Formerly cool Websites that went downhill...

[Nine Crocodile]

Are we even allowed to complain about CBR? I thought since the accounts purge and restart they didn't allow negative comments on here.

Others have. I wasn't here for that purge so I would certainly be interested in it.

[TheRay]

CBR comes to mind first, in this context. I haven't checked the front page in... years? Couldn't even tell you.

Are we discussing the forum and the front page as two separate sites here?

[Nine Crocodile]

Are we discussing the forum and the front page as two separate sites here?

I think we are. I come to this forum a lot now. The articles, not so much.

[Kai "the spy"]

Has BoxOfficeMojo been mentioned yet?

[Joker]

Deadspin, now.

Most likely the entire Gizmodo family of sites, if it keeps going the way it’s going.

[Digifiend]

Comicvine used to be really active with articles, and frankly a much nicer forum environment than the CBR forums, yikes, I used to be horrified at the cynicism over here, now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm acclimated to it, corrupted a bit too, maybe I like it here now.

That's because CV was taken over - twice. It's not been the same since original owner Whisky Media was broken up, but the kicker was when CBS took it over, and merged all the user accounts with GameFAQs and Gamespot counterparts. The result, one day I was just locked out, my username and password didn't work. Because they'd been changed to my GameFAQs ones, which I only found out much later by accident. Why the HELL was I not given notice and a choice of what username to keep? So that was me done with that site.

[Digifiend]

Memory failing here but did they (the forums) have an Off Topic area called, "The Gutters"?

Lying in the Gutters, and it wasn't off topic. It was the discussion forum for Rich Johnston's columns before he left to start Bleeding Cool.
http://web.archive.org/web/200405190...resources.com/

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

I loved the AV club so much. The community was absolutely batshit insane, but not cruel, and I got to have some of the most insightful and entertaining discussions I've ever experienced online. Then the Kinjapocalypse happened, the community vanished, and the articles basically became "Lookit what this ******* said/did/wore. I'm mad!"

[AnthonyO'Brien]

retrocrush is officially gone . Have any other sites you liked died?

[Nine Crocodile]

Deadspin, now.

After the "Stick With Sports" memo and the mass defections, pretty much. Not that it was that great beforehand.

[Midnighter]

retrocrush is officially gone . Have any other sites you liked died?

Yeah.The Official Halloween Message Board or ohmb.net. Anyone know what happened there?

[Joker]

After the "Stick With Sports" memo and the mass defections, pretty much. Not that it was that great beforehand.

I didn't read everything, but it was a good site. It's a loss for sure. I don't know where those writers end up.

[worstblogever]

Deadspin, now.

Most likely the entire Gizmodo family of sites, if it keeps going the way it’s going.

Yeah, the owners done f***ed up. I'm holding out hopes that the writers leaving en masse just start up another website together.

[Joker]

I'd certainly support whatever they did, should they go that route. Takes capital, though.

Still, the entire family of sites are in trouble now. The user experience has gone down the shitter. The ads are insane right now, and I doubt that was simply out of greed.

So, if the sites needed to be sold to keep afloat, and the ads had to be ramped up to such obnoxious levels, I don't know that starting a new site on their own is a smart financial reality for freelancers.

I do wonder what else was going on that we don't know about. There has to be more. Journalism is an industry where people fear getting laid off every day, so quitting like this is pretty unusual. It's got to be more than "stick to sports".

[TheRay]

The articles, not so much.

Interesting, what do you have against the articles? I don't check them out, but there must be something appealing about them.