Sad but inevitable - DD may be off the air.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Johann, Jul 13, 2020.

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  1. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    A couple of times in the past week or so I've tried to log on to Degree Discussion - to search for old posts regarding schools that were now under discussion here at DI. No dice - a 403 "Forbidden" at one point, followed by a notice re insecurity etc. I think this may be the end. Sad, yes - but if this is indeed the end, DD has earned a peaceful rest.

    I was part of the mass exodus from DD in 2013, when the owner of a University that shall not be named took legal action (unsuccessfully, as it turned out) against several of us, most of whom posted on both forums. It is unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable that things at DD never got back to any semblance of normal. Posts have been down to a handful per year - or even less - since the 2013 event.

    DD was a good forum - lots of activity, some experts and many good people. Glad to see quite a few of them here at DI. Miss some others, who decided not to cross over. Particularly Gus, the proprietor. Among his talents, he was fluent in Spanish and very sharp when it came to (as it did, at least twice) representatives of somewhat doubtful Latin American schools flashing papers that umm - purported to elevate their schools' academic profiles, shall we say? Gus would invariably point out the true meaning, very quickly.

    Degree Discussion has been, and will continue to be missed.
     
    RoscoeB likes this.
  2. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Not good. I mean, I never used it, but it could mean we could have a partially retired DI member coming back over here full-time. I guess it would be nice to laugh at him since he left here bragging about DD :D
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Gus went MIA years ago. I suspect he just didn't renew the site.
     
  4. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    The site isn't down. It's experiencing an error that has happened frequently over the years, where you can't access it from its index page, but you can access it from http://degreediscussion.com/forums
     
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes, you still can. Thanks for reminding me. It has been so long since I got this error that I had forgotten. But this time, you can't read the forum. Try to open any post and you get the following error. I still think this is likely the end.

    General Error

    Language file ./language/en/viewtopic.php couldn't be opened.
     
    Maniac Craniac likes this.
  6. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Oh, that's different :eek:

    You get a different error when you try to view the posts from Google links.

    It gives you the same failed url string no matter what page you're trying to open- degreediscussion/charity-event.php :confused:

    It may be a sign of the end after all.
     
  7. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    It's still a dead zone.
     
  8. Garp

    Garp Well-Known Member

    DD has been effectively dead for years with an occasional one off post. I think the most traffic it gets are bots.

    It was a nice idea at one point and built up steam and then slowly petered out with spam that would have to be cleaned up and then finished off by indifference.
     
    RoscoeB likes this.
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Maybe that explains it, then. I have both Firefox and Google browsers ... use both. Maybe I got different findings using Google browser.

    Whoever it is -- he likely hasn't posted at DD since the 2013 debacle. Almost nobody has. If he's who I think he might be -- then we already laugh at him, (not with him), or frown in disapproval at his often tasteless remarks - not befitting an educated person - or outright ignore him. As my son once wrote, as a bullet-proof teenager, about 35 years ago:

    Don't take yourself too seriously - you'll soon go away. (I think it may have been on a Father's Day card. :) ) That's my best advice to that guy.
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2020
    chrisjm18 likes this.
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Sorry - I attributed that last quote to Maniac in error. It was from chrisjm18. Sorry, Chris. Sorry, Maniac. 10-minute limit did me in again.
     
  11. mattchand

    mattchand Member

    I've only shown up sporadically here (and at DD, where I was one of a very few who posted anything for the past several years - and I did so only a few times), but I hadn't realized why most folks had departed from DD around 2013. It is deader than a doornail over there, but I'm glad that the site remains - I reckon some of those archives will retain value for years to come.

    Also, the final posts from, and the memorial to, Uncle Janko retain a special place for me. Both DI and DD were places where I learned a great deal, and perhaps contributed a little bit, and which was absolutely essential for me in the process of completing my BA years ago (Charter Oak, class of 2006, Psych. concentration).
     
    RoscoeB likes this.
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    They would, indeed, Matt - if they could be opened. You can get to a forum, see a page of topics - but you can't access or read any of the posts. Can't do much with a "sealed" archive. You get the same error if you use the search-gadget. You can log in, log out - but you don't get to see any posts - or make any. I don't see us being able to read those old posts again, unfortunately. And yes - a lot of people have good memories. Those are all that is left for us, I think.
     
    RoscoeB likes this.
  13. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Sooo.... could anyone explain what happened in 2013 :emoji_smirk: :emoji_popcorn:

    I'm not sure how I missed it.
     
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Arr, matey - that DI thread be gone, now... pirates took 't.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
  15. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Sorry, if I think back that far my old brain might blow a fuse.
     
  16. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I completely understand, Bill. I'm a bit different, though. If I think back to last WEEK, I'm in trouble. 10-70 years back: no problem. 2013 was the "Year of the Lawsuit." There was a long thread; I looked for it the other day and there it was - gone. Just Maniac's little joke - good one, too. :)
     
  17. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Not a joke, actually. I have no recollection of what happened to whom nor when nor how. In 2013, I was racing towards the finish line of my bachelor's AND had just started 2 new jobs. I'm sure a lot of things passed by without me noticing.
     
  18. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Well, you made at least one really good post in that now-gone thread, Maniac. Part of it was that an empty chair would serve as an adequate defense for that lawsuit. I remember that and a couple of other parts - it was a blistering doozy - quite eloquent. If you could remember it, you could do so with justifiable pride. Of course, I can't prove that, now.

    Sorry - I really thought you were joking. And now that you mention it, of course, I know how busy you were at the time. And I think that part of DI history is better off buried; evidently, so does somebody else - someone who had the authority to get rid of that thread. Let's move along folks. Nothing more to see - at least about the Lemony Snickets thing (A Series of Unfortunate Events) that happened in 2013. :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2020
  19. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    For the newbies like me, what was the impetus to start DI if DD was performing capably? (Or maybe I answered my own question, I did see the reference to spam issues above.)

    Edit: Ah, and the lawsuit(s). That would cover it.
     
  20. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    DI is older, nearly 20 years now, and it was a continuation of a '90s Usenet group, so this community has something like a quarter century of continuity. (Maybe longer, I've only been around since 2004.) DD was an offshoot of DI a few years later.
     
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