f1.nn.ru was the website of the "Nizhny Novgorod F1 Service," a company that, as its home page stated, provided "informational and service support for computer and office equipment users"[1]. Its Nizhny Novgorod roots were visible right on the front page: the operator's phone number was given with the city code — (8312) 77-98-40, and requests were also accepted via pager (8312) 30-30-30, subscriber "Service F1"[1]. The site lived in the Nizhny Novgorod domain zone nn.ru and was listed in the nn.ru directory with the Counter.nn.ru counter under number 10295[3]. The earliest saved snapshot of the home page is dated 23 November 2002[1], the latest — 13 October 2008[2].

What the service offered

The site's content was built around a single idea — that servicing someone else's equipment is more cost-effective than keeping specialists of one's own. As the home page put it, "modern information systems require the involvement of highly qualified, experienced personnel to service and support their infrastructure," while bringing in outside specialists for one-off tasks "is significantly more cost-effective than keeping such highly paid specialists on staff"[1]. Hence the offer: carrying out support and maintenance projects for a client's software and hardware systems using F1 Service's own staff[1].

Alongside the corporate rhetoric, the same page carried a more everyday appeal: "If your computer has crashed, if your printer has stopped printing, if you need to set up a network, if you need reliable computers... Contact us right now!"[1]. Visitors were invited to leave a request "without leaving your home or office" — by phone, over the Internet, or by pager[1]. In the nn.ru directory the service described itself more dryly: "Informational and service support for corporate information systems, users and their computers, provision of highly professional services in the field of information technology"[3].

What the site looked like

In 2002 the menu was short: "Ask a question," "Call a specialist," "About the company," "Our services," "Our prices," "Contacts," "Vacancies"[1]. By 2008 the navigation had grown and split into two columns. Under "main" appeared the subsections "Our profile," "Partners," "Contacts"; services were split into "For individuals" and "For organizations" with "Tariff plans," "Computers," and "Local networks," and prices split into "Computer services" and "Office equipment services"[2]. The second column, "info," was no longer about services but about content: "Security" with the subsections "beware, virus," "antivirus software," and "the internet," as well as "Recovery," "Diagnostics," "Local networks," "We recommend," and "Humor" with a "Murphology" section[2].

By this time the request buttons had been gathered into a "helpdesk" block — "Ask a question" and "Call an engineer"[2]. The phone numbers had changed too: instead of the number with the 8312 code, the bottom of the page now read "operator phone: (831) 246-25-00, 4-159-859"[2]. No email address of its own appears on the surviving snapshots of the home page.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory, F1 Service was listed under several categories at once: "Firms (Enterprises): Computers and office equipment: Other computer services"[3], "Firms (Enterprises): Computers and office equipment: Repair and maintenance"[4], and "Software: Other software (OS, antivirus, etc.)"[6]. Next to the name, the directory showed the counter value: on 29 October 2002 — "Rating: 59"[3]; on 16 September 2003 — 222[4]; on 17 September 2003 — 221 in both categories it was listed under at the time[5][6]; and on 28 November 2003 — 43[7]. These were not the top lines of the lists, but not an empty listing either: the service firm's site lived its steady life among dozens of neighbors in its category. The methodology for working with such series of numbers is discussed in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In the surviving results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote for 2004, F1 Service does not appear[8]: the site remained a utilitarian company page rather than a notable project of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet.

How it closed

Judging by the web archive, the site lasted at least six years — from 2002 to 2008 — and kept the same introductory line about outsourcing throughout, the same one that appeared on the earliest saved version[1][2]. The last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated 13 October 2008[2]; no later versions of the site have been preserved in the archive. How and when the service wound down or changed its address cannot be established from the available materials.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2008 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory rubricator, "Other computer services," 29 October 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory rubricator, "Repair and maintenance," 16 September 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory rubricator, "Other computer services," 17 September 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory rubricator, "Other software (OS, antivirus, etc.)," 17 September 2003 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory rubricator, "Repair and maintenance," 28 November 2003 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting results, 2004 (archive)