Is DL the last of the old-school message boards still around?

10 years before Reddit.

I like Reddit - but there are just too many posts from all over and too many people going off on personal anecdotes that have nothing to do with or very remotely to do with the discussion.

I like having a place with a gay/lesbian sensibility that's not overwhelmed with 2-3000 posts per thread.

R1, Reddit used to skew a little older and more mature. It feels overrun with children now. Or that could just be me getting older and my patience waning.

"Nosedive" is a noun. As in, this discussion forum has taken a nosedive.

Now, doesn't that sound better?

R3, I do appreciate that DL still cares about words, semantics, grammar, language. Thanks.

Good times...bum times...

[quote]10 years before Reddit

DL was Reddit before Reddit was Reddit. When I first came to this place, it was wide open, in a very easy-to-read and follow format. Threads moved and filled up at lightning pace. DL, in its heyday, was quite a place. You'd post a thread in the morning, and if you didn't follow it during the day, you'd come home at night, and you'd have to search for it on page 30 with many, many posts.

Then Primetime came...

It has nosedived.

R6, I made the mistake of agreeing to be a mod for a subreddit as a favor to a friend.

Oh, dear God... never again.

It’s the only one I follow. I still miss alt.showbiz.gossip which could be genuinely funny with a real (or surreal) sense of community.

Was there ever anything else? Seriously?

"Nosedive" can be used both as a noun and a verb:

Who fucking cares what some ancient grammar queen cunt thinks about the word nosedive? Get fucked.

To "Google" something is an example of a verbing noun:

I only ever used one other old-school message board and it was great. But that was long, long ago. The webmaster moved to the Philippines and that was the end of that.

The vile "Kiwi Farms" seems to pop up on a new server in a new country every time it is blocked by another internet service company. DL is not as bad, but with popular laughing-stock figures in the past like 'Bunnika' with her 'spoons' and Alok and Meredith and their can't-get-laid friends, the sensibilities can be somewhat similar.

People now are addicted to tiktock and instagram. Gotta be short and fast. More's the pity.

DL is a fucking haven in the mostly toxic internet world.

We can disagree and keep it more or less civil.

We have actual thoughts and not just tiktoks.

But we can also discuss tiktoks too!

I love it here and hope it continues for thirty more years.

Reddit is definitely just kids, DL is a LMAO free zone and for that I am grateful.

Plus the Reddit reply strings are impossible.

Optimized for Netscape

I've said this a hundred times already, but I could never say I'd like to eat James Wolk's ass on Reddit like I can on DL. That alone speaks volumes. And it wasn't the cons on Reddit who led us into this state of things either. Food for thought.

[quote]Reddit is definitely just kids

Drag race subs used to be modded by gay men, then they all got usurped by teenage girls and their tone changed completely. Everything is inherently problematic now and everything needs to advance some cause in alleviating some group's oppression. Fucking insufferable.

R20- One can also say on datalounge- I would like to lick 👅 James Wolk's BALLS- which I would 😉

Echoing the previous sentiments. I like Reddit for niche subjects but any relatively large subreddit just feels very sanitized. Also, I have a visceral rage whenever I see “this is the way” or any other lame ass Reddit patois.

It's the simplicity of the format, the intelligence of the people (well, most of them!), and the sense that this is a space where the kids don't go.

Love you, DL!

I like using it on my WebTV

[quote] I've said this a hundred times already, but I could never say I'd like to eat James Wolk's ass on Reddit like I can on DL.

Oh, really, R20?

Is that because you'd be called toxic or problematic? Because there's more than a 2-year age gap between yourself and James Wolk?

LOL. I hate Gen Z.

Now that DL is largely and deliberately 'hidden' in Google search results, surely we're less likely to attract new users "off the street"?

I was shocked to find we even have Millennial posters here now! This was always firmly a Gen X board (kidding).

R26, when I first started reading and posting here, Gen X were the young people that the eldergays hated and were complaining about. These things go in cycles, I suppose.

R27: I more or less remember. Books about the various generations written by sociologists and cultural commentators were popular at the time and were sometimes discussed here. Gen X would have been struggling to find work back in the mid-1990s, when this board was created. The Boomers would complain, you're right.

Reddit is not just for kids. There are plenty of active niche subreddits for topics which hold no appeal to Gen Z. Obviously anything related to current pop culture is going to be infested with them and their stupid slang, though.

There are other message boards still going like City Data, the Straight Dope Message Board, TripAdvisor, etc. I find them rather old fashioned and clunky, but there are people who consider that a feature, not a bug.

R28, there were even some pre-Boomer posters here back then. A lot more Golden Age of Hollywood threads. I can only assume that many of those posters have left us.

Hiss!

Manvoxx

R30 It is possible that there might be a few Silent Generation lurkers still on this board. My parents are both of that pre-Boomer Generation. My maternal grandparents were GI Generation which is nearly extinct (the youngest of that group would be approaching 100).

Yes, DL so old school it still runs on a PR1ME Minicomputer using the Primos Operating System, and that's probably why "prime time" became a thing here.

I like DL because of the combination of short and pithy and long and informative or reflective posts and for the range of subjects.

Reddit has a very different tone and I use it only to follow a few very specific interests. It's more a case of opening the mailbox once every month or two to see what off things have accumulated. There's no pleasure in following a heated subject on Reddit,.and overall it seems perfunctory more than a pleasure, and certainly in the nature of the posts.

[quote]You'd post a thread [on DL] in the morning, and if you didn't follow it during the day, you'd come home at night, and you'd have to search for it on page 30 with many, many posts.

On and off Datalounge fir many years, I recall the period R6 describes. For me, peak DL was sometime after that and before the present when threads and posts were at a somewhat calmer but not yet drain-circling stage.

R18 made me LMAO!

[quote]Who fucking cares what some ancient grammar queen cunt thinks

I do, for one!

[quote]She's 30-years-young now.

But she passes for 21!!

R26, how did that transpire? Most visitors back in the day came from google

I agree, R23. It is simple and logical. There is a general topic or question and a sequential string of comments. I admit I am old but I always found Twitter, now X, confusing as things seem to have no clear beginning and end and go in different directions. There is no one coherent discussion. (I admit DL strings are not always coherent but you can follow them.) Reddit doesn't seem much better. I have been with DL for a long time and there have been a few formatting updates over time but they kept the single string layout.

which I like

Agreed about reply formats on other platforms - sub discussions happen and you have to scroll forever to get another response not related to that sub discussion.

Far too many people post the same exact thing except worldly differently because - well they just have to chime in.

Then you have far too sensitive people getting offended over the slightest thing.

DL is rough but I like the feel of a small village of gays discussing things - I really don't need Tate bros, soccer moms, teens, Chads, 'alphas', and magas coming to comment on ANYTHING.

It's dying though. Killed by prime time and Trump threads. It used to be you could barely keep up with the traffic on the site. Now it's slow as fuck. Probably eight out of 10 threads are about Trump or Trump adjacent. That's pretty much the final nail in the coffin.

I am kind of amazed this site is still going, considering its age. When social media companies took over the internet in the early 2010s, they killed off a lot of websites that couldn't adapt to the (forced) change in how people interact online (or bought them and shut them down). Somehow, this site has survived.

I came here in 2004 when Wonkette cited DL on her website.

I haven't looked at that site in many, many years, but I'm still here. Yes, DL has changed, but never enough for me to stop coming here. At least, not yet.

We long-term DLers should get some kind of longevity award, right?

[quote]We long-term DLers should get some kind of longevity award, right?

I don't have to get a new gown do I?

A caftan and earrings will do just fine, Doris.

Thank you, r47, but I still have a figure to show off.

I think DL survives because you don't have to pick a username, unless you want to. As we've seen on this forum and other message boards, when you choose a username, you become a target almost immediately, which can cause board disruption. Because it's not widespread on here, you don't have the same kind of disruption and cliques that you will find on other message boards. There are some message boards where you are immediately frozen out if you have an opinion that is different from the general board consensus.

Old School POINTLESS BITCHERY For 30 Years!

[quote] Probably eight out of 10 threads are about Trump or Trump adjacent. That's pretty much the final nail in the coffin.

As he is for our country.

I like the format

[quote] I like Reddit - but there are just too many posts from all over and too many people going off on personal anecdotes that have nothing to do with or very remotely to do with the discussion.

I have noticed that more in the past two or three years. I also can't stand the posters who give OPs unsolicited advice on subjects the OPs didn't ask for or will make shitty statements if the OPs mention things like illness or disability. A couple of weeks ago, I was in the gifts subreddit and there was a post from a guy who wanted advice on Mother's Day gifts for his wife, who has ALS. He mentioned the wife's interests and hobbies and posters have him good advice/recommendations based on what he said. Then a fucking grade A cunt basically told him that he should mercy kill his wife.

[quote] Probably eight out of 10 threads are about Trump or Trump adjacent. That's pretty much the final nail in the coffin.

As he is for our country, anyway.

BUT, we shouldn't top talking about the motherfucker and his minions.

Never have I ever, but just looking at the format and scanning the discussion topics at Lipstick Alley, it seems pretty old-school.

Oh No They Didn't! still seems to be up and running

Oh No They Didn't! still seems to be up and running:

*Apologies for the double post

DL is vastly superior to reddit because the culture values being right over being nice.

You can get downvoted to shit on reddit if you say something 100% true but with a cunty or condescending tone. It's full of idiots who go unchallenged.

[quote]It's dying though. Killed by prime time and Trump threads.

DL has been dying since it was born. Don't hold your breath.

DL really is the only message board that still allows anonymous posters. Muriel permits us to drink deeply of our inner truths.

R57 Meh. People meets Deumoix . Frau bait.

One of the reasons why having subject categories at DL is now missed more than ever. All the Dump topics could just go under "Politics' and one would be able to avoid stepping inside that category if you didn't feel like it.

As I recall, people weren't respecting the subject categories back then. Moderating that was probably costing too much .

R64 I think the change may have more to do with Admin trying to increase the amount of time users stay on the website. Making users scroll through an endless list of topics to find something that interests them accomplishes that. In website traffic analytics, it's referred to as Average Session Duration or Average Visit Duration. - jmho

It’s great for us folks in Flyoverstan who are on dialup and still wear mullets.

R66 is being disingenuous.

She's bald.

The most brilliant design choice when the Dl was first put together was the steam-hoseable cement floor with the large sewer grates.

[quote]I think DL survives because you don't have to pick a username, unless you want to. As we've seen on this forum and other message boards, when you choose a username, you become a target almost immediately, which can cause board disruption.

True. I've been on DL for many years and have always been anonymous. Authenticated posters always get attacked and it does cause disruption.

I do have to say, though, that there have been several authenticated posters on DL over the years who have deserved all the snark and criticism they've received.

Was that in Iowa, R68?

I like my name and the others

I posted on Survivor Sucks. for years and years. The Off Topic forum is very DL like but man, all of a sudden years back, it completely stagnated. I haven't posted there in at least 6 years and most of the used threads are ones from that time or prior.

I like DL’s simple format. I also use Reddit and it’s too sensitive both the people and site design lol. A lot of message boards have morphed into advertisement cyber farms full of pop ups.

I can’t get enuff

Never change DL.

r26 I'm a millennial who came to DL in 2012 or thereabouts.

I still frequently visit (as in nearly everyday) and post on VWVortex/The Car Lounge (since 2004ish), Skyscraperpage (same time), and, of course, LPSG (2007). And I intentionally look for forums when I'm searching for something, whether it be information on specific cars, home security cameras, home automation, TVs and other electronics, physical media, etc., etc. There are plenty still around and active, though they've all definitely fallen off from their heydays to varying degrees.

Fascinating space

R59 I agree with you about Reddit, I joined in lockdown and initially was only using it for the porn. About a year ago I started to check out some of the threads but I’ve quickly tired of it. It’s as if it’s the same group of smart ass people replying to every post, it really is like a big circle jerk. On some of the threads the rules are so strict and rigid, and as you say you can get voted down.

R78, have you been on /r/circlejerk?

To R21, I would agree with you very strongly about licking James Wolk balls. Also, his entire body too!!

Servicing him 3 times a day would be my pleasure!!