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Rat.org

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Rat.org is one of the original Sonic the Hedgehog communities, and is credited by many with creating the entire notion of a Sonic Internet scene in the first place. Founded by Ratman, Rat.org was originally meant to house whatever interested Ratman at the time, covering such topics as Mortal Kombat, Gargoyles, and furry art. However, the scope of those sections paled in comparison to the "Sonic Resource Page", an attempt to catalogue everything that had to deal with Sonic. Perhaps too ambitious for the Internet of 1995, nevertheless it became the original meeting place for many Sonic fans, who kept in touch through the original Sonic mailing list.

While the front page of Rat.org stated the focus of the resource was on the fandom and not the games[1], the archive featured a variety of audio, video, and text files related to Sonic the Hedgehog in his many incarnations, as well as themes for the major operating systems of the day.

Eventually, becoming sick of the drama that was growing in the community he helped create, Ratman took down the entire collection with little warning. People frantically tried to back up the entire contents, David Gonterman being one of the first to mirror it in its entirety. For a time it was considered the ultimate in Sonic the Hedgehog knowledge, but through the years other sites went far beyond anything Rat.org did, and the legendary status of the archive faded.

In 1998, the rest of Rat.org was removed, Ratman instead focusing on Yerf.com, an expansion of his furry art archive. "Got Rats?" was all that greeted visitors until the year 2000[2], when the site vanished. Although it reappeared in 2006, it has been nothing more than a link to Ratman's livejournal, and occasionally a host to Valve-related multiplayer games. It is almost certain it will never be a Sonic fansite again.

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