Does anyone remember that time? I think it was two years ago. Teen domains were HUGE - especially gemz.net, delish.net, and plastique.org . We'd spend hours on UBB's having catfights and "bashing" teenybopper domains with names like dreamz.net and rainbowz.org... Gemz kept us in anticipation of The Big Launch that never was, we knew whose hosted site was leaving which domain, we followed and avoided, at the same time, the latest trends, we tried with all our might to get our websites hosted...

I wasn't really in this scene. I created one webpage after another but they were all on free servers like Altern; and while I knew all the gossip and watched all the fights, I was always too shy to take part... (By the way, I don't know if you remember my past sites, but they were called "relentless and all strung out", "shades and shadows", "the trick is to keep breathing"... I'm cringing because these titles were all from songs...) By the way, I've shut down my journal, for a lot of reasons that would take me a while to explain, so never mind.

Anyway, my questions - Were you part of this scene? Did you have a favorite domain? Do you remember any of the "popular" sites or people at the time? Reminisce.

And do you think it's died down? Have all these people grown up? Are weblogs the new big thing?

And just a sidenote, do any of you play The Sims? I got it a few days ago and I've become addicted.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

Answers

God, yes, I do. I was in awe of gemz, totally in awe, until I finally realised that it just wasn't going to happen. And I remember filling in a hosting form at...not sure, could have been either tinted or dazed, and getting rejected. I cried.

I guess I was, kind of, in this 'scene' - I got hosted at sand- castle.net in January '99 (but I don't think that's too bad, considering I only started making pages in June '98), then left in June '99. Hosted again at dulcet.org in September '99, during which time I basically went through a disillusionment with hosting for various reasons. The only reason I'm now at checkyhat is that Fiona is one of my best online friends. If it were to shut down, or anything, I wouldn't bother trying to get hosted again.

Favourite domain of the time? - starlette.org. I was crazy about the sites there and it's UBB. I still visit Lisa's site, but I lost the others when it went down.

Do I think it's died down? - yes and no. I mean, there don't seem to be as many domains as there were, but on the UBB I go to (edible.nu) there still seem to be frequent posts from people who are opening new domains, and who then get bashed for their domain name and it's 'kewliez' layout.

And definitely, weblogs are the New Big Thing (even I have one ;-) ) and it seems that the best thing you can have on the bottom of your page is a Blogger button.

heh.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

I remember it well, though I didn't really participate in the domain stuff too much. I got really into webpaging in late 1997 and early 1998, when all the "cool" pages were on Geocities and Xoom. People weren't much into design then, and there were so few teen homepages and journals that it was easy to know who was updating, who was quitting, who had the most popular pages, and so on.

When all the domains came along, I was a senior in high school and much older than the average age of the participants of the domain scene. I didn't try to get hosted (my site was on my ISP then), but I had a few offers. At the end of 1998, I accepted Steve's offer to be hosted on Misanthrope, and I've been here ever since. I remember reading UBBs at that time but never participating on them. Reading all the bashing was entertaining, though.

Things have changed a lot since then. I think the difference is that there are SO many domains (just check the list at way2kewl.com. Astronomical), and so it's impossible for there to be one or two really "cool" ones that everybody goes to. Most of the UBBs seem to be kind of dead, too. The ones I check out don't have many members beyond, usually, the hostees of the domain and a few other regular posters. And what happened to all the bashing? Heh. Seriously, if you go into a "domains" topic on a UBB, all you see are questions about which hosts are the best (because everybody's getting a domain of their own, I suppose, and nobody wants to gossip about domains anymore. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted).

Also, there tend to be little cliques around website world now: the longtime journallers, the teenyboppers, the designers, etc. You can be well-known among some people in Webpageworld, but it's nearly impossible now to be known among most of the teens making homepages. There's no one who comes close to being linked on most people's pages, while there were many of those people in the past.

I'm not into weblogs. I wish they'd all go away. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Oh, and I play The Sims too, Kathy. :-) It's great fun. I got the game in May and I am so addicted now. If you haven't checked them out yet, there are tons of Sims-related websites that have downloads for the game. And the expansion pack comes out in September! I can't wait!

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

yeah, i remember being addicted to the drama that was the teen domain. what ever happened to those people? they were sucked into the void that is the 404...

but yes, the online journal community is one of many cliques and that is the reason why i have never bothered to really involve myself in it. i think that there are these guys: laurie, katie, the nova notes guy, pamie, etc..(ie: people who almost everyone reads); then there are the black sheep (ie: anyone at wannabejournals!, siobhan, cory glen...), and then you have your witty twenty-somethings(proven, andy pressman, andrea spencer, ben brown, etc.).

but yeah..i defenitely remember the darkgirlsites, and the teen domains..does anyone else remember ophelia's journal? or..the blood is rushing to my head? or lila's lemons? whatever happened to those girls??

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Ahhh, this is actually something that I've wondered a lot about lately. Thinking about those days definitely makes me a little nostalgic... everyone was just learning tables, frames, how to make graphics on PSP, and all those other things that seem so basic now (and that is still about the extent of my html knowledge!). Remember the whole webring craze? Obsession pages? Dream pages? I miss how people didn't really know too much about design, as Laurie said. Sadly, these days, it seems to be all about the design. Oh well.

I definitely remember even back before the huge teen domain/catfight craze (gemz, delish, um. i don't remember) when there was just a handful of fairly well-knowns, like the ones you mentioned, Maria. It's funny that you mention Lila's Lemons, because that was 16 year old me. :) It was great... I wrote some pretty crappy stuff, but a lot of people seemed to like it! And yeah, using aliases was another huge trend that was a lot of fun. It was just fascinating to see everyone with these exotic names all of a sudden.

This is just a shot in the dark, but does anyone out there remember the really oldoldold teen online journal girls? Marisa? Hayley? Evann? Reanna? Lucy? I could never forget them, because they started it all for me.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

wow. it's the lila's lemons girl! dude, you were like a celebrity back in the day!

yeah. i defenitely miss when it wasn't all about design. there was a certain innocence that was had back then with those simple designs that isn't had now. and not only that -- but i used to be able to look at most sites made by teen girls and actually emulate it. now i can't do that without having the latest version of photoshop and knowing all about php and javascript and whatnot. and while we should want to learn as much as we can about these cool technologies we shouldn't _have_ to use them just so we can have "good" sites you know? this really should be about the writing and about communicating and relating with others.

besides, JS is so useless. why bother unless you're getting paid to write those functions???

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

whatever happened to katy from "inside the mind of a teenage girl" or something like that? i was actually pondering this the other day...she just sort of disappeared.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Katy had to kill off her journal because of some troubles with her ex- boyfriend reading it and threatening her, I believe. She and I posted at Mary's (Bitterfame.Com) UBB for a while during this past spring, but then the board sorta died down....

As for the others Maria mentioned, Michelle of "The Blood is Rushing to My Head" slowly killed off her journal, but she still has a small website up at her old address: http://www.america.net/~cdaae (sorry, too tired to make links right now). She and I discovered a few years back that we went to the same middle school. I must have passed her in the hall a hundred times, never knowing that we would one day enter the crazy world of online journalling. She goes to Berry College now. It's this little school up in the Georgia mountains where everybody's either a religious freak or a druggie.

But anyway.

I remember Ophelia's page too, though I wasn't really into reading it. She vanished from the scene as well. Oh, and Belle, I remember a lot of those pages you mentioned. I started surfing homepages right around the time Hayley ended hers. I remember reading "@ Marisa's" and Maggie's "pl@stic" and "Cari"/Kim's "Waterfalls" and "Allison's Abode" (I met Allison! And Kim and I were at the same Elliott Smith concert in May. Funny how your paths start crossing with all these Internet people once you've been online for a while).

Oh, and let's not forget Mariah Lila aka Weetzie Hanson aka Nyssie aka Nyssa aka Rassa aka Nisa. Her page is currently at http://veruca.endtask.net. She's been around forever.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

maybe i'm weird, but i have absolutely no interest in half of the "popular" journals online...everything seems the same time me now. the writing styles, the topics, etc. i kind of miss the days when popularity was limited to people who actually had something to say...

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

owow, laurie. i was thinking of that mariah/lila/weetzie girl but i completely forgot what name she used so i didn't know how to bring her up! yes, she's been around for quite a long time..it seems she has a new image with each domain name
yeah, and i remember reading about katy's boyfriend stalking her so she had to take her journal down. it was really melodramatic but at times a good read...
i have to agree with the last post: there are a lot of really popular journals (whose names i won't mention here; no need to make enemies!) that really don't say much at all...at the same time, however, there are a lot of journals where the people do have a lot to say and are really talented writers. if you're looking for that i suggest you heaed on over to wannabejournals.com, www.puce.com, www.girlhero.org, http://www.misanthrope.org/laurie, and http://standing.ontheoutside.com.


-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I so remember those days ... and kinda miss them. I always wanted to be like gemz.net and those domains ... I had a site called "schoolgirl". ^^; Wonder where they all went?

Emily

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

I remember what it was like watching those girls create amazing websites, it was really annoying yet at the same time also incredibly inspirational. My contribution to this theme of teen domains was creating a web ring, called Seduce Me. Suprisingly it did really well. When I think about the webpages I've created, how i've expressed myself in them, i've become a totally different person. A really crazy alternative from the norm girl. When in reality, i'm the complete opposite. hehehe. I was a ditzy cheerleader around the time of delish.net (oh how i loved that site) Does anyone know of any new domains that are just as different, new, exciting as these once were? I know I don't, but something about online journals, or someone's thoughts on different subjects appeal to me. That kind of bare honesty is what kept us coming back for more, and its been a bad thing that those domains did so well, because simply, they looked nice and the content was great. Anyone feel free to drop me a line, I"d love to chat with ya'll :)

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2001

(thank you. that was really nice.)

joanna of standing.ontheoutside.com

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001

Hey. I'm not a druggie. I'm not a religious freak either (unless you count the stuff with the animal blood and the pentagram and all)! Laurie, I deny these accusations!

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

oh my goodness.. i sort of miss those days. i remember going onto the gemz.net UBB at like 1 in the morning and making up funny shtuff with jade (aka rachel owner of sodacan.net [i believe]) i was hosted twice.. once at jewelz.org (the first to be crazily criticized because of being unoriginal) then at silvermist.nu which was quickly copied by purplemist.something.. and the like.. haha.. i miss those days!! :)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Beverly of gemz.net has an online journal at diaryland, which she still writes in frequently. The address is: http://members.diaryland.com/edit/view.phtml?user=beverly I used to idolize all of those domains also, lol...those were the days!

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Oh my god. Maggie at pl@stic was 14 year old me. How embarrassing. I remember those days. I'm still here, I'm 19 year old me at a URL which you can have if you email me.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I was hosted at tinted.net :)

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

oh my... I was one of those that didnt like gemz, but visited to torment everyone who did. i am still friends with most of the people i met and became friends with. i was hosted at a small domain that shut down, but now i'm part of another one, loaf.nu which should be up soon. who knows. i don't know if any of you remember plastique... but those were the days...memories.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2001

oh wow hahaha... i was one of the biiig "devotees" on the plastique.org UBB back in the day (erm, two years ago) i am still talking to most of the people i met there (and closer to them than ever).. sigh. those were the days. i'm totally not with this teen domain crap anymore, i thought it died down and even if not i don't care anymore.. i own a domain w/ a bunch of people (mentioned in the post above mine) now and it's actually being put to good use unlike most of those teen domains back when they were all the hype. ha ha.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001