.

Rotten Library

“ We are all in this together, but we all die alone. ”
Rotten Library

The Rotten Library was created in 2003 as an encyclopedia to supplement the website. The library contained hundreds of articles written in a humorous fashion under 17 different headings, including culture, art, medicine, crime, travel, and the occult.

Celebrity Morgue

The Celebrity Morgue in 1999.

The Celebrity Morgue was created on March 6th, 1999 dedicated to dead celebrities with pictures of their corpses or information about their death. It featured multiple celebrities and historical figures such as Tupac Shakur, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin, Kurt Cobain, John F. Kennedy and Jason Thirsk. The site was last updated in 2005 and stayed up until 2018.

Sports Dignity

“ Thoughts and ruminations from your fearless leader and other various minions ”
The Gaping Maw

The Sports Dignity was another site hosted by Soylent hosting shocking or offensive photos related to sports, such as athletes flipping off the camera or exposing their genitalia.

Rotten Dead Pool

“ FEEL THE PAIN BABY ”
Rotten Dead Pool

The Rotten Dead Pool was a game released in November 2003, where players would pick around ten people who would die in the next 12 months. If a player was correct with celebrity dead, a point would be given. However, a player would not be given a point if it was incorrect. The Number 1 player before the site shutdown was named MitchellStirling, who had a total score of 7[13].

Rate My Poo

Rate My Poo was a website where people could vote pictures of other people's fecal matter from a scale of 1 to 10. In 2019, the site shutdown and every page redirected to a picture of Donald Trump. Later in 2020 when Joe Biden won the election, the site redirected to bonequest.com and later another pornography site known as "Rate My Pussy". There were multiple variations of Rate My Poo aswell, such as:

  • Rate My Kitten
  • Rate My Vomit
  • Rate My Kitty
  • Rate My Puppy
  • Rate My Boobies
  • Rate My Boner
  • Rate My Finger

The Gaping Maw

“ Thoughts and ruminations from your fearless leader and other various minions ”
The Gaping Maw
A screenshot of The Gaping Maw.

The Gaping Maw was a shock site affiliated with Rotten.com that gained attention for its offensive content. It was established in 2000 as an editorial and commentary archive. The majority of the articles were written by cartoonist Tristan Farnon, known by the alias "Spigot," who was also involved in projects like Jerkcity and Leisure Town. These articles often featured news satire and reflections on modern society. The inclusion of The Gaping Maw and the Rotten Library, which provided intellectual and humane perspectives, helped improve Rotten.com's reputation beyond being just a puerile "shock" site.

However, on June 22, 2005, The Gaping Maw was forced to shut down temporarily due to new governmental regulations related to the distribution of pornography. These regulations, specified under 18 U.S.C. 2257, required age verification of models. In compliance with the law, all articles were removed from the website, and the site's title page displayed a statement expressing disappointment with the passage of these laws. The page was prominently labeled "CENSORED BY US GOVERNMENT."

The Gaping Maw eventually returned online in January 2006, but with some articles remaining unpublished and othersh heavily edited to comply with the regulatory requirements. Despite these changes, the website continued to offer its distinct brand of content to its audience. The site was eventually shutdown on a unknown date.

Bonsai Kitten

BonsaiKitten.com was a hoax shock site made in December 2000 by a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It claimed that kittens could be "raised in jars". Multiple people thought the site was serious, leading to the site being reported to animal rights organizations and later investigated by the FBI. The ownership of the site changed multiple times before finally being picked up by Soylent Communications in March 2001. The site raised concerns about free speech and animal cruelty on the internet.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 web.archive.org/web/20191005094145/https://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/10700/rotten-history-shock-site/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/http://www.rotten.com/FAQ/ (NOTE: This link contains graphic images!)
  3. ↑ https://www.salon.com/2001/03/05/rotten_2/
  4. ↑ knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/rottencom
  5. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20050516235424/rotten.com/about/press.html
  6. ↑ esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/ (NOTE: This article contains graphic images!)
  7. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20080219061733/rotten.com/legal/desist-coke.html
  8. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20080215160253/rotten.com/legal/desist-pillsbury.html
  9. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20000901050221/trenchcoat.org
  10. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20080219054935/rotten.com/legal/desist-trench.html
  11. ↑ hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=6240&cid=977380
  12. ↑ edramatica.com/File:Jackoff110we.gif
  13. ↑ web.archive.org/web/20180104140228/
    deadpool.rotten.com/winners/

Videos

Links

NOTE: The following shock site contains extremely graphic content!

  • web.archive.org/web/20040113023130/rotten.com
  • PenisBird: web.archive.org/web/20000815234302/smoke.rotten.com/bird/
    • GIF version: edramatica.com/File:Jackoff110we.gif
  • Rotten Library: web.archive.org/web/20170824154553/rotten.com/library
  • The Gaping Maw: web.archive.org/web/20081205091013/gapingmaw.com

Further reading

  • Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten.com (This article contains content derived from this page, which is licensed under CC-BY-SA.)
Rotten.com is part of a series on  
Psycho (1960) Theatrical Trailer ⟡ Monkey on Their Backs ⟡ The Exorcist - Original Theatrical Trailer ⟡ Burger King Kids Club Commercial - The Simpsons ⟡ NightMare ⟡ Peperami - Running ⟡ Rotten.com ⟡ BME Pain Olympics ⟡ Teletoon at Night Bumper ⟡ Goatse ⟡ Frau1.exe ⟡ SuperSucker.com ⟡ 2 Kids 1 Sandbox ⟡ Creepy Ugly Guy

Comments

Comments
Loading comments...
Retrieved from "https://screamer.wiki/index.php?title=Rotten.com&oldid=184131"