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Here is a tribute to the defunct pages of the online Simpsons community - a fan site Hall of Fame, essentially. Some websites were shut down voluntarily while other webmasters were ordered by 20th Century Fox to cease & desist their online promotion of the show. Enjoy this trip down memory lane.
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Site Name: Brian's Tribute to The Simpsons
URL: http://www.yucc.yorku.ca/~chen/Simpsons/
Peak of Popularity: 1997
Famous For: Aside from many original scans and whatnot, "BTTS" was one of the first Simpsons fan sites to offer truly a wide variety of content. Owned by Brian Chen, it's no stretch to say that this page helped to inspire many fan sites in the late 1990's. |
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Site Name: Cletus' Farm
URL: http://cletus.free.fr
Peak of Popularity: 2000
Famous For: Offering over 200 full-length Simpsons episodes, this page was the alternative to file-sharers like KaZaA and Scour for web savvy Simpsons fans. 20th Century Fox understandably didn't care for this page too much and it was dead come 2001. It took 13 years for a suitable replacement (Simpsons World) to launch. |
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Site Name: The Homer Archive
URL: http://homer.simplenet.com, http://ha.nerdish.com
Peak of Popularity: 1998
Famous For: You mean you forgot about the "Fight of the Week"? The Homer Archive lived up to its title, and owner Matt Thom provided Simpsons fans with a Homer Simpson tribute that was once one of the best character related sites online. |
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Site Name: I Can't Believe it's a Simpsons Site!
URL: http://www.icbiass.com
Peak of Popularity: 1999
Famous For: Any random Simpsons fan that stumbled onto Chad Lehman's multimedia warehouse was probably drooling within a matter of seconds. The page offered literally thousands of screen captures from the show, over a thousand sound clips, and hundreds of movie files. I still can't believe we'll never see it again. |
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Site Name: Little Miss Springfield
URL: http://www.lisasimpson.net
Peak of Popularity: 2000
Famous For: Arguably one of the best fan sites ever devoted to a single character, Alicia Tishenko's tribute to Lisa boasted several beautiful, unique designs over the years and offered a wonderful selection of scans, comics, wallpaper, fan art, and fan scripts. |
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Site Name: Mayor Quimby's Tourist Trap
URL: http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/2103/
Peak of Popularity: 1998
Famous For: One of the most original Simpsons fan sites of all time, owner Dave Sweatt later moved some of its content to SNPP.com and opened a brilliant Futurama page called "The Futurama Chronicles". |
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Site Name: McBain: Let's Get Silly
URL: http://gilmore.simplenet.com/mcbain/
Peak of Popularity: 1998
Famous For: The best character tribute of the late 90's along with "The Homer Archive" and "The Definitive Frink". Nate Gilmore's sleek, beautiful design for this page made many webmasters depressed when they realized they couldn't do better than this. |
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Site Name: Much Ado About Simpsons
URL: http://www.reactorcore.com/maas/
Peak of Popularity: 1998
Famous For: Formerly "The Dancin' Homers Webpage", Justin Hess's site screamed originality and inspired creative features on many future fan sites. Home to a fantastic little tribute to Hugo, MAAS was one of the best general sites in history. |
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Site Name: Omar's Simpsons Site
URL: http://www.intellipage.com/simpsons/
Peak of Popularity: 1998
Famous For: One of the first sites to offer a wide variety of content and the inspiration for countless other pages. A very popular page that was never hit with a cease & desist order, it remained on the web for over five years. |
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Site Name: The Simpson Treasury
URL: http://treasury.cjb.net, http://www.kidmoe.com
Peak of Popularity: 1999
Famous For: A favorite fan site of many, Lee Kaldany's Simpsons tribute offered lots of original images, plenty of games & contests, and was simply a fun webpage. After this page shut down, Lee went on to create another great page that was a tribute to Homer Simpson. |
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Site Name: The Simpsons Mainframe & The Simpsons Showcase
URL: http://www.monstromart.com
Peak of Popularity: 2002
Famous For: Run by Nick Laws, this fantastic page was one of the largest Simpsons multimedia archives the Internet had ever seen - nearly as big as "ICBIASS" (see above) if you factor in everything. Unfortunately, before finally shutting down this site was also hit hard by Fox. |
 
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Site Name: The Simpsons Sourcebook
URL: http://www.pixel-fusion.com/source/ (Old TSS), http://www.frinkiac.com & http://www.frinky.com (New TSS)
Peak of Popularity: 1997 (Old TSS), 2000 (New TSS)
Famous For: Ryan Johnson's original "Simpsons Sourcebook" was the first huge Simpsons multimedia archive to hit the net. After receiving a C&D from Fox in 1997, it was shut down and Ryan went on to help out at SNPP.com and create Alf Clausen's personal site.
A year later, John and Jeff Fiedler created a "New Simpsons Sourcebook" that would eventually contain more content than its famous predecessor. Online for five years, the new TSS featured daily news updates, great interactivity, thousands of screen captures, and it even enjoyed a stint as Fandom.com's Simpsons site. Yeah, even Fandom's gone now too.
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Site Name: Simpsons Surplus
URL: http://duff.simplenet.com, http://www.smarch.com
Peak of Popularity: 2000
Famous For: Always featuring a clean, colorful design, Brad Dugan's "Simpsons Surplus" offered hundreds of original pictures, wallpaper, and creative features such as parody sites.
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Site Name: The Simpsons Web
URL: http://www.kbbl.com
Peak of Popularity: 1999
Famous For: This site was always as good as others such as "The Simpsons Sourcebook" and Lardlad.com, but unfortunately it didn't stick around for as long. Nevertheless, due to its multimedia content and unique sections such as "Who Said It?", Ryan Irvine's page was enjoyed by many.
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Site Name: The Springfield Shopper
URL: http://www.thespringfieldshopper.com
Peak of Popularity: 2002
Famous For: I can only think of a couple other webmasters who work as hard on their sites as Jonah Flynn once did. Featuring guides based on the "A Complete Guide to OFF" books, very original lists, and exclusive interviews with people such as producer Al Jean, "The Springfield Shopper" was a sight to behold.
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Still hungry for more information about the past of the online Simpsons community? Well, you must be horribly bored, but check out these pages.
Last Exit To Springfield: Fox Website Update
A brief history regarding the battle between 20th Century Fox and Simpsons webmasters, including a list of sites hit by Fox over the years.
The Simpsons Archive: Guide To The Simpsons On The Net
These pages trace the history of the community from the early 1990s to the present day. Includes an almost-complete list of sites that were ordered to cease and desist by Fox.
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