At what point did Dl fundamentally change??

I dint know what DI is.

“They’re festive, fun and impossible to ignore!!”

Someone needs to Cool Hand Luke that bitch!

🙀

Sounds like OP has a case of the Mondays!

What interesting stories and questions have YOU posted OP? Or do you expect others to do all the work and then just sit back and complain? DL is all about people creating threads and then people jumping in an discussing. Doesn't this fit into the category of "content creation"? If you don't like the content, suggest some ideas and make some threads that are to your liking and see if people are interested. If your threads are all duds, that's on you honey.

Dint you, R1?? Dint you?

🙄

Di is dead? Again?!

Di was never the same after she separated from Charles.

Op go blow it out of your titty bag!

OP has a point. There ARE a lot of threads now that are obviously started by publicists and marketers.

Di fundamentally changed when she married Prince Charles in 1981 and again when she perished in a car crash in 1997.

R9, no it’s just S a

When it changed to smartphone based interface with endless scrolling. It was better when there were actual pages.

I blame the paparazzi.

There were ALWAYS some really mean bitches on here.

I think once enforcement of Title IX became paramount and a lot of athletic departments had to confront a lot of difficult choices in cutting men's sports and increasing the opportunities for women. NCAA DII had a similar, if not as public, reckoning. But NCAA DIII not so much since there's no scholarships at the DIII level.

25 years of being SO much better last year.

The worst thing that happened to DL was autistic idiots posting the same thing again and again.

r3 r4 r6 r7 r10 r13

^ what the fuck does that mean?

Are those all the people you have on ignore R18? If you want to see the posts just un-ignore people. No need to over-complicate things.

That means r18 is so delicate he has us all blocked.

Agreed R21.

Lmao 😜

why does she need to tell us all? are we supposed to break down and cry?

Cheer up, OP! Someone just started a new thread about corn! 🌽🌽🌽

Oh, and DI fundamentally changed after her car hit a wall in a tunnel in Paris.

OP = I saw the Egg Thread this A.M....Totally agree with you...And the woman posting about her boyfriend...WTF? The endless trolls calling everyone who disagrees with them a Russian...Again--WTF...This site used to be fun but seriously considering dropping the paid subscription.

"What's Your Favorite Castle?"

"Your GRANDPARENTS house".....WTF?.....How is that a THREAD?.....

[quote]seriously considering dropping the paid subscription.

Cinderella's Castle!

3/4ths of threads are garbage.

so leave R32 and quit yer bitchin

or start a good thread

r27 r30 r32 r33

^ and now YOU!

3/4 of the threads have ALWAYS been garbage.

There's also a trend of Old Timers fussing about "the good ole days" when DL was PERFECT! The rose tinted glasses get pulled out when gay gramps gets nostalgic.

People have been starting threads like this for over 20 years.

Sturgeon's Law.

Obscure Shitty Band threads nobody has ever heard of for a reason. (glass animal).

I started coming here in 2003, and posted continuously until defecting to Reddit in 2016. I slowly made my way back in 2019, but refused to officially pay for a subscription until the pandemic hit in 2020.

I’ve seen so much in almost 20 years and hesitate to romanticize the past. However, for the life of me I can’t understand why Muriel has sat back and let trolls run rampant. I suppose it’s easy to write them off as Russian or Chinese trolls, but seeing blatant propaganda posted day after day is pretty damn shocking.

Also, this place was at its best when WW and FF meant something. Nowadays, anyone can abuse WW, and FF is so restricted there’s no way to possibly tag the worst trolls on any given day. While writing this post, I noticed R34 pretty much proves my point. They’ve clearly blocked someone and have to resort to typing the person’s response number to view their post…when getting tagged used to deter people from trolling too hard.

Multiple Maks Threads. Honestly. How many are needed?

The tags still work. Muriel has a penalty box.

And it was always 'lightly moderated'.

[quote]Multiple Maks Threads. Honestly. How many are needed?

The answer to this question is : EXACTLY ZERO

The world changed,honey. We didn’t.

R38 glass animal are popular. Sorry you’re ignorant and probably out of touch.

The seacow ruined it. I can’t say his name but he was the main character in Ab Fab next to Patsy.

One other very fucked up thing is the "management" locking out almost every popular thread for paying customers only.

This site is dying from all the political trolls, PR people and royal loonies.

Please Muriel, help us get our gay "playground" back.

"Tell us about your nieces and nephews."....WTF?

Six years now of over a million posts crying about Trump. The repetitive obsession treadmill going exactly nowhere

I think she's tremendous!

"Soledad Obrien" .....How is this an actual thread on a GAY site?....Honestly.

"Louis CK is sexy" = If that isn't a troll thread nothing is.

How do you bitches use DL? Do you scroll through every thread and then decide to post on one? I usually just stop for a while at the first one that's kinda interesting. You know, like love the one you're with.

DL is like And Just Like That - everybody bitches and bitches about how it changed from the original and threaten to stop "watching," but then keep on watching and just bitch even more.

Not true r36, this site used to have a variety of threads, some were silly fun, some were real entertainment gossip, some were political threads and were factual and didn't devolve into hateful arguing, some were about movies, music, art etc.

This place began to come apart when the search function went from being solely within Datalounge to being connected to Google search. Once our search was connected to Google search the homophobia and racism erupted into discussions and for a while nearly overran the site. It has never been the same here since the general public began to find us from Google search.

Once 2016 happened, the Russian troll bullshit started and now this place dragging its belly through the muck and pointless bitchery into extinction. We deserve better.

Like every other bad thing that happens anywhere, it’s the trannies’ fault.

[quote]We deserve better.

LMFAO! Entitled, much?!

For $1.99 a month (or nothing) you don't "deserve" anything special.

R57 It's still $1.99 more a month than trolls like you are paying. Especially when you bitch non stop about your precious threads getting paywalled non stop.

I think many of the old school posters largely bailed after the big site redesign years ago. There are too many trolls here these days and people with obsessions with certain things that have became more prevalent in recent years. The large stretches of prime time haven't helped either.

R58 I have never bitched about any threads getting paywalled and I'm not a troll. You're mixing me up with someone else probably.

I think it changed when they started charging money for you to participate 100% in the conversations.

It's true that DL used to be wittier, but what I miss is how brilliantly looney DL used to be. Like lengthy posts from Judy "Pills" - in Latin.

There is rampant mental illness in this country and unfortunately many find their way here.

The same people constantly complaining about their threads getting paywalled are the real snowflakes in all of this. Your precious threads keep getting greyed out and dropping off the main post feed because others on here aren't interested in them. Get over it already.

A perfect example is the sam heughan troll. As soon as his posts get paywalled he starts several more and spams the post feed with them.

Your threads are getting paywalled because we're FFing them.

Thus will end in tears.

lol R62

guilty

Thus this will end in tears.

Internet is making people lonelier and the stupid are becoming even more ignorant and stupid and OCD. Internet is a drug and people are dependent on the tiny dopamine hits. DL is mostly the result when this happens to adults and olds. I am appalled when I see how addicted and idiotic young people can be about online activity.

What do you have against definite articles, R68?

[quote] The asshole that sent me over the edge was the idiot who started a thread about hard boiled eggs. What the fuck is wrong with you?!

Well, darling, Easter is coming up. How do you like your eggs?

r60 r66 r68 r69

Yes R71 we're still here gossiping about you

I found a pic of R71

The history of DL can basically be divided into two periods--BEFORE Janbot and AFTER Janbot.

OP, Chrissie Hynde would like to tell you, "We are all of us in the gutter. Some of us are looking at the stars." Mr. Wilde said it first. So, if your smile has turned upside down into a frown because others are just getting under your skin, take that cynanide tablet! It will all be rosy in just a few minutes.

When they dropped the third free drink at the invitation-only DL VIP lounge and restricted VIP members from deleting more than 10 threads a day each just for spite.

But you don't know anything about that, do you, OP?

Didn't think so, pleb.

Remember this gem?

I. AM. NOT. ONE. OF. YOUR. FAAAAAAAANS!!

R74- Don't say her name three times in a row!!!!!

Janbot Janbot Janbot

I hope DL fundamentally changes again so I can say how great it was now.

R67 Verily thus.

20 years of DL complaining about DL. Viva tradition!

I love the gossip and pointless bitchery. I love the underwhelmed threads, the tasteful friends threads, the recipe threads, the general day to day threads.

I hate the political threads, there used to be an option to filter those out but it's pointless, some people think you want to hear their opinions about geopolitics even if they've never been out of their own state in their lives except to vacation.

I truly hate the threads complaining about DL. There is an ignore function, bitch, use it!

I just love all of you bitches!

R83, you know full well the ignore function hasn't worked on here in ages. If that was the case, you could simply ignore political posts and the users making them. STFU troll. Practice what you preach. You're complaining right now yourself!

[quote]3/4ths of threads are garbage.

And the other 1/4 are trashy.

Muriel lets the Brooklyn Seacow Ed.win start thousands of threads a week. All those tiktok, Mcdonalds, britney, 🔥 guys obsession, onlyfans , big brother, Zendaya being a force threads?? That’s the seacow!

The history of DL can basically be divided into two periods--R74's ongoing and Muriel's final one in 1986.

R85 the ignore function works perfectly well for me.

OP is talking about the old DI, or Data Inn as we oldsters knew it. Then the new-fangled DL came into town and took over.

"Buttercream or Cream Cheese".....WTF...

I've been here since 1998. It's basically the same. Probably less seemingly reliable gossip and more politics.

Datalounge today.

Here's a link to DataLounge circa August 2004.

Was it really any better back then?

So this…this sea creature… is this same one that does the cat-fishing and revenge porn? Seems like a real psycho.

My husband is trying to kill me- Di

This is from r94 's link:

"Forum Guidelines:

The cardinal rule here is to respect others.

Flame wars will not be tolerated.

Personal information must not be posted.

Racism and bigotry have no place here.

Please do not engage in personal attacks on other users.

The forums are not to be used as a commercial or promotional platform.

Multiple posts from a single user are subject to deletion.

PLEASE DON'T SHOUT. We can hear you just fine.

We reserve all rights related to the maintenance of our forums."

I'd say those are some significant differences. Especially the racism and bigotry parts.

Face it. When this become a pay site, everything went out the window except making money.

Looking at some of the post topics, it wasn't exactly the Algonquin Round Table back then either:

"The Phoenix Family"

"Favorite sitcom episodes"

"Joan Rivers on QVC"

"I'm so attracted to Larry the Cable Guy"

"Is anyone going to watch that new show, "LOST"?"

"My Latest Mix CD"

"What's your favorite Helen Lawson show?"

"Multiple posts from a single user are subject to deletion" - That alone would wipe out the current trolls and OCD fangurls in an instant right now.

OP When the country moved more towards right wing authoritarianism and trolls started infesting DL over the last five years.

Many of the posters characterized as "right wing trolls" are simply people with anything other than a standard left-leaning viewpoint. The trans thing is so awfully homophobic I can't believe any self-respecting gay people can stand it. Do you really think you have a genital fetish? Do you really think that gay men ought to adapt to neurotic women who claim to be gay men?

It's beyond my ken.

It changed when I became an Asian and surrendered my Caucasian dead name. I’m seeing things differently now. And traffic citations are expensive!

R101, what does "beyond my ken" mean?

Thanks, haven't come across that before

R103 He's a dreamboat, but he's not a rocket scientist. So many things are beyond my Ken.

Outside my bailiwick, out of range, outside my wheelhouse, that sort of thing.

[quote] Was it really any better back then?

Yes, we mostly only had to deal with trolls from Free Republic back then. They were awful, but ignorable. There was less racism and homophobia back then, and no anti-trans trolls, pro-Russian Borises, or right-wing culture war bullshit. It wasn't exactly deep discussion, but there were fewer hate-filled assholes around.

Everything has changed and has become more negative and hateful. The increased mental illness is disturbing and depressing. Everything feels so apocalyptic.

[quote] It's beyond my ken.

Careful. The DL braintrust will start calling you a Scottish troll

Between the Russian/Repub bots and the dreary fraus squealing over their endless stupid kitten pics, a place sacred to gay men and women has been taken over by the very lamest, heartbreakingly boring tripe the world has to offer.

everything online is just being used to sell something. They are selling ideas, people and "culture" most of all

Even discussion forums

I miss Bill Taylor, he really knew how to make a fun thread.

The day the music died.

Poking around on the Wayback Machine, I stumbled onto DataLounge circa November 2004, just after the election. This was also shortly after the design change when topic categories went away. Here's what I found:

Thread after thread after thread lamenting Bush's win

"Funny Golden Girls lines, context free"

"Wisdom of our elders"

"Do you think Scott Peterson is capable of murder?"

"PLEASE MODS - Don't let this be the new DL ??? I can't stand it !"

"I'm sorry but the new setup just sucks."

But one thread did bring back a smile: the original "Dialing the phone with a pencil".

All of the dumb links to Instagram / Instaho posts.

Just link to the God damn picture! Use image BB if you have to!

I noticed people started getting easily offended about four or five years ago. Anything used to be fair game as long as somebody was funny.

Your pussy stinks, OP.

Not sure when but, holy shit, how many fucking sussex/brf threads are needed and who are these crazy, obsessed cunts who found their way here?

I’m a DL content creator.

Instead of being a dip and resorting to dumb clichés like R105, you could just define “ken” as “understanding” or “body of knowledge.” I suppose you’d have to be at least a high school graduate to do so, however.

R109. it's possible that gay men and lesbians aren't political all the time and have interests outside of politics. Sometimes, maybe, just maybe, they disagree with you politically.

[quote] How do you bitches use DL? Do you scroll through every thread and then decide to post on one? I usually just stop for a while at the first one that's kinda interesting. You know, like love the one you're with.

On the old design, I would look to see the WW quotes on the sidebar, and I would read through those threads first.

If you look at the WayBack Machine, at least when I first found DL (6 or 7 years ago), more thoughtful responses (some of them). There were more posters period, in volume.

R119, you might have a broader experience of the English language that includes idioms that don't have to be spelled out to you as though you were an ESL student.

The first 15 or so responses in every thread today are trolls trying to detail the thread by calling everyone Boris. Obviously they are Borises trained to project and deflect.

This is only in the last few years, like 2014, after Russia infiltrated our interwebs.

[quote] Obviously they are Borises trained to project and deflect.

No, they are just assholes being assholes