Where We've Been Listed
Have you seen Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero
Generator listed somewhere we don't know about? Drop us
a line! Don't think, "oh,
someone else will tell them," because it is very rare for more than
one person to tell us about any listing. Those that inform us about
new sites will be given our sincere thanks. (Hey, what do you want
out of a personal home page?)
Top One-Day Hits Over 1000
Originating Site |
Date | Hits |
UselessJunk.net and WinXPnews | 28 Jun 2005 | 5703 |
Blue's News | 7 Mar 2001 | 4746 |
InkTank | 28 Feb 2001 | 2487 |
WinXPnews | 27 Jun 2005 | 2405 |
FARK.com | 2 Sep 2001 | 2030 |
Steve Jackson Games | 26 May 2000 | 1642 |
UselessJunk.net and WinXPnews | 29 Jun 2005 | 1641 |
Blue's News | 8 Mar 2001 | 1604 |
InkTank | 1 Mar 2001 | 1492 |
[Censored 2] | 13 Oct 1999 | 1426 |
[Censored 3] | 12 Oct 2004 | 1356 |
TechTV | 4 May 2001 | 1328 |
TechTV | 3 May 2001 | 1208 |
[Censored 1] | 12 Oct 1999 | 1256 |
FARK.com | 3 Sep 2001 | 1199 |
[Censored 3] | 13 Oct 2004 | 1142 |
Ripper's Majic Bus | 30 Jun 2005 | 1122 |
Uzful.org | 19 Jul 2005 | 1033 |
Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Generator is or has been listed in
the following places (in roughly chronological order, most recent
first):
2005
- Uzful.org - Online Generators
- It's sometimes hard to be sure when I find record hits the day
after they happen, but it appears Uzful.org adding us to
their site pushed hits here to 1033. It looks like the
Generator may have been mentioned in a couple of online
forums, too, which is probably what got hits past the 1000
mark. (19 Jul 2005)
-
- Ripper's Majic Bus
- After a long dry spell, things are really hopping. As
UselessJunk.net and WinXPNews fall off the list of top
domains providing hits, MajicBus.us, a somewhat eclectic
group of forums, rises to again push the number of hits over
1000, ending at 1122. (30 Jun 2005)
- UselessJunk.net
- One day after WinXPnews posted the link (see below),
someone else posted it on the forums at a site called
UselessJunk.net. It seems this very simply posting
caused even more hits than WinXPnews. Together they've set
a new record for number of hits in a day: 5703! (28 Jun
2005)
- WinXPnews
- Issue #182 of this e-zine, obviously dedicated to Windows XP
users, listed the Generator in their "Fave Links" section. The
day it went up, hits on the site reached 2405. Typical hits
right now are 400-600 per day. Thanks to Nancy and Richard
for their separate e-mails telling me it was listed. (27 Jun
2005)
2004
- [Censored]
- It's October 12th, five years later and the Generator gets
another surge of hits from an adult site. The site, which
features "a collection of life's priceless moments, caught
on film," picked us as their "Weird Link." I believe it's
for a single day, but the page in question has two days
worth of links shown. It's resulted in 1356 hits on 12 Oct
and 1142 hits on 13 Oct.
Typical hits are 400-500 per day right now. (12 Oct 2004)
- Guardian
- The Guardian of London (U.K.) mentioned the Generator in
their "Web Watch" column along with a short list of other name
generators. Thanks to Jack Shuttlesworth for letting me know.
(12 Feb 2004)
2003
- Roleplaying
Tips Weekly E-Zine #184
- In July 2004, Brandon Adkins let me know that he saw a link to
the Generator in a back issue of this e-zine. (c. late Oct 2003)
- PHP/MySQL
Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Andy Harris
- In early 2003, Mr. Harris contacted me for permission to use some
of the names from my site in his latest book. I said yes,
naturally. Oh, and no, this site makes use of neither PHP nor
MySQL. The former didn't exist when it was created and the
latter would be overkill for this site. (Thanks to Brian
Gordon for being the only one to e-mail me about it in the months
between the book's release and my actually getting one.) (3 Jun 2003)
- BBC
Radio 2: Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day
- A funny thing happened in February. BBC Radio 2 was all set to
air their segment featuring my site, but the events of the day
pre-empted it. So they aired it in June and listed it on their
web site again. There were 981 hits on June 19th and 841 on
June 20th. (It was mentioned in a Transformers forum at the
same time, which contributed to the hits and may be a secondary
reason the numbers were higher this time.) Unfortunately, due
to an e-mail glitch, I missed my opportunity to hear it. Anyone
happen to have it recorded?
(19 Jun 2003)
- BBC
Radio 2: Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day
- I just happened to check the stats the day after Mr.
Mendoza selected the site. On February 12th, when it was
selected, there were 600 hits; the following day, 795; and 581
on the 14th. All up from the normal 300-400+ of the
previous two weeks. Not bad considering it only appeared on
their web site and didn't air (see above). (12 Feb 2003)
- Asimov's Science Fiction
- James Patrick Kelly included the Generator in his list of
humorous sites for the March 2003 issue. For a while, at
least, you can find it here.
Thanks to Tom Hart for pointing it out. (Jan 2003)
2002
- Mac OS X Hints
- When the owner of this site went on vacation August 7-12, he
left a list of ten sites "to occupy your now hint-free
time." The Generator was one of them. This boosted hits on
the 7th from the normal 300-400 to 820. The next two days
saw 572 and 495 hits and then things were back to normal.
(7 Aug 2002)
2001
- FARK.com
- The Generator made FARK's daily list of links, resulting in
2030 links that day (and 1199 the next). (2 Sep 2001)
- TechTV Geek Site of the Day (almost)
- Three name generators were TechTV's Geek Site of the Day on 3 May
2001, but the Super-Hero Generator wasn't one of them. It
was, however, included as a bonus site. This appears to
have resulted in significant hits; 1208 on 3 May and 1328 on
4 May. (3 May 2001)
- Wasted Youth
- This 'blog included a link to us as part of it's "Pic of the
Day". It's resulted in a fair share of hits since. Of course,
it doesn't hurt that the author seemed to have network
problems that kept him from changing it for a couple days.
(9 Mar 2001)
- Blue's News
- This PC games news site selected the Generator as Link of the
Day. Thanks to Punisher of CrescentHawks.com and Mitch Amihod
for pointing it out. It seems the previous record for hits in
a day has only lasted a week. The final tally for the day was
4746 hits! It's also a new record for hits in a week with 9056
hits. (7 Mar 2001)
- InkTank.com - Home of Angst Technology
- This web comic's author saw the link at Striptease (below), and
found it so funny, he linked to us. We're glad he did
because it seems to have led to our biggest day ever: 2487
hits on 28 Feb 2001! We also seem to have set a new record
for the week with only one hit shy of 7000 hits. (27 Feb 2001)
- Striptease: The "Comic Book" Comic Strip
- The author of this web comic chanced upon the Generator and
decided to link to it from his main page. Despite what the
name might lead you to believe, the comic is not adult
entertainment. (26 Feb 2001)
- Collector Times.com
- The January 2001 edition (vol. 5, no. 10) of this webzine did a
brief, but favorable review
of the Generator. (12 Jan 2001)
- Yahoo! Cool Sites
- Simon Powell told me the Generator was listed in an e-mail from
Yahoo! about "cool websites." Unfortunately, he deleted it
before mailing me. If anyone has a copy, I'd like to see
it. (c. 8 Jan 2001)
2000
- iVenus.com
- This Irish site for women included us in Total
Cult, they're weekly(?) list of themed links. The theme
this time was name generators. (6 Oct 2000)
- Totalise
- This large British ISP listed the Generator on their front page
in the "Weird of the Web" section. (18 Aug 2000)
- Steve Jackson Games Illuminated Site of the Week
- SJ Games, creators of Illuminati, Car Wars, and other
interesting games, gave us this award. They're also the first
to ask whether it's a useless generator of heroes or a
generator of useless heroes. The former was intended, but
the latter might not be too far off either. Thanks to Dave
Walsh for suggesting the Generator to them and my friend Chris
Specker for letting me know. (And Eric Olsen for also
mentioning it before I had a chance to add it to the list.)
The first day it was listed, the site received 1642 hits; a new
record! (If I were paranoid, I might make something of the
fact that it's the same numbers as our previous record
(1426) rearranged.) But for the entire week's hits, it was
only our fourth busiest. (Week starting 26 May 2000) Fnord!
- www.RankedSites.com
- This site has a rather eclectic list of categories in which
they rank sites. They've added the Generator under Useless
Pages. (9 May 2000)
- PopTop Software
- The makers of Railroad Tycoon II decided to mention the site for
no particular reason, too. (See the entry immediately below
if you don't know why I say "too.") (21 Apr 2000)
- Mare Crisium
- This developer is working on a PC game called "Stars!
Supernova." Although it has nothing to do with their game, they
listed it just because they liked it. (17 Apr 2000)
- Sprash!
- This site belongs to Spray
Networks in Italy. I don't know how often it's updated, but
for some time the Generator was listed under "Dr. Sprash!
consiglia" ("Dr. Sprash advises"), saying, "just what it
promises... generates you a superhero!" (c. 18 Apr 2000)
- Reactor
- This new "online entertainment magazine" picked the Generator
as "Link of the Day" for their Daily Grind.
- Maxim
- The web site for the new men's magazine, Maxim, selected the
Generator as one of three web sites featured in their "Stupid Fun"
section
for a week. This seems to have resulted in over 300 hits per
day, with several over 500. (Because of questionable content, I'm
not providing a direct link for the sake of the many children who
visit this site.) (16-22? Mar 2000)
- Young Justice (German edition)
- A comic fan identified only as Tom tells me that the Generator
is mentioned in the March issue of the German edition of Young
Justice (#2). It's in the "Surfen mit Robin" column, where it
rated 3 out of 5. (Tom says, "Surfen mit Robin" roughly translates
to "Surf the Web with Robin".) (Mar 2000)
- www.FUNFOOL.com
- This list of funny sites added the Generator under Useless Pages.
I didn't submit the site to them myself, either. (17 Jan 2000)
1999
- RPGnet
- This role-playing game site lists the Generator in their humor page. (Early
Dec 1999)
- Pop Culture Junk
Mail
- This site is sort of a weblog that "features links to
pop-culture-themed web sites." Don't expect to see every 'blog
that links to the Generator here, but this one seems to account
for a fair amount of today's hits. By the way, Gael Fashingbauer
Cooper, the webmaster, found it at Willa's site immediately below.
(2 Dec 1999)
- Willa's Journal
- This site is the weblog of Willa G. Cline. She mentioned
the Generator in her December 1st
entry. She also added it to her Mood Swings site as a "Fun
Link." This site is sort of a personal set of links enjoyed by
Willa put on the 'net for everyone to enjoy. (1 Dec 1999)
- Minister of Information
- This column by John Murrell appears in the San Jose Mercury News.
The Generator appeared in a list of sites for his readers' "weekend
Web wandering pleasure." Mr. Murrel credits Sally Towse as
contributing the link. (28 Nov 1999)
- Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer
- Artie Beaty says the Generator was mentioned in the Click section.
(25 Nov 1999)
- Roadside Attractions
- First I got a message from Keith Parrish pointing out a mention in the
technology section of the Wilkes-Barre
(Pennsylvania) Times Leader on 15 Nov 1999. Then Stephen
Mendenhall told me he saw the Generator in this syndicated column
by Dave Farrell in a paper on 18 Nov 1999. When Mr. Parrish sent
me a clipping, it turned out to be the same column, so thanks to
both of them. (14 Nov 1999)
- The New York Times
- Antonio Orrantia was kind enough to tell me that the Generator
was mentioned in The New York Times' "Circuits" section, p.
12 under the Browser column (A Selection of Eclectic Sites &
Events). For at least a short time, you
can read the article at their web site. (4 Nov 1999)
- the-prophets.com
- This webzine(?) featured the Generator as one of two "linkage"
sites on this day. They had this to say: "A geek toy that can
actually be a lot of fun. It will randomly generate for you a new
Superhero character, some of which are quite funny." (2 Nov 1999)
- [Censored]
- It seems a second adult site works in conjunction with the
first (see below) to archive previous "Useless Sites of the Day."
Between carry-over from the first site up until they changed the
link (from midnight to no later than 9:00 a.m. CDT) and traffic
from the archive at this second site, we set yet another new record
for our busiest day with 1426 hits. There are no immediate signs
that the number of hits will return to their old level (100-200
hits per day), but I don't expect any more record-breaking days.
(13 Oct 1999)
- [Censored]
- This site picked the Generator as "Useless Site of the Day,"
resulting in our new single busiest day ever with 1256 hits!
(That's more hits than we usually get in a week!) I have mixed
feeling about this, however, because it is a site of adult links.
I'm aware that many kid-safe sites link to the Generator, so I
won't give any more information than that. (And please don't ask.)
(12 Oct 1999)
- Blinker Fluid.com
- "Stupid links for stupid people." I was too stupid
to find it until June 2000. (Oct 1999)
- SurfBeat -
Wacky Web
- GTE.net listed the Generator in this column of their monthly,
online newsletter. (But it took me until May 2000 to find out about
it.) (Sep 1999)
- Weekly Wire
- Or is it the Weekly Alibi? It's hard to tell since I just
found out about this listing in late April 2000. Anyway, this
article, called "Roll the Dice" by Devin D. O'Leary, is about "random
stuff on the WWW." (30 Aug 1999)
- Diário de Notícias OnLine
- This Portugese site included the Generator as one of its sites
of the day (Os "sites" do
dia) for 14 May 1999. For those of you (like me) who don't
read Porugese, here's a rough translation I cleaned up after Alta
Vista's Translation service went through it:
USELESSNESS
After all, it still has heroes
The heroes that we find on this page are not equal to those that
exist in our small imaginations[?], like Spider-Man or
Superman. Also they are not the modern heroes like Robocop. But
there are heroes here, have no doubt, with costume, supernatural
weapons, and powers. In the digital age, a generator of
super-heroes at
home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/herogen
was created, where you can choose the hero you want to be: the
name, the features, the powers, the transportation, and the weapon.
Let me know if you can translate "Diario de Noticias" or
"imaginário desde pequenos." (14 May 1999)
- The Globe-Guardian
- This humor site selected the Generator as one of half a dozen
Ludicrous
Links for March 1999. (1 Mar 1999)
- Humor Daily Surprise
- I didn't find it until June 2000, but the Generator was
featured at this "Funny Site of the Day" portion of the Mike
Durrett Show. (8 Jan 1999)
1998
- @Home
- Mary Cooper let me know she found my site "listed on Cox@Home's
WebWaste page, under the 'best of useless diversions' category.
The page is proprietary to the ISP, so here's what they said about
it...
Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Generator
Super-duper man?: Being a superhero isn't easy. You have to have
a cool name, magical powers and impressive weapons. Sometimes
you're an ugly mutant; other times you can look rather silly in a
cape, mask and tights. Lee's here to help. Go from Super Guy to
Omega Dragon in minutes."
(Late Dec 1998)
- .motorsportNET
- These car racing enthusiasts from down under (New Zealand, not
Australia) chose the Generator as "Alt Site of the Week." (16 Dec
1998)
- NRK - Petre
- This site is in Norwegian and the on-line translator we tried
using didn't do such a good job, so we're not entirely sure what it's
about. But they listed us in their
Nine-11
links section, which seems to have resulted in quite a few
hits. (9 Dec 1998)
- Yahoo!
Internet Life -- Pretty Strange Sites
- The folks at Yahoo! Internet Life must really like this
site. We've now been picked as a
Pretty
Strange Site of the Day. The best part is, due to the
Thanksgiving holiday, we appeared there for five days! Thanks to
Scott Mohnkern for letting us know. (25 Nov 1998)
- sCary's Shuga Shack
- They selected us as a
Wack
Link, which seems be the cause of our single busiest day
ever! We got 580 hits, which is about five times the
norm. The next day we had over 300 hits, but then it was back
down to normal. The weirdest part is all they put down was the
URL; no title or explanation! (24 Sep 1998)
- CRAPCO
Comedy Connection
- The humor editor included the Generator as part of
"Un-Catagorizable Humor" week and sent us a nifty animated GIF
to let recognize this honor. (18 Sep 1998)
- ComputorEdge
- Marrit Ingman sends word that this technology publication native
to San Diego, CA. included the Generator in their Comic-Con issue.
(7 Aug 1998)
- rec.arts.comics.creative
- Tom Russell, Jr. has brought back Action Legion Poland in their
own "graphic novel." You can read it by following
this DejaNews query.
(Posted 21 Jul 1998)
- alt.culture.fabulous
- It seems a group of a.c.f posters have created their own
super-hero group:
The
Wondrous Fabu-Friendz! You'd think they'd stop there, but
now they're writing adventures for themselves. Check it out.
(Began 10 Jul 1998)
- Yahoo!
Internet Life -- Your Yastrologer
- It appears select Leos and Aries are getting the Super-Hero
Generator in their list of links from Yahoo! Internet
Life's Daily Horoscopes. (Noticed 1 May 1998)
- rec.arts.comics.creative
- Tom Russell, Jr. used the Generator to create Action Legion
Poland and the perplexing Random Battilion of Poland, who appeared
in Teenfactor
#26, #27,
#28, and #29.
(Posted Jan-Feb 1998)
1997
- (Jackson, Mississippi) Courier-Ledger
- The Generator was mentioned in the Southern Style Section. (20
Oct 1997)
- Iowa City
Press-Citizen
- A story stating Terry Hughes unearthed the Generator described
it in the "Technology" portion (page 1B) of the "Life" pages.
(27 Sep 1997)
- The Huntsville (Alabama)
Times
- James McWilliams called me after seeing the Generator in
Wired. He wrote another brief column in Business
Bytes about it. (29 Jul 1997)
- Wired
- The August 1997 (5.08) issue of Wired magazine listed us in
their
Net Surf
section (p. 142). (Published Jul 1997)
- The Craziest
Sites on the Planet Tour
- The folks at Very Crazy
Productions have honored us again by adding us to their tour.
They've also boosted our ratings so that our overall "crazy factor"
is now 4.5 (out of 5)! (Added early 1997.)
- bLink
- The April/May 1997 (vol. 2, no. 1) hardcopy issue of EarthLink's
monthly newsletter listed this site under
Weird
Web. (Apr 1997)
- The Huntsville (Alabama)
Times
- James McWilliams, a local reporter, included this site in a
column entitled "Winning
Local Web Sites." (4 Mar 1997)
1996
- Centre for the Easily Amused
- Another intrepid hero reports the Generator appears here (under
"sites that do
stuff"). (Unknown c. 1996)
- MSN
- One prospective hero reports it was Link of the Day on the
Microsoft Network. (Nov 1996)
- Very Crazy Productions
- An "Other Very Crazy Destination" with a "crazy factor" of 3.5.
(Added 30 Sep 1996)
- Yahoo! Internet Life
- The October 1996 (vol. 2, no. 5) issue listed it in the Charts
(p. 14) as one of "five sites that will never convince anybody
that the net is a serious, practical tool for the advancement
of society". (Published Sep 1996)
-
This: Is Negative Imaging Productions
- Michael Friedman used the Generator to create
Random Heroes Super-Sized Special #1. (Posted to rec.arts.comics.creative 3
Sep 1996)
- Useless Pages
- We're officially useless! (Added 1 Jul 1996)
-
Yahoo! Internet Life -- The Charts
- For the week of July 1-8, 1996, one of "seven sites that will
never convince anybody that the net is a serious, practical
tool for the advancement of society". (1 Jul 1996)
- Yahoo!
- In the following categories:
Hero-at-large, Sean Morgan, has formed an
AltaVista
query that will list every place with a link to the Generator, except
my own pages and Yahoo. At the time he sent it, it contained
33 links.
It's grown a bit since then.
Author: Lee K. Seitz
(WWW,
e-mail)
Created: 2 Jul 1996; Last Modified: 20 Jul 2005