afrodita.r52.ru was the website of the "Aphrodita" department of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery at the Clinic of New Medical Technologies of the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy (KNMT NGMA)[1]. As the home page stated, the department had worked "in the beauty industry since 1996" and was "one of several largest institutions of this profile in the Nizhny Novgorod region"[1]. The site was hosted on the Nizhny Novgorod domain r52.ru; all surviving snapshots date to 2001, the last one dated December 3, 2001[4].

A one-page calling card

The entire content of the site fit on a single page. Its title — "* Aphrodita * about the company *" — repeated the top menu of two items: "Aphrodita" itself and "about the company"[1]. Below was a single block of text spanning a few paragraphs, and at the bottom stood a "License" link, the copyright notice "© 2000 Aphrodita," and the developer's signature — "Web Design by Teamoty Brane Inc"[1].

Between the snapshots of May 19, July 21, September 28 and December 3, 2001, the page text did not change by a single word[1][2][3][4]: over the seven months of observation, the calling-card site was never updated. There is no mailing address, no phone number with the 8312 area code, and no visitor-counter captions in the preserved text of the home page — the contacts were probably on the second page, "about the company," but that page did not make it into the surviving set of snapshots. The Nizhny Novgorod connection rests on the text itself: the academy, named in full, and a direct reference to "the Nizhny Novgorod region"[1].

What the department offered

The site's single substantive paragraph described its area of work in general terms, without a price list or a list of procedures. As the home page stated, the department was staffed by "highly professional specialists in the field of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery," and "modern equipment, unique domestic and foreign preparations and implants allow doctors to effectively apply unique techniques for correcting deformities and rejuvenating the face and body"[1]. The text closed with a promise of "attention and an individual approach to each patient" and the use of certified materials and implants[1]. A separate line below the text carried a "License" link[1] — the only indication anywhere on the page of the documentary side of the business.

A place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site is known to us from the directory of the nn.ru catalog, from which our collection acquired a card with the department's full name and a scrap of description, cut off mid-phrase about "domestic and foreign preparations and implants." This is a typical case for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the turn of the century: a corporate calling-card page that existed solely for a line in the city catalog. Among the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating, the domain afrodita.r52.ru does not appear, so its traffic cannot be assessed — for more on how these samples work, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In the preserved results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, the site does not appear[5], which is unsurprising: by the time of the vote the domain had already been outside the observed part of the network for three years. "Aphrodita" belongs to an earlier layer — those Nizhny Novgorod organizations that set up a page in the shared city domain before the city developed a habit of competing through websites.

How it closed

The Wayback Machine holds only four snapshots of the home page at afrodita.r52.ru, all from 2001: the first on May 19[1], the last on December 3[4]. There are no later copies, the domain afrodita.r52.ru no longer exists, and where the department moved to is not recorded in our data.

The dates of the department's life and the site's life should be distinguished. 1996 is the year from which, in "Aphrodita's" own words, it had worked in the beauty industry[1]; the copyright mark on the page itself reads 2000[1]. That is, judging by the copyright, the site appeared no earlier than 2000, stood unchanged for the entire observed period, and vanished from the network along with its domain. Of the plastic surgery department at the medical academy, one page of text and a webmaster's name remain online — "Teamoty Brane Inc"[1].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote, 2004 (archive)