OneEyedCool
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2019
What entertainment website fell the hardest this decade?
- Thread starter FireGod365
- Start date
- Joined
- May 29, 2018
Yeah, most folks have moved onto SittingOnCloudsOST and Squid-ROMS now with the latter welcoming old FFShrine members with open arms.
I did some digging an it appears she was. Someone on Reddit was apparently was able to contact one of said forum's mods about the downtime and they said they can't reach the owner and that there was nothing that they could do about the downtime without the admin's help.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2019
Cracked could be fascinating with its You Don't Know Jack-style mix of weird entertaing trivia, but that's already been brought up a lot. Regardless, my vote's for Cracked.
Something Awful fell hard too, but the cracks were already showing by '09. SA wasn't horrible yet, but it was long past its golden age.
That's true, too. It's miserably hard to find a good one these days, and most of the webcomics I used to read update extremely rarely. Like, a few times a year rarely.
Something Awful fell hard too, but the cracks were already showing by '09. SA wasn't horrible yet, but it was long past its golden age.
That's true, too. It's miserably hard to find a good one these days, and most of the webcomics I used to read update extremely rarely. Like, a few times a year rarely.
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2019
Agree with a lot of what was already said here, especially about Cracked and Youtube.
Just to offer some different options I'd say Twitch and Twitter are very quickly going to shit as well, even though neither of them were ever very good to begin with. They both have gotten very restrictive with what you can do or say in recent years. With Twitter it amazes me that I can see things like full frontal nudity or necklacing videos scrolling through my feed with no warning, but if you call someone stupid your tweet gets hidden as "sensitive content". I understand it's a lot easier to filter words than it is to filter video or images, but even so it's ridiculous that any swearing gets your tweet flagged while the other things I mentioned can stay up for days uncensored.
As for Twitch, I'm sure everyone already knows that they're very inconsistent with moderation and will crack down incredibly hard on smaller channels that make them no revenue. If you're a 3,000+ concurrent viewer streamer? Just a little slap on the wrist, don't do it again or Daddy Bezos might frown
. Regardless, it seems like all streamers constantly walk on eggshells now and go into a full blown panic if any slurs show up on screen, since that's all it takes to get your account nuked. They also continue to add useless features like channel points instead of functionality updates like timeline scrubbing for live videos, something YouTube streaming has had for years.
Not to mention the culture for both of these sites are cringy and awful, and I can only see it getting worse going into the next decade.
Just to offer some different options I'd say Twitch and Twitter are very quickly going to shit as well, even though neither of them were ever very good to begin with. They both have gotten very restrictive with what you can do or say in recent years. With Twitter it amazes me that I can see things like full frontal nudity or necklacing videos scrolling through my feed with no warning, but if you call someone stupid your tweet gets hidden as "sensitive content". I understand it's a lot easier to filter words than it is to filter video or images, but even so it's ridiculous that any swearing gets your tweet flagged while the other things I mentioned can stay up for days uncensored.
As for Twitch, I'm sure everyone already knows that they're very inconsistent with moderation and will crack down incredibly hard on smaller channels that make them no revenue. If you're a 3,000+ concurrent viewer streamer? Just a little slap on the wrist, don't do it again or Daddy Bezos might frown
. Regardless, it seems like all streamers constantly walk on eggshells now and go into a full blown panic if any slurs show up on screen, since that's all it takes to get your account nuked. They also continue to add useless features like channel points instead of functionality updates like timeline scrubbing for live videos, something YouTube streaming has had for years.Not to mention the culture for both of these sites are cringy and awful, and I can only see it getting worse going into the next decade.
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2015
As for Twitch, I'm sure everyone already knows that they're very inconsistent with moderation and will crack down incredibly hard on smaller channels that make them no revenue. If you're a 3,000+ concurrent viewer streamer? Just a little slap on the wrist, don't do it again or Daddy Bezos might frown
Plenty of 3,000+ viewer streamers get skullfucked if some random, anonymous Twitch employee decides they don't like them. As far as anyone knows (which is fuck-all because Twitch is a chaotically mismanaged company and there's no point of contact for either streamers or users) it's pretty much just a matter of how many Twitch staff like you (and their cumulative political influence in the office) versus how many don't, not so much viewership.
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2017
Yes. I remember the site's owner used to post a lot in the forums. The account username was "Sarah," and the avatar was a (very) little girl dressed up like a zombie.
KillThemCrackasBabies
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2017
I'd say Cracked but tbh even the tail end of 2009/2010 was pretty bad for them. They were being propped up entirely by Swaim and Crew doing videos for the better part of the decade and most of those were off on YouTube anyway. There was really no reason to ever go to the site itself.
I' vote Encyclopedia Dramatica. From being an undisputed "pulse of the internet" style website to a total afterthought and joke almost overnight should be acknowledged.
I' vote Encyclopedia Dramatica. From being an undisputed "pulse of the internet" style website to a total afterthought and joke almost overnight should be acknowledged.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2018
I've seen the same thing. Facebook "community" devalues everything. Any kind of actual community is better off without crossover trash from facebook, who never cared enough about any given topic to seek out a real website until facebook came along. Facebook brings in low functioning, disruptive, self-centered, stupid people, who also don't have any commitments to anything except themselves.
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2019
While the obvious ones are YouTube/Twitch/Twitter which were never all that good to begin with. My vote goes to ED.
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2018
Oh shit, I remember reading his Lost recaps, and even some of his earlier Vox work. Really enjoyed listening to his podcast with his wife.Oh nooooooooooo...
I got curious about what became of some of the old AV Club writing staff so I Googled Todd VanDerWerff, whose X-Files recap articles I really enjoyed as well as the "Nerd Curious" articles, all I knew was he went to write for Vox.
And now I learn that they now identify as "Emily" Todd VanDerWerff.
Before.
After.
"Seriously Good"
My preliminary hypothesis - he broke up with his wife and his reaction to the personal loss was to troon out.
On the one hand I think some are still a going concern, like Penny Arcade, PvP, Gunnerkrigg Court, Girl Genius, etc. Having said that, I don't follow any of those any more, but that might be more due to change in myself.
What has definitely died to the webcomic community, a group of people interested to making and discussing webcomics (also drama and now forgotten lolcows). My guess is that died as Internet activity shifted from forums and blogs to social media, as well as consolidation around a few big player and death of small time webcomics.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2018
They don't usually troon out after. They troon out during, often when the wife is paying attention elsewhere, whether it be a sickly relative or a new baby.
My understanding, which could be wrong (aka I'm not going to check to confirm) is that they're still together, and that he says that he trooned out because of The Handmaid's Tale; presumably he wrote an article about it, but I doubt it would explain how the fuck that works to any satisfactory degree.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2017
Besides the obvious two that keep getting mentioned...
Considering that Snopes used to be an urban legend database, I guess it counts. It turned into a shitty clone of Politifact this decade. I frequented Snopes all the time in middle/early high school because it was fun reading about classic urban legends or what shitty photoshops were being chain mailed everywhere. They also had a fun "bizarre news" page. Now it's just pages of "did [politician] really say this?" Do they even have the old urban legend sections anymore?
Considering that Snopes used to be an urban legend database, I guess it counts. It turned into a shitty clone of Politifact this decade. I frequented Snopes all the time in middle/early high school because it was fun reading about classic urban legends or what shitty photoshops were being chain mailed everywhere. They also had a fun "bizarre news" page. Now it's just pages of "did [politician] really say this?" Do they even have the old urban legend sections anymore?
wholetthegodsout
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2016
Was there a gaming site that didn’t double down and get shittier post gamer gate? Honestly I think that solidified the rise of YouTube/twitch personalities
Fluke
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2019
All flashsites i guess. Kongrate, armored games, y8.
Speciellt jesper.nu
Speciellt jesper.nu
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
Yes. I remember the site's owner used to post a lot in the forums. The account username was "Sarah," and the avatar was a (very) little girl dressed up like a zombie.
Yikes, I was not aware of that, I used to go to Galbadia Hotel and the forums for MP3s.
Honestly, in my memory I'd say 2009/2010 was among the best years for Cracked.
I spent so much time on Snopes circa 2006, I went through a phase early in my internet usage where I was totally obsessed with urban legends, I'm curious as to whether they even still have the old urban legends section as well.
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2019
Cracked definitely, I used to go there for while in the late 2000s early 2010s and stopped around the time "auntie meme" became the only person posting their "photoplastys" and the articles became dull as shit. I've heard with the rise of sjws it's only gotten worse and like so many independent websites it gotten taken over by them because "diversity hire" and the media is the only opinion that matters and all that bullshit
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
Imagine if you will a website dedicated to film, TV, music and video game news and reviews with lots of extremely well written articles and a vibrant, busy community of commenters who are oftentimes funny and offer stimulating conversation, one of the best online communities you've ever experienced.
Now imagine this site, one of the best you've found on the net, slowly but surely being systematically ruined both by corporate incompetence and toxic cultural trends and what once seemed like an online paradise eventually being utterly ruined and the once vibrant commenter community becoming a near ghost town.
That is the story of what happened to The AV Club.com.
I first discovered the site in 2010 thanks to contributor Nathan Rabin's "My Year of Flops" articles, from there I gradually read more and more articles and became more and more comfortable in the commenting community, I was pretty blown away by the site at first, it was such an improvement over the site I used to go to for film news before, Ain't It Cool.
Sadly the majority of the original staff departed in 2013 (going to found a different film website that was also great, but only lasted 2 years) and already the golden age of the site was done, especially soon after when they switched the comments to Disqus which lead to a drop in the number of posters, but it soldiered on pretty decently for the next few years until a few things happened that stuck the nail in the coffin.
The first was how incredibly toxic left leaning online communities became around the 2016 election with The AV Club being no exception, the site was always very liberal but could appreciate a good un-PC joke and was still willing to engage in debates with differing views.
But gradually as things dragged on they started to become more and more unhinged, I remember for example one commentator wondering why he witnessed a group of teenagers, two of which were hispanic and one of which was a white kid in a MAGA hat acting like they were friends instead of the two hispanic kids beating the MAGA hat kid up.
There were early warning signs of that, I remember for example the community's snide, smug mockery of the outrage over Benghazi in 2012, but as time went on they become bigger and bigger SJWs, eventually resulting in me being called a rapist for daring to question #MeToo.
In addition to the commentating community the news and articles suffered in quality as well, the site was bought by Univision in 2016 so as you can imagine Trump bashing became more and more the focus with all the content becoming bald faced propaganda like every corporate owned site today.
But what really finally killed the site for good was the switch to the "Kinja" website format in 2017, a radically different layout that nuked a lot of old comments and was just utterly ugly and unwieldy to use, I still tried to stick with it for another year as the community shrunk and became worse and as the content became more and more propagandistic until finally calling it quits for good in 2018.
I just thought it was an interesting story to share because it really encapsulates the direction the net has taken over the last ten years, from something kind of amazing in 2010 to a dumpster fire in 2020.
And I was wondering if anyone else was familiar with the site and a former part of the commenter community.
Now imagine this site, one of the best you've found on the net, slowly but surely being systematically ruined both by corporate incompetence and toxic cultural trends and what once seemed like an online paradise eventually being utterly ruined and the once vibrant commenter community becoming a near ghost town.
That is the story of what happened to The AV Club.com.
I first discovered the site in 2010 thanks to contributor Nathan Rabin's "My Year of Flops" articles, from there I gradually read more and more articles and became more and more comfortable in the commenting community, I was pretty blown away by the site at first, it was such an improvement over the site I used to go to for film news before, Ain't It Cool.
Sadly the majority of the original staff departed in 2013 (going to found a different film website that was also great, but only lasted 2 years) and already the golden age of the site was done, especially soon after when they switched the comments to Disqus which lead to a drop in the number of posters, but it soldiered on pretty decently for the next few years until a few things happened that stuck the nail in the coffin.
The first was how incredibly toxic left leaning online communities became around the 2016 election with The AV Club being no exception, the site was always very liberal but could appreciate a good un-PC joke and was still willing to engage in debates with differing views.
But gradually as things dragged on they started to become more and more unhinged, I remember for example one commentator wondering why he witnessed a group of teenagers, two of which were hispanic and one of which was a white kid in a MAGA hat acting like they were friends instead of the two hispanic kids beating the MAGA hat kid up.
There were early warning signs of that, I remember for example the community's snide, smug mockery of the outrage over Benghazi in 2012, but as time went on they become bigger and bigger SJWs, eventually resulting in me being called a rapist for daring to question #MeToo.
In addition to the commentating community the news and articles suffered in quality as well, the site was bought by Univision in 2016 so as you can imagine Trump bashing became more and more the focus with all the content becoming bald faced propaganda like every corporate owned site today.
But what really finally killed the site for good was the switch to the "Kinja" website format in 2017, a radically different layout that nuked a lot of old comments and was just utterly ugly and unwieldy to use, I still tried to stick with it for another year as the community shrunk and became worse and as the content became more and more propagandistic until finally calling it quits for good in 2018.
I just thought it was an interesting story to share because it really encapsulates the direction the net has taken over the last ten years, from something kind of amazing in 2010 to a dumpster fire in 2020.
And I was wondering if anyone else was familiar with the site and a former part of the commenter community.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
I react to the byline of AVClub the same way I do Vice:
"Oh, I remember when they weren't complete shit."
"Oh, I remember when they weren't complete shit."
TheMonkeyMan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
I was a commenter at the AV Club from 2009 to 2015. I left after the site started to get more outrage-based and I realized that a lot of features that I loved had disappeared. (Commentary Tracks of the Damned, TV Club Classic reviews)
The Avocado, a spinoff formed by AV Club commenters, seems even worse.
"
You may or may not be aware of the Avocado: it’s a Disqus forum for discussing misc. pop culture stuff (movies, music, games, comics, etc.), originally a spin-off of the AV Club comments boards. It used to be a place for nerds (like me) to talk about their favorite Godzilla movies or whatever, but it gets more and more woke by the day, to the point where you can’t really read it without cringing. Today the mods posted the new rules vs. “sexism,” which spell out what you're allowed to say if you're a man or woman. It’s not permitted to criticize the rules on the website, so I thought I’d see what outsiders have to say about it. If you have a Disqus account, stop by their daily Politics thread to see some serious retardation.
GROUND RULES
Do not argue with Avocados who identify as women about what is and isn’t sexism. If someone tells you they experience something as sexism, take them at their word. Posts arguing against women+’s lived experience will be deleted.
This is not a space for Avocados who identify as men to self-flagellate about past behavior or backpat about how much progress they feel they’ve made. We’re happy when allies have personal growth, but we don’t want to sideline into comforting those who feel bad or giving cookies out.
Allies should leave their defensiveness entirely at the door here. If you want yourself wanting to argue back with someone’s experiences of sexism, take a step back and listen.
Remember that this will probably be a space where people feel very vulnerable. Use trigger/content warnings liberally. If you’re discussing the use of a slur, do not use that slur, say “the b-word” or equivalent.
ALREADY NOTED AREAS OF CONCERN
Playing Devil’s Advocate about sensitive subjects: the devil has enough advocates, and upsetting people for your intellectual exercise is unkind.
Similarly, things like “I just want discuss [issue]” Certain topics simply do not need to be debated, and doing so only comes across as a bad-faith argument at best, or trolling at worst.
“Please explain to me how [basic thing which is obviously sexist] is sexist.” Burdening women with the emotional labour of explaining things which can very easily be googled is a common pattern, and it is exhausting. It is appreciated if you can do some basic research yourself. If there’s a specific situation where you need help with seeing some nuance after that, it’s okay to ask. But the basics should be clear enough by now.
Sarcastic/ironic sexism. For example: “Well, actually … ” as a reply to a post complaining about mansplaining. It’s still sexism.
Mansplaining.
As mentioned above, men telling women when something is and isn’t sexist. Also, pushback against female posters calling out sexism.
Jokes about sexual assault and abuse.
Continued pushback about the b-word being on the automod list: Many Avocados have made it clear that the word is upsetting and even triggering for them. Listen to them. To quote: “[The b-word] is just one more tiny way that people of all genders denote that being a woman is an insult. Please stop.”
(and there’s more…)
https://the-avocado.org/2019/10/10/sexism-on-the-avocado-2019-edition/
"
www.reddit.com
The Avocado, a spinoff formed by AV Club commenters, seems even worse.
"
You may or may not be aware of the Avocado: it’s a Disqus forum for discussing misc. pop culture stuff (movies, music, games, comics, etc.), originally a spin-off of the AV Club comments boards. It used to be a place for nerds (like me) to talk about their favorite Godzilla movies or whatever, but it gets more and more woke by the day, to the point where you can’t really read it without cringing. Today the mods posted the new rules vs. “sexism,” which spell out what you're allowed to say if you're a man or woman. It’s not permitted to criticize the rules on the website, so I thought I’d see what outsiders have to say about it. If you have a Disqus account, stop by their daily Politics thread to see some serious retardation.
GROUND RULES
Do not argue with Avocados who identify as women about what is and isn’t sexism. If someone tells you they experience something as sexism, take them at their word. Posts arguing against women+’s lived experience will be deleted.
This is not a space for Avocados who identify as men to self-flagellate about past behavior or backpat about how much progress they feel they’ve made. We’re happy when allies have personal growth, but we don’t want to sideline into comforting those who feel bad or giving cookies out.
Allies should leave their defensiveness entirely at the door here. If you want yourself wanting to argue back with someone’s experiences of sexism, take a step back and listen.
Remember that this will probably be a space where people feel very vulnerable. Use trigger/content warnings liberally. If you’re discussing the use of a slur, do not use that slur, say “the b-word” or equivalent.
ALREADY NOTED AREAS OF CONCERN
Playing Devil’s Advocate about sensitive subjects: the devil has enough advocates, and upsetting people for your intellectual exercise is unkind.
Similarly, things like “I just want discuss [issue]” Certain topics simply do not need to be debated, and doing so only comes across as a bad-faith argument at best, or trolling at worst.
“Please explain to me how [basic thing which is obviously sexist] is sexist.” Burdening women with the emotional labour of explaining things which can very easily be googled is a common pattern, and it is exhausting. It is appreciated if you can do some basic research yourself. If there’s a specific situation where you need help with seeing some nuance after that, it’s okay to ask. But the basics should be clear enough by now.
Sarcastic/ironic sexism. For example: “Well, actually … ” as a reply to a post complaining about mansplaining. It’s still sexism.
Mansplaining.
As mentioned above, men telling women when something is and isn’t sexist. Also, pushback against female posters calling out sexism.
Jokes about sexual assault and abuse.
Continued pushback about the b-word being on the automod list: Many Avocados have made it clear that the word is upsetting and even triggering for them. Listen to them. To quote: “[The b-word] is just one more tiny way that people of all genders denote that being a woman is an insult. Please stop.”
(and there’s more…)
https://the-avocado.org/2019/10/10/sexism-on-the-avocado-2019-edition/
"
r/stupidpol - Nerds Fighting Sexism through Language Policing
31 votes and 49 comments so far on Reddit
www.reddit.com
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
I was a commenter at the AV Club from 2009 to 2015. I left after the site started to get more outrage-based and I realized that a lot of features that I loved had disappeared. (Commentary Tracks of the Damned, TV Club Classic reviews)
The Avocado, a spinoff formed by AV Club commenters, seems even worse.
"
You may or may not be aware of the Avocado: it’s a Disqus forum for discussing misc. pop culture stuff (movies, music, games, comics, etc.), originally a spin-off of the AV Club comments boards. It used to be a place for nerds (like me) to talk about their favorite Godzilla movies or whatever, but it gets more and more woke by the day, to the point where you can’t really read it without cringing. Today the mods posted the new rules vs. “sexism,” which spell out what you're allowed to say if you're a man or woman. It’s not permitted to criticize the rules on the website, so I thought I’d see what outsiders have to say about it. If you have a Disqus account, stop by their daily Politics thread to see some serious exceptionalism.
GROUND RULES
Do not argue with Avocados who identify as women about what is and isn’t sexism. If someone tells you they experience something as sexism, take them at their word. Posts arguing against women+’s lived experience will be deleted.
This is not a space for Avocados who identify as men to self-flagellate about past behavior or backpat about how much progress they feel they’ve made. We’re happy when allies have personal growth, but we don’t want to sideline into comforting those who feel bad or giving cookies out.
Allies should leave their defensiveness entirely at the door here. If you want yourself wanting to argue back with someone’s experiences of sexism, take a step back and listen.
Remember that this will probably be a space where people feel very vulnerable. Use trigger/content warnings liberally. If you’re discussing the use of a slur, do not use that slur, say “the b-word” or equivalent.
ALREADY NOTED AREAS OF CONCERN
Playing Devil’s Advocate about sensitive subjects: the devil has enough advocates, and upsetting people for your intellectual exercise is unkind.
Similarly, things like “I just want discuss [issue]” Certain topics simply do not need to be debated, and doing so only comes across as a bad-faith argument at best, or trolling at worst.
“Please explain to me how [basic thing which is obviously sexist] is sexist.” Burdening women with the emotional labour of explaining things which can very easily be googled is a common pattern, and it is exhausting. It is appreciated if you can do some basic research yourself. If there’s a specific situation where you need help with seeing some nuance after that, it’s okay to ask. But the basics should be clear enough by now.
Sarcastic/ironic sexism. For example: “Well, actually … ” as a reply to a post complaining about mansplaining. It’s still sexism.
Mansplaining.
As mentioned above, men telling women when something is and isn’t sexist. Also, pushback against female posters calling out sexism.
Jokes about sexual assault and abuse.
Continued pushback about the b-word being on the automod list: Many Avocados have made it clear that the word is upsetting and even triggering for them. Listen to them. To quote: “[The b-word] is just one more tiny way that people of all genders denote that being a woman is an insult. Please stop.”
(and there’s more…)
https://the-avocado.org/2019/10/10/sexism-on-the-avocado-2019-edition/
"
r/stupidpol - Nerds Fighting Sexism through Language Policing
31 votes and 49 comments so far on Reddit
Yes, I’m aware of the Avocado and I tried visiting it not too long ago, at first it was nostalgic seeing many names I recognized but I quickly realized it was a den of SJW lunacy.
Life’s too short to deal with those people especially when they expect you to walk on eggshells which is something I refuse to do.