The Front Porch : Black Web Sites That Have Died

Destee

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destee.com
Jan 22, 2001
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Hello Family,

I've been out here on the Internet a long time (in cyber years), so i've seen quite a few Black web sites, that had great hopes and intentions ... die.

It's always disheartening to learn of another that is no longer servicing us. We are unique and have specific needs that not every single web site / community can serve. I believe we are better served by those who know and love us, and it's a loss to the entire Black Internet community, when one that is doing that, must close their doors.

What made me post this thread today was the fact that i was surfing the Internet and saw where Black Geeks is no longer online. They use to be at www.blackgeeks.net. It was a networking community site founded by a Sister. While i was a Member, i didn't get too involved on a day to day basis. I had no idea that they were closed down. I know the number of years, heart, and effort she put into that and it's sad that they are no longer out here.

I read this article by / about her and Black Geeks that was written in 2001. She mentions the challenge of trying to stay true to her dream, while dealing with the every day financial needs of the effort. *sigh* ... i feel her pain.

Will we continually let online communities, services, efforts, built for us, dry up and die? Even with new ones coming behind, trying their hand at filling the void, they too will face the challenges that longetivity and growth bring with them (increased costs to maintain).

I guess reading that article kinda depressed me. I know that Sister's heart was sincere in trying to help our people. I know that she put many long hours, money, and hope into that service. I know it must have broke her heart to see it have to close. She said in the article that they had 25,000 registered Members, that was in 2001! A remarkable feat, yet quite ugly considering they had to close their doors. Where were all these "Members" when they were needed to help? Am i fooling myself to believe that our 5000 Members can keep this site alive, when less than 1% of them are willing to help, yet considerably more than that come and take part every day? Do i need to be preparing myself for when www.destee.com has a 4 sale sign on it? Gosh ...

This thread is to discuss and share the many Black web sites that are no longer in operation. If you know of any, please name them and their web site addresses.

I'll get the list / discussion started with, as already mentioned, www.blackgeeks.net. Also, another great Black site, a really big one, was www.netnoir.com. I'm not sure what happened to them, but their domain is no longer resolving.

It seems the "Black" sites that are doing well, are not "Black" at all. AOL recently purchased BlackVoices from the Chicago Tribune, and while it has always catered to Black folk, it has never been Black owned. The same with BlackPlanet, if no mistake, they are owned by an Asian Company. So these "Black" sites have benefit of White money, and are able to stay alive. More like "Black" face, a way to capture the Black Internet market, without being Black.

But the sites that are Black, struggle to stay alive.

Let me stop.

Please Family, share the Black sites that were Black owned, that are no longer with us, give addresses please. Maybe we crossed paths on one of those sites!

Much Love and Peace.

:heart:

Destee
 
Money is a huge factor. Someone dangles the carrot and everything you loved about a certain site changes.

I used to LOVE Blackplanet until it changed into a dating site. It became a meat market with irritating sales adds. Netnoir disappeared one day without warning. Swagga.com (which is the site that lead me to Destee) doesn't appear to be updated much lately. Eurweb.com is still around but I'm not sure who runs it and what the focus is anymore. Buppienetwork.com never really quite jumped off..but I see it's still around.

I wonder how to get around the financial strain?? How can those sites stay around and stay black owned and run?
 
Blackplanet is not black owned it never been black owned..some college

students design the site as a project for a grade or something and it grew

from there and they also built asianave.com and a few more but it have

never been black owned. I have to search for the article and maybe post it

later on in the thread.....

Peace
Angel
 
Hi Sister CarrieMonet ... you say money is a huge factor, someone dangles a carrot and things change ... which sites are you referring to that went this way? Right off the top, i can't think of too many that fell victim to this. I think it's too easy for the "money danglers" to make a site that looks Black, than to go this way, i don't know though. Please share.

BlackPlanet is not Black owned. Does it matter to us whether the site is Black owned or not? Like BP and BV, it is primarily Black folk that sustain their existence, yet they are not Black owned. Based on this, one could assume that it makes no difference to Black folk, if the site is Black owned ... so long as they look Black, we'll be satisfied. Whatcha think Sister CarrieMonet?

I just visited Swagga.com and my heart broke again. I went to their discussion forum and it seems they've been recently hacked. Ugly N words spread about, ugly comments from the hackers saying stuff like this N site will be down forever or some such foolishness. So sad. My heart goes out to them. I see they've been online since 1997, no small feat. Just the time it takes to stay on top of security issues, and then restoring the services if ever you are violated, hours and hours of work that seem never ending. I don't think people know the effort required to deliver quality services as consistently as possible. I hope that everything gets back up and running for them again soon.

Sister CarrieMonet, i think there are enough of us out here, to keep our sites from feeling great financial strains. The challenge is to get those who frequent the sites encouraged enough to help support it. If we would simply support the communities that we hang out in, there would be no struggle, at least none like is being experienced here. I'm honored Sister CarrieMonet that you are one of those few that take your hope and desire for our people to the next level, to that level where you're willing to reach in your pocket and help. Not all of us are there, and until more of us get there, we'll probably continue to experience the kind of losses that we're seeing now.

Thanks for responding.

:heart:

Destee
 
February 12, 2001 Time and BlackPlanet.com last week announced a partnership under which Time will provide content to the African-America portal throughout February, which is Black History Month. Time, owned by AOL Time Warner, said the deal is the first "multicultural marketing outreach" partnership intended to raise its profile among minorities. New York-based BlackPlanet.com will offer its members trial subscriptions to Time.

The announcement comes shortly after AOL Time Warner's historic merger and its blizzard of marketing campaigns. The deal also represents Time's latest effort not only to expand its subscriber base to untapped markets, but also to broaden the magazine's multicultural initiatives.


Benjamin Sun
President and CEO
Community Connect Inc. creates and maintains online communities for US ethnic audiences.

Omar Wasow
Executive Director, BlackPlanet.com

Grace Chang
Co-Founder and Creative Director
Ms. Chang oversees all graphic design and content layout for the company's three sites.

Michael Montero
Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer

Mr. Montero is responsible for building the company's proprietary technology and software that powers each of the sites.

Peter Chen
Co-Founder and Executive Director of Product Development
Mr. Chen oversees the company's product development teams to roll out new technology features and services across the three sites

other sites they own are

AsianAvenue.com was launched July 21, 1997

BlackPlanet.com, launched September 1, 1999 has been heralded as the number one online destination for African Americans of all backgrounds. Within its first year,

The vision for an African American online community site came to fruition with the addition of Internet entrepreneur Omar Wasow. The company launched BlackPlanet.com in September, 1999, with Mr. Wasow leading the charge as Executive Director. BlackPlanet.com was built around its own dedicated site team consisting of accomplished marketing professionals, journalists and content producers - all members of the African American community being targeted. Only a few months into its launch, BlackPlanet.com proceeded to take off even faster than AsianAvenue.com. In just eleven weeks after its launch, BlackPlanet.com registered more than 60,000 members and generated over one million daily page views. The site reached one million registered members shortly after its first year of operation.

http://www.communityconnect.com/

MiGente.com, launched October 2, 2000 targets second and third generation Latinos, who either are bilingual or English-dominant.

the link is the company that own them all

Our ppl most of our ppl will support a non own black web site before we do our own which is shown here.
 

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