One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

[quote] Will you?

This should’ve been a poll.

[quote] One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

Will you be sorry then?

"I'm sorry now."

I’m betting I’ll die before it does.

I figure I will probably shut down and go offline before DL does

Wow, it's been 15 years for me too, OP.

I said this in another thread but we really do need to create a Wiki.

I hope it happens to Queerty soon.

OP, which other sites have shut down?

Shad.

DL has helped get me through the past two shitty years. Really. Truly. Bigtime.

I hope Facebook collapses like a house of cards, Twitter is the God Damned garbage bin of the internet, and I can live without Grindr & Scruff. But I cannot imagine life without The Data Lounge. I'm pretty sure if it goes away, someone will start something to replace it.

OP is the Black Widow of the Web, apparently

Metafilter, another Web 2.0 site, is in its death throes. I don't think we're nearly as bad off as it is. There's still a pretty strong shared culture here, whereas Metafilter turned into a doctrinaire trans haven and alienated everyone.

Sooner or later, everyone passes on.

I sense for some gays (especially those in rural areas) this is their major contact with other gays.

I'll be sad, OP. Then I'll take a "Silkwood Shower" and emerge from my mother's basement ready to take on the world, one doughnut shop at a time!!!! (I mean why should anything change, really.)

I'm old, so I'll probably go offline before DL does.

Been here since just before 9/11. Transitioned from a gayling to my early eldergay years (HISSSSSSS!), restarted my career, and lost a crapton of weight.

Yeah, I'll miss you bitches.

Bourbon...cocaine...

I started before 9/11, but that was the day I stayed for good.

I would be very sad about it. I, too, started here as a gayling, and am now an elder. I occasionally think of our elders here at the beginning, and hope the next world is treating them well.

I don't know if it will disappear, but it will die out one way or another. The trolling has gotten out of control and at some point they either shut it down or take away anonymous posting. If they do the latter, it won't be the same.

The trolling isn’t even close to being as bad as I’ve seen it get here. You must be new R19.

Fuck off, cunt OP. Your Debbie Downer doomsday prophecy is tedious.

I've been here since '98....it has changed alot but when it's good it's great

About 10 years ago, I read an article about Scotty Bowers and googled him! (The golden era of Hollywood's biggest gaspump whore!) And when I found DL, I found GOLD! I had stumbled into the most hilarious and witty conversation about him, and I was hooked!

I started coming here regularly, but I never contributed. I just read what other people wrote and laughed and laughed. After a couple years, I finally got up the nerve to contribute and ended up in a big fight with a millennial lesbian who was obsessed with the idea that a specific actor was gay, when I knew He wasn't! (becasue I knew him) I ended up calling her a BIG DUMB DYKE (LOL) and got myself banned for years.

Sometimes, I think Muriel made the right decision banning my ass! But I got a second a chance, and I've never called anyone a BIG DUMB DYKE ever since! Now, I stick to whore, fagolla, stupid, moron, queen, loser, and CUNT! You know. The acceptable slurs!

I've also been here since before 9/11 - I think it's the anonymity that has kept DL alive. It's like a clearinghouse for your thought bubbles with no real world blowback. It's a good place to sort out what you really think.

Gawker disappearing and Dlisted, Xtube and Pornhub essentially become skeletal versions of themselves showed me I can deal with any website shutting down

Datalounge has been around since--what, 1995?

Sad, it wouldn't even get to die in a grease fire, the way it would have wanted.

Front page from March 10, 2005. The links don't work but this is what it looked like.

Yes I will be sad when this site is gone for good. I've been here since the beginning and believe it or not, this site has seen me through some rough times. I do think it has run its course. We do need a new place to gather and pick up where we left off before this place became infested with all kinds of racist and homophobic crazies.

All good things must come to an end. Be prepared and be best!

[quote] One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

Nooooooooooooo

Oh, bullshit. You pearl-clutching Marys can fuck off.

DLers I will condole you.

Clearly all of us DLers should just go form a Heaven's Gate-like cult right now since this site may end.

Someday this war's gonna end.

“One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline”

Yeah, about once every couple of months.

R28, it's interesting to know there have ALWAYS been threads about pubic hair on this site.

Been here 11 years, it is my lifeline to the gay world.

If you're into travel, the shut-down of Thorntree has been a big blow. It was a very big site with some great branches. Over 20 years of contributions now lost.

[quote]One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

And then she died.

I hope I go before DL does.

I found DL whilst googling Tony Geary.

I think Tony Geary will shut down before DL does.

Datalounge still possesses the sturdiness of the Sumerian housewives who founded it in 3500 BC. It's not going anywhere soon.

I predict the Datalounge will last at least as long as I have.

[quote]One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

and the Earth shall cease spinning, the end.

“We’ll disseminate dialup modems and floppy disks for this occasion.”

OP said:

[quote]The trolling isn’t even close to being as bad as I’ve seen it get here. You must be new R19.

Which isn't a surprise because in the Defacto is the 2015 Thread Bumper thread he said:

[quote]You’re cool in my book Defacto.

Yeah.

DL went down for months in 2013 or so. I'm surprised it came back up.

R48 There’s always hope. Keep coming home IT WORKS!

Whatever point you’re trying to make, R47, it isn’t working. And you’re making yourself look like a creep in the process.

Where will I find recommendations for Dollar Tree poundcakes?????

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're are not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when its all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God is my witness I'll never be hungry again."

Fiddle Dee Dee

r52

Scarlett, you need to be kissed and kissed hard! -- circa 1936 via best selling book then movie

Modern Translation of what the author actually meant:

"Scarlett, you need to be fucked and fucked hard! -- circa 2021

^ Rhett Butler circa 2021, "Frankly my dear, you can go fuck yourself"

Such an ancient age, when men and women lived cloistered innocent lives. How could they possibly occupy their time without TV and the internet for entertainment?

Kissing!

Vivian Vance

FUCK YOU , VIVIAN! GET LOST! AND TAKE YOUR FAGG*T HUSBAND WITH YOU!!!

I mean, "Take your overly sensitive, theater loving, husband with you!"

R6057

I love jealous homosexuals.

This thread may me go back and reread the 9/11 thread on that day. I don't think anyone who was not alive can fully appreciate the shock and horror of that day.

I love DL. I've been on here forever. It has some of the funniest writing. Such arch wit. It'll be around for a while yet. I've shared it with a few friends. Must tell more. I'm a bit stoned so my post is painfully staccato. Fuggit.

r59 Drink more. Type less.

Thread monitors, make yourselves useful! Put your stalking of others' posts to the good of all DL!

I find it helpful not to think about bad things.

DL is still great. I use the ignore feature for trolls and haters, and it works for me.

Ignore the bad, embrace the good.

[quote]This is something that has been happening a lot with sites that I visited a lot.

Typhoid MARY!

R58 - what's with "R6057"?

Is that some kind of code from up North?

I love Datalounge. You bitches are witty and wise - this site has seen me through some very bad times. Thanks r28 that screenshot took me right back!

I'm relatively new to the DL (c. 2018 or 2019). I'm amazed at the intelligence and wit that is on display here. Especially the wit, there are many times I've literally (yes, literally) laughed out loud when I read some of the posts.

Many of you queens (kweens) are fucking hysterical and clever. Then there are those I'd love to punch in the face. The DL has comforted me through some rough spots over the past several years.

I think it is because we can post anonymously that true personalities shine through.

Please hurry and close so I can finally get some actual work done

I came here in 2019 for the "Mayor Pete Top" thread I have stayed for the"Was Natalie from Facts of Life considered a great big fat person."

Op people have been saying the same thing about Datalounge for years and years. And here we are.

Yes I would probably miss it very much. But you never know. I used to greatly enjoy gawker but it's final months were so pathetic I was almost relieved when that psycho closet case put it out of its misery.

Who's planning to shut it down, OP? Do tell.

[quote]Datalounge still possesses the sturdiness of the Sumerian housewives who founded it in 3500 BC. It's not going anywhere soon.

Sumerian FARMWIVES, you fat stupid whore!

Will Cheryl's pussy still be around in another thousand years?

r75, a holy jar will be found in the desolate Metropolis Inc. Headquarters and the explicit warning never to open it. Of course, humanity - no matter how evolved - never learns.

Ups, my bad. Of course, it's Mediapolis Inc.

When in doubt, blame it on Cheryl's pussy fumes, they are no joke!

R59. Link, please?

R77 got the vapors from Cheryl's pussy fumes!

I've been a DL addict for almost twenty years and I will lose my mind if it dies.

It's my connection to the outside world.

Muriel, you better never quit us!

[quote] One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

The sky will be so blue that day.

I do still miss the Sisterwomyn and regret that I missed my shot to be a MAN ON THE LAND.

I would miss it to the extent of the freedom to say what you want (within reason) here. So many other places, particularly when talking about celebrities, you say the wrong things or pose the wrong questions and you get the wrath of fangirls upon you. Here, you can pretty much say what you want and pose questions, within reason, of course (and that's not negating the plenty of trolling we get here). Also I would miss the gossip and dish about Hollywood. It's nowhere near what you used to be here when we had the goods from folks who were insiders, or industry pros, and just those who had great track records, but overall, it's still fun.

I started coming here when the whole "Pooh Shoes" saga hit the fan. Needless to say, like my first time at a Gay bar, I was hooked

As Joan always told me, "You sure know where to find the boys and the booze"

When I came here 8 or so years ago, there was this straight guy who was posting and pretending to be a gay man. Somehow, someone collected clues from what this guy was posting and somehow figured out the guy was a liar and called him out on discrepancies with his background. Then someone figured out his real name, that he lived in Texas, and had a wife and a kid. So, then the guy staged his suicide, and if I remember correctly, came back from the dead just fight some more! What a fucking mess! But entertaining, none the less!

Ever since I moved to New York, I've kept my eyes out for Denny and his suitcase.

I’m here 20 years. It’s the longest I’ve ever committed to anything.

Why do you think that OP? Do we need to recruit fresh DLers?

Do we get a toaster if we do R88?

when did Datalounge change formats? I know i was around before the switch

I think about it constantly - almost. There's so much cyber 'warfare', geo-political chicanery, and dark web, ransom ware, and just plain, no reason at all. Gone. It's a pretty fragile connection when you sit down and think about it. I don't take it for granted at all and I'd hate to think if something similar could get off the ground again without attracting too much sensation and glare.

What are the running costs of a forum this active? I suspect they're pretty manageable. But if you get sued or the government wants to start rummaging through your servers, lawyers' fees could quickly blow out your budget.

A few years ago DL suffered a premature death. I don't know if someone went on vacation or suffered a health crisis, but for weeks it suffered from a massive glitch: as I recall, from a black bar half way across it. It was shocking. It was like the death of a friend -- a friend with severe ISSUES.

Datalounge will not shut down. It's dying a death of a thousand cunts.

I don't remember the black bar, I just remember it being completely down. There were a few "refugee" boards that sprung up that were mostly trolls and old Q-Whippers stirring up weak drama.

Something weird happened once about three years ago, I mentioned that the board had gone down for several months and someone absolutely lost it on me, insisting it had never gone down at all, then I got banned. Probably just a troll who gamed the automod system, but what a weird thing to get upset about.

Is Datalounge an insatiable bottom just like the WTC used to be?

oh no---WHERE will the DL Queens post their TEEN favorites?....Surely they cannot do it just anywhere because LE might catch on to how much they "admire" Finn Wolfhard, David Mazouz, Jack Grazer, Tanner Buchanan, etc ---for their "acting".. ....As far as DL shutting down--I do not believe it...I would however buy a cake and celebrate...

But...I'm counting on the support of the Datalounge until I ascend the throne!

r85 is this the YouTuber guy?

I used to watch this guy on YT, very cute white guy who claimed he was straight but then would do and say things that made you question him. I had forgotten about him until I read your post.

R99 I don't know if he had a YT channel. I didn't watch YT back then. Someone posted his photo and I remember he had wavy shaggy brown hair and was tall and thin.

I will miss parts of it,because here is where one gets interesting and uncensored celebrity gossip, and fnd outs stuff like who are cokeheads, eho has bad breath, not to mention all sorts of B-list movies get discussed about here.

However the website is filled with right-wing radfem trolls promoting transphobia and lots of racists defending white supremacists SO I wouldn't be 100% sad if Datalounge were to come to an end, but the website has been on air for twenty six years,that is a long time, I was still illiterate back then, so the website is probably not going to shutdown anytime soon.

The rise of trolls and racists here will reach a tipping point when the rest of us will not want to come here anymore. That's when Datalounge as know it dies and it becomes like a right-wing Parler site.

Going by other indicators, I think this will be in the first half of 2025.

I'm telling you NOW so I don't have to tell you THEN. Plan your mourning caftans and pearls.

I cannot imagine Emperor Trump will allow DL to continue in 2024. Only Trump Homeland Media will be allowed to continue.

No, it's rise of rage-filled TransActivists that is going to kill DataLounge! Why these gender bending angry cunts think we give a shit about their "struggles" (like not being able to stand when they pee) and why they think that screaming it in our faces is going get us to feel sorry for them, is beyond me.

Hey! I'm 50, Cis, and gay as fuck! I sit down when I pee! Now, kindly fuck off and go back to twitter!!!!

[quote]I ended up calling her a BIG DUMB DYKE (LOL) and got myself banned for years.

Doubtful that's what got you banned, it's all the junk you post, like at r104, that gets you put on ignored lists and gets enough FFs that you get a ban.

And no one gets banned permanently. No one, least of all for saying "dyke." The mods once created a separate forum on here for lesbians to get them off the main boards, so trust me, they do NOT care that you said "dyke."

OP, is your name Madame Zelda?

I don't know if anyone else listens to Gayest Episode Ever, but we've now been immortalized with a name check in their recent episode about the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. So, when our time comes, we will live on.

Hi Drew! Hi Glen!

Well shut down already.

[quote] Metafilter, another Web 2.0 site, is in its death throes. I don't think we're nearly as bad off as it is.

I’m a former MFer - I have no problem with the ideology there (much stricter on tolerance than DL), but the management is terrible and shortsighted from a data privacy perspective. There’s no user-controlled ability to delete or anonymize old posts. Users 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago didn’t anticipate how dangerous it can be to have a collection of posts telling personal stories tied to one username hosted publicly and permanently on the web.

The anonymity here leads to annoying things like Klan Granny gatherings, but it’s much safer for us as users.

[quote]The rise of trolls and racists here will reach a tipping point when the rest of us will not want to come here anymore.

As I was browsing this morning, I was thinking something along these same lines. There are a lot of very ugly threads on Datalounge right now, with someone posting the same grotesque comment repeatedly. However, when I put them on ignore, their other comments remain; they appear to be using several separate accounts.

I believe we may have already reached the tipping point in this regard. There are active threads with many dozens of replies but which I think only have maybe two or three actual people contributing.

[quote]I've been here since '98....it has changed alot but when it's good it's great

23 years and you still haven't figured out that "alot" is not a word.

Shut your whore mouth, OP.

I love all the diversity here!

It will eventually

I can't imagine having to find another excuse for my perpetual procrastination.

[quote]The rise of trolls and racists

Datalounge reflects bigoted, racist US society. That is as true today as it was 10 years and 20 years ago. See archived threads from 2001 and 2011 for myriad examples.

I still miss TWoP - Television Without Pity.

I can't find any thread that was posted prior to 2007 R116

When is the Shut Down Party? I want to put it on my calendar.

This OP a lot needs a lot of help with a lot.

Mary. Louise. Catatonia. Jones.

You can always go to the wayback machine

Ok thanks R121, but it's not the same.

DL had a nice ass, but she couldn’t live forever.

She’s gonna be dead sooner than later if she doesn’t get a handle on these far right wing bots.

You wish, OP.

There will be many suicides when Datalounge goes dark. For some, this is the only thing in their sad, lonely lives.

In other threads, OP has pledged his support and admiration for Defacto, the anti-gay Trumper.

The OP supports trolls and racists like Defacto the Trumper.

Someday, the sun will consume the earth and if we haven’t managed to find a new planet, all of human achievement, including the classic DL threads, will be erased from the universe.

r128

[quote]Someday, the sun will consume the earth and if we haven’t managed to find a new planet, all of human achievement, including the classic DL threads, will be erased from the universe.

The vibrations of the pointless bitchery that has been created will resonate through quantum space until the heat death of the universe.

"Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline"

Please, make it happen.

Soon.

^^^^^^

Poor Svetlana is tired of getting called all sorts of name on Datalounge, but she needs the republican cents badly.

Metafilter shit the bad badly with their woke tranny BIPOC militants. They’re on the brink of shuttering.

Trannies will be the death of DataLounge.

Metafilter HAS NOTHING to do with Datalounge troll.

I block anybody who invokes Boris or Svetlana or anything suggestive of that tired meme. It's just paranoid and feeble.

I have taken breaks from Datalounge when it's gotten too toxic... a year once or twice. You get used to it. cold turkey would be a shock, though, as opposed to choosing to leave because you're repelled. I would definitely miss it though, until I didn't.

OP- Only if our electric grid shuts down.

[quote]One day, Datalounge is going to shut down and go offline

Some day, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.

There’s nowhere else to read witty debates about Tuesday Weld versus Yvette Mimieux versus Carol Linley or to critique the evolving nose of Natalie Wood. It cannot go away.

If it goes away, it will materialize in another form and name. We are here, and we’re not going away.

Can't Datalounge charge more and totally restrict non-paying posters?

The quality of discourse would improve.

I remember posting here, asking what I should do about a boy I was in love with, when I was in HIGH SCHOOL.

I was told to, "Punch & Delete."

I still can't imagine this place going anywhere, even some 20+ odd years later.

[quote]Can't Datalounge charge more and totally restrict non-paying posters? The quality of discourse would improve.

You don't want to shut out people who have actual gossip because they won't pay for a website they'll visit once or twice.

The only thing, IMHO, that would get a lot of the nonsense out of here is requiring registered accounts for everyone.

People are a lot less problematic when there's a name (no matter what you make up) attached to their posts.

Of course we tried that years ago and people HATED IT.

[quote]People are a lot less problematic when there's a name (no matter what you make up) attached to their posts.

Unfortunately, Facebook has proven that not to be the case. People post the most heinous shit on Facebook under their real names with their real faces attached.

Why don't we just charge $1/post.

[quote]People post the most heinous shit on Facebook under their real names with their real faces attached.

You're right. They do.

I'd say on Twitter, people are more careful even if they're using a fake avi and name.

I think the difference is, people sometimes are under the impression that a facebook post is to their "circle" of friends. That all goes out the window when you're posting in a group.

Twitter on the other hand, if you're not locked, will show your post to everyone else on Twitter and no one wants to be the most hated person by "everyone" else on the platform that day.

It's like, "Bean Dad" could have made that post about not feeding his daughter until she did math on Facebook and been mostly fine. He pulled that stunt on Twitter and damn near wrecked the careers of everyone associated with him backed up with every off color thing he'd ever said on the platform and also off the platform.

This thread feels eerily like some sort of displacement for plausible concern about The Queen. DL isn't 95 and widowed with a sprained back, though of course some contributors are. With sweet memories to share.

I don't understand or like the defeatism above. The place still seems to me full of piss and vinegar with funk enough in the trunk. We queers are usually levels more bright than Norman Normal, and can see off dim factory-farm trolls with one slash of pointful bitchery.

And thus let us box on, with our gorgeous soft leather gloves.

This is all good enough. But how do we make DL more exclusive?

[quote]We queers are usually levels more bright than Norman Normal, and can see off dim factory-farm trolls with one slash of pointful bitchery.

We have trolls who have been here for 20 years. I don't think there's even a single troll on here who would notice your "slash of pointless bitchery," let alone be scared off by it.

Datalounge has outlasted:

FameTracker

IsHe/SheGay

the Glamour Mag Forums

The Velvet Rope

Alt.Showbiz.Gossip

alt.gossip.celebrities

The IMDb Boards

TWoP/MightyBigTV

and GroupieCentral

[quote]We have trolls who have been here for 20 years.

Wonder why they bother then, they clearly make no impact.

[quote]"slash of pointless bitchery"

In this case I typed "pointful bitchery", pointfully.

R150 - Not to mention Rona Barrett's Hollywood Magazine.

It’s gone rapidly downhill over the past few months, and I’ve been here since the late 90s.