The Story Behind Riot Grrrl Online

The Story Behind Riot Grrrl Online (Why I Created This Website) By: Greta

In 2001 and 2002, I realized a shortage of riot grrrl websites and most of the riot grrrl websites that I had enjoyed were gone. I guess a lot of people figured when the riot grrrl bands broke up, that the riot grrrl movement had died as well. I read and researched more about riot grrrl through Yahoo!, like I had done with Hole and Nirvana websites. Yahoo had a lot of “Grrrl” websites in their directory and I researched riot grrrl through Yahoo as well. I never believed in labels, but I really believed in the riot grrrl movement. After the riot grrrl websites had died, I realized that I still believed in the philosophy of riot grrrl and feminism.

In 2001, I decided I should make a riot grrrl website. I wanted to create a riot grrrl resource and information site, with some information about feminism. I wanted to make a website where I could add lots of pages and have an active website that was updated daily and/or frequently. At first, I didn’t care if anyone liked my website or not. It was something I wanted to create and do for myself and for fun. In a way, I wanted to connect other riot grrrls (riot boys, feminists, and male feminists) to each other by making the website. That’s when I decided to create the website that I named, “Riot Grrrl Online”. I was also hoping that there were other people out there that felt the same way I did about riot grrrl and that they wanted to learn more about the riot grrrl movement. I wanted others to learn some information about riot grrrl by visiting my website or have a place to find others with the same interest in riot grrrl. I made the website as a start to revive riot grrrl.

The website was first made in 2001 and was first on the free website-making website, Angelfire. My online friend that I knew as “Shawnee” back then, (His real name is Deshawn.) from the USA, made the purple layout (I still use it on my Twitter account and on my Riot Grrrl Online Page on Facebook. It is also on this current website as an icon.) Deshawn helped me out with the website. Deshawn encouraged me to create the website because he shared an interest in riot grrrl and we had met from a riot grrrl website he had with one of his real life friends. He didn’t tell me to make the website, but thought I had a good idea of wanting to make a riot grrrl website. (I still keep in touch with Deshawn.) He knew how to make layouts, but I didn’t know how to make them. When the website was on Angelfire, It had a few pages and some of the pages had nothing to do with riot grrrl but female bands, which was okay, but I wanted it to be strictly about riot grrrl. I started deleting pages and creating more riot grrrl pages on the website. Also, I started updating the website daily and deleting stuff that had nothing to do with riot grrrl as well. The website can still be viewed on Angelfire because I never deleted the website from angelfire. Since having the website on Angelfire, the Riot Grrrl Online website has went through many changes.

In 2004, I got an email from a girl I had never emailed. She wanted to host my Riot Grrrl Online website. I didn’t know anything about having my website hosted but she said she would take care of it for me, so I agreed to let her host my website. Since she had her own domain and knew how to host websites on her domain, She moved all of my website from Angelfire to her domain, that’s what she meant by taking care of it for me. I got hosted on her domain, girlsvomitcandy.com, by Jilly that lives in the United Kingdom. The girlsvomitcandy.com domain died several months later. Jilly told me she was getting rid of the domain, but that she would email me when my website left from there. She never did email me when my website left from there. The website can still be found on Archive.org. The website started on Angelfire, then moved to girlsvomitcandy.com, and then was on hot-topic.org.

In 2004, I was searching for Le Tigre websites. I stumbled upon a domain called hot-topic.org, which was also a Le Tigre website. The domain had a Le Tigre forum, which I joined. The forum didn’t have many members, but I had posted a link up to it when I used to use MySpace. The forum gained several members after I posted up the link on my MySpace profile. The domain was owned by a guy named Nam that lived in the United Kingdom. He was also a member of his own forum. I started posting on the forum and told him I was going to try to get some new members for his forum. He sent me a message on his forum and told me thanks and wanted to do something for me in return for helping his forum get some new members. He asked if I had a website and I explained the dilemma about the Riot Grrrl Online website that was on girlsvomitcandy.com and that the girl that was hosting me, let her domain die. He told me that as a thank you for getting members for his Le Tigre forum, he would host my website on hot-topic.org. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to. He said yes and that he wanted to do something for me in return. In 2005, I got hosted on hot-topic.org. Nam seemed to know alot about websites and computers. Riot Grrrl Online was ranked #2 on Google, which was a surprise and a good thing to me. In 2006, Nam started using the Siteman CMS (CMS=Content Management System) for my website. After he started hosting me, Nam decided to let his Le Tigre forum on hot-topic.org die. He also wanted to do something for me since I was active on his Le Tigre forum and helped spread the word about his Le Tigre forum. That’s how I wound up being hosted on hot-topic.org, not to be mistaken for the clothing company, Hot Topic. The hot-topic.org domain was named after the Le Tigre song “Hot Topic”. Nam helped me out with my website if it acted up, went offline, had errors, technical problems, or if I had an idea for the website. He answered all my questions and gave me ideas for the website. Nam was always there for me and for that I really appreciate him. I have him to thank for my website and for hosting Riot Grrrl Online. He was a great host. Nam was a great person and he will always be very much appreciated. I admired his kindness and helpfulness. In 2007, The Riot Grrrl Online siteman website had been hacked. The siteman version of the Riot Grrrl Online website was hacked twice in 2007 and was an annoyance. I decided not to use siteman anymore because of that reason. In December 2007, I started using Drupal CMS (content management system) instead of siteman. Drupal had alot more features than siteman had. In 2007, The Riot Grrrl Online Forum was now part of the Riot Grrrl Online website and was part of the interactive features on the revamped Riot Grrrl Online website. In late 2008, Nam let the hot-topic.org domain die and this meant the end of the Riot Grrrl Online website.

When I had the Riot Grrrl Online website up and running, I found out that alot of people were viewing my Riot Grrrl Online website and that they actually liked it. I was surprised that people actually liked my website. I realized that: I had fans of the website, members of the website, and people that would link to the website from their website. I got lots of members on the siteman version and still got more members with Drupal. In 2005, I wanted to do more riot grrrl reviving. I wanted to meet more riot grrrls and people that felt the same way I did. I decided to make the Riot Grrrl Online Message Board in November 2005 on proboards as part of the “Riot Grrrl Online” website. The Riot Grrrl Online Message Board had 1,000+ members. I was shocked I had over 1,000 members on the message board. In 2007, I decided I wanted more features on the proboards message board, so I decided to make a new Riot Grrrl Online forum on freeforums.org. In April 2008, The freeforums Riot Grrrl Online Forum was hacked, but it went back to running properly. The freeforums.org forum
didn’t get as many members as the proboards message board did. The freeforums.org forum is no longer around. The proboards message board is still up and running but no longer posted on and is currently dead. I want to thank ALL the fans, members of the website, social network, forum, and/or message board because without each of you, I wouldn’t have connected so many people with the common interests of “feminism” and “riot grrrl”. I never expected the website, social network, forum, or message board to be popular and have lots of members. In 2007, I also had a blog called “Grrrlvox” but I later deleted it.

In February 2008, I decided to create a Riot Grrrl Online social network on ning. The website was down at the time, so I decided to create a social network for people that still wanted to participate in the Riot Grrrl Online website and forums. I had over 300+ members. The ning social network website is no longer around. In March 2008, I decided to create a Riot Grrrl Online blog on wordpress. The website was still down at the time and I decided to create a blog specifically about feminism and riot grrrl. The blog didn’t have updates about the website posted on it, but it did have articles, news, and other stuff on the blog. A couple months later, I decided to end the blog. However, in late 2008, I decided to make a new blog called “Forwrrrd”, which was a blog about equal rights, feminism, riot grrrl, and other stuff. I ended the “Forwrrrd” blog in late 2008. In 2008, I also lost computer access.

In 2013, I created the new Riot Grrrl Online Forum on invisionfree.com and I still had Riot Grrrl Online stuff still saved on my computer. That is when I decided to bring back the Riot Grrrl Online website, which is now on this WordPress website.

In 2015, The Riot Grrrl Online website is on WordPress.

In 2016, The Riot Grrrl Online website is still on the WordPress website and on Nam’s riotgrrrl.co.uk domain. Nam gave me his riotgrrrl.co.uk domain in 2016.