Comments on: Oh Sure, Everyone Always Remembers The First, Never The Second

Oh Sure, Everyone Always Remembers The First, Never The Second

Effigy2000 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:26:40 -0800

Catscan.com sure is a strange site. But did you know Jennicam (deadlink... previously) is nowadays hailed as one of the greatest now-defunct websites to have ever existed? Operated by Jennifer Ringley and closed in 2003 after seven years of a very popular existence , Jennicam was a guilty pleasure that for the longest time seemed lost to the newest denizens of the intertubes. Thankfully all 43 episodes can be viewed online! Once you've feasted on that digital archive, check out the interview Jenni gave to Webjunk back in 2007, and read some of the sonnets inspired by her work.

By: jouke

jouke — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:36:25 -0800

If only metafilter would be defunct. It would be even greater.

By: krautland

krautland — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:41:47 -0800

guilty pleasure is about right. I never could quite figure out why she fascinated then-me. rarely did anything happen and physically she was far from being 'my type,' yet I kept visiting that site. I suspect others did the same.

By: Effigy2000

Effigy2000 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:49:18 -0800

jouke: "If only metafilter would be defunct. It would be even greater." Metafilter Jackson? Too soon?

By: NotMyselfRightNow

NotMyselfRightNow — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:49:20 -0800

From Wikipedia: "As Ringley attracted a following both on and off the Internet, more than 100 media outlets from The Wall Street Journal to Modern Ferret ran features."

By: geoff.

geoff. — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:52:48 -0800

Ah, Jennicam. The first time in Internet history where media commentary and analysis became inversely proportional to how interesting something really is.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:56:10 -0800

People kept watching to see if she got naked? I mean, it's not that deep is it?

By: adipocere

adipocere — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:58:46 -0800

I knew her a long, long time ago on IRC. She really wasn't about the smut, although many of her later viewers tuned in to Jennicam for just that reason. When we first "met" she was using this new digital camera (imagine me saying it slowly, with air quotes) in one of the labs on campus to take random photos of her body like a calf here, a bicep there. I had to go to a lab on my campus just to see the by-our-standards-now tiny gif (at that point, jpegs were unknown to me) of her calf. My college didn't even have a scanner at the time, and here was something where you didn't even have to go through film to get the image onto a computer. She told us she considered the device as a potential start of an art project to expose parts of her life to strangers. If she took a photo of her breast, well, that was part of her body, and she'd neither focus on it nor avoid it in her plans. She never sent anything risque, just this assemblage of parts. It was one of those things I kept dwelling on, because it made me think that the future was going to be verrrry interesting. Maybe three years later, she came back and let us know about the cam and I made the connection — hey! that's Jennicam! I heard about that! I wonder if I still have any of her old files around.

By: benzenedream

benzenedream — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:08:22 -0800

If you strike metafilter down, It shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:11:55 -0800

Heh. We used to tune in from our high school, which was where we had internet access (in the biology classroom!). I don't think I actually saw her, like, more than once. The vast majority of it was her empty dorm room—probably because she had classes at the same time we did.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:15:09 -0800

I watched for the nudity, I admit it. But really, even that wasn't all that interesting. Other sites, like JameyDee and AugustLive (at approximately the same time) were more interesting. Earthcam's "TV" top personal cams followed suit and still were about the people rather than the T&A. Now we have a preponderance of webcam sites and none stand out. Big sites like LiveJasmin cater to having a quantity of bland and available nudity rather than personality. Further, most of what is available is just recorded video "cleverly" tailored to look live, with not-the-camgirl typing responses to the horndogs. Not that I work/worked in this industry or anything.......

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:22:56 -0800

FWIW, the only cam/video show I miss is SnackBoy.

By: Phantomx

Phantomx — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:23:13 -0800

I remember tuning in to Jennicam many years ago. In fact, I was just talking about her site last week. Something about video on the web and some of the first stuff. A nice little trip down memory lane.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:08:09 -0800

I'll be honest, I initially tuned in to JenniCam for the nudity. But after a while I just watched for the real life. It was kind of comforting seeing somebody else just hanging out at their computer, just like I was.

By: holgate

holgate — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:11:33 -0800

MetaNostalgia: When camgirls attack. (MeTa'd here.)

By: emeiji

emeiji — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:36:48 -0800

People kept watching to see if she got naked? I mean, it's not that deep is it? Like watching that fireplace video for elusive shots of the hand coming to tend the fire.

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:59:34 -0800

Jennicam always reminded me of this scene in Gregory's Girl.

By: Who_Am_I

Who_Am_I — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:06:31 -0800

From Wikipedia: "As Ringley attracted a following both on and off the Internet, more than 100 media outlets from The Wall Street Journal to Modern Ferret ran features." Yeah she had a ferret or two IIRC. JenniCam was one of the first sites that I checked regularly when I first got on the Internet, along with the awesome InPassing (the progenitor of Overheard in New York). This was my first exposure to seeing into the lives of real people who I didn't know, something the internet has made commonplace now. I still have one of her neat webcam closeup shots of her screaming at the camera.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:54:33 -0800

MetaNostalgia: When camgirls attack. (MeTa'd here.) Holy god, am I glad I missed that the first time around. As some of the comments in the MeTa thread noted, reading that thread sucked some IQ out of my head. If anyone ever needs a reminder of why we all hang out here: Metafilter comments vs. Youtube comments.

By: GavinR

GavinR — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:26:55 -0800

Ah, I forgot all about Audiogalaxy until I read that article on defunct sites. That place was great!!!

By: furtive

furtive — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:14:05 -0800

So, which episodes should I be watching?

By: humboldt32

humboldt32 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:57:54 -0800

izzicam was 1k times better.