throwmirror.narod.ru was a site hosted on narod.ru that combined a photo album from role-playing games and festivals with a page for the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper "Molodyozhnaya Strelka" (Youth Arrow). The nn.ru directory described it this way: "Page of the Nizhny Novgorod general-gathering newsletter 'Molodyozhnaya Strelka' and, at the same time, the home page of its editor Commander Hell, a world-famous sorokoman"[1]. The home page's title was "Photo Album," with the subtitle "Photo album for role-players. And not only"[2]. The latest date mentioned on the page is 26-29 August 2004[2].

List of photo galleries

The main content of the home page is a list of links to photo galleries: "6 photos from the Black Detachment. 26-29 August 2004," "Commander, the cat Muska and kittens. 7 January 2003," "Photos from Zilant 2002," "Concert of 'Zazerkalye' [Looking-Glass], 16 April 2000," "Grushinsky Festival 2000," "Photographs from role-playing games in Kirov Oblast," as well as "This is me," "This is us!" and "Commander Hell's home page"[2]. Below the list is a disclaimer: "All this is still Under Construction. But welcome anyway..."[2] — it remained in place even in the 2025 snapshot[4].

Below that is a short update log of three entries. The first: "12 January 2001. Now the pictures show not only in MSIE, but also in Netscape"[2] — meaning that before this the photos on the page were visible only in Internet Explorer. In the saved text, some Russian letters "р" are typed as the Latin "p": "kaptinki," "yanvapya," "polevykh," "Fotogpafii"[2].

"Molodyozhnaya Strelka"

The newspaper itself is given a single link on the site — "History of the 'Strelka'"[2]. Everything else that can be learned about it from the surviving snapshots comes from two entries in the same update log. "8 April 2001. MS's main page has also moved to narod.ru!"[2]: in spring 2001 the newspaper's main address changed, while throwmirror.narod.ru was already on narod.ru by that point. "May 2002. The MC-online project appeared on nnov.ru"[2] — the page reports nothing more about the project itself.

The surviving snapshots of the home page contain no circulation figures, editorial staff, address, or phone number[2][4]. At the bottom of the page the hosting credit "Hosted by" is cut off[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site's Nizhny Novgorod connection rests on the nn.ru directory, where the newspaper is described as being from Nizhny Novgorod[1], and on the newspaper's related project MC-online, which appeared on nnov.ru[2]. The address is also present in the sample from the Counter.nn.ru counter underlying the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating: in it, the site corresponds to a rating value of 142 with zero votes[1]. No other traces of the site have survived in materials on the Nizhny Novgorod Internet.

How it ended

The site was not shut down — it simply stopped. Three surviving snapshots of the home page — 30 March 2022[2], 6 June 2022[3], and 25 February 2025[4] — match word for word: the same list of galleries, the same "Under Construction" note, the same update log, whose last entry dates to May 2002. The first snapshot in the web archive is dated 1 February 2001, the last is dated 25 February 2025; in our sample the domain is marked as dead[1].

The fate of the related addresses — the "Molodyozhnaya Strelka" newspaper's earlier page and the MC-online project on nnov.ru — cannot be reconstructed from these materials. Of the newspaper itself, what remains in the archive is not the publication but its periphery: a list of photo albums from role-playing games, a concert, and the Grushinsky Festival, frozen at a date in August 2004.

Sources

  1. — Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet based on counter.nn.ru rating data (nn.ru directory, counter sample)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 30 March 2022 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 6 June 2022 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 25 February 2025 (archive)