DDO is shutting down

Author: Lemming
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#31
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@Mharman
New people constantly. I remember actually hundreds of people from over the years. And all interesting and fun and fighty, and knowledgeable on all sorts of everything. When I'm on here I'm pretty much permanently stuck on trying to remember someone's name from DDO. I don't know what takes me back, other agey users like Danielle, sadolite, thett or GP, or maybe just ideas. But I just get lost.  I wish DDO was still searchable. I'm currently stuck on a dude named Ren. Fucken Star Wars movie kills any chance of figuring that one out. 
#32
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@thett3
Everyone for the most part used to be friendly and would argue about more abstract ideas but that kind of changed 
Maybe it's just that I've gotten used to all the weird ideas, but I do feel like people were just more interesting back then. That rbelivb guy feels like a bit of old DDO. 
#33
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@badger
Maybe it's just that I've gotten used to all the weird ideas, but I do feel like people were just more interesting back then. That rbelivb guy feels like a bit of old DDO. 
I agree, people used to argue about  what ideal societies or get into flame wars over completely abstract philosophies instead of generic republican v democrat type stuff
#34
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@Mharman
DDO had an unearned monopoly on online debating during a time where people were into debating. It's that simple really.

I never saw anything special about the website itself, only the concept and no... These are not the same thing or able for Juggle to take credit for (the website wasn't their idea they bought it around just before when I joined it).

What you are seeing here are people who are all biased in favour of DDO because they have fond memories of a community that formed which could have formed on any website at all. I dislike DDO for quite a few reasons and actually one reason that nobody thought about is how ridiculous it is to have a 10k-per-round maximum in very in-depth topics.

DDO was bought out by a company trying to fill out a portfolio for being oriented to online-writing websites. In the end, love matters more than money, so it would seem.
#35
Swagnarok
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End of an era. 11 out of its 15 years were good. By the time I joined in late 2013 it was great. Now it's just two guys hurling racial slurs at each other.

That was quite a time. The political right was still interested in justifying its ideology in positive terms (e.g. "Low taxes for the middle class saves them money, and low taxes for corporations is necessary because of the Laffer Curve, opportunity costs, etc.") They still exercised the freedom to speak openly in a non-roundabout way about any and every topic they had an opinion about, including sexual orientation, sexual identity, creation, etc. Winning wasn't merely for the sake of giving one political organization power at the expense of the other. Politics was to advance or defend things which really mattered.
People from sides came together in the interest of honest discussion. There were also a lot of popularity contests and drama on DDO that always helped keep things interesting.
#36
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@thett3
So Juggle stopped filtering out bad debates and I'm guessing new users didn't find it worthwhile to stick around, resulting in a slow decline as older users continued to grow more frustrated by Juggle and quit one by one. 

Honestly gives a lot of perspective. I remember when I first joined the site, I mostly associated myself with other newbies, and many of them did not stick around for long. I was one of the few and the only other ones that stuck around with me were Pie and Supa.
#37
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@Mharman
They also updated the code in a way which broke debates, and refused to fix the problem.

#38
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@Barney
What didn't break down?
#39
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@Mharman
The corruption amongst moderation.
#40
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@RationalMadman
Were the moderators even active by the end?
#41
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@SirAnonymous
Anarchy is corrupt neglect, I used to desire it as a teenager. Thankfully, reality sunk in.
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#42
Lemming
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@SirAnonymous
Even in this last year, some debates would be removed by "Customer Support", though I'm unsure whether it was a 'person, or some automated process.
Other than that, last time there were 'visible moderators, was around the avalanche of ads, and move to DebateArt.
#43
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@Lemming
excellent reporting
#44
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@Bones
You can't.

I was on DDO for a few years (username Heineken). I went back last month to see if I can fill some newly found free time, only to see that it was a spambot hell. I tried contacting Juggle LLC, but after a registry search found out that Juggle LLC was disbanded and now belongs to a babysitting business.
However, the CEOs names are still listed on the old Juggle website, so I found them on LinkedIn and wrote them specifically for the reason of buying the domain "as is". I also offered to take over the role of webmaster (for free).

Within 24 hours, the notice appeared that the site was getting shut down. I'm thinking they weren't interested in a buyout or a revitalization.
#45
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@USBurning
You can't.

I was on DDO for a few years (username Heineken). I went back last month to see if I can fill some newly found free time, only to see that it was a spambot hell. I tried contacting Juggle LLC, but after a registry search found out that Juggle LLC was disbanded and now belongs to a babysitting business.
However, the CEOs names are still listed on the old Juggle website, so I found them on LinkedIn and wrote them specifically for the reason of buying the domain "as is". I also offered to take over the role of webmaster (for free).

Within 24 hours, the notice appeared that the site was getting shut down. I'm thinking they weren't interested in a buyout or a revitalization.
Interesting…I had a suspicion that whatever entity owned the property at this point simply forgot about it. Wonder if your message is what reminded them that they owned what has to be a pretty valuable domain name 
#46
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@thett3
Interesting…I had a suspicion that whatever entity owned the property at this point simply forgot about it. Wonder if your message is what reminded them that they owned what has to be a pretty valuable domain name 
I wonder if deleting DDO's data makes the domain name more valuable. One wouldn't want to sell a site domain name when it has a known history of controversy (not to mention the whole Ethang vs. Harikrish thing that any potential buyer who may visit the site can see).

Might be a bit of a tinfoil hat theory here though- they might just want to scrap everything altogether and let it die. Especially since I don't know who they could even sell it to for their desired price- clearly they weren't interested in USBurning's offer, whatever it was.

I wonder what Phil and Crystal would ever think if they saw what happened to their site 14 years later. Would they care at all?
#47
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@Mharman
Unfortunately Alexa rankings seems to have been shut down but my guess is that the site was probably still pulling in a ton of ad revenue from old content before Google changed their search algorithm. When you searched “abortion debate” or “death penalty debate” or something DDO content would come up. It probably gets a lot fewer visitors now and the domain is probably worth a lot. The commission on presidential debates uses debates .org as their URL for example
#48
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@USBurning
Aren't you the guy who had the really cool rap written in his bio? Holy shit, Heineken is a throwback. 
#49
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Fuck, I'm thinking of leet4a1, I think. 
#50
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@thett3
the site was probably still pulling in a ton of ad revenue from old content before Google changed their search algorithm.
Definitely. You go on DDO now and there’s more ads per page than ever. When I first joined, the site had a banner ad at the top and bottom, and two on the sides. That was it and I think it remained that way until I left for DART. Now you can see debate arguments interrupted midway through the text by ad spaces, so they clearly decided they just wanted to make more profit per click instead of saving the site.
#51
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It was this guy, my bad. I wish you were this guy, Heineken. 
#52
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@badger
I was the guy who had a photoshop contest with imabench.
#53
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@badger
@USBurning
Legend has it that the spirit of Imabench’s account still lurks these forums…

I doubt it though.
#54
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@TheMorningsStar
The content is a text file, unformatted. You can just visit your profile URL and archive it manually with copy and paste.
#55
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@Lemming
So incredibly sad, but it's about time someone put it out of it's misery.
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#56
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@Double_R
I suppose, and though I've had plenty of time if I was going to, I kind of wanted to read old material on DDO more.
#57
Double_R
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@Lemming
Any way someone can download the majority of it's content? Perhaps create a wayback machine type of site preserving it's debates? I figured there's got to be a few cyber gurus on here.

There was a lot of good stuff on there. Crazy that they would just delete it or store it away somewhere to never be seen again.
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#58
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@Double_R
Well, just checked, some pages 'are on the Wayback Machine, not all, but some.
#59
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@Double_R
Just go back and screenshot what you need. It might take a lot of your time for the next couple days, but it's not bad. Just crank up Spotify and get to clicking.
#60
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@USBurning
I’m not exactly adept at website programing, but logically, as the domain “debate.org” is to be vacated, wouldn’t it follow that our webmaster can then buy the domain and transfer all data over there?