Stickam Livestream will go out of business on February 28th.
That’s the sad but not surprising news from an email just received 10 minutes ago. This blogger joined Stickam in 2005, and placed its livestream blog widget on the older, Blogger version of Zennie62, but never used it; USTREAM provided a better livestream platform for our purposes, and we used it at the 2007 NFL Draft.
But when I think of Stickam, I think of Jessi Slaughter. To understand why, and who Jessi Slaughter is or was, read on.
Here is the announcement email, in its entirety;
Dear Stickam member,
We are very sad to announce that Stickam has closed down, effective February 1. The site will remain active until February 28, so that you can login and download any of your live recordings or other media you wish to save.We were here. We did this. Actually YOU were here, and you did this. Stickam was always about you, not “about us,” like most websites.
After seven wonderful years we are incredibly sad to have to say goodbye. We did everything we could to keep this dream alive, but unfortunately you are reading this message.
When Stickam launched in 2005 we were the very first website devoted to live streaming, user generated video and chat. There was no blueprint, no roadmap to follow. We didn’t know where you would take us.
From the early days of the live community, “Stickam stars” started to emerge… Ibot, Gay God, Kiki Kannibal… Scene kids and scene bands… And then the wonderful Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy and others came in, and the first regular, produced, live weekly shows on Stickam– the first on the Internet—began and flourished.
We started producing our own content from clubs and venues all over LA whenever we could. We launched our own weekly show Streaming The Cube to celebrate our community.
Daily and weekly shows from G4 TV, Andrew W.K., B-Real, Jake Fogelnest, DJ Rossstar, Allstar Weekend, Guys from Queens, Hank and Jim and so many others followed. We were privileged to present annual unprecedented live coverage of events like Vans Warped Tour, NATPE, SXSW and the Cinefamily telethons. We were honored to power six years of Myles Dyer’s incredible Stickaid and so many other worthy causes. We were also proud to produce and host “Stickam Live For Japan” to help raise money for victims of the tsunami with your help. So many community members came out to lend support to the broadcast that night at The Roxy, including Stu Stone, Cypress Hill, Black Veil Brides, Chantal Claret and James Urine, Mr. Let’s Paint TV, and Sam Proof, and so many more joined via remote.
Just late last year we launched the Stickam Studios at Meltdown with great friends and partners like TheOneRing.net, Iheartcomix, the NerdTerns and MeltCast. We were there for the special night with Die Antwoord and with Tavi Gevinson, and chats with Hollywood Undead and New Years Day and Escape The Fate. We continued to stream the cube.
Again, the site will remain alive here until February 28, 2013. We encourage you to log in and download any of your live recordings or other media you wish to save.
We are incredibly grateful to all the Stickam members and viewers, to all the bands and artists, the radio stations and the shows, and the deer. Thank you for making this a wonderful place for seven years. Thank you all. We will miss you!
No one seems to know why Stickam is shutting down, but it may be a combination of the fact that none of the content of its 4.5 million users is monitored or filtered, so what you see or don’t want to see is presented anyway. And the assertion from HowStuffWorks.com that the firm’s parent company also owns an online porn company that uses the same offices, not to mention some lawsuits that may have been issued over content, may have contributed to Stickam’s closure, as well.
Just this blogger’s guess.
Whatever the specifics, Stickam was becoming a cesspool of insulting, nasty, and vulgar livestreaming mostly done by teenagers, and some adults. In 2009, the New York Times reported three sex crime arrests made because of the activity of Stickam users. And then in 2010, Stickam’s visibility blew up in the wrong way.
Remember what happened to Jessi Slaughter who was Kerligirl13?
In 2010, a series of videos went viral on YouTube that were based on Kerligirl13 on Stickam and showed how her father had caught her online and on Stickam, and started a ranting yell at the teens who were abusing her.
It was also found that then 11-year-old Jessi Slaughter said that she would “pop a Glock in your mouth and make your brain a slushie” – which means she would use a gun against someone and to their brain – and forms her hand into a gun that she’s “shooting.” Jessi said that in an effort to stop the abuse she was getting via other Stickam users. Someone managed to use the forum 4chan to promote the YouTube video, and it was seen 4 million times in one day.
Here’s the modern version of the video with then 11-year-old Jessi Slaughter in it, and you must be warned that this contains awful language:
And this is the video showing her father’s intervention:
That was originally done on Stickam.
Jessi Slaughter’s story eventually caught the eye of ABC’s Good Morning America, and she appeared in this segment:
This did nothing good for Stickam, as it was seen as the vessel for such unchecked behavior.
Stay tuned.