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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-gerbils-allowed dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

The oral history of the Hampsterdance: The twisted true story of one of the world's first memes | CBC Arts

What, exactly, is the Hampsterdance? If you were online around the turn of the millennium, you probably think you know the answer to this question. I did, anyway. And the first, seemingly obvious definition is that it's a website. It's the kind of website you probably haven't seen in a decade, at least — lost to the pixels of time along with stuff like Zombo.com and the emo rants you used to publish on LiveJournal. But it's a website, just the same. One page with one purpose: deliver 392 animated GIFs of dancing rodents and the most infuriating .wav file ever uploaded — a sound that, way back when, threatened to blast out of your speakers every time you checked your email.

It's weird to think about now — weirder than a website devoted to hundreds of cartoon rodents. But 20 years ago, the Hampsterdance was revolutionary, an example of "going viral" before anyone was even using the phrase. Want to make someone LOL? Send them the Hampsterdance. Want to prank your boss? Teacher? Roommate? Get everyone to load the page at the same time. It infiltrated the culture, both online and off, even popping up in a TV ad for Earthlink. And it made its conquest before iPhones, before social media — spreading through email and old-timey word of mouth.

When you consider all that, it's fair to call it the world's first online meme — or one of the first, depending on your source.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:34AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:34AM (#781337)

    That was one of my arguments as to why Google survived those first few years. Everyone else was trying to cram 50-100k on their front page. Its front page was under 4k (gif and all). That was mega important in the days of dialup. If it takes forever for your page to load people would get board and leave.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:16AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:16AM (#781382) Journal

    people would get board and leave

    California beaches!

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:50PM (2 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:50PM (#781539) Journal

    I really wish, they'd stayed true to their roots in that manner.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:09PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:09PM (#781755)

      Me, too.

      Way too many business pages give me fits. Its almost impossible for me to navigate NAPA Auto parts, albeit EBay and Rock Auto work fine.

      I am of the belief that some corporate webmasters job is to code in such a way so that the CEO can see the corporate site just fine.... Everyone else gets an error page.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @12:29AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @12:29AM (#781799)

        Most of that sort of thing is slapped together by contractors who really just do not GAF. It works and they move onto the next company to work for. Anyone who comes after is afraid to touch it fundamentally and just add more.