Hell.com

HELL.COM

Owner	BAT Flli LLC
Created by	Kenneth Aronson (CEO/Founder)
URL	http://www.hell.com/

Hell.com is a website created in August 2,1995 that serves as "a launching pad for cool designers and leading net.artists." It has been known for being quite barren and simple; many media companies, such as New York Times, TIME, and numerous others, have taken a liking to this site as well as curious visitors and hackers. Due to this, the site has been heavily speculated by some as the frontend for a secretive global group with an unknown purpose (as suggested by this site and related others), although it could be likely to be no more than a collaboration for net.art. Despite the site's sparseness, it receives thousands of visitors daily.

Layout

Currently, the main page seemingly comprises of a white background with two sentences in the lower center that state "HELL.COM is a private parallel web." and "There is no access via web browser." When the mouse arrow is moved over the center of the page, the whole background turns black, proninently showing a white logo of a circle with a downwards facing arrow inside.

The logo, when clicked on, takes you to another page that has an all-black background with a Google search box in the middle. Some time ago, the search box reacted when certain "keywords" were entered (e.g. redemption, hell, answer), which would take the visitor to other pages. This search box replaced all other content of most of Hell.com's known pages other than the e-mail login some time ago.

Original layout

When the site was first introduced, the site hosted a variety of unique features; ones that gave the site a mysterious, yet intriguing, kind of feeling. In the original design, the index page featured a random aphorism in place of the logo. The aphorism took a visitor to a "links" page that consisted of three links:

• "no access"
  Contains the Hell.com logo that links to:
  • Disclaimer page
    The writing states that "this is a parallel web. there is no public access. the waiting list is approximately 18-22 months." There are two further links; "apply"- which allows you to enter an email address to send you an email asking for a payment, and "dont"- which closes the window

• "redemption"
  Contains a red link called "soul redemption program". The link sends the visitor to:
  • Questions page
    A flash page in which hundreds of questions fly towards the user through black space. Clicking one of them provides an "answer." A link to the left reading "Yes" passes onto the Payment page
    • Payment page
      This is a set of a few pages whereby, after several warnings that the payment is real, one can fill out a form to donate either $20 or $200.

• "search"
  Added on Febuary 8, 2006, this link leads to the Search Page (see below)
  • Search page
    Contains a seemingly normal Google search box; however, certain "keywords" typed in the box can take you to other pages. Known "keywords" are:
    • redemption
      Links to Questions Page
    • hell
      Links to Links Page
    • answer
      This link first led to a picture of a bald, naked woman falling through darkness. Soon after that, the link sends the user to a "sister site" called cygne-noir.com. It is mostly in the same format of Hell.com and acts as a portfolio for Kenneth Aronson. It used to contain a gallery of sensual female nudes, but now only contains a logo (not the same as Hell.com's logo) and the word "cygne-noir." Some say that this is proof that Aronson is the webmaster of Hell.com: the portfolio describes Aronson as "A conceptual artist who uses photography as part of his process. His digital work has been featured at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Absolut LA international, Robert Berman Gallery, Montreal International Film Festival, as well as exhibitions in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Korea, and Mexico." According to Aronson's personal site, he is the "CEO/ Founder of this parallel network/ [Hell.com] which is considered the enigma of the web", further backing up the notion that Hell.com is net.art.

E-mail accounts

A page found on Hell.com contains a login screen used for e-mail accounts. Apparently, "@hell.com email accounts are 'given' to patron's who made a donation to the project."

The e-mail account is "mailPLUS", a high level of service provided by everyone.net. The service consists of "pro SPAM filtering, increased storage space, direct POP3 access to the server, (and) customer support," as well as having a "@hell.com" in the e-mail address itself. It states that "these services are billed directly by them and have nothing to do with HELL.COM."

By 2005, Hell.com stopped selling e-mail addresses due to "an enormous percentage of delinquent accounts." As well an extention of all e-mail accounts was made to October 10, 2006, the day they were all deleted.

Subscription

It is possible to navigate to a page where you use your credit card to pay for a subscription to Hell.com, apparently opening up certain hidden areas and explaining more about what the site is. However you cannot know what you are buying, and it costs $50 initially, followed by an unlimited bill of $10 a month. Furthermore, it explicitly states that discovering what the site is about will take several years, and no answers will ever be given.

Purpose

*ar (alternative reality)

According to CEO/Founder Kenneth Aronson, Hell.com exists for the purpose of providing a forum for the creation of *ar , or alternative reality. He defines that "*ar is the creation of something new. Whereas a virtual reality is an attempt to simulate the real world in virtual space. ar* is something new created in virtual space that becomes a reality in the physical world." Its aims are documented and well known from the site final.org and a New York Times article written in 1998.

Hell.com draws its membership from the art, design, programming, and theoretical realms, but is open to those who are willing to explore new possibilities in communication. It also seeks strategic alliances with media labs, universities, individuals and organizations experimenting in media and human communication.

Relations to net.art

All that can be surmised as to the purpose of the site is that its members, at least partially, are creative designers, specialising in creating sites like Hell.com that are abstract, dark, intractable, but mysterious. They have run at least 2 projects ("surface" and "HL2") where members have anonymously collaborated to create "projects", end-results that are non-informative webpages like Hell.com for people's viewing pleasure (HL2 apparently takes 90 minutes to explore). On this level, Hell.com is an example of net.art. However these creative projects seem to be only one facet of the larger Hell.com group.

Relations to BAT

A "sister site" of Hell.com, bat.hell.com states that, among other things, the BBC has noted the site before.

HELL.COM is a private parallel network comprised of acknowledged visionaries with diverse skillsets working from 20 nations. Described as the 'bleeding edge of the web' by the BBC, the project has been pushing the boundaries of the internet to discover new levels of human communication.

— BAT.hell.com text, Preamble

BAT is described as the "creative thinktank" of Hell.com. It claims to excel in "simple effective solutions", "alternative perspectives" and "extreme ideas". As a further support for the Cultish atmosphere, under the title "INVISIBLE", BAT says that it works "confidentially as a mercenary resource", apparently for "leading advertising, communications, and technology companies."

Cult

The main site itself seems to suggest that Hell.com offers a new way of life to its members, some kind of semi- or pseudo-Christian redemption via "facilitating" the transaction of "buying back your soul". This, it tells you, is why your subscription to the site costs so much: how much do you value your soul?

You are re-purchasing your own property at the value that you set. We are just facilitating the transaction. As only you know the amount required to redeem yourself, we can only accept your payment on good faith as a donation. Subsequently, there are no refunds or guarantees. all payments are final.

— Hell.com text, Payment page

The site also gives many warnings that it has potentially distressing content (although little has been found beyond flashing images), and that it exists on "many levels" (perhaps an allusion to Dante's Inferno) one of which is "the reality in which you currently exist".

Supporting evidence

It is possible to navigate to further pages including a User Login. One of these pages includes a FAQ for users, which answers one or two questions about the process of the site. Most notably, these two answers stand out:

• In response to a question about spam emails that a user had received:
  "we share nothing with no one...ever"
• "where can i get more info about HELL.COM?"
  "our goal is to provoke questions...not answer them"

There is a further flash "game" page you can access[1], which seems to have minimal protection for entry from non-users. This page states:

this is not a game. there are no support services of any kind. HELL.COM is only providing you access to this environment. the circumstances and the people that you will encounter are real. this project exists on many levels of reality including the one that you presently are living in. you are advised to use your best judgement at all times and proceed with extreme caution

— Hell.com text, "game" page

The game itself involves a type of console by which you apparently link to the Hell.com parallel web. You are able to access a number of flash animations with great difficulty. These animations include flashing images of what appears to be cells under the microscope, among other things. The "game" also allows you to chat to other players who are connected.

Further known information

Kenneth Aronson has a MySpace profile

Events

Hell.com hosted three events on its website:

• "s u r f a c e"
  Released on January 1999, it was Hell.com's first event and "is a self contained immersive experience of selected content from the projects parallel web." It was a presentation of "the collaborative work by 17 members of the HELL project."

• "skinonskinonskin"
  On September 1999

• "chaos"
  On November 2000

Site alterations

Every now and then the site's normal set of pages becomes inaccessible to be replaced with some different, usually one-paged frontend. For instance:

• Around Christmas of 2005, the site became nothing but links to World Hunger Year and Debt AIDS Trade Africa, with a red-tinted image containing Santa Claus and an African boy. There was also an image with the text "Nohell", a presumed reference to Noël and Christmas. The site's title was "PLEASE", suggesting that the site owner wished one to donate to these organizations.
• Around March 2006, the frontpage aphorism ceased to be a link, meaning that the site again thus only had one page. Accompanying the aphorism was a Google search box which didn't respond to the standard "keywords" (see above, Site Map - Search page).
• Around April 2006, the site underwent a massive change. The front page now presents one with a selection of links which take you to various similar-looking pages filled with adverts and news. It is possible to navigate to the "game" page (see above) directly from the site now. It is not known if these changes are permanent.
• As of June 2006, the + sign at the bottom of the index page takes one to http://final.org, from which can be accessed a bizarre chat-room-like site, known above as the "game page." However, it is now known that at least some other participants in the "game" are actual people.
• As of August 2006 accessing the front page produces a non-linked random aphorism. The website is not compatible with Firefox at this time.

0100101110101101.org's version

Sometime in 1997, the website 0100101110101101.org stole the webpage code of Hell.com and made a similar one as "a digital monument to the principles upon which the Internet runs." "The belief that information must be free," explained at the time (by) Renato, (a) 0100101110101101.ORG spokesman, "is a tribute to the way in which a very good computer or a valid program works: binary numbers move in accordance with the most logic, direct and necessary way to do their complex function. What is a computer if not something that benefits by the free flow of information? Copyright is boring."

About two hours later, after the stolen code was made into a separate site, an e-mail from Hell.com was sent to 0100101110101101.org in response as well as accusing them of stealing work of Hell.com's members:

cute...

please immediately remove this material from your server

you are in violation of international copyright laws which are clearly posted in the copyright information contained in our source code.

also of note,

it appears as though you have violated the copyrights of quite a few of our members individually:::::::::::::::

http://www.0100101110101101.ORG
on behalf of these individuals we request that you also remove

these materials from your server as well

0100101110101101.org's version of Hell.com was then deleted due to the fact that "HELL.COM has ... threatened legal proceedings for copyright violations."

Sale of Hell.com's domain name

On April 2000 Anderson attempted to sell Hell.com in an auction with an eight million dollar reserve bid, but decided against it.

In an interview with Cluster of the magazine Domenico Quarenta, Aronson stated that having the most visible address is "negative for us, but has a large value... which could be exchanged for resources to help further the goals of the project." Then, to explain the first sale, he announced that he "held off announcing the sale ... During this time the dot com crash happened and what was worth 8(eight) million became saleable at only a couple of million... so i decided to wait until the market recovered."

Then, on October 27, 2006, it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that the Hell.com domain name would be sold that day in a live auction by the domain company Moniker. An one million dollar reserve bid made placed and Kenneth Aronson announced that the proceeds would be used to benefit the hell.com community. However, CNNMoney announced that Hell.com was not bought by any of the bidders even though Aronson said that, "'Branding experts said the name is recognized more than Coca-Cola.'"

External links

• HELL.COM (may not work in Mozilla/non-Java browsers)
• HELL.COM's e-mail login
• kenneth aronson | public art Kenneth Aronson's website
• C Y G N E N O I R Kenneth Aronson's portfolio
• A SEASON IN HELL an interview with Kenneth Aronson
• Copies intro insight into site code stolen from HELL.COM
• FINAL.ORG
• BAT | out of hell
• Alexa Hell.com stats
• Internet Archive for Hell.com