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Reg seeks poetic JenniCam memorial
Lament site's passing and win t-shirt
Competition Darkness will fall on legendary webcam site JenniCam at the end of 2003 after seven years of chronicling the everyday life of Jennifer Ringley.
Since 1996 web voyeurs have enjoyed no-holds-barred 24/7 coverage of Jenni going about her daily business - from watching TV to conducting her ablutions, and it's the latter which has apparently forced the shutdown.
The site is tight-lipped on the matter, noting merely that "JenniCam will be closing on 12/31/03. All existing member accounts will expire no later than 12/31/03". However, Yahoo! News reports that the closure has been forced by PayPal because "the frontal nudity on her Web site violates the company's acceptable use policy".
Oh dear. JenniCam is hardly web porn, it must be said. Here's how Jenni's herself puts it: "I keep JenniCam alive not because I want or need to be watched, but because I simply don't mind being watched. What you'll see is my life, exactly as it would be whether or not there were cameras watching. From minute to minute, it can be tough to see what it's about. The site has existed now for about seven years. As a chronicle, a long-term experiment, the concept becomes clearer."
Whether or not you believe that JenniCam has any real merit as a "long-term experiment", it's certainly attracted a few fans over the years. Type "jennicam" into Google and you'll see for yourself. We were particularly tickled by Howard A. Landman's The Sonnets to JenniCam, which include this eulogy to the site's birth:
A grin arose. Oh pure superabundance!
Oh Jenni smiles! Oh wide grin in the eye!
And all grew still. But in this very silence
a new beginning, sign and change was nigh.
Which is where you come in. Just write us a haiku or limerick lamenting Jennicam's passing, and the best entry will win one of our truly sensational new My job went to India and all I got was this lousy T shirt" range, the must-have Xmas designer kit for former UK callcentre operatives.
Send your entries to me, with "jennicam" as the subject. The deadline for entries is midnight on Sunday 14 December, and the winner will be announced on Monday with the usual fanfare of trumpets. To get the creative juices flowing, here's a quick limerick we knocked up in an office power coffee break:
There was a young lady called Jenny
Who displayed all her charms which were many
But PayPal declined
To show her behind
And she ended up without a penny
OK, go to it. ®