The Freak Box: Is This What "Happened" to the Beloved Woolworth Photo Booth?

June 15, 2001 10:41 AM

The Freak Box: Is This What "Happened" to the Beloved Woolworth Photo Booth? Am I even less hip than I thought or older than I thought? Is this the video equivalent of Metafilter: content created by the community? Apparently, lots of folk want to be outrageous and be on the Web. I feel so tame : 0
posted by ParisParamus (18 comments total)

But also, I would definitely buy their stock!
posted by ParisParamus at 10:54 AM on June 15, 2001

there's always this photobooth.
posted by donkeysuck at 11:00 AM on June 15, 2001

augh. "Made you look"? No, you didn't, because I apple-W'ed it shut before it got a chance to load. Damned popups.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:08 AM on June 15, 2001

I read somewhere that AllTrue just laid off a bunch of people, so this little amusement might not be around a lot longer.
posted by briank at 11:13 AM on June 15, 2001

Which once again proves that no matter how simple the concept, people will throw way too many bodies on it. This is the internet, we use computers. AllTrue was cool, except the popup...
posted by owillis at 11:45 AM on June 15, 2001

Mars, you need the popup to view the content. It's not a popup ad, but shitty design.
posted by Spanktacular at 12:03 PM on June 15, 2001

i've been watching photobooth.org for at least three years... the site hasn't updated once in that time, which is sad, as it's a fabulous idea. on the other hand, andrea scher's photo booth chronicles is still taking submissions.
posted by heather at 12:18 PM on June 15, 2001

Based on a quick review of the titles available, it looks like AllTrue has or quickly will degenerate/d into a soft-porn site. What a bunch of losers.
posted by davidmsc at 1:40 PM on June 15, 2001

The successor to photobooth.org is The PhotoBooth List, run by one of my former colleagues from MountainGate.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:44 PM on June 15, 2001

You know, however bleak the Web entertainment landscape may look, it is possible that a lot of these companies (the ones left) are just down in a bunker/in hibernation waiting for the climate to change and broadband to reach critical mass. (Assuming either is ever going to happen). That's what I would do.
posted by ParisParamus at 3:52 PM on June 15, 2001

You do not need the popup to view the content. The shit could load in the first page just fine, except they think that their shitty browser sniffing script (which only works half the time) needs to redirect to another window. Then it crashes the browser. All that plus slow loading times, plug-in heavy pages, imbedded video plugins, use of the word EXTREME, and, as if we haven't suffered enough for their art, weak and pathetic content (Ooh! A threesome! I'm rock hard! Yawn. I can read about threesomes in Graham Greene.). It all equals a bad impression.

The site is as bad as it was when I first saw it, when I classified it as "unredeemable."
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:03 PM on June 15, 2001

In the French movie The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (some Flash content), coming out in the States in November, there's a character who collects discarded photo booth pictures from under and on top of the booths and from nearby garbage cans. Those photo booths are all over Paris. One of the character's biggest mysteries is why he keeps finding different pictures of the same guy at photo booths all over town. I won't spoil it, seeing as how it was the best movie I've seen in years, the kind of movie that can't be overhyped, though some French lefties felt it gave a false hope via an antiseptic world that didn't exist. I loved the movie. Tangent complete.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:08 PM on June 15, 2001

How is it that so much $ is spent on sites and they're in the condition they're in. Rococo Web sites don't work. How do they get that way? Are they not tested? Are they tested with super broadband? Is it like a bad movie, where the people are too absorbed in the project to see reality?
posted by ParisParamus at 4:12 PM on June 15, 2001

Those photo booths are all over Paris.

Tangent not complete. Yes, the identification card-happy French love those machines. They're in the subway, supermarkets, everywhere. I wonder if they would be receptive to a video version.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:15 PM on June 15, 2001

Mo Nickels: Thank you for that link! It's so wonderfully French: simple, sweet, perfect.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:19 PM on June 15, 2001

Alltrue? What is this Metastileproject?
posted by machaus at 4:39 PM on June 15, 2001

Paris: Am I even less hip than I thought or older than I thought?

I don't see why this has to be an either/or thing.
posted by rodii at 5:28 PM on June 15, 2001

Rodii: as Ed McMann (or at least, Phil Hartman) used to say, you are correct, sir.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:59 PM on June 15, 2001