nrglife.ru — a Nizhny Novgorod youth portal called "NRGLife": the site is recorded as active in 2002[1], and by January 2022 only a parked domain remained, with no substantive site[3]. The site was listed in the Counter.nn.ru directory of nn.ru-circle resources, in the /rub/ section, described as "Nizhny Novgorod's youth portal" — a chat, a "multifunctional forum", music, and coverage of nightclub parties. The portal also stated its Nizhny Novgorod affiliation directly: promotional flyers for its events were handed out by promoters on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, and the advertised parties took place in Nizhny Novgorod nightclubs.

What the site looked like and what it offered

The official launch of the site in its new design took place on 8 July 2002 — the surviving text of the home page calls this date "the opening day of the Nizhny Novgorod youth portal NRGLife"[1]. The opening was marked by a party on 20 July at the "Elektron" nightclub, information about which, as the home page stated, could be found in the "Promotions" section or on flyers that were either printed from the site or handed out by promoters on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street[1]. Separately, the forum discussed an upcoming open-air event "on the 3rd" at the SP "Zheleznodorozhnik"[1].

The site featured a forum and a photo gallery. As of early August 2002, the forum had 693 posts and 44 registered users, the most recent of whom was listed under the nickname "FLUIDE ONZE"[1]. The photo gallery hosted a joke contest: visitors were asked to identify a certain web "dyzayner" (site's own spelling) from a photograph and send their answer to admin@nrglife.ru, with the winner promised a ticket to the opening party[1]. A "Funny videos" section was also mentioned[1]. In the home page text, the site's administration apologized for "content that is not fully accessible" and asked users to send any noticed flaws and suggestions to the same address, admin@nrglife.ru[1].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The portal was listed in the nn.ru site directory (/rub/ section) as one of the youth-oriented internet publications of Nizhny Novgorod. In the samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter and the results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day that we have preserved, no data on a rating or votes for nrglife.ru appears — this only means the absence of a record in the sample available to us, not that the site definitely did not take part in the rating or the vote (for more on the methodology, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating).

How it closed

By December 2021, the home page of nrglife.ru no longer opened the former site: a web archive snapshot captures a registrar page from REG.RU with the message "Domain registered and parked at REG.RU" and offers of hosting, ready-made CMS solutions, and SSL certificates — meaning no substantive site existed at that point[2]. A similar parking page was still in place in January 2022[3]. The domain's further fate cannot be traced with the data available to us: the last recorded status is registration with no substantive site.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page (parked), 2021 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page (parked), 2022 (archive)