When you're publishing on the

Web, you've always got to watch

your back: somebody could be

gaining on you. And watch we do:

our backend "referer" logs, that

is, which keep us abreast of

where our latest hits are coming

from.

The most frustrating bits of data

come in the form of links from

newsgroups hidden in internal

servers (Pixar and Netscape,

sure, but why are all the SGI

folks checking out the Netscape

vs. Microsoft article? Secret

browser project, maybe?).

Yesterday, though, we got lucky

when a few blips from the

discussion area in HotWired led

us to a recently created topic

discussing major sites and

independent players on the Web,

the politics of the sell-out,

and how it all might one day

relate to our travails at Suck.

The topic, Way New Rock Bands,

featured a single post, and was

anonymously posted using the

tried-and-true cypherpunk login.

The expert pinch of our style

was impressive, but the

comparison of the nascent field

of Web publishing to the record

industry, and in particular the

perpetual struggle between indie

and major labels, started a

tangential discussion at Suck

that compelled us to develop an

exploratory chart, which we

present as an appendix of sorts.

Check out the action in

HotWired's Threads, and jump in

to the discussion if you happen

to remember the username

("cypherpunk") and password

("cypherpunk") of that account

you started so many months ago.

If things heat up, we may even

make it our semi-official

bulletin board. We just wonder

who'll be playing and who'll be

watching...