0855: "1999"

[Pfhorrest]

Some kid showed me this a couple years ago. Prior to that I had never seen it. I guess I am old enough to have used Mosaic at university, but not young enough to have peers who thought this was cool.

Same, though still on the younger end here. 1999 was my senior year of high school; I had been active on the internet since around 92 or so; and I don't remember Zombocom. Then again I mostly hung out on UseNet then, and if I heard of Zombocom probably dismissed it with the same disdain that I did Friendster, LiveJournal, MySpace, and so on, as piddling little things that only noobs would use. (It really caught me by surprise when everyone in meatspace started talking about Facebook and Twitter all the time; I hadn't noticed quite how popular the 'Net had gotten with mundanes until that point, since I was still hiding in my favorite little corners of the old 'Net).

I'm presuming here that Zombocom is some kind of poorly implemented proto-social-something, since all I see when I load the page is a giant Flash box.

[monicaclaire]

yep, circles.

[hailthefish]

It was never a social anything, poorly or proto or anything. All it is, all it was, and all it will be is multicolored letters, some flashing flash circles, and a deep voice chanting the following:

Welcome to Zombocom
This is Zombocom
Welcome
This is Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
You can do anything at Zombocom
Anything at all
The only limit is yourself
Welcome to Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
This is Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
This is Zombocom, Welcome
Yes, this is Zombocom
This is Zombocom and welcome to you who have come to Zombocom
Anything is possible at Zombocom
You can do anything Zombocom
The infinite is possible at Zombocom
The unattainable is unknown at Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
This is Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
Welcome
This is Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom
Welcome to Zombocom

[therealdigi]

There were moments in that movie that really weren't too much above Swordfish (yes, Swordfish)... I hate when they try to make programmers into club-going rockstars... and I'm pretty sure no one at facebook discussed features while surrounded by naked girls (if so, I should really update my resume about now)

I have discussed features in a strip club. Programmers may not be rockstars, but you don't need to be a rockstar to be a normal club-going male;]

[therealdigi]

I saw Zombocom a couple a years ago (as well as omboz and the html5 version) and I would have shouted "oldmeme!" at anyone sending me the link... until now that I realize that Zombocom existed before I knew what a modem is. I am humbled. All hail, Zombocom!

[hujackus]

http://thezombocom.ytmnd.com
The internet just got a little bit worse.

[ManaUser]

I'm presuming here that Zombocom is some kind of poorly implemented proto-social-something, since all I see when I load the page is a giant Flash box.

You presume incorrectly. Zombocom both perfectly implemented and unlike any other site on the internet (save for its imitators).

[herbys]

But we like to dramatize such things because the reality of developing a site is actually really fucking unexciting and audiences would be bored by the real hurdles. So, yeah, you could make the story of pretty much any website into The Social Network if you didn't give a damn for accuracy or truth.

Yeah -- it's completely mindblowing that most films are made to TELL A STORY, not to show off how the director knows how it actually is to develop and program a website. Isn't it absurd that film directors make films exactly the way they're meant to be done?

The problem is not with the directors. It is with the movies audience, which will think anything that claims to be "based on a real story" is an accurate portrayal of what happened. Even when the story is about two people that spent the whole movie alone floating in the ocean and then die never to be recovered. I actually had to explain to my friend's girlfriend that Open Water was not a literal account of what happened since it wasn't obvious to her.

[Aviatrix]

Usenet was the original social network.

What cracks me up is how everyone thinks that the first thing they remember was the first thing. There were computer-based social networks in the 1970s. PLATO comes to mind. While it was necessarily limited in scope, it was international, widespread, and definitely a social network. What do you need for something to be a social network? E-mail? Check. Instant messaging? Check. Discussion boards? Check. Addictive games? Check and check. Creating, managing and tracking projects involving multiple individuals over months to years? Check. Meeting people online first and in person (sometimes much) later or not at all? Check. Online profiles? Check. Creation of a community that survives patchily 40 years later? Check. Innovative soft porn? Check - c'mon, using a microfiche reader to create sex sound effects is innovative, and that doesn't even get into ordered dither.

There were moments in that movie that really weren't too much above Swordfish (yes, Swordfish)... I hate when they try to make programmers into club-going rockstars... and I'm pretty sure no one at facebook discussed features while surrounded by naked girls (if so, I should really update my resume about now)

I have discussed features in a strip club. Programmers may not be rockstars, but you don't need to be a rockstar to be a normal club-going male;]

Um, just for the record, normal club-going males pay attention to the strippers.

[SirMustapha]

The problem is not with the directors. It is with the movies audience, which will think anything that claims to be "based on a real story" is an accurate portrayal of what happened. Even when the story is about two people that spent the whole movie alone floating in the ocean and then die never to be recovered. I actually had to explain to my friend's girlfriend that Open Water was not a literal account of what happened since it wasn't obvious to her.

That is true, that's a problem that's pretty much unavoidable. But I don't think there's much you can do about that: there are many people that will take dead seriously even a film that is entirely fictional --

Spoiler:

I mean, I wouldn't doubt some people watched Inglourious Basterds and said "wow, so THAT is how Hitler died?"

And when it comes to filmmakers, even when it comes to films that are based on real facts, they are not making a documentary -- they are making a work of fiction, and they want to telli an interesting story. I know there have been some absurds like that Hackers film, that took the "computers are fantasy!" thing to a ridiculous level, but how much "accuracy" can you ask from a film that is telling the story of one of the greatest phenomena of the last decade? For me, at least, showing the programmers' work is the LEAST IMPORTANT "accuracy" there could be. Really? Do we really want to see them struggling with database connections, software bugs, choice of programming languages and server overloads? That's a filmmaking choice: either you dramatise it a little bit, or you make the most unentertaining film in history.

[jgh]

Argh!!! Stoppitt! You're making me feel old!
I first used the web in 1992, first used the internet in 1987, first used email and social networking in 1985.

[SpudTater]

Usenet was the original social network.

No. I think what you mean is that Usenet was the original social network service, but I don't think it qualifies, as it lacked the facility to identify users and map relationships between them. Wiki says: "A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service)

Which is not to say that Usenet users did not form a social network, in the broader sociological sense, but the oldest social network by that definition probably consisted of grunting, gestures, and social grooming...

[Ted Mielczarek]

Two facts:

1) Mozilla has a conference room named "Zombocom". Most of our conference rooms are named after internet memes, and we also have a few larger rooms named with Star Trek references. Of course I can't find a photo of the conference room name plate, but here are a couple of links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deusx/4175378504/
http://www.owlfolio.org/htmletc/moco-conf-rooms/

2) We had a unit test in the Firefox source that loaded zombo.com for some reason. In December 2010, zombo.com was unavailable for a period of time, so the test started failing. Source checkins were stopped while people scrambled to figure out what was broken, only to eventually narrow it down to zombo.com. We lost at least a full day's worth of productivity there. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=616085 for some of the details.

[orbik]

Might be a little off-topic, but I can't help being annoyed by the obvious gamma error in the downscaled image, especially the white-on-black text looks ugly. I thought technically minded people like Mr. Munroe should know better. A relevant article: http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/gamma.html

[Tirlas]

This reminds me of sites like 'Is it friday already' (in Dutch) only replying 'yes' or 'no'.

However, back in 1999 I was mostly busy drawing ASCII-picture slideshows in QBASIC.

Don't forget about http://www.isitnovember.org/ I did like the previous incarnation better with random quotes (see: http://web.archive.org/web/20031104025416/http://www.isitnovember.org/ ) but still serves its purpose.

[frostedcheerios]

Looks like this comic generated so much traffic for Zombocom that it has exceeded its bandwidth limit!



I call that a success.

[hujackus]

Looks like this comic generated so much traffic for Zombocom that it has exceeded its bandwidth limit!

Win

Check out the HTML5 version or any of the other ones above if you can't view the original.

[alexriehl]

Looks like this comic generated so much traffic for Zombocom that it has exceeded its bandwidth limit!

Win

Check out the HTML5 version or any of the other ones above if you can't view the original.

Or look it up on youtube. Obmoz also is on youtube.

[Tova]

Once again, xkcd is incapable of producing anything except an in-joke.

[EthanW]

THEGLOBE.COM Does anyone remember it?!?!?

[Cloud Walker]

As others have mentioned, there's nothing special about Zombocom other than what you see/hear there. It's just a weird website. So weird that it has crossed the line into awesome and popular. And it all happened a long time ago.

I don't think it's Randall's intention to compare Facebook & other social networking sites to Zombocom. I would speculate that he was just reminded of Zombocom and wanted to do a comic about it. The Facebook story probably came in when he focused on there not being a "dot" and thought of The Social Network, a recent movie where ancillary parts of a website name were also left out. Any website at all could be used to segue into Zombocom, because, well, you can do anything there!

[Bobic]

I need the song that plays in zombocom, without the man, and I need it now.
please

[Kartoffelkopf]

I don't remember how many years it was since I visited Zombocom, but maybe I should go back...

As fun as zombocom is, it's worth remembering that it also has a nemesis: obmoz(.)com

I'm okay with this.

[Whys]

Zombo.com -- Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

See? It's all about up time.

Is there anyone who doesn't think Facebook is just a fad? I mean sure, social networking is here to stay, but Facebook simply represents a temporarily self perpetuating concentration of internet traffic, as sure to disappear and reappear elsewhere, as any other social gathering. Ballmer of Microsoft once said of Google, "...but they don't make anything." While that was simply Ballmer missing the forest for the trees, in this case, I think it applies. Facebook doesn't make friends, people make friends on their own, and they can be incredibly fickle.

[snowyowl]

Is there anyone who doesn't think Facebook is just a fad? I mean sure, social networking is here to stay, but Facebook simply represents a temporarily self perpetuating concentration of internet traffic, as sure to disappear and reappear elsewhere, as any other social gathering.

Facebook is just a fad, in my opinion. Someday, a major Facebook scandal will erupt (probably involving privacy issues), a small Internet forum will expand into a new social network, and spambots and hackers will force Facebook users to seek out new and verdant pastures. Social networking is probably here to stay, but companies come and go. The Internet moves fast; very few Internet companies are more than 15 years old.

And now my crystal ball is out of batteries.

[mister k]

well facebook lives and dies on its ability to get peopleto join it. Its useful because my friends are on it, just as with instant messangers. Its power comes from its ability to appeal to those who are not "internet savvy", thus allowing us more technically abled people to keep in touch with these people through online means that aren't email.

[NumberFourtyThree]

Zombocom has been around surprisingly long, and Facebook seems to be enduring, but what are the chances anyone will remember them 10,000 years from now. There will simply be too many other internet things in history competing for attention. Remember, the greatest works may outlive their makers, but eventually, in the end all things come to nothing.

[Goatboy]

So, I read this comic and chuckled at the overall premise while missing the reference. I had vague intentions of looking into it later, but it turns out my friend Dave was familiar with Zombo from way back. So when we watched the Super Bowl, and he caught a glimpse of Green Bay linebacker Frank Zombo, it triggered a flurry of "Welcome to Zombocom" and "Anything is possible ... at Zombocom" and I was forced to admit I didn't get it.

[Felstaff]

very few Internet companies are more than 15 years old.

Weirdly, very few companies that manufacture iPod cases are more than 9 years old!

[Cloud Walker]

So when we watched the Super Bowl, and he caught a glimpse of Green Bay linebacker Frank Zombo, it triggered a flurry of "Welcome to Zombocom" and "Anything is possible ... at Zombocom" and I was forced to admit I didn't get it.

I noticed that, too! And I even think the camera man/woman thought of it, because, after Zombo made a play early in the game, the camera was focused on him and his name for unusually long.

[hujackus]

So when we watched the Super Bowl, and he caught a glimpse of Green Bay linebacker Frank Zombo, it triggered a flurry of "Welcome to Zombocom" and "Anything is possible ... at Zombocom" and I was forced to admit I didn't get it.

I noticed that, too! And I even think the camera man/woman thought of it, because, after Zombo made a play early in the game, the camera was focused on him and his name for unusually long.

I knew I wasn't the only one to notice this. I mentioned the website to my group of friends during the game, but nobody got the reference either.

[zjxs]

You know what's cool?

Circles.

Goddamnit, he was right!
https://plus.google.com/