Suck.com
Suck.com was one of the earliest ad-supported content sites on the Internet. It featured daily editorial content on a wide variety of topics, including politics and pop-culture and was targeted at Generation X. Their tagline, and mascots, were "A fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun". The site remained online until March 2015 despite having no new content published since 2001.
Contents
The site
Suck.com was founded in 1995 by writer Joey Anuff and editor Carl Steadman who created daily comically cynical commentary with a self-obsessed and satiric edge. The writing was accentuated by the art of cartoonist Terry Colon. In 1996, they brought on the writing talent of Heather Havrilesky, who provided the whiny, sarcastic voice of her alter ego Polly Esther in their most popular column, titled Filler.
The name of the site was chosen to slip a domain name with possibly offensive connotations past Network Solutions, who controlled the InterNIC system for the distribution of domain names before ICANN took over that authority. The name also described the nature of "news aggregator" sites that "sucked" stories from the web and published them in magazine like formats.
In 1997, Suck published a compilation of their most popular essays in Suck: Worst-Case Scenarios in Media, Culture, Advertising and the Internet (ISBN 1-888869-27-5).
Style
Other than the distinctive artwork of Terry Colon, the site also had many other characteristics that tied their daily articles together. The main text of each article was restricted to a table only 200 pixels wide. Most articles would feature links within the flow of the content rather than as in labeled footnotes or references, foreshadowing the same technique in modern weblogs.
Regular columns
- Hit & Run — A link-driven summary of recent events
- Filler — A weekly self-deprecating look at cultural pretension and dating in post-modern times
Automatic Media
In July 2000, following a sharp downturn in Internet investment, suck.com merged with Feed Magazine to create Automatic Media. Their concept was to streamline their operations and collaborate on boutique operations with low staffing costs. Their joint project Plastic.com was founded with only 4 staffed employees. Despite the faithful cult following, and a combined reader base of over 1 million, Automatic Media folded in June 2001. On June 8, 2001, Suck.com declared that they were "Gone Fishin'" indefinitely,[1] and the site ceased to publish new content. Regarding the indefinite hiatus, co-founder Joey Anuff said, “It was a shame. On the other hand...it’s shocking how long Suck lasted.”[2]
Notable staff
Staff
- Carl Steadman, co-founder, writer, and editor, is now the owner of plastic.com.
- Tim Cavanaugh, editor in chief from 1998 to 2001, became web editor of the Los Angeles Times opinion page, and then a contributor to Reason magazine.
- Ana Marie Cox, executive editor (who wrote as Ann O'Tate), was later the writer of the popular blog Wonkette and wrote for Time.com
- Owen Thomas, copy editor and managing editor at Valleywag.
Contributors
- Steve Bodow
- Rogers Cadenhead
- Michael Gerber
- Nick Gillespie
- Greg Knauss
- Josh Ozersky
- Tom Spurgeon
- Jake Tapper
- Heather Havrilesky
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Sharkey, Matt The Big Fish: Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website Keep Going. September 1, 2015
- ^ Suck.com, Gone for Good?. waxy.org. URL accessed on December 30, 2005.
- ^ Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website. keepgoing.org. URL accessed on March 30, 2008.
