Guide To The Simpsons On The Net
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TOGETHERNESS
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"Stick together is what good waffles do." |
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In May of 2000, the lawyers at Fox attacked Last Exit To Springfield,
'Round Springfield, Maximum Homerdrive, The Simpson Treasury,
and three smaller sites all in
the one afternoon. Only a few of these sites complied removing
all their content. The following month, Evergreen Terrace as
well as its six character subsidiaries received letters, so
all of a sudden being hosted with one of the most respected
sites on the net didn't seem like the best thing to do.
 While
fans were continually annoyed with Fox's actions it soon became
evident that there wasn't a lot we could do about it. Protests
only seemed to fuel the fire. But the community continued to grow,
and with light hearted ideas such as 'Simpsons Radio' -- a weekly
discussion of The Simpsons on the net with Bryan Ludvigsen and
Nate Gilmore -- it was clear that everybody was still enjoying
themselves and that we could get through the onslaught together.
It was at this
stage where message boards such as Maggied.com, a side project of The Simpsons
Top 100 began to shape the community. It was a place where everybody would meet
and discuss the things they had in common and share there love for the show. In
addition, webmasters would meet on IRC channels every afternoon to further tighten
the community.
New
sites such as the The Simpsons Mainframe, 'Round Springfield, and
The Simpsons
Gallery
grew
via
competing with the big guns Evergreen Terrace, The Simpsons Folder, Last Exit
To Springfield, and The Simpsons Sourcebook. But it was this competitiveness
which eventually saw Fox target the Mainframe, which never fully
recovered
from a series of letters.
 In late 2001,
Fox attempted to join the community by redesigning thesimpsons.com for the first
time since its opening. But some sections were left untouched and it still provided
useless content for the average fan.
Evergreen
Terrace
attempted
to
recover
from
a
series
of
letters
by
shifting
its
focus to
news related updates and information, while new site The Springfield
Shopper opened with an information focus from the beginning. These two sites
also jumped on the bandwagon to create a friendly place for fans and webmasters
to
meet in the form of The No Homers Club. This message board became an instant
success due to its integration with a number of other popular sites at the time.
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A NEW ERA
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2002 was the year of change. Sites such as Eye On Springfield, Just D'oh It, Destination: Springfield and The Simpsons Odyssey were born to join The Simpsons Showcase and Beyond Blunderdome as the sites to visit. These sites would soon fill a void created by a series of shutdowns not aided by Fox.
SwO.net was first to close its doors in January, after five years of operation. Simpsons Surplus had been sent C&D letters in the past but the site eventually closed its doors in February. The Simpson Treasury had gone unupdated before its eventualdisappearance, but owner Lee Kaldany launched Homer: A Tribute as its replacement. The Simpsons Sourcebook was also hit by Fox and disappeared for a while in March.
 The final nail came in August with Fox's last major attack, sending letters to the hosts of Evergreen Terrace, Last Exit To Springfield, The Simpsons Sourcebook, Eye On Springfield, and Beyond Blunderdome in attempt to have the sites taken offline. Evergreen Terrace was hit hard by this attack, Eric Wirtanen deciding it wasn't worth it anymore, closing the site indefinitely. Promising to return with a smaller scale of content, the day never came.
The Simpsons Folder was also kicked off its server, but not by Fox. The site took a while to recover from this. The Springfield Shopper closed but owner Jonah Flynn joined the ranks of The Simpsons Archive. The Simpsons Odyssey also disappeared. Meanwhile The Simpsons Sourcebook returned as a dedication to the first ten season of the show.
At this stage the only elite sites remaining on the net were The Simpsons Archive,
Last Exit To Springfield, Eye On Springfield, The Simpsons Sourcebook, and The
Simpsons Showcase. Sites like The Simpsons Channel and The Simpsons Top 100 were
dying due to their community focus which was disappearing around them.The Simpsons
Channel responded by going news-focused, filling a void left by Evergreen Terrace,
and leaving The Simpsons Top 100 to handle website news and links.
 While Nick Laws of The Simpsons Showcase had received a fair share of Cease and Desist notices by this time, it was a phonecall similar to Eric Wirtenen's of two years ago that eventually pushed the site completely offline. After trying to adjust the content to suit Fox, Nick found that his site wouldn't be worth visiting and a retooled work in progress never made its way online.
It was evident that Fox rather than Mr. Wilson were the guys responsible
for the selected group of sites hit. Based on Nick's experiences he said "Fox
sends
Wilson
the
list of sites. Fox finds the links themselves, or can be tipped off by parents
and
other
people,
parents may be disgruntled in some way with what they let their child see on
The Simpsons site. Fox give him a list of content. Fox are very vigilant about
protecting their work and break everything down into categories for Wilson to
sift through all the site, marking down what's there and pasting it into the
C&D letter."
Furthermore, Nick believed Mr. Wilson to be a good guy. "He's
understanding,
he
answered many of my questions before I asked them, trying to put Fox's views
across while
hearing
mine at the same time, he answered any questions I had openly and has given me
a better understanding of Fox and the Copyright Infringement issue."
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