moda.2n.ru was a Nizhny Novgorod internet portal about fashion, "World of Fashion" (Mir mody), that operated on a third-level domain in the 2n.ru zone in the first half of the 2000s. The nn.ru site directory of Nizhny Novgorod described it as follows: "A portal dedicated to fashion, both world and Nizhny Novgorod. A catalogue of models from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and abroad. Fashion model contests and ratings. Communication in forums and chats"[3]. The core of the project was a database of fashion model profiles with ratings and voting; it was supplemented by news feeds, a forum, a chat, and a classifieds board[1]. The first surviving capture of the home page is dated 10 June 2002[1].

Site structure

In 2002, the home page menu consisted of the sections "News" (the site's own ELFashion feed and "News of the Fashion World"), "Portfolio" (adding a profile, "New", "Girls", "Men", search), "Information" ("Fashion designers", "Fashion houses", "Articles"), "Forum" and "Classifieds", as well as the lines "Moscow: Fashion News" and "Nizhny Novgorod: Fashion News". The sidebar carried a chat-visitor counter — "In chat — 0" — and at the bottom stood a feedback form with the disclaimer: "The site is at the testing and content-filling stage"[1]. The site's own news was signed by an author under the handle Elf; in May 2002 he reported: "Sorry, but our Portal is currently under development," listing what already worked — the forum, adding portfolios and classifieds, the chat, and "the statistics system has been changed to a more accurate one"[1].

By March 2003 the structure had grown noticeably. Language switches appeared in the header — "English version," "Russian ver.," "French version"; the sections "Clothing collections" and "Organisations" were added, the latter with its own directory, along with an "Organisations News" feed. There were now three city blocks — Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod — each with the same set of subsections: "Boutiques, sales," "Health, services," "Modelling, design," "Modelling business," "Beauty salons, services." The only contact besides the feedback form remained the line "ICQ: Vasily"[2].

Model catalogue

A profile showed age, height, physical measurements, agency (or a "no agency" note), a numeric rating, a view count, and links for "portfolio" and "leave a message." In 2002, the home page featured a "TOP 5" block with ratings on a five-point scale — from 3.96 to 4.1 — and view counts from 134 to 257, below which came a "New faces" section; among the new profiles was one claiming a fifteen-year-old participant[1].

By 2003 the rating system had changed: ratings became three-digit (136 and 718 for two models featured in the "Models Online" block, with 370 and 732 views), and profiles received visible numbers — by 25 March 2003 they had reached 333. Showcases appeared: "Best models of the last 30 days," where a profile was featured for each day, and "Best models of the months," running from October 2002. Captions listed modelling agencies: "VAMP" / "WUMP" Model Agency, Man's Men's Model Agency, GAZARYAN Inc[2].

Content

The portal's editorial content remained thin. By March 2003 the "News of the Fashion World" feed had accumulated 16 items, the site's own ELFashion feed had 7, the "Fashion designers" and "Fashion houses" sections had one each, and "Articles" had two; other outlets' materials were reprinted with a link to the source, such as FashionGuide.ru or Intermoda.ru[2]. The city news sections stood empty in 2002: both the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod counters showed "total items 0"[1]. There was exactly one original local item: as the home page reported, "On May 17 the next (14th) fashion festival 'Golden Podium' will be held at the Young Spectator's Theatre," and a year earlier it had been attended by "twenty-seven fashion designers from 7 cities of Russia"[1]. The classifieds board was almost entirely from out of town — offers of photo shoots and portfolios came from Moscow, Volgograd, Bishkek, and even Chicago; in the 2003 capture there is only one Nizhny Novgorod listing, from a resident with a mail.nnov.ru email address[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory, which called itself "a directory of Nizhny Novgorod sites," "World of Fashion" was listed under "Projects: Art and Culture." Next to its entry, the directory showed a "Rating: 246" — noticeably higher than its neighbours in the same category: most of the Nizhny Novgorod projects listed alongside it ("Unknown Nizhny," "Moments of the City," "Pro Zrenie," "ARKHOTEKA," the philharmonic orchestra) had no rating shown at all, while the nearest site with a number had 29[3]. This is one of the few surviving assessments of the portal's traffic (on the rating system itself, see Counter.nn.ru and the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating).

The site does not appear in the results table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote — neither under its own name nor under its domain[4]. Thus, in the professional life of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, "World of Fashion" left no notable trace, even though by directory rating it outranked many of its neighbours.

How it closed

The web archive preserved 16 captures of the moda.2n.ru home page; the last one is dated 23 October 2005[5]. There is no farewell message or closure notice in the captures: even a year after launch, the portal still displayed the same disclaimer about being "at the testing and content-filling stage"[2]. As verified while preparing this article, the domain moda.2n.ru no longer exists; the portal's content — the profile database, forum, chat, and classifieds board — has not survived anywhere except in the home-page captures.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Projects: Art and Culture" category, 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org (archive)