promtrio.r52.ru was the website of a van-body manufacturer that operated in the Nizhny Novgorod domain zone r52.ru. In the nn.ru directory of Nizhny Novgorod sites, the address was listed under the name "Promtrio", in the section "Firms (Enterprises): Auto: Maintenance and Car Service"[3]; the same name appears in the title of the early version of the page: "PROMTRIO — production of vans based on the GAZ"[1]. In the 2006 snapshot the site's owner is named as OOO "Avtomekhanichesky Zavod" (Auto-Mechanical Plant)[2]; how the two names relate — one enterprise under different signs, or a change of domain owner — cannot be seen from the surviving pages.

No city, address, or phone numbers appear on the surviving pages: the site is linked to Nizhny Novgorod only by its domain zone, hosting, and directory listing. At the bottom of the 2003 home page were the lines "Design and coding by 'R52.RU'" and "Hosting by r52.ru"[1]. The web archive holds fifteen captures of the address — from 10 December 2002 to 13 August 2006; the census includes two snapshots of the home page, 30 November 2003[1] and 13 August 2006[2].

Early version: 2003

The 2003 snapshot preserves an almost empty page. All that survives is the window title with the company's name and line of business, a fragment of a closed comment in the markup, and two service captions at the bottom — for the developer and the host, both bearing the name r52.ru[1]. Apart from the name and the line "production of vans based on the GAZ", there is no text in the snapshot[1]. More detail on the business was given by the listing in the nn.ru directory: "Production of vans based on the 'GAZ'. Warranty and post-warranty service"[3].

The 2006 site: plant, products, menu

The August 2006 snapshot preserves a full-fledged company showcase. The header presented the owner: OOO "Avtomekhanichesky Zavod", "Production of vans based on the GAZ, ZIL, KAMAZ, MAZ, URAL, Hyundai"[2]. As the home page stated, "the manufacturing enterprise OOO 'Avtomekhanichesky Zavod' was founded in 2001," with its main line of business described as "manufacture of vans of various configurations on GAZ, ZIL, KAMAZ, MAZ, URAL, HYUNDAI chassis, as well as Chinese-made vehicles"[2].

The site menu consisted of the sections "About the Company", "New Products", "Products", "Services", "Vacancies", and "Contacts"[2]. Within "Products" the types of vans were listed: insulated, general-cargo, bread-delivery, general-cargo sandwich-panel, insulated sandwich-panel, an ice-cream van, an "Auto Workshop" van, and a flatbed. Separate items covered sandwich panels — for vans and for manufacturing — and vehicle lengthening[2] (on the site itself the panels are spelled "sendvich-paneli").

The surviving home-page text gives no production figures, address, or phone numbers. The page emphasized consistency of profile: "Over the years of operation the enterprise has not once changed its profile, and therefore has time-tested proven technologies, stable production, and highly qualified specialists" (spelling as in the original)[2]. Customers were offered custom vans "to your sketches" on any chassis, and as a technological selling point the site cited an "automated van-design system" that, it claimed, could design and modify any structure to specific requirements[2]. Production of sandwich panels, usable "both in van-building and in construction", is named as one of the enterprise's new directions[2]. The text closed with a line about seeking "new spheres and activities", expanding markets, and new partners, and at the bottom of the page stood the developer's signature: "Made by: Konstantin Bogdanov"[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, the site was filed among corporate business-card sites: a listing in the nn.ru directory, an automotive category, a description of products and services — and no rating line. Next to "Promtrio" in the directory it read "Rating: none"[3]. In the surviving rating tables of Counter.nn.ru, which underlie the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, promtrio.r52.ru does not appear, and no votes for it are recorded in our data. Nor is it among the nearly two hundred addresses on the results page of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote of 2004[4].

The site was not an isolated case: the same census and the same nn.ru directory list other Nizhny Novgorod van-builders — autofurgon.r52.ru ("Manufacture of vans based on Gazelle vehicles"), pingoauto.ru ("Vans of all types based on GAZ, ZIL, MAZ, KAMAZ vehicles"), furgon-servis.ru ("Manufacture and sale of vans"), autobagem.ru ("Sale, installation, and conversion of vans on GAZ chassis"). Van-building left a noticeable layer of corporate pages in the local internet, and "Promtrio" is one of them.

How it closed

The snapshots break off on 13 August 2006[2]; the web archive has no later versions of the site. There is no notice of closure, relocation, or address change on the last snapshot — the page looks operational[2]. By the time the census was compiled, the domain promtrio.r52.ru no longer existed, and no successor site has been found. Of "Promtrio" and its plant, what remains online are archived snapshots of the address and a listing in the nn.ru directory.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2006 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Directory listing at nn.ru, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)