When Mirsky closed down WOTW, folks in my office debated whether it would always be remembered as an early web cultural phenomenon, or quickly fade from collective memory.
OK, time for a quick poll:
a) My web site made Worst of the Web
b) Cried when he closed up shop
c) Used to browse WOTW now and then
d) Didn’t go there but knew what it was
e) Heard about it somewhere
f) What the hell was it?
b) Cried when he closed up shop
My fave was the fetus page, and near fave was the nudists with their faces covered with big yellow smilies
b) Cried when he closed up shop.
Another group of people tried to copy the format with Big Weenie’s Wurst of the Web, but it was never a patch on Mirsky.
Cruel Site of the Day comes close, but is still not as good as the original.
Interestingly, the http://www.mirsky.com domain is still alive. I don’t suppose this means there’s any chance of a comeback?
b) Cried when he closed up shop.
There is a Steve Mirsky that writes an column for Scientific American entitled “Anti-Gravity”. Is this the same guy? I was under the impression that Mirsky left WOTW to pursue legitimate journalism.
f) What the hell was it?
Any mirrors out there?
Sorry, Democritus, no mirrors available. Or possible. You see, he’d award “Worst of the Web” to highly deserving web sites, many of which would change within a matter of days after the notoriety brought their attention to what they had going on-line. If you could see his old site now, the links to the sites of which he made fun would mostly be dead links.
b, cried when he closed up shop. He once picked a page that I suggested to him, a page that had a list of UFO-conspiracy stuff, plus a few links to “How to pick up chicks” at the bottom. My comment: “Gee, who woulda thought UFO conspiracy theorists would have trouble meeting girls!”
I believe I still have my copy of the one-shot Mirsky newsletter that he e-mailed to interested parties; I’ll find and post it if there’s interest.
I believe the WOTW guy is called Philip Mirsky.
I’d be interested.
d) didn’t go there, but knew what it was.
Didn’t he briefly have some free business plans posted for a while? Ideas that he just wanted to see someone try to make a profit at.
Value-porn springs to mind. repackaging the less popular porn on the web in a quantity-not-quality sort of way.
g) Imitated him
Okay, I know that wasn’t an option, but for a while, I took over for someone else who had a copycat WOTW site called ‘Nuke the Net’.
It just sort of dwindled into nothingness however. Believe it or not, it’s a big pain in the ass to look for crappy websites.
F. What the hell was it?
I never saw that site but there’s a similar sounding site called MP3- the worst of the worst, where songs are reviewed. These songs are so bad they’re good. I don’t know what some people are thinking.
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/44/the_worst_of_the_worst_ver.htmlse .
b. Cried when it closed up shop.
There is an urgent need for Mirsky these days. No one who tried a “worst of the web” was so good at picking them out and being able to say exactly the right things about them. He didn’t comment to prove his superiority; he let the pages speak for themselves.
Just FYI-
There is a http://www.worstoftheweb.com (not done by Mirsky)
They have some pretty stinky sites they link to, but their comments are almost as bad if not worse than the sites they take you to.
c, used to browse once in a while
Would love to see it revived, though. The copy cats weren’t nearly as good (no offence intended, Arken, I never saw yours).
b)
I submitted many sites, not sure if any made it on.