Amezou Link

Amezou Link (あめぞうリンク, Amezō Rinku), or Amezou (あめぞう), was a Japanese website set up by “Amezou” (あめぞう) on August 5, 1997. It started out as a link collection page, but later became known for its bulletin board. Eventually, it was declared dead by December 30, 1999.

History

On August 5, 1997, Amezou had launched Amezou Link which hosted a link collection page for WareZ and stuff. Shortly after server relocation on March 19, 1998, a bulletin board was set up and it used the usual MiniBBS script. However, when Ayashii World shut down on September 3, 1998, he switched to the ResBBS script distributed by “Try The Homepage” on September 6, 1998 and the users started pouring in.

The popularity is often attributed to how the boards were easy to use and how it first introduced the “thread float-type bulletin board” format to the Japanese internet.¹⁾ It was even featured on Internet Watch.²⁾ At the time, Amezou Link was considered the center of the internet until May 1999. Eventually, the website couldn't handle how many users were using their boards and the server load was awful.

On May 30, 1999, Hiroyuki launches 2channel as a “second channel” to Amezou Link.³⁾ It was a refuge site, but their servers were more stable. After this, Amezou's servers conveniently began dying so the “Toshiba Claimer” case moved to 2channel, and then Amezou suspiciously took down their “Whistleblowing” board.⁴⁾⁵⁾ Eventually, it was clear that Amezou was under some pressure,⁶⁾ which upset the free speech crowd.

Afterwards, it started deteriorating into vandalism and not much was done to save it. Oddly enough, Amezou Link forbid posting “dead” (死ね, shine), so people started saying “shine” (氏ね) instead. It's presumed that Amezou had abandoned his website by November 1999, then allowed it to die sometime before 2000 with the popular guess being around December 30, 1999.⁷⁾

Derivatives

There isn't much to write about, so I can't put much in this section.

External links

Amezou Link -Type 0- - This holds the largest list of Amezou related websites.
Amezou on Niconico Encyclopedia
Amezou on 2channel's Wiki
Amezou on Japanese Wikipedia - It looks like the “History” section sorta blends the original's history with the history of its successors, so keep that in mind.

bulletin board, chanosphere

¹⁾

A “thread float-type bulletin board” (スレッドフロート型掲示板, sureddofurōto-gata keijiban) is a Japanese term for bulletin boards where popular threads float to the top of the board. Before this, only new threads or posts would show up at the top of a static page and you'd have to figure out everything yourself.

²⁾

"ウォッチャーが選ぶ今日のサイト" (October 28, 1998). Internet Watch.

³⁾

"あめぞう２チャンネル＜勝手に" (May 30, 1999). Amezou.

⁴⁾

It's theorized that the board shut down because people were talking about the Burakumin issue with the “Kyoto City Bus” (京都市バス) and somebody had threatened the website with a lawsuit for defamation.

⁵⁾

"あめぞう内部告発がつぶされたのは？"

⁶⁾

At some point, a “we forbid posting slander and adult content” (誹謗中傷、アダルト情報の書き込みはお断りします) message could be seen on the website's front page.

⁷⁾

Most people believe that December 30, 1999 is when the website shut down, but nobody actually knew when Amezou Link died since the servers were up and down all the time that nobody could come up with an accurate date. The cause of death is also debated on since a lot of things were going on at the time.

Nameless Rumia's Wiki

Table of Contents

Amezou Link

History

Derivatives

See also

External links