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What is the history of DU Poetry?
I created Deep Underground poetry in March 1999. I had an interest in poetry and a level of teen angst and exuberance which I have since come to miss. There weren't many poetry websites around at the time, few if any were interactive.
HOW THE WEBSITE USED TO LOOK BACK IN THE DAY
The original website had sections including “Shocking Pink Mainstream”, “Narcosis”, “Uproar” and “The Basement”, each showcasing poetry on a different subject matter or style. The idea was for people to submit their work for consideration. However, I wasn't that keen on this idea as I was getting a ton of emails through every day and thinking “who am I to say what’s good and what isn't?”. By July 1999 I had built the interactive side of the website and the e-zine aspect of things took a back-seat.
Interactivity wise there was the “Readers Page” (that’s a “guestbook” to anyone who remembers those) and the “Open Mike” where people could submit their own poems, either as a “Poetry Portfolio” or in categories.
At a time when only 4% of the world was online, Deep Underground had thousands of visitors every month and over 500 people regularly commenting on and submitting poetry.
So where did it all go wrong? In the early days of the internet, it was common for people to have a personal homepage, but not many people were smart enough to buy a real domain name; me included - plus I didn't have any cash to pay for hosting! Therefore the original Deep Underground website was on a free web host which I chose because they didn't display any adverts. Well I shot myself in the foot there because I guess they didn't make any money, and became one of the casualties of the early days of the Internet; the Dotcom Crash. My free host suddenly vanished one day, taking Deep Underground with it. I'm not sure exactly how long the original website existed for, but certainly less than 18 months!
The idea to relaunch Deep Underground (as Deep Underground Poetry) came ten years later, in 2009. I wanted to get back into programming and thought it would be a good place to start, especially as there wasn't anything similar around. Relaunching DU inspired me to start writing again and it's really exciting to see the website thriving again.
Kind regards and strange thoughts,
DU Webmistress
HOW THE WEBSITE USED TO LOOK BACK IN THE DAY
The original website had sections including “Shocking Pink Mainstream”, “Narcosis”, “Uproar” and “The Basement”, each showcasing poetry on a different subject matter or style. The idea was for people to submit their work for consideration. However, I wasn't that keen on this idea as I was getting a ton of emails through every day and thinking “who am I to say what’s good and what isn't?”. By July 1999 I had built the interactive side of the website and the e-zine aspect of things took a back-seat.
Interactivity wise there was the “Readers Page” (that’s a “guestbook” to anyone who remembers those) and the “Open Mike” where people could submit their own poems, either as a “Poetry Portfolio” or in categories.
At a time when only 4% of the world was online, Deep Underground had thousands of visitors every month and over 500 people regularly commenting on and submitting poetry.
So where did it all go wrong? In the early days of the internet, it was common for people to have a personal homepage, but not many people were smart enough to buy a real domain name; me included - plus I didn't have any cash to pay for hosting! Therefore the original Deep Underground website was on a free web host which I chose because they didn't display any adverts. Well I shot myself in the foot there because I guess they didn't make any money, and became one of the casualties of the early days of the Internet; the Dotcom Crash. My free host suddenly vanished one day, taking Deep Underground with it. I'm not sure exactly how long the original website existed for, but certainly less than 18 months!
The idea to relaunch Deep Underground (as Deep Underground Poetry) came ten years later, in 2009. I wanted to get back into programming and thought it would be a good place to start, especially as there wasn't anything similar around. Relaunching DU inspired me to start writing again and it's really exciting to see the website thriving again.
Kind regards and strange thoughts,
DU Webmistress
Added: 4th January 2014 12:53pm
Last modified: 14th September 2018 2:16pm
