Jennicam shuts down for good
December 7, 2003 6:17 PM   Subscribe

It's the end of an era. On Dec. 31, the Jennicam shuts down for good.
posted by PrinceValium (43 comments total)
 
Yeah, the market for webcam attention whores who steal their best friends' fiancee and scream (not moan, scream) during sex is kinda drying up these days...
posted by mrbill at 6:20 PM on December 7, 2003


At the peak of Jennicam's popularity, around the turn of the millennium, Ringley told The Post that her site got an average of 100 million visitors a week

hmm, i have a hard time believing her on that... i suspect she's mistaking her hits (any file - graphics, html, etc - that's opened on her site during a visit) for unique visits.
posted by t r a c y at 6:38 PM on December 7, 2003


hmm, i have a hard time believing her on that... i suspect she's mistaking her hits (any file - graphics, html, etc - that's opened on her site during a visit) for unique visits.

Or she's just a lying liar who lies a lot.

Yeah, the market for webcam attention whores who steal their best friends' fiancee and scream (not moan, scream) during sex is kinda drying up these days...

Rawr!
posted by The God Complex at 6:55 PM on December 7, 2003


She's not getting any younger, but every new webcam girl seems to be.
posted by DaShiv at 6:59 PM on December 7, 2003


GodComplex: I followed jennicam religiously (why, I don't know) 2-3 years ago, around the time of her on-cam (or just off-cam) loud sexcapades.. My opinion of her changed from "interesting social experient with a camera who takes off her clothes occasionally" to "wonder how low she'll sink to get viewers next.."
posted by mrbill at 7:04 PM on December 7, 2003


DaShiv: That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age.
posted by majcher at 7:10 PM on December 7, 2003


scream (not moan, scream) during sex

loud sexcapades..


Does her site have audio or something? What's with the references to loud sex? I thought it was just still-images and text.

/hasn't cared about jennicam in four years, and only began to care again just now when the loud sex was mentioned

posted by dhoyt at 7:14 PM on December 7, 2003


dhoyt: at least at one time, she had streaming video (er, "screaming video"). More than once, she'd have sex with Dex "coincidentally" just right off-camera. Loudly.
posted by mrbill at 7:27 PM on December 7, 2003


Damn, and I had a running bet going that her ass would exceed 320 X 240 in the space of a year. Now I'll never be able to collect.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 8:06 PM on December 7, 2003


So that's why Jorn disappeared!
posted by jbrjake at 8:24 PM on December 7, 2003


sex with dex.
posted by quonsar at 9:04 PM on December 7, 2003


jennicam? that shits still around? man i thought that died in 1995 along with online soap operas & mr. t ate my ball pages.

and mrbill must i remind you...

in the internet "NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM"

moan maybe but not scream...

xoxo

viva las dreamghosto (coast to coast)
posted by Dreamghost at 10:40 PM on December 7, 2003


wtf is a jennicam? Accuse me of being out of touch, but you can't say I sat around and watched a webcam pointed at some histrionic ditz. I spend my pointless entertainment allowance watching Jackass.
posted by bicyclingfool at 12:13 AM on December 8, 2003


Ate my balls. Oh my god. I thought that phrase would never be uttered again in the history of time until its radio wave somehow passed into outerspace, whereby the tralfmadorians pick up the signal and see barney asking a kid to suck his balls.
posted by Keyser Soze at 12:32 AM on December 8, 2003


Who needs loud sex when you have overclocking? *compensating*
posted by Keyser Soze at 12:33 AM on December 8, 2003


I've never heard of "jennicam" either. I can't put together the clues in this thread either. Is it a porn site?
posted by dgaicun at 1:02 AM on December 8, 2003


Nevermind, checked the "end of an era" link. The answer to my question is "sort of".
posted by dgaicun at 1:04 AM on December 8, 2003


man i thought that died in 1995

Jennicam didn't start up until April of 1996, so it would have been hard for Jennicam to have died in '95.
posted by gluechunk at 1:12 AM on December 8, 2003


1995, 1996 - 2001 It's All A Blur Between All The Free Booze I Consumed At Dot Com Events.

Neverless Let Me Compliment You Sir On The Scariness Which You Know Your Jennicam.

Furthermore Kid's Im Sad To Report That Mr. T No Longer Eats Ball's. Hmm, Maybe Ill Start That Back Up And Shuck Some Dumb Dot Commies Out Of The Last Of There Unemployment Check Money. By Hawking "MR T ATE MY BALLS Merchandise"

Muhahahahahahaha

...Dreamghost The Great
posted by Dreamghost at 2:38 AM on December 8, 2003


I still have a Jennicam sidebox on my (4-digit id) Slashdot account...

I remember when it started. It was interesting for a few months.
posted by sycophant at 3:34 AM on December 8, 2003


All your balls are belong to us
posted by Slagman at 4:59 AM on December 8, 2003


Lots of funny comments from the Jennicam Slashdot posting.
posted by the fire you left me at 5:21 AM on December 8, 2003


If by "funny" you mean as crude and insulting as the comments posted here, I don't think I'll choose to visit, thanks.

I have to admit to being a bit taken aback at the complete viciousness of the comments here, although I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised. Of course, putting your entire life live on the internet will leave the door wide open to people calling you a whore and a liar, making fun of the size of your ass, and second-guessing the decisions you make. However, Jennifer Ringley can say something that I'm guessing few of the commenters here can truthfully say -- she changed the 'net as we know it today. Whether she effected it for better or for the worse I don't think we can judge at this point, but her idea of "life, online" was, at the time, a very original one.

I know that a lot of people think of Jennicam as no more than a sort of sex/nudity lottery, but if you spend some time really looking at the public archives you'll note the sex was only ever a tiny fraction of what went on. Most of the time she simply lived a life ... and a life which is actually not that different from yours and mine (Yes, psychodrama and all).

She stopped updating her written diary quite a while ago, and I'm not at all surprised to find that she's closed the site. I suspect that paypal issues were only the final straw. She's been working a 'straight' job for some time now (as some kind of social services caseworker) and has also written quite candidly about the fact that Dex struggles with depression, and I'm actually a bit surprised that the site has hung on as long as it has.
posted by anastasiav at 6:10 AM on December 8, 2003


The note I wrote
As she read, she said
"Has the Perrier gone
Straight to my head
Or is life sick and cruel, instead ?"

"YES!"
No - no - no - no - no - no
No - no - no - no - no - no
Oh ...
posted by the fire you left me at 6:40 AM on December 8, 2003


she is famous,
she is funny,
an engagement ring
doesnt mean a thing
to a mind consumed by brass
(thats money)
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:55 AM on December 8, 2003


anastasiav,

The wide ass commment was just a quick bit of snarky comedy that absolved me from the burden of really getting into what a crude, personally unattractive, self-absorbed, self-promoting, back-stabbing, whining and screaming miserable human being Jennifer Ringley is.

And fucking good riddance to her.

I mean, we can go into details here, but you apparently think that the fact that she "changed the net" (horseshit) means something. I will remind you that commercialization and banner ads "changed the net" as well.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 7:29 AM on December 8, 2003


Reverend Mykeru: "what a crude, personally unattractive, self-absorbed, self-promoting, back-stabbing, whining and screaming miserable human being Jennifer Ringley is."

You say all that like it's a bad thing. She was human. For every dark and coarse adjective you have for her, I'm sure myself or others could find a dozen more pleasant descriptors that would describe her just as well. Dear reverend, I'm sure there have been moments in your life where you fit at least some of the adjectives you stone throw towards Ms. Ringley. We all have our glass houses and we all have our stones. We all have masks that we hide away forever, which we take out and show ourselves when everyone has gone. Jenni invited people to see her when others close the door. For good or ill, it was a gift she had to offer, a service she had for barter, and each person was free to take or leave it at their leisure. She never insisted we be forced to look.

I for one admire that she didn't try to only allow people to see her when she was at her best. We saw her at her worst too, and we saw her at her most human.

bicyclingfool: "wtf is a jennicam?"

Someone in MeFi who doesn't know about JenniCam? Some young whippersnappers in this place need to do their homework. When MeFi first began back in 1999, JenniCam was already a major fixture in the cyber landscape, and was the second link ever to be MeFi'd. Since last I checked Cat-Scan was no longer there, JenniCam is the oldest link MeFi'd that's still there. At least until New Years.

For better or for worse, Jenni did contribute to the cyber landscape in a manner that few can equal. Perhaps some have contributed in a more positive way, and others have contributed in a more prominent and less infamous way, but Jenni was out there before it became cool, encouraged others with her presence during the time that it was cool, and remained after it stopped being cool. Now she wants to move on. More power to her.

Though she was never my personal cup of tea, certainly never enough to encourage me to pull out my credit card for her, I have always admired her spunk. I wish her the best of luck in whatever she does after the cameras cease transmissiion, and hope she and those she loves find peace after we've all forgotten her name.

I bet she'll still be out there in some capacity. For those who matter to her. I'm sure she's learned a lot of painful lessons, but I bet she has some priceless fond memories too. Feel free to look upon her with sarcasm colored glasses if you wish. I feel that does her injustice. She was no hero. No saint. No angel. She was also no demon. No criminal. No villian. At times she appeared to be one or the other, but ultimately she was just herself. She wore her masks, and she unmasked herself for the pleasure of strangers. Just cuz you didn't like what was under her skin, that's no excuse to treat her like a monster. She was a reflection in a twisted mirror for humanity. Would that we all had such courage to look back at the unblinking eye and smile at it, even when things seem ugly all around.

I've seen others face that camera, and then turn away to a dark place, from which few escape.. Jenni's a survivor. I wish her well. You should do the same, but your mileage will no doubt vary. That's the 'Net for ya.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:39 AM on December 8, 2003


Come on. She's a freak. She stole her next door neighbor's fiance so she could fuck him on camera. And the sex they had was repulsive. If I feel sorry for anyone it's Dex, now that Jenni has used his depression and on-camera impotency as fodder for her journal. I guess she had to come up with something "interesting" since he wouldn't/couldn't fuck on camera anymore.

Good riddance to her.
posted by L. Ron McKenzie at 8:08 AM on December 8, 2003


Oh I forgot, only popes and nuns should put their lives on the Web because God forbid we see how freakish humanity can be. God forbid we think for a nanosecond how we're all a bunch of freaks.

Like you've never done anything wrong L.Ron? Come on your own big bad selvis.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:12 AM on December 8, 2003


I never said she was exonerated. I said she was human. We've all made our share of mistakes. She just made hers with a bunch of people watching. This doesn't lessen or increase the moral weight of her behavior, just the ramifications. I mean would what she did be any more or less permissible or forgivable had she done it out of the public eye? No. I've done some things I'm not proud of. Some of them I've done online. We all have. I'm just strongly encouraging y'all to watch where you throw your stones. That's all. And I see no logic to harboring ill will towards Jenni.

Criticize all you want. Demonizing her though just makes one about as pious as Jimmy Swaggart before he got caught committing sins himself. Jenni may have splinters in her eyes, but those who demonize her have logs in their own eyes. I suggest flushing with saline solution... And a crane.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:47 AM on December 8, 2003


I can't believe how much some of you know about all this. If nothing else, Jenny got the attention she wanted because apparently, you all gave it to her.
posted by crunchland at 8:50 AM on December 8, 2003


crunchland: The cheating story was well-covered by the Washington Post, Salon, etc. - it wasn't as if people had to actively seek the info out from obscure places or, heck, head to jennicam. Anyone who reads enough would've had a more-than-good chance of hitting upon coverage of the whole mess.
posted by raysmj at 9:09 AM on December 8, 2003


In other words, it's equally plausible those condemning Jenni never actually went to her site. They may have just read a couple features that glamorized one scandal and from that very limited amount of information, snubbed their noses in the air. Sorta like picketing a motion picture because someone told you it was bad, but refusing to go see for yourself and make an informed and intelligent opinion.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:11 AM on December 8, 2003


If I feel sorry for anyone it's Dex, now that Jenni has used his depression and on-camera impotency as fodder for her journal.

I don't know about the whole drama (haven't really bothered to think about Jenni all that much, but on rare occassions stumbled onto her site and found her likeable), but wouldn't it be pretty unbearable to be attached to someone you're only using for webcam fodder?

Really. Think about your logic. How often do you think she has to put up with this Dex guy? Several hours a day? How much do you think she has sex with him? How much do you think it impacted her business. Probably not that much to put up with someone that you're just using for that many hours of your day.
posted by jennak at 11:48 AM on December 8, 2003


ZachsMind sed:

"You say all that like it's a bad thing. She was human. For every dark and coarse adjective you have for her, I'm sure myself or others could find a dozen more pleasant descriptors that would describe her just as well. Dear reverend, I'm sure there have been moments in your life where you fit at least some of the adjectives you stone throw towards Ms. Ringley. We all have our glass houses and we all have our stones. We all have masks that we hide away forever, which we take out and show ourselves when everyone has gone..." (blah blah blah. OK, fanboy)

I will be eagerly anticipating your comments in the future because I do believe you have just forfeited your right to criticize anyone, any time, for any reason.

Although I'm sure you can write yourself an exemption to fling a stone every now and then.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 1:12 PM on December 8, 2003


I enjoyed checking in on Jennicam about once a week back in the 1997-1998 era. That slipped to once a month in the 1999-2000 era. That slipped to once every 3-6 months 2001-2002. I'm not sure I've been to her site in 2003 except today.

I hate to see her go, even though I long ago gave up being what I would call a "fan". I never had a subscription.

I remember thinking the move to California was a big mistake. She seemed to have a "life" on the east coast. Lots of friends, lots of movement. It was very interesting. I "signed off" just about the time of the Dex thing. I never heard an audio feed, and don't think I want to.

I did enjoy the little JenniShow or whatever features at thesync.com way back when. Jenni's voice was not what I had expected.

Visibly, she has aged more in 7 years than most people age in 17 years. I often question her health. She also went from what I would consider striking to something much different from that in those years.

Good luck to Jenni whatever happens to her next.
posted by Ynoxas at 2:21 PM on December 8, 2003


Zachsmind give it a rest. Sideline judging should be given all the attention the actual judging took-little, if any. Her contribution to the internet is little more than a tribute to banality.

I gave it a long look in 1999 and the site's just another oddity of internet popularity no more remarkable than Wil Wheaton, etc.
posted by john at 5:08 PM on December 8, 2003


I do smell a nomination for pseud's corner :/
posted by nthdegx at 8:31 PM on December 8, 2003


What's this braying "she stole her girlfriend's fiancée"? Stole? Like, was it a B and E? It takes two to tango, if said fiancée was game then why dump on Jenni? I don't understand those blaming the woman! Next thing you'll have her wear a scarlet letter huh?

As for the off screen screaming, what, like in the movie Harry Met Sally restaurant scene?

I never visited the site, but there's still raymitheminx for your voyeuristic pleasure [NSFW]. This grrrrl is sad. I wouldn't call it a life.

If Jenni is moving on, then maybe she's learned something about herself, call it therapy if you will.
posted by alicesshoe at 9:11 PM on December 8, 2003


Props to alicesshoe - he/she/it got it dead on. There is no such thing as "stealing" a man or a woman. Seduction exists, but nobody gets to dodge the responsibility for their own actions. Dex and Jenni both did what they did for their own reasons (I confess I've never paid any attention to Jenni and her 7 years of fame), but unless you're willing to say he's an utterly mindless puppet, then they both bear the weight of their decisions.
posted by Irontom at 6:30 AM on December 9, 2003


People in MeFi dissing Jenni as has happened in this thread, is not unlike a pack of hyenas throwing a weakened alpha female to the lions. It's hypocrisy. I reserve the right to criticize in the future, but when it comes to Jennifer Ringley, you're dissing one of our own. Kicking her when she's down. You're like a bunch of sharks smelling blood. Someone has to speak as the voice of compassion, and I've been drafted.

"O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well."
- W.Shakespeare's J.C., Act 3. Scene I

posted by ZachsMind at 7:50 AM on December 9, 2003


ZachsMind: "I reserve the right to criticize in the future"

Of course you do.

ZachsMind: "It's hypocrisy"

You got that right, sweet cheeks.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 4:25 PM on December 9, 2003


I only ever tuned in for Spree, the hedgehog.
I'll miss that little guy!
posted by milovoo at 2:06 AM on December 16, 2003


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