16 years after a mass suicide, the webpage is still up

From Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_gro...</a><p>&gt; Only one of the group&#x27;s members, Rio DiAngelo&#x2F;Richard Ford, did not kill himself: weeks before the suicides, in December 1996, DiAngelo agreed with Applewhite to leave the group so he could ensure future dissemination of Heaven&#x27;s Gate videos and literature.<p>This isn&#x27;t surprising. The most dangerous viruses and parasites aren&#x27;t the ones that kill their hosts immediately - they have to ensure their own survival first. If you view suicide cults as a meme (in Dawkin&#x27;s terminology, not the Reddit usage of the word), then this makes sense.

And the page still has hidden text at the bottom of the page.<p>Truth be told, this is one of my favorite examples of hidden text, because it shows that people don&#x27;t always use spam techniques for making money.<p>I haven&#x27;t had much luck contacting the maintainer of that page to ask them to remove the hidden text.

&gt;Computer technology enables everyone from Madison Avenue executives to Government agencies to keep a record of your every move, and &quot;flags&quot; are thrown up any time you don&#x27;t fit their pre-conceived mold of what a good citizen should be. Our right to travel and remain nomadic is rapidly being restricted. We often travel light on spur-of-the-moment instructions, however we can no longer take an airline flight on short notice without harassment. Anyone who purchases a ticket with cash without advance reservations and does not have a load of baggage to check will likely be subjected to baggage searches, interrogation, and suspicion. Even when they can find nothing whatsoever that is questionable, authorities have at times reluctantly let our members proceed, convinced that they are indeed guilty of some crime but too clever to be caught. Police presence at border crossings have increased to the point that you feel you are in a war zone.<p>About right.

Right after the mass suicide we took over DNS for heavensgate.com.<p>We pointed it at aolsucks.org until their t1 melted.<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990429131245/http://www.aolsucks.org/hacked.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;19990429131245&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aolsuc...</a><p>We took control of DNS for two weeks. <a href="http://linbsd.org/geek.mp3" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;linbsd.org&#x2F;geek.mp3</a> details the rest of the fun we had from snafu.org. The person who did the hack put himself as technical contact...<p>Glad we got away with it...

Their indoctrination vids are a must watch for craziness: <a href="http://youtu.be/AqSZhwu1Rwo" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;AqSZhwu1Rwo</a><p>Check out that thousand yard stare.<p>This guy reminds me of that insane space cult leader from Star Trek TOS. Apparently this cult was full of ST fans, including wearing &quot;away team&quot; gear while they killed themselves.

The wiki page of the sect links to this<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction_insurance" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Alien_abduction_insurance</a>

I remember watching the &quot;Hale-Bopp object&quot; fiasco unfold in real time. It&#x27;s really quite surreal to think about. A person takes a completely innocent picture and it contains a perfectly typical example of CCD bleeding from a background star. And yet in the hands of someone filled with ignorance and a willingness toward self-delusion they are able to convince themselves that it is in fact a picture of an alien space ship trailing the comet. And many other people fall into the same delusion despite many people trying to correct their misperceptions.<p>And then other folks who have been stewing in their own brand of delusion mix this new delusion with their own eventually leading to mass suicide.<p>It makes you think about the importance of critical reasoning skills.

lol @ meta keywords<p>&lt;meta name=&quot;keywords&quot; content=&quot;Heaven&#x27;s Gate, Heaven&#x27;s Gate, Heaven&#x27;s Gate, Heaven&#x27;s Gate, Heaven&#x27;s Gate, Heaven&#x27;s Gate, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo, ufo, space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien, space alien, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, extraterrestrial, millennium, millennium, millennium, millennium, millennium, millennium, millennium, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, second coming, second coming, second coming, second coming, second coming, second coming, angels, angels, angels, angels, angels, angels, end times, end times, end times, end times, end times, end times, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God, God, God, God, God, God&quot;&gt;

How sadly amusing is it that this website can be maintained in its original state 16 years after its owners died, yet publishing companies today routinely fail to protect heir still-alive brands.<p>Case in point: Michelin Guides <a href="http://www.constructaquote.com/business-insurance-blog/index.php/2013/02/michelin-guides-fury-michel-guides-website/#.UpFRXrK9KK0" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.constructaquote.com&#x2F;business-insurance-blog&#x2F;index...</a>

A town in my state had a similar case where a family of 5 including 3 children committed suicide ( 3 survivors) by consuming poison [1]. Motive? Apparently, they wished to meet Lord Shiva after their death. They even made a video of it where each one was very delighted before the act. In India, lunacy in name of religion is not uncommon but I was deeply disappointed by the kind of foolishness that prevails in my country even with fairly educated people. However, it is surprising how such an incident could happen in US in name of some Sci-Fi Heaven-Earth bullshit.<p>[1]: <a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajasthan-5-of-a-family-commit-suicide-believing-they-will-meet-god/381854-3-239.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ibnlive.in.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;rajasthan-5-of-a-family-commit-su...</a>

This article from 2012 offers some background on the page: <a href="http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/05/02/heavens-gate-website-still-active/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lasvegas.cbslocal.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;05&#x2F;02&#x2F;heavens-gate-website...</a>

I haven&#x27;t looked at this in 16 years, but I remembered verbatim one of the links and got a little chill waiting to see it again as I scrolled down: &quot;Our position against suicide&quot;.

ReligiousTolerance.org states that:<p>&#x27;A couple of the surviving members of the group who did not &quot;leave&quot; have been maintaining their web site at <a href="http://www.heavensgate.com&#x27;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heavensgate.com&#x27;</a> (<a href="http://j.mp/1cKc0KA" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;j.mp&#x2F;1cKc0KA</a>)

It isn&#x27;t going to be online much longer.<p>Domain Name: HEAVENSGATE.COM<p>Creation Date: 1997-12-18 05:00:00Z<p>Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2013-12-17 05:00:00Z

This is a fascinating, well-written account, a decade after the events: <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2007-03-22/news/heaven-s-gate-the-sequel/full/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.laweekly.com&#x2F;2007-03-22&#x2F;news&#x2F;heaven-s-gate-the-se...</a>

Interesting that the G in gate from the top image is the green bay packers logo from the NFL.

There is a full documentary on youtube about &quot;heavensgate&quot;. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTLThA0wOw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FBTLThA0wOw</a>

Was Einstein who said that quote about the universe and human stupidity, trying to describe infinity?<p>Cantor would argue though that some infinities are bigger than others..

Of course I had to contact the Kingdom of Heaven admin to see if they made it to the comet: rep@heavensgate.com.<p>I wonder if their nads were waiting for them?

Their stance on suicide:<p><a href="http://www.heavensgate.com/misc/letter.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heavensgate.com&#x2F;misc&#x2F;letter.htm</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHz9it70TdI" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wHz9it70TdI</a>

Wow... &lt;font size=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#ff0000&quot;&gt;stuff&lt;&#x2F;font color&gt;&lt;&#x2F;font size&gt;

At the time, the site was hosted by Spacestar Communications (now defunct). Now, it&#x27;s hosted by Cyrus One.<p>I wonder who maintains it.

&lt;font size=+1&gt; i didn&#x27;t know you could do that!

Well, were you expecting someone to take it down?

What if it was real and they are gods now.

And very Geocities looking.