allaboutorchids.r52.ru was a Nizhny Novgorod website about orchids that operated on the r52.ru domain from 2002 to 2008. The early version was called "Orchids on R52"[1], and later the site ran under the name "All About Orchids"[2]. The reference section was combined with a trading one: commercial operations were run by the Nizhny Novgorod LLC "Terrabotanika," whose details were published directly on the home page — 603000, Nizhny Novgorod, Larina St., 7/3, phones (8312) 166-121, 166-124, 166-127, 280-996, and pager 30-30-00, subscriber "Terrabotanika"[2]. The design and code were made by the domain's own studio: the credit line read "web-design & code by R52," and the copyright notice read "Copyright 2002 by Leon" with the address leon@r52.ru[1].

A reference guide for orchid enthusiasts

In the 2002 version, the site was arranged as a home encyclopedia of indoor floriculture. The menu was divided into sections "Briefly About Orchids" (with the pages "What Are Orchids?," "The Cost of Orchids," "Myths About Orchids") and "Orchids in Your Home," where separate pages covered watering, lighting, temperature, fertilizing, humidity, air movement, planting and repotting, as well as plant labels. Nearby were "Questions and Answers," "Identify Your Orchid Species," "Specific Information on Individual Species," and "Little Tricks for Big Growth"[1].

The home page featured blocks typical of the period: "Editor's Word," "Tip of the Day," "Photo of the Day," a news feed, a "Your Opinion?" poll, and an offer to "Set as Start Page." The tip of the day in the snapshot from June 3, 2002, read: "Overwatering means watering too often, not a single heavy watering," as the home page put it. The same page had a built-in converter for temperature values from degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius[1]. News was updated almost daily — entries survive from May 29, 30, and 31, 2002, including one about a redesign of the photo gallery[1].

Shop, forums, and bromeliads

By the fall of 2003 the site had grown several times over, and the menu split into thematic blocks: "For Beginners," "Useful Experience," "Photo Galleries," "Interactive," "Communication," "Online Shop," and "Plants Related to Orchids." "Useful Experience" included pages on correct and abbreviated orchid names, books by Troyanovsky and "Madame Norton," theses from an orchid conference, and an online encyclopedia of orchids. There were four photo galleries: visitors' collections, a combined gallery, a gallery of orchid diseases, and a "photo gallery of Thai impressions." Communication was provided by a chat room, a general forum, an equipment forum, a guestbook, a "book of complaints and suggestions," and a masterclass with the project "Let's Write a Good Book About Orchids"[2].

The trading block included an online shop, an online ordering system, a trading floor, a commercial forum, an auction, a "Wish to Buy" section, and "humidifiers at a discount." By this time the news had become mostly commercial: on October 7, 2003, a sale of driftwood for bromeliads was announced; on September 29, that "video material about orchids is back in stock"; on September 25, a sale of Thai-made "Osmocote" fertilizer[2]. A separate branch of the site was devoted to related plants: "In Detail About Bromeliads" and "Types of Tillandsia," with its own forum and articles. At the bottom of the page was a disclaimer that the site administration bore no responsibility for the origin, quality, age, price, and health condition of the plants and equipment sold through the site[2].

Contacts were personal: the site manager was listed as Marina Kraynova, with an address on the same r52.ru domain, and the Moscow representative was Sergei Kologorov. For payment, bank details were published via Sberbank's Nizhny Novgorod Branch No. 7 on Beketova Street, 23, along with pages "How to Find Us" and "Print a Receipt." A light-intensity converter from foot-candles to lux was added alongside the temperature converter[2].

Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site belonged to the r52.ru domain, one of the platforms where Nizhny Novgorod firms and projects hosted their representations in the early 2000s; the 2003 menu had a link "Other Projects on R52"[2]. In our sample it is known from the nn.ru directory; no figures for it are recorded in the surviving Counter.nn.ru rating data. In the results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote for 2004, which lists dozens of sites in the r52.ru zone, the orchid project does not appear[4]. Thematically it was a rarity for the local Nizhny Novgorod Internet: a narrowly specialized botanical resource with its own shop, rather than a corporate business card. For more on the methodology, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

Closure

The Wayback Machine preserved 41 snapshots of the address, the first from June 3, 2002. By early 2008 the address served a single short page: "The ALLABOUTORCHIDS.RU project is closed" followed by "The project is closed"[3]. Formally, the notice announced the closure of the project at the allaboutorchids.ru domain, but it was served from an address in the r52.ru zone — likely, by this time the project had moved to a separate domain and was wound down there. The last snapshot in the Wayback Machine is dated March 29, 2008[3]; today the domain no longer exists.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2008 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet voting results, 2004 (archive)