RIP Encyclopedia Dramatica...
 

(Yeah, I know I'm a couple of days late...)

Wow... this is a sad happening :(, the internet has lost a true example of real humour, which was never constrained by censorship, it was a place to talk about the internet from the perspective of those involved, and not as some outside analysis like places like Wikipedia or Know Your Meme... for all its flaws, I think this sums it up well...
Well, there goes a lot of internet history... time to make some more, I guess, but I don't know where it will be remembered now.

Awww no more offended. :/

Why is it shut down?

The owners wanted more money and realised they could get it by creating a Know Your Meme clone, all SFW and with any trace of lulz removed. Why they had to close ED though, I don't know - it had its problems, but it was huge, well known and well respected, and without it, many memes would not have anywhere near the exposure they do... although then again, WhatPort80 was their earlier attempt at a SFW ED and it failed hard. NSFW is an important part of a lot of internet culture, and deliberately keeping that out is always going to make the result sterilised and 'outside looking in' (see: Wikipedia or Know Your Meme).

Sad to see a site go which provided a strange but cool kind of homour :(

I never like Encyclopedia Dramatica. Most if was hate, it showed the worst side of the internet in my opinion. I know it was an uncensored place on the internet, and it had it's niche, but I couldn't stand reading it (so I didn't). I want to feel bad that it's gone, but honestly I don't. Maybe I just didn't understand the site.

Awww

Their DBZ page was hilarious, and I loved reading about the adventures of homokid.

We are web 2.0, you will be assimilated.

This.

I remember it as it was before 2005- as a repository for stuff from LJDrama. It only became what it is/was today when 4chan discovered it.

I have honestly never heard of this place, for the ten years I've been surfing the web. If it was anything like the Uncyclopedia, I'm all for its take-down.

Comparing Uncyclopedia to ED is like comparing Ninat to Neytiri :P
Fortunately, Anonymous never gives up, and ED is back at a new domain :)

As for people who don't like it, follow the rule of "Don't read the page on something you like unless it's a meme or otherwise popular with the chans". Even though it has pages about many things I like, there are far, far more about things I dislike.

It's strange to me how all-pervasive a certain kind of internet culture has become. Back around 2003ish the only people you could find anywhere posting image-macros of cats and writing deliberately misspelled things like 'O RLY' and 'HAI GUIZ WATS GOIN ON IN THIS THREAD' were in somethingawful, and most of them congregated around a sub-forum called FYAD (**** you and die). Then another subforum of somethingawful for anime fans called ADTRW (anime death tentacle rape *****house) discovered the Japanese image-board 2chan and starting posting in it. After a while the Japanese users of 2chan got sick of all the somethingawful goons (SA users refer to themselves as goons) and starting blocking IPs from outside Japan. Then the ADTRW posters discovered how to make image board clones, and created a few of their own. One of these was created by an SA goon called Moot. The image board was called 4chan.

Initially 4chan housed a 'clone' of the somethingawful culture. It was particularly strongly influenced by the boards GBS, FYAD and ADTRW. Almost all of the posters were goons or banned goons, and the memes were ones that had originated in SA or were borrowed from 2chan. 4chan was the IRA to SA's Sinn Fein. Then around 2004 the cultures started to diverge. 4chan was growing, and SA no longer seemed to be as edgy as it once was. 4chan's mutant version of SA's culture began to escape ("/b/ is leaking!" as people used to say), and the memeplex spread to even the safest, most tame parts of the internet. Image macros became Caturday became LOLCats. The awesome smiley became one of the symbols of all that is the internet.

Interesting. I've browsing the internet since forever and never heard of this website lol.

They are certainly one of the most influential wikis around, although not the biggest. ED has just as big a significance in Anonymous (the group) as the chans themselves, and it is an invaluable service at educating newcomers to the chans into people who know what they are doing.