Suck.com was an online magazine, 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.[1] Launched in 1995 and geared towards a Generation X audience, the website's motto was "A fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun".[2] Despite not publishing new content since 2001, the site remained online until December 2018.[3]
History
Suck was initiated in 1995 by writer Joey Anuff and editor Carl Steadman, two former employees of HotWired, the first commercial online magazine.[2] The name of the website, Suck.com, 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.[citation needed] The name also described the nature of "news aggregator" sites that "sucked" stories from the internet and published them in magazine-like formats.[2]
During 1996, Suck integrated the writing talent of Heather Havrilesky, who provided the sarcastic comments of her supposed alter ego "Polly Esther" in her column, Filler.
In 1997, Suck published a compilation of the site's most popular essays in Suck: Worst-Case Scenarios in Media, Culture, Advertising and the Internet (ISBN1-888869-27-5).
In July 2000, after a decrease in Internet investment, Suck.com merged with Feed Magazine to create Automatic Media.[4] The concept was to streamline operations and collaborate on boutique operations with low staffing costs. The joint project, Plastic.com, was founded with only four staffed employees.[5]
Despite the site's faithful following and a combined reader base of more than one million, however, Automatic Media ended in June 2001.[6][7] On June 8, 2001, Suck.com declared that they were "Gone Fishin'" indefinitely,[8] and the site ceased to publish new content.[9] Regarding the indefinite hiatus, co-founder Joey Anuff said, "It was a shame. On the other hand... it’s shocking how long Suck lasted."[10]
Archive email newsletter
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 its original publication on Suck.com.[11]
Style
From the beginning, site founders Anuff and Steadman created daily comically cynical commentary with a self-obsessed and satiric theme. The writing was accentuated by the art of cartoonist Terry Colon. In addition to Colon's distinctive artwork, 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.[2] Most articles featured 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.[citation needed]
Recognition
Suck.com was nominated for Webby Awards in both 1997 (Books and Magazines category) and 1999 (Humor category).
Regular columns
Hit & Run — a link-driven summary of recent events.[a]
Filler — a weekly self-deprecating satire of cultural pretension and dating in postmodern times.
^In 2002, after Suck.com's demise, editors Nick Gillespie and Tim Cavanaugh brought Hit & Run to Reason magazine website as the group blog. Gillespie and Cavanaugh brought along several other Suck.com writers to contribute, and fostered a style in the blog matching Suck's sarcastic attitude. Reason editors referred to this co-opting of the former website as the "Suck-ification of Reason".[12] In 2005, Hit & Run was named one of the best political blogs by Playboy.[13]