Rotten.com was an American photographic sharing shock site, promoting morbid curiosity and death, active from 1996 to 2012, known for hosting images of blood and gore, death and decomposition, and graphic violence. Founded in 1996, it was run by a developer known as Soylent Communications. Site updates slowed in 2009, with the final update in February 2012. The website's front page was last archived in February 2018.

History

In late 1996, Soylent wrote a program that identified unregistered Internet domain names consisting of one word with a corresponding dictionary entry. "Rotten" was one of the unclaimed words, and Soylent went on to register Rotten.com in the same year. Rotten.com presented itself as a bastion of online free speech, in an era when censorship rules in some countries had begun to restrict internet access.

Rotten.com received an alleged image of medical personnel recovering Diana, Princess of Wales's body from a car crash, though this was later confirmed as fake. However, due to wide interest in the crash, the image was posted anyway, resulting in a large traffic spike. The website was also one of the first to publish images of the September 11 jumpers from the Twin Towers, under the title "Swan Dive".

Rotten.com also hosted autopsy videos and forensic case and crime scene videos taken by coroners and forensic services worldwide. Users could submit material via email or request that developers post images or videos that were not publicly available. Rotten.com was one of the earliest adult/graphic content websites to feature pornography (both fake and real), violence, gore, decomposition, and the promotion of death and morbid curiosity.

On June 24, 2005, Alberto Gonzales, then US Attorney General, ordered the removal of the "Fuck of the Month" section along with content from several ancillary sites. In response, the site's moderator posted a removal notice criticizing supporters of both Gonzales and the George W. Bush administration for enabling censorship.

Ancillary sites

The Daily Rotten

In late 1999, The Daily Rotten was started by Thomas E. Dell, which published news stories on a daily basis, focusing mostly on terrorism, murder, suicide, abuse and excrement.

The Gaping Maw

In 2000, The Gaping Maw – an editorial/commentary archive – was founded. Most of the articles were written by cartoonist Tristan Farnon under the alias "Spigot" (from Leisure Town) or by other webmasters. The pages contained news, satire, and commentary on modern society. Along with the Rotten Library, this improved Rotten.com's standing in many communities since it introduced a humane and intellectual aspect to the website. On June 22, 2005, The Gaping Maw went dark to comply with new government bookkeeping requirements regarding the distribution of pornography, specifically governmental age-verification of models, under . All articles were taken down, and the site's title page was replaced with a statement lamenting the passage of the laws, headed by the banner, "CENSORED BY US GOVERNMENT!". After being dropped from eleven different servers, the site was eventually acquired by Rotten, a move that its initial creator believed generated positive publicity for both himself and Soylent. The Dead Pool was a community game in which players picked ten people they believed would die over the course of the next 12 months. A point was awarded to a player for each of their correct picks.

NNDB

In mid-2002, Rotten.com launched NNDB, an online database. NNDB is a steadily-updated website that contained information about thousands of notable people. The news section ceased updating on January 16, 2016, and the celebrity deaths section last updated on December 31, 2021.

Publications

  • (pp. 194–204 consists of the Rotten Library entry for John Ashcroft)

References

  • Original Rotten Library
  • Original Source Code/Mirror