Or at least, it was.
Now it's gone, replaced by the watered down, politically correct website OhInternet. Now instead of a website where we can go to see the darkest, rawest opinions of the internet, we get a website that looks like about a hundred or more other websites that already do what OhI is now doing. A little bit useless, in my opinion.
The creator of ED, Sherrod DeGrippo says that the change to OhI was done because "Shock for shock’s sake is old" which has me wondering just what blissful little world she is living in. Apparently this woman does not pay attention to the media, where there are movies like Saw, shows like 1000 Ways to Die, and where there are thousands of videos on youtube that are popular just because they are shocking. I haven't looked into the scenario extensively, but I've seen things that say DeGrippo was facing legal action because of things said on ED, so part of me wonders if this is the real reason for ED's shut down and sanitized transformation to OhI.
This isn't to say OhI is terrible. Indeed, some people are very pleased with it, which is evident when looking at the comments on OhI's facebook page (which has interestingly been stripped of all negative comments and doesn't allow for discussions or original postings), but I am among those who are displeased with the change. Despite being offensive to the extreme and on occasion more disgusting than I can stomach, I enjoyed how raw it was. How real. How it was something that didn't take the internet too seriously. Honestly, it was the humorous, crass tabloid of the internet, and now it has been transformed into the mainstream, politically correct newspaper that doesn't want to step on anyone's toes. This is extremely disappointing.
Through all this, I find DeGrippo's actions very curious though. From deleting negative comments on the OhI facebook page to something more extreme it seems. While I was lamenting the loss of ED, someone came along to resurrect the website. I don't know who this person is, but I received a message to my facebook account announcing the launch of encyclopediadramatica.ch, which although filled with holes, was striving to bring back what many ED fans loved. Alas, now that is also missing, and even though it hasn't been explained outright why, I suspect that DeGrippo has something to do with it. It seems she wants to completely get rid of ED all together, and while I can sort of understand where she's coming from, it's more complicated than she thinks.
Perhaps she is the original founder of ED, but unless I'm mistaken, it was a website that was updated by the general populace of the internet (thus it's crude and controversial nature and why articles would go missing when someone became offended). So, if I'm correct in suspecting the DeGrippo has something to do with ED.ch's takedown, I suspect that she's crying out that ED is hers and that we shouldn't be reposting it without her permission. Except, as I pointed out, ED was written also by other users, and therefore is a collaborative work; to me, that means that everyone else should have a say in what happens to ED as well. If someone is reposting ED on their own, then what does it matter? DeGrippo doesn't have to pay for it anymore, and she does have people who like OhI, so it's not like she's losing readership, and even if she were, that's the nature of the internet as well as literature in general. You can't have all eyes on you at one time, mostly because not everyone is going to like what you write, but also because there are others out there who have websites as well. If she's worried about losing readership, she better try to shut down Know Your Meme--the website to which OhI is being extensively compared--and all those other websites as well.
One of the theories floating around that DeGrippo denies is that ED became OhI because of money issues, which would make sense. Due to the nature of ED, not many reputable websites and businesses would want to have their advertising on there. OhI, however, is clean and safe for work, so having ads on there doesn't seem to be a problem. So, if DeGrippo did make the change because of money, the fact that ED was relaunched shouldn't bother her, in my opinion. I mean really, now someone else has taken on the burden of controlling ED's fate, and the intention of that person seems to be to bring back the "lulz" that were lost in the transfer.
Another bit of info that I read was that ED's appearance hadn't changed since it's launch. I can completely understand changing the layout of something; cleaning it up, making it easier to use, etc., etc. But OhI, to me, wasn't a simple change of layout, it was a change of modus operandi or intent. ED was about the drama and the "lulz"; OhI is about being factual and safe. Not the same. Even if ED had simply undergone a layout change, I'm not a fan of OhI's layout at all. It's really compact, and in my opinion not as appealing at the wiki-style layout that it was and that sites like wikipedia and its wiki-spin off sites use. For me, OhI is just too boxy and too lacking in colour because of that boxiness. If things were more spread out, I wouldn't have a problem with the extensive use of white, but as it is, it's overwhelming and bland. I feel like I'm in a house that hasn't been painted and has only one or two pictures on the wall to try and cover up the lack of...well...everything. It's just unappealing.
Now, disregarding the "shock for shock's sake" and other things, I can completely understand why ED wasn't well liked. It thrived on negativity and stereotypes, but these things for me brought hilarity because I didn't take it seriously. I think that's one thing that should be taken away from ED: that we shouldn't take things too seriously. Yes, ED was offensive, was homophobic, and many other things, but it was outrageously so, to the point where I think any sane person could be able to tell that it's just stupid and that we should laugh at it. If people are concerned about their children finding ED and getting the wrong sorts of ideas about it, then I return to an argument that I constantly make. The parents need to be the ones to teach their children, not the internet alone. The parents need to instill right and wrong into their children's minds.
I understand that people can be influenced by the media. It's inevitable. It was around before ED and it will be around after ED (I don't expect ED will be around forever, but I think this absence and replacement is a little premature). I agree that perpetuating these ideas is wrong, and this is perhaps where I'm a hypocrite, but the difference is understanding that these things are wrong and being able to laugh at the stupidity of it all. The only way that something like ED is going to generate a new society of homophobic, biggotted little miscreatants is if we let it.
Another way in which I am perhaps hypocritical is that I know words can hurt and that a site like ED can be seen as a form of bullying. Again, I think it comes back to not taking it seriously, even though people do. I've seen ED cause bullying to occur on websites like deviantART, but I think that speaks of the immaturity and naivite of those people doing the bullying rather than the website. For instance, although the morality of it is constantly in debate, we do continue to allow movies, video games, novels, artwork and other media that depict, sometimes in great detail, acts of violence towards other human beings. We expect people to be rational enough to know not to go out and kill someone just because they saw it in some form of media, even though people do. Media is very problematic in that way and I don't know that we'll ever find a balance of acceptable media and those who won't take it too far. For those who do go out killing or even just bullying people because of something they saw in the media, we should look at what that says about that person, not about the media. The fact that there are those of us out there who partake in those kinds or media and don't going around practicing it is often overlooked or downright ignored. It's ridiculous.
At the same time, media does say a lot about a culture. As a student of English literature, I often am looking at what that piece of literature suggests about the society from which it comes. Looking at something like ED would indeed probably suggest to me that those that created it are a horrible bunch of people who support and endorse violence, biggotry, homophobia and bullying, but at the same time, the fact that it is so outrageous says to me that it's not realistic. Perhaps I'm just speaking from a biased point of view because I know that to put the things from ED into practice is wrong, but again, that comes from upbringing. Parenting. Not allowing a child to become immersed in the media without some guidance.
I think one of the most important aspects about ED is that it was for the "lulz". In lulz we trust--wasn't that what it claimed to be all about? As I said, I understand that words hurt, but I think we should all stop taking everything so seriously and just learn to laugh. I think that would take some of the power out of the hurt in the end.
Ultimately, I fear this post will become a case of tl;dr, since this is often the response of the audience I'm aiming to read this, but I'm hoping that considering it's about our beloved ED that it will be stomached. If you have read this far, thank you, and feel free to comment.
Update: Just figured I'd update to avoid confusion. I know that ED.ch is now back up and ready for the lulz to be viewed. At the time that I wrote and posted this, it was down.
Sources:
OhInternet's facebook page.
EncyclopediaDramatica.ch's facebook page.
