Portal of Evil truly was the web 1.0 equivalent of Kiwifarms.
Back then, the web was smaller but bigger at the same time. A lot of the shit people are inured to these days, like hentai and furry and fan culture in general, had just been exposed to the world for the first time, so the novelty and shock factor was
huge. Because of that, taking part in it was already like stepping into a whole new world, to say nothing of making fun of it. That's what made places like PoE, Something Awful, and 4chan so goddamn magical back in the day. You weren't just stepping into a whole new world, you were doing it as a
cynic.
Unfortunately, Portal of Evil gradually ran out of material when all the weirdos and freaks moved to social media and video sites instead of opening their own website. The original PoE eventually turned into a mausoleum of web 1.0 before vanishing. Fading away was a more dignified death than PoE News, which just ended up aggressively rotting away in the same way Something Awful did during the Obama-era leftward shift. Looking back at it, I can't help but feel like some of these web 1.0 icons deserved a better end than they got.
Still, while it lasted, Portal of Evil and web 1.0 were a fun ride. Greatly do I miss it, now that it is gone.
Looks like even poetv,com is gone now.
That's a legitimate crying shame. Poetv.com was probably the best thing to come out of the whole PoE network. It had an eccentric crowd regularly contributing to it, which lead to a constant stream of eclectic content. I found some fascinating stuff thanks to that site.
Fatchicksinpartyhats.com seems to be down too.
I'll go to my grave believing that Miguel was a real person and not just a goofy-ass persona Seanbaby made up.
