divenn.narod.ru — the website "Diving in Nizhny Novgorod", the page of the Nizhny Novgorod scuba diving club "Orcinus Orca" ("Kasatka", the killer whale)[4]. It was hosted on the free hosting service Narod.ru; it is known from archive snapshots ranging from June 2004 to August 2005[1][5]. The site kept a chronicle of the dives of Nizhny Novgorod scuba divers — at bodies of water in Nizhny Novgorod and the region (Lake Svetloyarskoye in Sormovo, Lake Vadskoye, a sunken dredger near Dzerzhinsk) and on distant trips[1][2].
What the site looked like
The home page was arranged as a news feed: a short greeting, a "Regular offers" block, a "News" block — in reverse chronological order, each entry with a date and a link to a separate report with photographs[2]. The introduction stated that the site was "100% devoted to diving in the glorious Nizhny Novgorod region (and not only in it)", as the home page put it[1].
The club explained to the reader that the Latin Orcinus orca means the killer whale, and called it one of the most intelligent and graceful underwater predators[4]. The regular offers listed trial dives for those wishing to try their hand and scuba training under the CMAS system[4]. The same block carried a request for visitors to send in observations about interesting diving spots in the region besides those already listed on the site[3].
Feedback went to the address divenn(a)narod.ru — that is how, with the symbol replaced, it was written on the page[3]. By March 2005 a form for subscribing to the club's news through the Subscribe.Ru mailing service had been added to the header[4].
A chronicle of dives
The news feed of 2004–2005 was effectively the club's diary. Nearby geography: on May 9, 2004 a trip to Lake Vadskoye, on May 29 — Dzerzhinsk, the sunken dredger, where, in the feed's wording, they checked the state of the water, on June 6 — participation in the Water Bodies Cleanup Day, cleaning Lake Svetloyarskoye in Sormovo[1]. The dredger near Dzerzhinsk became a regular spot for the club: trips there are recorded on September 4 and November 7, 2004, the second one noted as traditional[2]. On July 20, 2004 the feed reported swims with dolphins in Nizhny Novgorod[2]. On November 28 they went to Lake Vadskoye again — in the feed's jocular wording, either closing the summer season or opening the winter one[3].
Distant trips: April 17–18, 2004, Tatarstan, Kazan; in May — Egypt; August 3–10 — Malta, the New Dolmen hotel and the "Abyss" dive centre; August 5–9 — the Barents Sea, the Nemetsky Peninsula, with king crabs; in January 2005 — Sharm el-Sheikh, with which the club opened the 2005 season[2][3]. In the spring of 2005 there were added dives in the Ordinskaya Cave in Perm Oblast (a report dated April 8) and a second trip to Kazan on April 23–24, timed to the site's anniversary[5].
In a separate news item on October 24, 2004 the club reported that an Advanced Trimix Diver had appeared in Nizhny: after a course with Artur Zaloga, a qualifying dive to 100 metres was performed at Small Giftun in Egypt — 3 minutes of descent, 5 minutes at the bottom, 73 minutes of ascent[3].
Training, insurance and club software
From November 18, 2004 the site announced that diver insurance from the "Standart-Rezerv" (Standard Reserve) insurance company could be arranged through the club under any diver insurance programme — at the insurer's prices and with delivery within Nizhny[3]. On January 13, 2005 the club got an instructor of its own and the possibility of training under the CMAS system with the issue of an international certificate[3]. On February 14, 2005 it reported on the first graduating group: three people passed the exam — Larisa, Sergei and Alexei, who received the rank of "CMAS* scuba diver"; on April 9 Alexander joined them[4][5].
The site also claimed experience in creating diving software: the feed mentions the AP-Gasmanager program for calculating Nitrox and Trimix gas mixtures[3]. In January 2005 the club handed out free tickets through the site to the Moscow festival "Diving 2005", held on February 24–27, and on February 28 it posted a report on the trip there[3][4].
Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet and departure from the domain
The site came to the attention of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet through the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, in which 51 votes were cast for it[6]. No traffic figure of its own in the Counter.nn.ru rating for divenn.narod.ru is recorded by the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating — it entered the census of Nizhny Novgorod sites precisely through the voting lists. For a narrow club site on free hosting, half a hundred votes in a citywide competition was a notable result.
The last archive snapshot of the home page is dated August 28, 2005. On it, in place of the greeting there is a notice of relocation: the club reported that it had moved to a new place, www.dive.nnov.ru; below it the former news feed remained, cut off at April 2005[5]. There are no later snapshots of the divenn.narod.ru home page in the web archive — with that notice the history of the address breaks off[5].
Sources
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)