Actions

Rotten.com

From Screamer Wiki

Revision as of 22:06, 13 March 2024 by LuaGunsX (talk | contribs)

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.

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 updating in 2012, 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 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 a image, featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy in a 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 were spammed on the Slashdot messageboards. There is also an ASCII art version of PenisBird, and an edited GIF version of PenisBird which shows the macaw masturbating the man's penis with semen discharging from it[11].

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.

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 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. ↑ encyclopediadramatica.online/File:Jackoff110we.gif

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/
  • Rotten Library: web.archive.org/web/20170824154553/rotten.com/library/

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   
The Exorcist - Original Theatrical Trailer ⟡ Faroe Islands (WDC) ⟡ Jumyou Ga Chijimaru ⟡ Monkey on Their Backs ⟡ Budd Dwyer’s Suicide ⟡ Ricardo López's Suicide ⟡ Dumb Animals ⟡ The Scavengers ⟡ Burger King Kids Club Commercial - The Simpsons ⟡ Bowlgirl ⟡ Peperami - Running ⟡ OFEX ⟡ The Chase ⟡ ChechClear ⟡ Environmental Investigation Agency - Tigers ⟡ BME Pain Olympics ⟡ Teletoon at Night Bumper

Comments

Loading comments...
Retrieved from "https://screamer.wiki/index.php?title=Rotten.com&oldid=147237"