soyuz.nn.ru — "SOYUZoptorg's Sugar Page," a Nizhny Novgorod trade site about the wholesale trade in sugar, groats, and flour, owned by OOO "NBK" (Nizhegorodskaya Bakaleynaya Kompaniya, the Nizhny Novgorod Grocery Company) of Nizhny Novgorod[1]. The "SOYUZoptorg" server began operating on 22 November 1999[1]; it described itself as "a Nizhny Novgorod server for everyone interested in sugar, the regional situation, and useful information"[1]. The epigraph on the home page was a phrase attributed to an "Unknown Wholesaler": wholesale sugar trade in Nizhny Novgorod "can and should be conducted not only by Moscow branches, but by private NIZHNY NOVGOROD entities as well"[1]. The last archived snapshot of the home page is dated 23 July 2003[3].

What the site looked like

The home page was split into two parts: on the left, a menu and a news column; on the right, a set of regularly updated summaries. The menu consisted of the sections "Home," "Archive," "Help," "E-mail," "Information," "Sugar," "NN"[1]. Alongside them were thematic collections: "Suppliers interested in cooperating with Nizhny Novgorod operators," "Regulatory documents," "Sugar information on the NET," "Bulletin boards on grocery topics," "JOBS," plus two essays — "Fraudsters in the grocery business" (13 April 2000) and "Fraudsters-2, or Sugar Salt" (7 December 2000)[1].

The right column was a commodity summary: "Sugar prices," "Groats prices," "Flour prices," "Rail shipments of granulated sugar to the Nizhny Novgorod region over the past month," a directory of "Nizhny Novgorod sugar business operators represented on the NET" (21 July 2000), and "REVIEW OF THE SITUATION ON THE NN SUGAR MARKET" (19 May 2000)[1]. Later "Sunflower oil prices" (26 December 2001) and "Canned goods prices" (9 January 2002) were added[2].

Sections grew before the reader's eyes. From 26 November 1999, three conference bulletin boards began operating: "PRODUCTS. BUYING," "PRODUCTS. SELLING," and "MISCELLANEOUS"[1]. On 12 January 2000 the first supplier appeared in the list of firms ready to work with Nizhny Novgorod operators; on 16 January, a "Groats and flour prices" section with a promise of weekly updates; on 23 January, a section of regulatory documents with the texts of GOST P6 and P7; on 13 April, a "JOBS" section for grocery-business specialists and employers[1]. Publishing the texts of GOST standards was a particular concern of the owners: "there are few places on the NET with free GOST texts, we will fill that gap"[1]. On 1 September 2001 a forum opened[2].

Contacts were given directly: phone 8312-425440 in Nizhny Novgorod, at which one was invited to "mention the server" and get prices from Vladimir Rybin, plus the addresses artlain@mail.ru and raw@kis.ru[1]. The footer read: "(C) SOYUZ — website of OOO 'NBK,' N. Novgorod 8312-425440, 1999-2000," below it "Designed by 1999 'NN.RU'" and "Promotion and information updates — Rybin A."[1].

The news column

The site's main value was the feed of short notes kept by the server's own owner. It was written in a trader's colloquial language and recorded the Nizhny Novgorod grocery market week by week: "Well, we've got more sugar traders in Nizhny, though really it's the same old, well-known people trading" — mentioning TD "Sol" and ZAO "Prod-Optima-7," which was congratulated "on the first two carloads sold" (9 August 2000)[1]. Price benchmarks were named openly: on 14 March 2000 the "question of the month" was whether sugar in Nizhny might drop below 6 rubles per kilogram for lots of 10 tonnes or more, and on 19 January it was reported that actual pea deliveries to NN were going at 7.25 and above[1].

The feed also touched on crime. On 8 April 2000 the site discussed a scheme with sacks where "on top and bottom is what you need, and in the middle is not," and invited readers who recognized their own scammers to call the Leninsky District Police Department, Economic Crimes Unit in Nizhny Novgorod, where a pair of fraudsters was facing a similar case[1]. On 29 January 2002 the column called readers to an offline meetup: "sugar people in Nizhny have finally agreed to meet, 1 February 2002 at 18:00 at the bar 'Domik Petra' (Peter's Little House)"[2]. And on 6 March 2000 the owner let slip that the server would soon change, since "a change of ownership is being prepared"[1].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, the site was noticeable within its narrow trade — and measurably so. In the nn.ru directory it was listed with a check dated 18 October 1999, and in the 19 May 2000 snapshot it ranked third in the subcategory "Firms (Enterprises): Food Industry" with a rating of 2.66 — behind ZAO "ROOM" (21.81) and the site "Eda-optom" (Food Wholesale, 7.52); the "Firms (Enterprises)" category then listed 327 resources in total[5].

In the Counter.nn.ru rating for the "Firms (Enterprises)" section as of 30 September 2000, "SOYUZoptorg's Sugar Page" held 31st place: the counter showed 3405, the rating was 17.26, hits per day — 2[4]. Its neighbors in the table were "Agentstvo Pravovoy Informatsii" (Legal Information Agency, 30th place) and the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant (32nd)[4]. More on the rating itself in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

By 8 September 2002 the site topped the "Firms (Enterprises): Consumer Goods, Stores: Food Products" category of the nn.ru directory with a rating of 281 — more than double the next site, "Nizhegorodskoe Pivo" (Nizhny Novgorod Beer, 66), and an order of magnitude above the vodka brand "Otdokhni" (Relax, 24) and TD "Medved" (Bear, 18)[6]. The directory card described the resource as follows: the site "contains information invaluable to people engaged in the wholesale sugar trade, and the Bulletin Board will help you quickly find a partner online"[6].

How it closed

The fading is visible from the dates of the summaries themselves. In the 22 July 2001 snapshot, the sugar and groats prices were last updated on 11 July, flour on 10 July — that is, the site lived on a weekly rhythm[1]. In the 23 September 2002 snapshot, sugar prices were dated 31 August, flour 21 August, and rail shipments had not been updated since 26 November 2001[2]. In the last snapshot, from 23 July 2003, the freshest summary was sugar and groats prices from 21 June 2003, flour had stood since 26 March, and the last entry in the news column was a New Year's greeting from 30 December 2002[3].

Shortly before that, the owners had set up a separate corporate site: on 30 October 2002 the column announced that "the website of the Nizhny Novgorod Grocery Company, www.nbk.nn.ru, is finally up," and asked for feedback[3]. There are no later snapshots of the soyuz.nn.ru home page in the web archive[3]; when cross-checking domains for the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, the address soyuz.nn.ru is listed as no longer existing.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — counter.nn.ru rating, "Firms (Enterprises)" section, 2000 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Firms (Enterprises): Food Industry," 2000 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Food Products," 2002 (archive)