Suck.com

Suck.com was one of the earliest ad-supported content sites on the Internet. It featured daily editorial content on a great variety of topics, including politics and pop-culture. Its intended readership was the so-called "Generation X" (Americans born during the late 20th century). The website's motto was "A fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun". Despite not publishing new content since 2001, the site remained online until December 2018.[1]

The site

Suck.com was initiated during 1995 by writer Joey Anuff and editor Carl Steadman who created daily comically cynical commentary with a self-obsessed and satiric theme. The writing was accentuated by the art of cartoonist Terry Colon. During 1996, they included the writing talent of Heather Havrilesky, who provided the sarcastic comments of her supposed alter ego Polly Esther in their column, titled Filler.

The name of the website was chosen as a domain name with possibly offensive connotations though apparently not enough to be disallowed by Network Solutions, which controlled the InterNIC system for the distribution of domain names before ICANN acquired that authority. The name also described the nature of "news aggregator" sites that "sucked" stories from the internet and published them in magazine like formats.

During 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 website also had many features common to its articles. 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, which was less common then than it would become a few years later.

Regular columns
  • Hit & Run — A link-driven summary of recent events.
  • Filler — A weekly self-deprecating satire of cultural pretension and dating in post-modern times.

Closure

During July 2000, after a decrease of 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 following, and a combined reader base of more than 1 million, Automatic Media ended during June 2001. On June 8, 2001, Suck.com declared that they were "Gone Fishin'" indefinitely,[2] 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.”[3]

On its 20th anniversary during September 2015, Suck founders Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff and former editors Ana Marie Cox, Heather Havrilesky, and Tim Cavanaugh appeared at the festival XOXO, their first appearance on stage together. In an interview with Engadget, Anuff said Suck couldn't exist today, citing the reduced value of opinions and shorter attention spans.[4]

During the autumn of 2015, software developer Mark MacDonald began serializing the website's archive in an email newsletter, which is sent on a daily basis 20 years-to-the-day after original publication on Suck.com.[5]

Notable staff

Staff

Contributors

References
  1. Baio, Andy (January 11, 2019). "Suck.com, Gone for Good (For Good)". Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  2. "Gone Fishin'". Suck.com. 8 June 2001. Retrieved 2014-10-02.
  3. Sharkey, Matt The Big Fish: Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website Keep Going. September 1, 2015
  4. Lee, Nicole. "On its 20th anniversary, Suck's co-founder says it couldn't exist today". Engadget. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  5. Bralker, Brian Gen Xers rejoice: Suck.com comes back as a daily newsletter Digiday. March 19, 2016
  1. ^ Ten years later, the story of Suck.com, the first great website. keepgoing.org. URL accessed on March 30, 2008.
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