Crash and burn
Though the term information superhighway seems to have been consigned to history, the internet, in many ways, resembles a demolition derby more than a sleek road. Every year I clear out the dead links from our ESL links database; even though we add a new link most days, we now how forty fewer links than we did at the start of the year.
I used to check them with a program but now do them manually as the program didn't spot site squatters, so this year I was able to delete the link that had turned from a site offering Skype lessons to one pointing to 50,000 hard core gay porn films (the original had 'guy' in the title). However, the attrition rate is striking and seems to be getting worse. Particularly hard-hit seem to be the sites that were springing up offering Skype lessons, though schools have gone and ESL sites that had been around for years in some cases, too. In addition to this, blogs that are no longer updated are still accessible so the picture is, if anything, worse.
As I delete all these links, the internet seems a place of dead dreams, so many sites set up with all sorts of plans and ideas that came to nothing.
Categories: UsingEnglish Content
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