Lounge Underground didn't fail because of the cognitively delayed, socially inept spambot who runs it. That's a lazy explanation. LU's downfall was, in many ways, inevitable. The very thing that brought people together on that site - i.e., professional wrestling - was never a strong enough bond to sustain a healthy community on its own.
There were two different categories of wrestling fans at LU. On the one hand, you had a group of normal dudes who saw wrestling as nothing more than a fun hobby or nostalgic pastime, and whose real passion was discussing professional sports/politics/pop culture. On the other hand, you had the stereotypical creepy wrestling marks who took the product way too seriously and who popped boners at the thought of a female wrestling fan (whether it was the kidney bean who ran the site or "Coco Ivy") actually talking to them.
Spam alt accounts proliferated, moderation was non-existent, and disturbing conversations among the creepy marks at the site became normalized. In the end, the dissonance between well-adjusted wrestling fans and those who used the blog as a surrogate social life was too great to reconcile. The community collapsed under the weight of its own dysfunction, revealing that shared interest alone cannot substitute for mutual respect, emotional maturity, or basic decency.
Interestingly, PCT wasn't the only product of the subsequent LU fracture. While all of the genuinely good dudes from LU eventually gravitated here to PCT to enjoy stimulating conversation about things that really matter in life - e.g., female asses, the best fast food restaurant chains, fantasy sports - a Muppet Babies cosplayer created a plagiarized, TEMU-version of PCT called Pandemonium in the Garden. As if the name wasn't queer enough, the site quickly attracted not only the weirdest of weirdos from LU, but it soon expanded into being a safe-haven for paedos, weebs, and scat porn enthusiasts from all across the internet. Along with his antisemitic ally, Bass, the abnormally tiny-handed site owner of PiTG created what can only be described as the Disqus version of a Fatberg. What's a Fatberg, you ask? A Fatberg is a giant solid mass of fat, sewage, condoms, diapers, tampons, and wet wipes clogging up city sewer systems. Fatbergs can weigh hundreds of tons and smell like a mix of feces, rot, and decay. Sewer workers sometimes have to chisel them apart by hand.
LU, meanwhile, reverted back to being what it was always meant to be - a lonely, hairy woman's shrine to herself. The 3 or 4 people who are stuck on that site now spend hours posting pictures and chatting to...themselves? It's fucking weird. The occasional PiTG nerd pops in to see if La Papa Dominicana will acknowledge them and provide validation for their internet existence. But that's about it. SAD!!
In the end, we win. Not because of comment counts or site traffic or finding new users. We win simply because we're not them. Oh yeah baby. Lol.
Comments
Post a Comment