Goatse.cx
{{Short description|Internet shock site}}
{{Redirect2|Goatse|Goatsex|the computer hacker group|Goatse Security|sex among goats|Goat#Reproduction}}
{{Use American English |date=February 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{lowercase title}}
{{Infobox website
| name = goatse.cx
| alexa =
| commercial = No
| type = Shock site
| language = English
| registration = None
| launch_date = 1999
| current_status = Defunct (but has mirrors)
| revenue =
| screenshot =
| caption =
}}
goatse.cx ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|oʊ|t|s|i|_|d|ɒ|t|_|ˌ|s|iː|_|ˈ|ɛ|k|s|audio=en-us-goatse.cx.oga}} {{respell|GOHT|see|dot|see|EKS}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|oʊ|t|ˌ|s|ɛ|k|s|audio=en-us-goatse.cx2.oga}}; "goat sex"), often spelled without the .cx top-level domain as Goatse, is an internet domain that originally housed an Internet shock site. Its front page featured a picture entitled {{mono|hello.jpg}}, showing an image of a hunched-over naked man using both hands to stretch open his anus and expose his red rectum lit by the camera flash.
The photo became an Internet meme, and has been used in bait-and-switch pranks, prevention of hot-linking in a hostile manner, and defacement of websites, in order to provoke extreme reactions. Even though the image from the site was taken down in January 2004, mirror websites are widespread.
History
The original photograph depicts Kirk Johnson, a pornographic model who participates in extreme penetration, which is the practice of inserting large objects into the anus. The image began to spread in pornographic Usenet groups around 1997.{{Cite web |last=Chen |first=Adrian |author-link=Adrian Chen |date=2012-04-10 |title=Finding Goatse: The mystery man behind the most disturbing Internet meme in history |url=https://www.dailydot.com/society/goatse-revealed-kirk-johnson/ |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=The Daily Dot |language=en-US}} Soon after, a hacker group known as the Hick Crew found the image and began to spam it in Christian chatrooms as entertainment.{{Cite magazine |last=Chen |first=Adrian |author-link=Adrian Chen |date=2013-04-16 |title=Goatse and the Rise of the Web's Gross-Out Culture |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/04/goatse/ |access-date=2024-07-23 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |volume=21 |issue=5 |issn=1059-1028}} In 1999, a member of the Hick Crew using the handle "Merl1n" established the goatse.cx website to host the image so as to facilitate its spread.
The website gained popularity as a shock site, being described as a "hazing ritual" for the Internet in the 2000s. Following the success and popularity of goatse.cx, several other shock sites were created to mimic it, such as lemonparty.org, meatspin.com and tubgirl.com, each having a single shocking pornographic image.
On January 14, 2004, the domain name goatse.cx was suspended{{cite web | first=Garth | last=Miller | url=http://www.nic.cx/complaints/goatse.cx/aup.noticeofcomplaint.pdf | title=Notice Regarding AUP Complaint Version 1.1 (redacted)| publisher=Christmas Island Internet Administration | date=January 12, 2004 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040531080510/http://www.nic.cx/complaints/goatse.cx/aup.noticeofcomplaint.pdf | archive-date=May 31, 2004}} by Christmas Island Internet Administration due to acceptable-use-policy violations in response to a complaint.[http://cocca.cx/index.php/aup-complaints/cx-aup.html .cx – Christmas Island (.cx ccTLD) Acceptable Use Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519030617/http://cocca.cx/index.php/aup-complaints/cx-aup.html |date=May 19, 2011 }}. Council of Country Code Administrators. Retrieved June 15, 2010. A Christmas Island resident filed the complaint that resulted in the suspension of goatse.cx's domain name.
Legacy
Because many Internet users have been tricked into viewing the site or a mirror of the site at one time or another,{{Cite web | last=Johnson | first=Bob | title=The Goatse Prank | work=zug.com |publisher=Media Shower Inc. |date=December 2, 2004 | url=http://www.zug.com/gab/index.cgi?func=view_thread&thread_id=49351 | access-date=June 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217213145/http://www.zug.com/gab/index.cgi?func=view_thread&thread_id=49351|archive-date=December 17, 2004}} it has become an Internet meme.{{Cite web |title=Notice Regarding AUP Complaint Version 1.1 |url=http://www.nic.cx/complaints/goatse.cx/aup.noticeofcomplaint.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040531080510/http://www.nic.cx/complaints/goatse.cx/aup.noticeofcomplaint.pdf |archive-date=May 31, 2004 |access-date=2024-11-14}}
On November 24, 2000, the Goatse page was posted to the official online Oprah Winfrey Message Boards in the Soul Stories board. Trystan T. Cotten and Kimberly Springer, authors of Stories of Oprah: the Oprahfication of American Culture, said that this "seemingly considerable male intrusion drove many of the women elsewhere, and the board was retired shortly afterwards".{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElswmhzTc8cC&pg=PA59 |title=Stories of Oprah: the Oprahfication of American culture |author1=Cotten, Trystan T. |author2=Springer, Kimberly |year=2009 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |pages=59–60, 63 |isbn=978-1-60473-407-2 |access-date=December 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428024840/https://books.google.com/books?id=ElswmhzTc8cC&pg=PA59#v=onepage&f=false |archive-date=April 28, 2016 |url-status=live }} Slashdot altered its threaded discussion forum display software because "users made a sport out of tricking unsuspecting readers into visiting
The Los Angeles Times Wikitorial was introduced on June 17, 2005, to be a publicly accessible method of directly responding to the paper's editorials; Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales had consulted on the project, and on its first day contributed a "forking" of the page to accommodate opposing opinions.Glaister, Dan (June 22, 2005). [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/jun/22/media.pressandpublishing "LA Times 'wikitorial' gives editors red faces] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506040456/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/jun/22/media.pressandpublishing |date=May 6, 2017 }}." The Guardian. Retrieved September 17, 2010. Prior to the feature's introduction, L.A. Times editorial and opinion editor Michael Kinsley stated that "Wikitorials may be one of those things that within six months will be standard. It's the ultimate in reader participation".{{cite news |last=Shepard |first=Alicia |date=June 13, 2005 |title=Upheaval on Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/business/media/13lat.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424210848/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/business/media/13lat.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=April 24, 2013 |work=The New York Times}} The wiki was closed two days later on June 19, 2005, because, The Guardian reported, "explicit images known as Goatses appeared on [it]".
The practice of using goatse.cx as a "fake" link to shock friends became popular, according to ROFLcon organizer Tim Hwang in an interview on NPR, because
it's ... the spectacle of the thing, right? You really want to be there when the person is seeing it. To the extent that there's all these sites online of sort of people taking pictures of their friends and showing them Goatse... [In photos online,] It's like thousands and thousands of people looking really shocked or disgusted. It's really great.{{cite interview |last=Hwang |first=Tim |interviewer=Alison Stewart |title=Rick-Rolling: An Action Primer for the Uninitiated |type=Interview: Transcript |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89265949 |access-date=September 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122211528/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89265949 |archive-date=January 22, 2012 |url-status=live |work=The Bryant Park Project, NPR |location=New York, New York |date=April 1, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}The goatse.cx image has been used by website authors to discourage other sites from hot-linking to them. By replacing the hot-linked image with an embarrassing image when hot-linking has been discovered, an unsubtle message is sent to the offending website's operators, visible to all who view the web page in question.{{Cite book |last=Powers |first=Shelley |url=https://archive.org/details/paintingweb00shel |title=Painting the Web |publisher=O'Reilly Media |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-596-51509-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/paintingweb00shel/page/49 49] |access-date=September 15, 2010 |url-access=registration}} In 2007, Wired.com hot-linked to another site in an article about the "sexiest geeks of 2007"; the site subsequently swapped the hot-linked image with one from goatse.cx.{{Cite web |title=One Step Backward: Playboy Asks Which Female Blogger You'd Like To See Sans Clothing |first=Michael |last=Arrington |work=TechCrunch.com |date=July 9, 2008 |via=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901983.html |access-date=September 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111112627/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901983.html |archive-date=November 11, 2012 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}
In his book The Long Tail (2008), Chris Anderson wrote that goatse.cx is well known only to a relatively small Internet-using "subcultural tribe" who reference it as a "shared context joke" or "secret membership code". Anderson cited a photo accompanying an "otherwise innocuous article" about Google in the June 2, 2005 The New York Times, in which Anil Dash wore a T-shirt emblazoned with stylized hands stretching out the word "Goatse".{{cite book |title=The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More |first=Chris |last=Anderson |publisher=Hyperion |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/longtailwhyfutur0000ande/page/182 182] |url=https://archive.org/details/longtailwhyfutur0000ande |url-access=registration |isbn=978-1-4013-0966-4 |access-date=September 16, 2010 }}{{cite news |title=Loosing Google's Lock on the Past |first=Stephanie |last=Rosenbloom |date=June 2, 2005 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/fashion/thursdaystyles/02GOOGLE.html |access-date=September 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129121500/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/fashion/thursdaystyles/02GOOGLE.html |archive-date=November 29, 2011 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}{{As of|2010|9|10|df=US}} the NYT archives index the article by keyword [https://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=goatse&more=date_all "goatse"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303221517/http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=goatse&more=date_all|date=March 3, 2012}}.
In June 2007, a proposed sketch of the 2012 Summer Olympics logo appeared on the BBC News 24 broadcast and website{{cite web |last=Orlowski |first=Andrew |date=June 4, 2007 |title=No goat sex at the Olympics, rules BBC |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/04/bbc_olympics_cx/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607073304/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/04/bbc_olympics_cx/ |archive-date=June 7, 2010 |access-date=July 7, 2010 |work=Bootnotes |publisher=The Register |df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1762625 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505075147/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1762625 |archive-date=May 5, 2010 |title=Goatse on BBC |format=Video |time=1:01 |work=CollegeHumor |date=June 6, 2007 |access-date=October 3, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }} (requires Flash; archive URL may or may not work){{cite web | url=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43006000/jpg/_43006883_sean_stayte_416.jpg | title=2012 Olympics logo sketch | format=image | work=BBC News | date=June 6, 2007 | access-date=February 23, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029030019/http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43006000/jpg/_43006883_sean_stayte_416.jpg | archive-date=October 29, 2008 | url-status=live | df=mdy-all }} as one of the 12 best viewer-submitted alternatives to the official logo. In it, two hands stretched the "0" wide in "2012", as the submitter wrote, "to reveal the Olympics". The sketch was later shown as part of a gallery of viewers logos on BBC London News and BBC News 24, and was subsequently removed from the website. The editor of the BBC News website acknowledged the mistake in his blog, saying his team "simply didn't spot it".{{cite web |last=Herrmann |first=Steve |date=June 5, 2007 |title=Shock tactics |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/06/shock_tactics.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213181154/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/06/shock_tactics.html |archive-date=February 13, 2009 |access-date=February 23, 2009 |work=BBC blogs |publisher=BBC |df=mdy-all}}
In June 2010, a group of computer experts known as Goatse Security exposed a flaw in AT&T's security which allowed the e-mail addresses of iPad users to be revealed.{{cite news |last=Ante |first=Spencer E. |last2=Worthen |first2=Ben |name-list-style=and |date=June 11, 2010 |title=FBI Opens Probe of iPad Breach |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704312104575299111189853840?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116005855/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704312104575299111189853840?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection |archive-date=January 16, 2018 |access-date=June 15, 2010 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |df=mdy-all}} Andrew Auernheimer (alias weev), a member of the group, was interviewed by the media and discussed the group's name, among other things.{{cite news |title=Hacker defends going public with AT&T's iPad data breach (Q&A) |first=Elinor |last=Mills |newspaper=CNET News |date=June 10, 2010 |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20007407-245.html |access-date=June 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728162316/http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20007407-245.html |archive-date=July 28, 2010 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}
On September 20, 2013, the United States Department of Justice filed a response briefResponse Brief for US v Auernheimer [https://www.eff.org/node/75759] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718064310/https://www.eff.org/node/75759|date=July 18, 2014}} [https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/filenode/gov_opp_brief_weev.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606210150/https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/filenode/gov_opp_brief_weev.pdf|date=June 6, 2014}} retrieved on 30 September in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in United States v. Auernheimer, an appeal in a criminal case from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, which involved the access of AT&T customers' email addresses by Goatse Security.Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) review of US v Auernheimer [https://www.eff.org/cases/us-v-auernheimer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703090003/https://www.eff.org/cases/us-v-auernheimer|date=July 3, 2014}} retrieved on 30 September The brief explains on page three that "The firm's name is a reference to a notoriously obscene internet shock site" and includes a footnote which reads "For a more graphic description, see
See also
{{Portal|Internet}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20040109213953/http://www.goatse.cx/ goatse.cx], archive of original site at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110814112623/http://news.scotsman.com/lazyguidetonetculture/Lazy-Guide-to-Net-Culture.2535852.jp "Lazy Guide to Net Culture: NSFW"] – The Scotsman
- [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/goatse Goatse] at Know Your Meme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goatse.Cx}}
Category:Internet memes introduced in 1999
Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2004
Category:Internet properties established in 1999