Showstash
 | This article contains promotional content. |
 | |
Type of site | Archive of online video files |
|---|---|
| Owner | Unknown |
| Created by | Unknown |
| URL | http://www.showstash.com |
ShowStash.com was a website that catalogs hyperlinks to television shows, cartoons, anime, and feature films.
As a leader in a new generation of multimedia-enriched internet websites, Show Stash delivers to visitors an assortment of home entertainment, including television shows that have long since been cancelled or are off-air. ShowStash.com itself, in compliance with the DMCA, does not host any video files on its servers; rather, the site offers an archive of links to the actual video files, in a fashion similar to Google and other popular search engines. Hosts of the video files include Bolt, DailyMotion, Google, Guba, MySpace, OUOU, Stage6, Veoh, and YouTube.[1] Show Stash is powered by visitors, who have the option of submitting links to video files they would like included in the catalog.[2]. Showstash was recently closed by the MPAA.[3]
Inception & Growth
The ShowStash.com domain name was registered on October 30, 2006[4], and the website was first available to the public two weeks later, offering a modest collection of links to multimedia organized into four main categories: television shows, anime, cartoons, and movies. Public awareness for Show Stash steadily increased as word spread, and the site now sees more than 2 million unique visitors per month. Alexa has rated ShowStash.com in the top 15,000 most visited web sites on the internet, currently ranked at 17,832.[5]
Back-End Architecture
The Show Stash web site is powered by a custom script, developed in PHP exclusively for ShowStash.com. Show Stash's archive of links is stored in a MySQL database, allowing the entire catalog to be indexed and searched. The script also features a tracking system, not only enabling the site's "Most Popular Videos" list[6], but helping ShowStash.com staff to offer a better variety of episodes for the most popular television series. The Show Stash script has been fine-tuned to accommodate its exponential growth and to appease the requests of its many visitors.
Innovations & Influence
ShowStash.com incorporates a variety of features that enhance visitors' experience. All show episodes are ordered chronologically by season and episode number. ShowStash.com employs a reporting system so that visitors can mark episodes as "dead", meaning the intended video file is no longer available for viewing. The site also offers a live RSS feed[7], keeping subscribers up to date on the newest shows and movies added. Show Stash allows visitors to share show, movie, or episode pages across social networking communities. The site's catalog is indexed and allows visitors to search episode, show, and movie titles. ShowStash.com also has community forums[8], where visitors and the Show Stash staff discuss the latest happenings in television, movie, and video linking, among other topics. Show Stash's popularity has often been attributed to its widespread array of features, and other video indexing sites have taken notice. Many of ShowStash.com's innovative features have later appeared on "competitor" web sites.
Daily Operations
The Show Stash update process, performed daily, involves verifying reported links and adding new video links submitted by users both on the community forums and via the submission form. ShowStash.com relies on its users to maintain the site; its staff stays in constant communication with frequent visitors by way of the forums. It is this user/staff community that is responsible for keeping Show Stash up to date, with visitors searching for new videos, reporting dead links, and suggesting overall site improvements.F*** U SHOW STASH
- ^ ShowStash.com Accessed 31 May 2007.
- ^ ShowStash.com : Submit TV Episodes Accessed 31 May 2007.
- ^ [1] Accessed July 20th 2007.
- ^ Whois record for ShowStash.com Accessed 31 May 2007.
- ^ Alexa Traffic Rankings for ShowStash.com Accessed 11 May 2007.
- ^ ShowStash.com Most Popular Videos Accessed 31 May 2007.
- ^ ShowStash.com RSS Feed Accessed 31 May 2007.
- ^ ShowStash.com Community Forums Accessed 31 May 2007.