A dot-com company , or simply a dot-com (alternatively rendered dot.com , dot com , dotcom or .com ), is a company that conducts most of its businesses on the Internet , usually through a website on the World Wide Web that uses the popular top-level domain " .com ". As of 2021, .com is by far the most used TLD, with almost half of all registrations.
77-448: Bomis, Inc. ( / ˈ b ɒ m ɪ s / , from Bitter Old Men in Suits ; rhyming with "promise") was a dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Misplaced Pages . It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales , Tim Shell, and Michael Davis . By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Misplaced Pages-related resources transferred to
154-448: A board of trustees composed of Bomis' three founders (Wales, Davis, and Shell) and was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida , Bomis' location. Wales used about US$ 100,000 of revenue from Bomis to fund Misplaced Pages before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status. Wales stepped down from his role as CEO of Bomis in 2004. Shell was CEO of the company in 2005, while on
231-616: A web portal , trying a number of ideas (including serving as an access point for information about Chicago). It later focused on male-oriented content, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Working from the Open Directory Project , Bomis created and maintained hundreds of webrings on topics related to lad culture . In 1999 the company introduced the Bomis Browser, which helped users block online pop-up ads . Its webring on Star Wars
308-412: A web search engine . The advertising director for Bomis noted that 99 percent of queries on the site were for nude women. Bomis created Nupedia as a free online encyclopedia (with content submitted by experts) but it had a tedious, slow review process. Misplaced Pages was initially launched by Bomis to provide content for Nupedia, and was a for-profit venture (a Bomis subsidiary) through the end of 2002. As
385-487: A commercial or for-profit entity, as opposed to a non-commercial entity or non-profit organization , which usually use .org. The name for the domain came from the word commercial , as that is the main intended use. Since the .com companies are web-based, often their products or services are delivered via web-based mechanisms, even when physical products are involved. On the other hand, some .com companies do not offer any physical products. The .com top-level domain (TLD)
462-402: A compiler can make it crash when parsing some large source file, a simplification of the test case that results in only few lines from the original source file can be sufficient to reproduce the same crash. Trial-and-error/divide-and-conquer is needed: the programmer will try to remove some parts of the original test case and check if the problem still exists. When debugging the problem in a GUI,
539-540: A few simple readability transformations made code shorter and drastically reduced the time to understand it. Following a consistent programming style often helps readability. However, readability is more than just programming style. Many factors, having little or nothing to do with the ability of the computer to efficiently compile and execute the code, contribute to readability. Some of these factors include: The presentation aspects of this (such as indents, line breaks, color highlighting, and so on) are often handled by
616-399: A large payoff for the founders. Others were existing companies that re-styled themselves as Internet companies, many of them legally changing their names to incorporate a .com suffix. The stock market crash around 2000 that ended the dot-com bubble resulted in many failed and failing dot-com companies, which were referred to punningly as dot-bombs , dot-cons or dot-gones . Many of
693-538: A new standard for breadth, depth, timeliness and lack of bias, and in the fullness of time to become the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the history of humankind." Although Bomis began a search for experts to vet Nupedia articles, this proved tedious. In August 2000 Nupedia had more than 60 academics contributing to the peer-review process on the site, most with doctorates in philosophy or medicine. Scholars wishing to contribute to Nupedia were required to submit their credentials via fax for verification. At that time, Bomis
770-508: A profit. The same phenomenon occurred with many other internet companies—venture capitalists were eager to invest, even when the companies in question were not profitable. In late 1999, the Nasdaq index reached a price-to-earnings ratio of over 200, more than double that of the Japanese asset price bubble at the beginning of the 1990s. A common indicator used to show the dramatic rise in
847-512: A result of the dot-com crash . In late 2000 Bomis had a staff of about 11 employees, but by early 2002 layoffs reduced the staff to its original size of about five. Sanger was laid off in February 2002; from January 15, 2001, through March 1, 2002, he was the sole paid editor of Misplaced Pages. Sanger stepped down from his dual roles as chief organizer of Misplaced Pages and editor-in-chief of Nupedia on March 1, 2002, feeling unable to commit to these areas on
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#1732792963651924-470: A result, loses efficiency and the ability for low-level manipulation). Debugging is a very important task in the software development process since having defects in a program can have significant consequences for its users. Some languages are more prone to some kinds of faults because their specification does not require compilers to perform as much checking as other languages. Use of a static code analysis tool can help detect some possible problems. Normally
1001-427: A seven-step process of review and copyediting, and Misplaced Pages grew at a faster rate. In November 2000, Nupedia had 115 potential articles awaiting its peer-review process. By September 2001, after a total investment of US$ 250,000 from Bomis, Nupedia produced 12 articles; from 2000 through 2003, Nupedia contributors produced a total of 24 finalized articles. Misplaced Pages had about 20,000 articles and versions in 18 languages by
1078-496: A study track at Indiana University as a PhD candidate to work in finance before completing his doctoral dissertation . In 1994 Wales was hired by Michael Davis , CEO of finance company Chicago Options Associates , as a trader focusing on futures contracts and options . Wales was adept at determining future movements of foreign currencies and interest rates ; he was successful in Chicago , became independently wealthy, and
1155-459: A visual environment. Different programming languages support different styles of programming (called programming paradigms ). The choice of language used is subject to many considerations, such as company policy, suitability to task, availability of third-party packages, or individual preference. Ideally, the programming language best suited for the task at hand will be selected. Trade-offs from this ideal involve finding enough programmers who know
1232-505: A volunteer basis and a dearth of "the habit or tradition of respect for expertise" from high-ranking Misplaced Pages members. He continued contributing to community discussions, optimistic about Misplaced Pages's future success. After Sanger's departure, Misplaced Pages was managed by Wales and a burgeoning online community. Although Wales thought advertising was a possibility, the Misplaced Pages community was opposed to business development and Internet marketing
1309-748: A while." Jeff Howe wrote in his 2008 book, Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business , about "one of Wales's less altruistic ventures, a Web portal called Bomis.com that featured, among other items, soft-core pornography." In his 2008 book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It , legal scholar Jonathan Zittrain wrote that "Bomis helped people find 'erotic photography', and earned money through advertising as well as subscription fees for premium content." The Guardian described
1386-410: Is Entity-Relationship Modeling ( ER Modeling ). Implementation techniques include imperative languages ( object-oriented or procedural ), functional languages , and logic programming languages. It is very difficult to determine what are the most popular modern programming languages. Methods of measuring programming language popularity include: counting the number of job advertisements that mention
1463-480: Is a social faux pas to write about yourself." Larry Sanger said, "It does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history", and began a discussion on the talk page of Wales' biography about historical revisionism . Wales called his actions fixing mistakes, but after Cadenhead publicized the edits to his biography he expressed regret for his actions. In The Times Wales said that individuals should not edit their own Misplaced Pages biographies, telling The New Yorker that
1540-607: Is directly executed by the central processing unit . Proficient programming usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain , details of programming languages and generic code libraries , specialized algorithms, and formal logic . Auxiliary tasks accompanying and related to programming include analyzing requirements , testing , debugging (investigating and fixing problems), implementation of build systems , and management of derived artifacts , such as programs' machine code . While these are sometimes considered programming, often
1617-464: Is little more than a different notation for a machine language, two machines with different instruction sets also have different assembly languages. High-level languages made the process of developing a program simpler and more understandable, and less bound to the underlying hardware . The first compiler related tool, the A-0 System , was developed in 1952 by Grace Hopper , who also coined
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#17327929636511694-542: Is still strong in corporate data centers often on large mainframe computers , Fortran in engineering applications, scripting languages in Web development, and C in embedded software . Many applications use a mix of several languages in their construction and use. New languages are generally designed around the syntax of a prior language with new functionality added, (for example C++ adds object-orientation to C, and Java adds memory management and bytecode to C++, but as
1771-401: Is the composition of sequences of instructions, called programs , that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms , step-by-step specifications of procedures, by writing code in one or more programming languages . Programmers typically use high-level programming languages that are more easily intelligible to humans than machine code , which
1848-434: Is usually easier to code in "high-level" languages than in "low-level" ones. Programming languages are essential for software development. They are the building blocks for all software, from the simplest applications to the most sophisticated ones. Allen Downey , in his book How To Think Like A Computer Scientist , writes: Many computer languages provide a mechanism to call functions provided by shared libraries . Provided
1925-681: The St. Petersburg Times he no longer controlled Bomis' day-to-day operations, but retained ownership as a shareholder. In 2005, Tim Shell was CEO of Bomis and one of the board members overseeing Misplaced Pages. Shell remained CEO of Bomis in 2006, becoming vice-president of the Wikimedia Foundation and continuing to sit on its board. Bomis co-founder Michael Davis became treasurer of the Wikimedia Foundation that year. Wales told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 that although he retained partial ownership of Bomis, "It's pretty much dead." According to
2002-898: The Internet Archive , the Bomis website was last accessible with content in 2010; when accessed in 2013 by the archive, it had a welcome message for PetaBox . When accessed in 2014 by the archive, the website featured a blank white page with a line of text saying "Hello, world!". In 2005, Wales made 18 changes to his Misplaced Pages biography. He removed references to Bomis Babes as softcore pornography and erotica , and Larry Sanger as co-founder of Misplaced Pages. Wales' actions were publicized by author Rogers Cadenhead , attracting attention from US and UK media. In 2011, Time listed Wales' 2005 edits in its "Top 10 Misplaced Pages Moments". Misplaced Pages policy warned users not to edit their own biography pages, with its rules on autobiographical editing quoting Wales: "It
2079-504: The Jacquard loom could produce entirely different weaves by changing the "program" – a series of pasteboard cards with holes punched in them. Code-breaking algorithms have also existed for centuries. In the 9th century, the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi described a cryptographic algorithm for deciphering encrypted code, in A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages . He gave
2156-644: The Wikimedia Foundation . The company initially tried a number of ideas for content, including being a directory of information about Chicago . The site subsequently focused on content geared to a male audience, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Bomis became successful after focusing on pornography. "Bomis Babes" was devoted to erotic images; the "Bomis Babe Report" featured adult pictures. Bomis Premium, available for an additional fee, provided explicit material . "The Babe Engine" helped users find erotic content through
2233-439: The source code editor , but the content aspects reflect the programmer's talent and skills. Various visual programming languages have also been developed with the intent to resolve readability concerns by adopting non-traditional approaches to code structure and display. Integrated development environments (IDEs) aim to integrate all such help. Techniques like Code refactoring can enhance readability. The academic field and
2310-473: The 2000 Nupedia venture. Larry Sanger met Jimmy Wales through an e-mail communication group about philosophy and objectivism, and joined Bomis in May, 1999. Sanger was a graduate student working towards a PhD degree in philosophy, with research focused on epistemology ; he received his degree from Ohio State University , moving to San Diego to help Bomis with its encyclopedia venture. At the time Sanger joined Bomis
2387-520: The 2007 book The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen . Wales considered the " Playboy of the Internet" nickname inappropriate, although he was asked in interviews if his time at Bomis made him a "porn king". The 2010 documentary film about Misplaced Pages, Truth in Numbers? Everything, According to Misplaced Pages , discussed this characterization of Wales by journalists. Wales, interviewed in the film, called
Bomis - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-568: The 9th century, a programmable music sequencer was invented by the Persian Banu Musa brothers, who described an automated mechanical flute player in the Book of Ingenious Devices . In 1206, the Arab engineer Al-Jazari invented a programmable drum machine where a musical mechanical automaton could be made to play different rhythms and drum patterns, via pegs and cams . In 1801,
2541-526: The AE in 1837. In the 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the concept of storing data in machine-readable form. Later a control panel (plug board) added to his 1906 Type I Tabulator allowed it to be programmed for different jobs, and by the late 1940s, unit record equipment such as the IBM 602 and IBM 604 , were programmed by control panels in a similar way, as were the first electronic computers . However, with
2618-459: The Babe Engine, which helped users find erotic material online through a web search engine . According to Bomis advertising director Terry Foote, 99 percent of searches on the site related to nude women. Bomis is best known for supporting the creation of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Misplaced Pages. Tim Shell and Michael Davis continued their partnership with Wales during
2695-603: The Bomis Babes section was the Bomis Babe Report, begun in 2000, with pictures of porn stars in a blog format. The Bomis Babe Report produced original erotic material, including reports on pornographic film actors and celebrities who had posed nude. It was referred to as The Babe Report for short. Wales referred to the site's softcore pornography as "glamour photography", and Bomis became familiar to Internet users for its erotic images. During this period Wales
2772-432: The Internet and improving his skill at computer programming . In his spare time after work at Chicago Options Associates, Wales constructed his own web browser . While at the firm, he noted the successful 1995 initial public offering of Netscape Communications . Wales co-founded Bomis in 1996, with business associates Tim Shell, and his then-manager Michael Davis, as a for-profit corporation with joint ownership. Wales
2849-432: The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees. Wales edited Misplaced Pages in 2005 to remove the characterizations of Bomis as providing softcore pornography , which attracted media attention; Wales expressed regret for his actions. The Atlantic gave Bomis the nickname " Playboy of the Internet", and the term caught on in other media outlets. Scholars have described Bomis as a provider of softcore pornography. Jimmy Wales left
2926-470: The board by Wales, but after Misplaced Pages community members complained that the board was composed of appointed individuals, the first elections were held in 2004. Two community members, Florence Devouard and Angela Beesley, were elected to the board of trustees. In August 2004 Wales was chief executive officer of Bomis, and on September 20 Misplaced Pages reached the million-article mark on an expenditure of $ 500,000 (most directly from Wales). In November 2004 he told
3003-580: The characterization inaccurate and explained that his company responded to content demand from customers. In later interviews, he responded to "porn king" questions by telling journalists to look at a page on Yahoo! about pornography related to dwarfism . According to a 2007 article in Reason , "If he was a porn king, he suggests, so is the head of the biggest Web portal in the world." The Chronicle of Philanthropy characterized Bomis as "an Internet marketing firm... which also traded in erotic photographs for
3080-414: The circumstances. The first step in most formal software development processes is requirements analysis , followed by testing to determine value modeling, implementation, and failure elimination (debugging). There exist a lot of different approaches for each of those tasks. One approach popular for requirements analysis is Use Case analysis. Many programmers use forms of Agile software development where
3157-495: The code, making it easy to target varying machine instruction sets via compilation declarations and heuristics . Compilers harnessed the power of computers to make programming easier by allowing programmers to specify calculations by entering a formula using infix notation . Programs were mostly entered using punched cards or paper tape . By the late 1960s, data storage devices and computer terminals became inexpensive enough that programs could be created by typing directly into
Bomis - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-491: The company had a total workforce of two employees with help from programmers. Sanger and Wales began Nupedia with resources from Bomis; at the beginning of 2000, the company agreed to provide early financing for Nupedia from its profits. Nupedia went live in March, when Wales was CEO of Bomis; Sanger was Nupedia's editor-in-chief. Nupedia's reading comprehension was intended for high-school graduates, and Bomis set its goal: "To set
3311-505: The company maintained nekkid.com and nekkid.info, which featured pictures of nude women. About ten percent of Bomis' revenue was derived from pornographic films and blogs. The website included a segment devoted to erotic images, "Bomis Babes", and a feature enabled users to submit recommended links to other sites appealing to a male audience. Peer-to-peer services provided by the site helped users find other websites about female celebrities, including Anna Kournikova and Pamela Anderson . In
3388-467: The computers. Text editors were also developed that allowed changes and corrections to be made much more easily than with punched cards . Whatever the approach to development may be, the final program must satisfy some fundamental properties. The following properties are among the most important: Using automated tests and fitness functions can help to maintain some of the aforementioned attributes. In computer programming, readability refers to
3465-548: The concept of the stored-program computer introduced in 1949, both programs and data were stored and manipulated in the same way in computer memory . Machine code was the language of early programs, written in the instruction set of the particular machine, often in binary notation. Assembly languages were soon developed that let the programmer specify instructions in a text format (e.g., ADD X, TOTAL), with abbreviations for each operation code and meaningful names for specifying addresses. However, because an assembly language
3542-438: The costs of Misplaced Pages rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined; these losses were compounded by the dot-com crash . Since Misplaced Pages was a drain on Bomis' resources, Wales and philosophy graduate student Larry Sanger decided to fund the project as a nonprofit . Sanger was laid off from Bomis in 2002. Nupedia content was merged into Misplaced Pages, and it ceased in 2003. The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation began in 2003 with
3619-510: The ease with which a human reader can comprehend the purpose, control flow , and operation of source code . It affects the aspects of quality above, including portability, usability and most importantly maintainability. Readability is important because programmers spend the majority of their time reading, trying to understand, reusing, and modifying existing source code, rather than writing new source code. Unreadable code often leads to bugs, inefficiencies, and duplicated code . A study found that
3696-511: The end of 2001. Bomis originally planned to make Misplaced Pages profitable, providing staffing and hardware for its initial structure; Misplaced Pages would not have survived without this early support. Bomis provided web servers and bandwidth for the projects, owning key items such as domain names. Wales used money from Bomis to maintain the Misplaced Pages servers in Tampa, Florida . As the cost of Misplaced Pages rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined as
3773-527: The engineering practice of computer programming are concerned with discovering and implementing the most efficient algorithms for a given class of problems. For this purpose, algorithms are classified into orders using Big O notation , which expresses resource use—such as execution time or memory consumption—in terms of the size of an input. Expert programmers are familiar with a variety of well-established algorithms and their respective complexities and use this knowledge to choose algorithms that are best suited to
3850-400: The first description of cryptanalysis by frequency analysis , the earliest code-breaking algorithm. The first computer program is generally dated to 1843 when mathematician Ada Lovelace published an algorithm to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers , intended to be carried out by Charles Babbage 's Analytical Engine . However, Charles Babbage himself had written a program for
3927-512: The first secure online credit card transaction was made using the NetMarket platform. By 1995, over 40 million people were using the Internet. That same year, companies including Amazon.com and eBay were launched, paving the way for future e-commerce companies. At the time of Amazon's IPO in 1997, they were recording a 900% increase in revenue over the previous year. By 1998, with a valuation of over $ 14 billion, they were still not making
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#17327929636514004-404: The first step in debugging is to attempt to reproduce the problem. This can be a non-trivial task, for example as with parallel processes or some unusual software bugs. Also, specific user environment and usage history can make it difficult to reproduce the problem. After the bug is reproduced, the input of the program may need to be simplified to make it easier to debug. For example, when a bug in
4081-410: The foundation. It was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida , where Bomis was located. The foundation shifted Misplaced Pages's dependence away from Bomis, allowing it to purchase hardware for expansion. The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees was initially composed of Bomis' three founders: Jimmy Wales and his two business partners, Michael Davis and Tim Shell. Shell and Davis were appointed to
4158-464: The functions in a library follow the appropriate run-time conventions (e.g., method of passing arguments ), then these functions may be written in any other language. Computer programmers are those who write computer software. Their jobs usually involve: Although programming has been presented in the media as a somewhat mathematical subject, some research shows that good programmers have strong skills in natural human languages, and that learning to code
4235-404: The language to build a team, the availability of compilers for that language, and the efficiency with which programs written in a given language execute. Languages form an approximate spectrum from "low-level" to "high-level"; "low-level" languages are typically more machine-oriented and faster to execute, whereas "high-level" languages are more abstract and easier to use but execute less quickly. It
4312-465: The language, the number of books sold and courses teaching the language (this overestimates the importance of newer languages), and estimates of the number of existing lines of code written in the language (this underestimates the number of users of business languages such as COBOL). Some languages are very popular for particular kinds of applications, while some languages are regularly used to write many different kinds of applications. For example, COBOL
4389-482: The late 1990s with the rapid growth of the World Wide Web. Many such startups were formed to take advantage of the surplus of venture capital funding and were launched with thin business plans , sometimes with just an idea and a catchy name. The stated goal was often to " get big fast ", i.e. to capture a majority share of whatever market was being entered. The exit strategy usually included an IPO and
4466-511: The number of dot-com companies is the number of advertisements purchased at the Super Bowl . In 1999, only two internet companies bought advertisements, but that number reached 17 the following year . However, this number sharply decreased in 2001, with only 3 dot-com companies purchasing an advertising slot. While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used about companies with this business model that came into being during
4543-435: The program. Sheila Jeffreys noted in her Beauty and Misogyny that in 2004 Bomis maintained "The Lipstick Fetish Ring", which helped users with a particular attraction to women in makeup. Bomis became successful after it focused on X-rated and erotic media. Advertising generated revenue which enabled the company to fund other websites, and the site published suggestive pictures of professional models . In addition to Bomis
4620-476: The programmer can try to skip some user interaction from the original problem description and check if the remaining actions are sufficient for bugs to appear. Scripting and breakpointing are also part of this process. Debugging is often done with IDEs . Standalone debuggers like GDB are also used, and these often provide less of a visual environment, usually using a command line . Some text editors such as Emacs allow GDB to be invoked through them, to provide
4697-454: The project. With Misplaced Pages a drain on the company's resources, Wales and Sanger decided to fund the project on a non-profit basis. Bomis laid off most of its employees to continue operating, since Misplaced Pages was not generating revenue. The company owned Misplaced Pages from its creation through 2003, and Wales used about $ 100,000 of Bomis' revenue to fund Misplaced Pages before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status. In June 2003 Misplaced Pages
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#17327929636514774-409: The site as on "the fringes of the adult entertainment industry", and The Edge called Bomis.com an "explicit-content search engine". Business 2.0 Magazine described it as "a search portal... which created and hosted Web rings around popular search terms – including, not surprisingly, a lot of adult themes." Dot-com company The suffix .com in a URL usually (but not always) refers to
4851-412: The standard applied to himself as well. Wales warned that the activity should be discouraged because of the potential for bias: "I wish I hadn't done it. It's in poor taste." Bomis was called the " Playboy of the Internet" by The Atlantic , and the sobriquet was subsequently used by publications including The Sunday Times , The Daily Telegraph , MSN Money , Wired , The Torch Magazine , and
4928-412: The surviving firms dropped the .com suffix from their names. The burst of the dot-com bubble triggered a wave of market panic, leading to widespread sell-offs of stocks from dot-com companies. This selling frenzy further depressed the values of these stocks, and by 2002, estimated investor losses had reached an astounding $ 5 trillion. Computer programming Computer programming or coding
5005-411: The term software development is used for this larger overall process – with the terms programming , implementation , and coding reserved for the writing and editing of code per se. Sometimes software development is known as software engineering , especially when it employs formal methods or follows an engineering design process . Programmable devices have existed for centuries. As early as
5082-409: The term 'compiler'. FORTRAN , the first widely used high-level language to have a functional implementation, came out in 1957, and many other languages were soon developed—in particular, COBOL aimed at commercial data processing, and Lisp for computer research. These compiled languages allow the programmer to write programs in terms that are syntactically richer, and more capable of abstracting
5159-560: The various stages of formal software development are more integrated together into short cycles that take a few weeks rather than years. There are many approaches to the Software development process. Popular modeling techniques include Object-Oriented Analysis and Design ( OOAD ) and Model-Driven Architecture ( MDA ). The Unified Modeling Language ( UML ) is a notation used for both the OOAD and MDA. A similar technique used for database design
5236-412: Was attempting to obtain advertising revenue for Nupedia and the company was optimistic that it could fund the project with ad space on Nupedia.com. Misplaced Pages began as a feature of Nupedia.com on January 15, 2001, later known as Misplaced Pages Day . Someone working from the office.bomis.com server created the first edit to the website, the creation of HomePage with the text "This is the new WikiPedia!" It
5313-634: Was considered a useful resource for information on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Additional webrings included sections helping users find information on the 1942 film Casablanca , Hunter S. Thompson , Farrah Fawcett , Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls , and the 1998 film Snake Eyes . "Bomis: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Ring", devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer , organized over 50 sites related to
5390-469: Was difficult in 2002. Misplaced Pages remained a for-profit venture (under the auspices of Bomis) through the end of 2002. By then it had moved from a .com domain name to .org , and Wales said that the site would not accept advertising. Material from Nupedia was folded into Misplaced Pages and it was discontinued by 2003. By 2003 Misplaced Pages had grown to 100,000 articles in its English-language version, and it became difficult for Bomis to continue financially supporting
5467-466: Was director of research at Chicago Options Associates from 1994 to 2000. He became acquainted with Tim Shell from email lists discussing philosophy. Wales wanted to participate in the online-based entrepreneurial ventures which were increasingly popular and successful during the mid-1990s. His experience (from gaming in his youth) impressed on him the importance of networking. Wales was interested in computer science , experimenting with source code on
5544-460: Was its chief manager. In 1998 he moved from Chicago to San Diego to work for Bomis, and then to St. Petersburg, Florida (where the company subsequently relocated). The staff at Bomis was originally about five employees. Its 2000 staff included programmer Toan Vo, Andrew McCague and system administrator Jason Richey; Wales employed his high-school friend and best man in his second wedding, Terry Foote, as advertising director. In June 2000, Bomis
5621-541: Was one of five network partners of Ask Jeeves . The majority of the revenue that came in to Bomis was generated through advertising. The most successful time for Bomis was during its venture as a member of the NBC web portal NBCi; this collapsed at the end of the dot-com bubble . Although Bomis is not an acronym, the name stemmed from "Bitter Old Men in Suits" (as Wales and Shell called themselves in Chicago). The site began as
5698-624: Was one of the first seven created when the Internet was first implemented in 1985; the others were .mil , .gov , .edu , .net , .int , and .org . The United States Department of Defense originally controlled the domain, but control was later transferred to the National Science Foundation as it was mainly used for non-defense-related purposes. With the creation of the World Wide Web in 1991, many companies began creating websites to sell their products. In 1994,
5775-475: Was originally intended only to generate draft articles for Nupedia, with finished articles moved to the latter. Misplaced Pages became a separate site days after the Nupedia advisory board opposed combining the two. In September 2001, Wales was simultaneously CEO of Bomis and co-founder of Misplaced Pages; Sanger was chief organizer of Misplaced Pages and editor-in-chief of Nupedia. Nupedia was encumbered by its peer-review system,
5852-502: Was photographed steering a yacht with a peaked cap , posing as a sea captain with a female professional model on either side of him. In the photograph, the women were wearing panties and T-shirts advertising Bomis. A subscription section, Bomis Premium, provided access to adult content and erotic material; A three-day trial was US$ 2.95. While Bomis Babes provided nude images of females to subscribers, Bomis Premium featured lesbian sexual practices and female anatomy. Bomis created
5929-489: Was transferred to a nascent non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation , which was formed as a charitable institution to supervise Misplaced Pages and its associated wiki-based sites. When the foundation was established, its staff began to solicit public funding and Bomis turned Misplaced Pages over to the non-profit. All Bomis-owned hardware used to run Misplaced Pages-associated websites was donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, and Wales transferred Misplaced Pages-related copyrights from Bomis to
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