Word Magazine, Back from the Dead

September 11, 2013 1:03 PM

"Sadly, because much of Word was built with old timey web applications that no longer exist, the content here only covers the years 1995-1998. The archive from 1998-2000 is in pretty bad shape, with various broken links and missing images and sounds. Happily, we’re in the process of slowly restoring it."

Launched in 1995 by Carey Earle, Tom Livaccari and Dan Pelson, Word Magazine was one of the earliest and most influential e-zines. For over five years, Word created original stories, interviews, games, applications, music, interactive objects and art, and community spaces. Word published new content daily, and each story was treated as a unique interface design experiment. Word was also a pioneer in the use of online advertising and was the first website to integrate "microsites" into brand advertising online.

posted by jcterminal (26 comments total)

Wow, I loved that site. I wonder if they need any volunteer web help.
posted by sidereal at 1:10 PM on September 11, 2013

i remember Word. It blew my mind because I was teaching myself all this web stuff, and every time I checked them out, they were haring off in some other direction when I still hadn't figured out how they'd done their last set of tricks. It'll be fun to see how much they can reconstruct.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:10 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It will be good to see it back. I'm glad Suck is (seemingly) all still up.
posted by feckless at 1:39 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

What about Feed?
posted by MattD at 1:46 PM on September 11, 2013

OH MY GOD
posted by j03 at 1:47 PM on September 11, 2013

Like feckless, I was going to post of my love for Suck's continued existence on the Internet, but then I went to Suck first and kind of got (happily) lost flipping through the archives. I can't wait to waste countless hours on the newly restored Word archives, too!
posted by but no cigar at 1:52 PM on September 11, 2013

Thanks for this post, which reminded me of memepool, which is still around! With zero design changes. I remember finding Metafilter and thinking of it as a memepool where anybody could post. I'd be surprised if Matt wasn't a regular memepool visitor.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:59 PM on September 11, 2013

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
posted by phooky at 2:41 PM on September 11, 2013

Holy shit, I have seriously been trying to track down a copy of Before the White Man Came for more than a decade! This makes my day.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 3:21 PM on September 11, 2013

(Pssst - stupidsexyflanders - over here...)
posted by koeselitz at 3:23 PM on September 11, 2013

Hi there, fellow olds. I am excited to see this too.

Seeing folks posting about Suck reminds me that Polly Esther's personal blog has, like, more than ten years of browse-able archives. And comparing her recent advice to ye olde Filler actually made me, you know, emote.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 3:25 PM on September 11, 2013

Oh man, newspaper and small packets of ketchup!
posted by yoHighness at 3:45 PM on September 11, 2013

Does this mean that Sissyfight 2000 will return - as an iPhone app????
posted by R. Mutt at 4:10 PM on September 11, 2013

Sissyfight 2000. That is all.
posted by mkultra at 4:10 PM on September 11, 2013

It will be good to see it back. I'm glad Suck is (seemingly) all still up.

Ha. I was just going to say it was somewhat cowardly of them to bring Word back without Suck around to make fun of them anymore.
posted by straight at 4:19 PM on September 11, 2013

Huh...
A Sissyfight Kickstarter happened.

SiSSYFiGHT 2000 returns!
by Team SiSSYFiGHT

We are some of the original creators of SiSSYFiGHT, and we want to re-launch the game as an open source project. With your help, we will re-code the game for today's browsers and mobile devices and make it available for free online. Just as exciting, we will also release all of the code, sound, and artwork under open source licenses: the MIT license for the code, and a Creative Commons license for all the other content that makes up SiSSYFiGHT. We’re not only bringing back an important piece of Internet culture and game history - we’re making a really fun game available for everyone to play, use, and remix into whatever they want.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:22 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cool beans! I had a piece in Word's first (I think) issue.
posted by old_growler at 5:44 PM on September 11, 2013

I can't describe these feelings. And I had no idea about suck.com still being up either.
posted by sourwookie at 7:17 PM on September 11, 2013

I'm excited this was so well received! How much closer before E/N comes back in vogue?
posted by jcterminal at 7:38 PM on September 11, 2013

I have actually thought nostalgically word.com as I have past boyfriends.
posted by armacy at 7:47 PM on September 11, 2013

I'm still waiting for Need To Know to be re-revived. Let me know what that happens ;)
posted by surazal at 8:48 PM on September 11, 2013

Holy crap, I was literally googling for this just last week (looking for, yup, Before The White Man Came) and discovered that it was impossible to find anything at all when googling"word.com". Obviously.

Surazal: don't call it a comeback, but you might want to check out AnnoNTK...
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:05 PM on September 11, 2013

I worked at word.com for several years (from '98 until shutdown). I miss it! Ask me anything!

I'm not involved with this revival effort, but I am working on bringing back sissyfight. We're not planning to do a native iphone app, but we're trying to make a nice HTML5 web app that should run on smartphones.
posted by moonmilk at 6:28 AM on September 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

I had kind of crush on Heather Havrilesky back then.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:33 AM on September 12, 2013

I am working on bringing back sissyfight.

Excellent. Sorry I missed the Kickstarter. Is there a way to still donate? Is the release still on for Sept.?
posted by R. Mutt at 7:52 AM on September 12, 2013

I was the editor-in-chief for Word's whole run, and reading these makes me happy. Thanks!
posted by MaudB at 8:12 AM on September 12, 2013 [4 favorites]