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==History and background== | ==History and background== | ||
The Goatse image first emerged in 1997 as a part of a collection of 40 images of a man named Kirk Johnson, which were shared among the internet's gay porn community through email, FTP, and message boards like Usenet. However, when a hacker group called the "Hick crew | The ''Goatse'' image first emerged in 1997 as a part of a collection of 40 images of a man named Kirk Johnson, which were shared among the internet's gay porn community through email, FTP, and message boards like Usenet. However, when a hacker group called the "Hick crew" consisting mainly of teenage hackers and internet trolls, acquired the collection, they used one of the images, Johnson's stretched anus, to prank each other and their "enemies", including Christian chat forums, spamming the image until all other users left the chatroom. The image was stored in an unlabeled directory owned by one of the Hick crew members, but a hacker and Hick associate named Merl1n saw a better way to distribute it and registered the domain ''Goatse.cx'' in 1999. The website became incredibly popular as a prank, with users sending unsuspecting individuals an apparently innocent link, only to shock them with the image.<ref name="vice">Hernandez, Patricia. "Shit, Death, and Gore: How Shock Sites Shaped the Internet." Vice, 5 Aug. 2016, https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxnw7b/shit-death-and-gore-how-shock-sites-shaped-the-internet.</ref> | ||
===Website's history=== | ===Website's history=== | ||
In 1999, the original Goatse website featured the text "What are you doing here?" in the center, and after 10 seconds, it would redirect to index2.html. Later, two links to feedback.html and contrib.html were added, along with links to other websites supposedly created by the original owner, such as urinalpoop.org and dolphinsex.org. In 2003, the website owner addressed merchandising attempts for goatse.cx and announced that official merchandise was coming soon. However, on January 14, 2004, Christmas Island suspended Goatse.cx for violating their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) following a complaint from its residents. The domain remained in suspension until January 2007 when it was placed back in the available domain pool. | In 1999, the original ''Goatse'' website featured the text "What are you doing here?" in the center, and after 10 seconds, it would redirect to index2.html. Later, two links to ''feedback.html'' and ''contrib.html'' were added, along with links to other websites supposedly created by the original owner, such as ''urinalpoop.org'' and ''dolphinsex.org''. In 2003, the website owner addressed merchandising attempts for goatse.cx and announced that official merchandise was coming soon. However, on January 14, 2004, [[wikipedia:.cx|Christmas Island]] suspended ''Goatse.cx'' for violating their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) following a complaint from its residents. The domain remained in suspension until January 2007 when it was placed back in the available domain pool.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20040531080510/http://www.nic.cx/complaints/goatse.cx/aup.noticeofcomplaint.pdf</ref> | ||
On April 30, 2007, the goatse.cx domain name was sold at an auction to an unknown bidder. However, the first auction was plagued by fake bids, prompting a reactivation of the auction.<ref>Grossman, Lev. "Goatse.cx Now For Sale (Seriously)." Wired, 9 Apr. 2007, http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/goatsecx_now_fo.html.</ref> The second auction was similarly affected, leading to Seobidding.com's announcement that the website would be sold for $500,000 and that legal action would be taken against the fake bidders.<ref>"Goatse.cx." SEO Bidding, archived from the original on 13 Jul. 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20070713140015/http://www.seobidding.com/buy/auction/goatse.cx.</ref> As of November 25, 2007, the website was still for sale, with a minimum asking price of $50,200. In 2008, a new owner purchased the website for 8,000 euros, and it is now being developed as a subdomain service for hosting websites. While plans for a cryptocurrency called Goatse Coin were previously announced, no progress has been made.<ref>Caraan, Sophie. "Goatse Keeps Trying to Make Money with Cryptocurrency." Vice, 21 Feb. 2018, https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwbwa7/goatse-keeps-trying-to-make-money-with-cryptocurrency.</ref> | On April 30, 2007, the ''goatse.cx'' domain name was sold at an auction to an unknown bidder. However, the first auction was plagued by fake bids, prompting a reactivation of the auction.<ref>Grossman, Lev. "Goatse.cx Now For Sale (Seriously)." Wired, 9 Apr. 2007, http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/goatsecx_now_fo.html.</ref> The second auction was similarly affected, leading to Seobidding.com's announcement that the website would be sold for $500,000 and that legal action would be taken against the fake bidders.<ref>"Goatse.cx." SEO Bidding, archived from the original on 13 Jul. 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20070713140015/http://www.seobidding.com/buy/auction/goatse.cx.</ref> As of November 25, 2007, the website was still for sale, with a minimum asking price of $50,200. In 2008, a new owner purchased the website for 8,000 euros, and it is now being developed as a subdomain service for hosting websites. While plans for a cryptocurrency called Goatse Coin were previously announced, no progress has been made.<ref>Caraan, Sophie. "Goatse Keeps Trying to Make Money with Cryptocurrency." Vice, 21 Feb. 2018, https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwbwa7/goatse-keeps-trying-to-make-money-with-cryptocurrency.</ref> | ||
After the Christmas Island Internet Administration put the domain ''goatse.cx'' back into the available domain pool in January 2007, a typosquatting-like website about financing was found on the domain.<ref>''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070324073130/http://goatse.cx/ Goatse.cx]''. Archived from [http://goatse.cx/ the original] on 24 March 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2023.</ref> On January 16, the domain was registered through domain registrar Variomedia, and the registrant attempted to auction the right to use the domain. The first attempt to sell the domain by SEOBidding had a reserve of $120 which was not met. On July 4, 2008, the website was relaunched with a parody of the original site, replacing the "Hello.jpg" image with an image of Bill O'Reilly, while the file name and alt text remained the same as before. In December, the image was changed again to showcase a stylized representation of hello.jpg, featuring a pair of silver robotic hands 'stretching' a metallic, circular wall aperture in what appears to be a futuristic factory setting, with a photoshopped image of the character Gumby next to it. The image had a link to a site called imagechan.com. The website still contained text above the image mentioning that it was still for sale.<ref>"Goatse.cx." Internet Archive, archived from the original on 18 Dec. 2008, https://web.archive.org/web/20081218034824/http://goatse.cx/.</ref> | After the Christmas Island Internet Administration put the domain ''goatse.cx'' back into the available domain pool in January 2007, a typosquatting-like website about financing was found on the domain.<ref>''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070324073130/http://goatse.cx/ Goatse.cx]''. Archived from [http://goatse.cx/ the original] on 24 March 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2023.</ref> On January 16, the domain was registered through domain registrar Variomedia, and the registrant attempted to auction the right to use the domain. The first attempt to sell the domain by SEOBidding had a reserve of $120 which was not met. On July 4, 2008, the website was relaunched with a parody of the original site, replacing the "Hello.jpg" image with an image of ''[[wikipedia:Bill O'Reilly|Bill O'Reilly]]'', while the file name and alt text remained the same as before. In December, the image was changed again to showcase a stylized representation of hello.jpg, featuring a pair of silver robotic hands 'stretching' a metallic, circular wall aperture in what appears to be a futuristic factory setting, with a photoshopped image of the character Gumby next to it. The image had a link to a site called imagechan.com. The website still contained text above the image mentioning that it was still for sale.<ref>"Goatse.cx." Internet Archive, archived from the original on 18 Dec. 2008, https://web.archive.org/web/20081218034824/http://goatse.cx/.</ref> | ||
On October 21, 2009, the Rick Latona "Daily Domains" newsletter advertised the goatse.cx domain for sale at $15,000, highlighting it as a "famous site" with numerous backlinks. The site was updated in April 2010 to announce the upcoming beta release of an emailing service called "Goatse Stinger 2.0" and included a Yahoo! mailing list and a parody sketch of the infamous "Hello.jpg" image. However, the email service was never launched beyond this point, and by June 2011, the "www." version of the website redirected to a web-hosting company's site. In October 2012, the goatse.cx domain was acquired by a new owner who planned to offer a webmail service with ''goatse.cx'' email addresses. The domain redirected to ''signup.goatse.cx'', with a launch planned for early December 2012. The website launched an [[wikipedia:Indiegogo, Inc.|''Indiegogo'']] campaign in 2013 to fund the email service.<ref>"Goatse.cx." Internet Archive, archived from the original on 21 Oct. 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20121021141400/http://signup.goatse.cx/.</ref> In January 2014, the site announced the development of its own cryptocurrency, "Goatse Coin". In December of that year, the website began offering subdomains. The latest version of the site offers users the opportunity to purchase pixels for advertising purposes using the Ethereum blockchain. As of 2018, the owner has sold 6,000 pixels, earning $624 at .001 ETH (worth $104) per pixel, according to Vice. Although plans for the site's email system, Goatse Mail, were previously announced, it has yet to be launched. | |||
==In popular culture== | ==In popular culture== | ||
[[File:Goatse.jpg|thumb|293x293px|Hackers successfully hijack an electronic billboard to display the dreaded image.]] | [[File:Goatse.jpg|thumb|293x293px|Hackers successfully hijack an electronic billboard to display the dreaded image.]] |
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