When The Laughter Stopped

I'm sorry to say that Humorfeed seems, finally, to have died a death. Today it's just showing MySQL errors instead of headlines. Which doesn't really surprise me as, yesterday, I was unable to log in, receiving the same error messages when I attempted it. Sadly, the site has been in decline for some time now - the members' forum abruptly vanished a few weeks ago, and fewer and fewer members seemed to be posting stories there. It's a real pity that this has been allowed to happen - there's been no explanation or contact from the site admins for months now - as Humorfeed provided perhaps the only source of targeted traffic for satire sites. More than that, at its peak, it provided a focal point for the online satire community. That said, recent years have seen the 'colonisation' of the online satire sector by increasing numbers of professional and semi-professional sites, none of whom seemed to have much interest in the 'community', seeing other sites as competitors rather than colleagues.

So, where does that leave The Sleaze? Well, despite my continuing support for Humorfeed, the fact is that it has been delivering less and less traffic to The Sleaze over the past few years. Facebook and even Twitter have surpassed it as traffic sources in recent months, so it's collapse will have minimal impact. All I can do is press ahead with my long overdue revamp of the site, which will make it far more Facebook and Twitter friendly. It will also be far friendlier to mobile devices. The increasing use of smart phones, iPods, iPads and the like to browse the web is a trend no webmaster can afford to ignore. So, whilst its demise probably won't hurt The Sleaze in any significant way, I'm still sorry to see Humorfeed in its current dire state. Whether there is anything that can be done to rescue it, or whether there is any appetite amongst what's left of the online satire community for creating an alternative, I just don't know. If any of the old Humorfeed crew are reading this, get in touch and let me know your thoughts. Surely I'm not the only one lamenting the passing of this once great institution?