the boards were already running on a quarter tank. now it's really fumes.

barely a new topic to be found. not many messages. even OKS is DEAD (maybe it picks up when the NFL/NBA kicks up?).

is this the end?

If you have an ad-blocker on you're welcomed with this pop up EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE:

https://i.imgur.com/FH6IIMD.png


If you don't use an ad-blocker this is what the board looks like:

https://i.imgur.com/n36R5q8.png

I do get a similar pop-up on a different site on mobile and so I just stopped visiting it on mobile altogether.

Also, per their note. Why not let ads on this site? It's how they pay their bills.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

As folks are vacationing.

But damn it's been boring AF around here lately.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

for both college and pros, followed shortly by basketball, it tends to pick up a bit more.

So...

I'll re-up some of my old posts that went WOOD.

..and.

if those STILL ain't good enough for discussion...


Then...

You just ain't got the OKP'S that you want to start discussions/posts


Yes, it WAS arrogance.

You might have well have a face painted on a volleyball in there with you

to be found in there if one's in the mood for it.


I'll poke around once in a while; it was a dope lil community. I love how sweet and affirming everyone was to each other with their feedback.

I think freestyle board and the lesson are probably the most uniquely special (and least embarassing lol) countercultural spaces to be found on okp, historically speaking. There don't seem to have been many serious equivalents, especially from that era.

Even if we compare to reddit, which began a half-decade later than okp: from a quick search I see the freestyle sub there seems mostly dedicated to audios, and the poetry sub is mostly people posting others' published pieces not their own.

I think we might take for granted sometimes that something meaningful was built here. If or when okp goes, I hope it gets archived properly so it can be studied and rightfully included in discussions of social media's evolution (especially for Black people).

And I don't choose some white plunderer of old valuables that lightly, as an approaching middle age white guy. Leaving that alone for just a moment, the depths of that forums contain fans of artists that'll make you reconsider whether you were ever a fan of anything you thought you loved, ever. Getting closer to it, there are so many this or that debates that have way more to do with regions, counties, neighborhoods and/or corners/clubs than the basic "I prefer Freeway to Cassidy" discourse you'd find almost anywhere else.

Taking a few steps closer to the core of it, no matter how much a dude like me could devour the music and articulate some thoughts about it, that forum was such a humbling mechanism. Especially if by way of location, age, race or as the blog era blew up - just like politics, honestly - you (I?) could mistake your (my?) passion for expertise. There was always a relevant Lesson thread prepared to humble many, even those who had the simple disadvantage of frequenting the wrong uptown McDonald's or interstate exit Church's.

Briefly, like you said at the end, The Lesson at its peak might've deferred a bit to East Coast Golden Age sensibilities, but otherwise was most remarkable for how fucking Black it was in a sea of professional criticism both in print and online, or amateur debate in Tower Records aisles and forums, that was dominated by bored, lonely white kids (KIDS) with 56k/128k DSL internet connections like me. I can't even begin to imagine what it would've felt like to follow the liners of a Roots or Soulquarian release - or, like me, a Kweli lyric - to that forum and instantly recognize that it was the Nodima's squirming to fit in for once.

But beyond all that, which I hope I gave all due deference and respect to, as somebody who's endlessly bothered by Spotify insisting on playlists (or bar patrons complimenting me on an "awesome Roxy Music playlist" that's just the Avalon album front to back), the return to a 1950s-esque mentality of album-as-novelty rather than talking point and a general feeling across all pop culture that hypebeast influencers are more trustworthy than the buzzkill dorks labeled by legacy media as "critics"...what was truly so seductive about The Lesson is that a thread might contain 200 posts, 20-25% of which were as long as this and probably fractionally MORE self-indulgent, and it was just normal.

It seduced record store trolls who loved to write, knew how to get laid when the browser window was closed and wouldn't glimpse six paragraphs in the corner of their eye and immediately respond with (edit: for you edit watchers, this is it, the death of this forum - the Too Long Didn't Read abbreviation still translates to an emoticon because of L:D) "TL:;DR" too short, didn't chuckle quips like "damn bro, unplug." Or whatever. The Lesson didn't pretend to be a "safe space". If you didn't bring it, and the given artist aligned with the wrong user's paid vacation, your take might get GOT. But even back then, because again so much of the internet was white dudes gorging on Black culture from afar, the more I checked in on it debates didn't seem to rate unless they'd happened on The Lesson; sometimes, the more buried in a sub-conversation about yet another conversation, the more authentic it felt.

Which offers me a sidebar to say, that's why I still love the format of OKP. Reddit *kinda* has it, but you never notice the names of people, and because it defaults to upvotes it's damn near impossible for a new post to light a fire under the ass of an old post the way GD hall of famers specifically excelled at but plenty of Lessonheads had the gift too. Always envied it.

Ultimately The Lesson was OKP so inevitably it had a healthy dose of GD shutdowns, most of which was amazing in its own way...

And again I think it's greatest purpose (especially, early 2000s, as I found it then lurked for years until I made an account, let alone participated) was operating as both a safe and exceptionally challenging space for a Black perspective of Black music at a time when white money was driving so much of its artistic direction...for myself, I'd have probably never started actually interacting with these boards without sites like LiveMixtapes making clear that even the worst rappers were being crushed by a machine that once effortlessly cast aside nu-metal for snap rap, and that it's either impossible or foolish to project passion for THE IDEA of rap without ruminating the restraints constantly attempting to wrangle its rebellion.

I was kinda hoping I'd read this back and pare it down a bit, but then I realized that wouldn't be very Lesson-y. The worst part about it is, I say all this, I've somehow become one of the straggling OKP regulars...and I might check in on The Lesson every 3 months or so. I'm not even stuck in the "old guy that prefers the music of his 20s" rut, let alone the more generic "damn they don't make 'em like they used to" trench of personality death. I wanna listen to, and talk about, new shit from anything Xtian Adjuah blows to internet darlings like DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ to why exactly I stopped caring about Big K.R.I.T. despite being his loudest advocate a decade ago to that one comment somebody made somewhere on OKP about Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and the Hip-Hop 50 Tour all converging on downtown Detroit in a single night and Eminem choosing the Sheeran show for his spotlight.

But I don't even think to open the forum when I hit my OKP bookmark anymore. And too many awesome, way more interesting people have meandered into the same indifference over the last ten years. Though maybe if they hadn't gotten on with their shit, had kept partying most nights, working in kitchens and record stores, the lowest rung desk jobs and "my boss is totally fucking with me" assistant gigs rather than tying knots, making babies, earning wild degrees starting their own businesses becoming internet/real world famous or/and falling asleep to graphs of 401(k)s The Lesson would still be that cool.

Unfortunately for jerks like me, its users outgrew its coolness and, I feel like I have to end this diatribe as lame as I can...

Lssn aint bussin nemore, fr fr. 0 🧢 (cap)

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

yea the lesson in its heyday was a goldmine for discovering music. now, feels like a tyranny of choice problem. most shit is available on spotify, youtube etc....the scarcity of the music back then made getting it in your ears feel more valuable. getting that yousendit.com link to jewels. or the days of oink.me? everything too disposable now. comes in too easily to be appreciated maybe.

also cosign the important of having posters with consistent identities. a village of people instead of a world of billions. individual to individual more possible, and that's how language is meant to work

pushing 50 I used to say I was going to get to 100k posts and log off but I don't know if I'll make that lol

this biggest posts on OKS are about pro wrestling, soccer and motorsport...

like people have said things usually slow down this time of the year once football and basketball get going things will pick up but it definitely seems like we are in the last days which is sad during other breaks I was unable to find a suitable substitute, other "social media" is just not the same for various reasons

was for REAL down for multiple months could have really been the end, but folks came back, just in smaller numbers.

bc you said it better lol

>That year when the site was for REAL down for multiple months could have really been
>the end, but folks came back, just in smaller numbers.

I actually remember a bit of an uptick from people who hadn't been posting in a long time, even.

It could've been a cyclical thing too, tho, bc I remember there was a lot of political discussion happening around that time as well.

Elon first bought Twitter and started making th changes we had a good month with a TON of old folks coming back. Didn’t last, but I still think there’s a number of old posters who still lurk who would be sad to see the site go.

and now I have a kid almost 23 and another one 19.

The fact a message board still gets any traffic off organic conversation alone should be celebrated.

"i do more for both our communities than you'll ever know." - Heinz
"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

Can it continue to float like bottled message in the ocean or an old satellite in space? Long as someone continues to communicate might as well keep it going.

that just sounds like you can't let go lol

again, everything dies. everything. and its ok.

d

"i do more for both our communities than you'll ever know." - Heinz
"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

It’s probably the or at least one of the largest unbiased multi-generational digital think tanks.
You can literally see everyday people’s opinions, feelings and actual experience to events such as(in no particular order…)
9/11
Obama’s presidency
Arab Spring
Riots in St. Louis
George Floyd protest/riots
Flint Michigan water crisis
C19 Pandemic
Attack on the Capitol

It’s also one of the longest running black based and majority ran digital platforms ever. To kill this off would be akin to killing off Ebony, Jet, Right On, Vibe, even the Defender. The sad thing is just like those journals we won’t realize what we had as a community until it’s owned by a grand majority of those not of the community.

that I don't feel comfortable logging in to this site while it's like that.

I don't mind waiting, but it would suck if it went on for weeks/months at a time after each expiry...

That said, it's true that NERL (even I failed when I tried lol) and there def seems to be cyclical trends in the participation here.

So I just accept it for what it is now, bc who knows how much longer we'll have it.


Also - I must say I was impressed with oksports... I watched the NBA playoffs this year for the first time since I was a kid (I never recovered after my fave team got swept in the 90s LOL), cheering on Miami after watching them against the Bucks. I lurked OKS for commentary/regular season background and you guys were knowledgeable and hilarious. I would actually agree that it was higher quality and higher traffic posting than GD (at least during that time), and I learned a lot lol.

Maybe that would bring some back?

to actually talk about the roots, related artists, and their music.

i almost forgot about those days.

It happens. As someone else said in here - the fact a MESSAGE BOARD is still going in 2023 is something already pretty insane. I'm sure there are other boards around, but I'd have a hard time believing there's an online community that's been this robust for well over 2 decades.

Things end. It sucks, but it happens.

I just hope it doesn't go out with a whimper and disappears one day.

-

The Lesson, all discussion about anything other than Hip-Hop died. We used to go very in depth about Soul and R&B and Reggae, etc. But once they stopped posting that was all lost (apart from what we have in the archives).

like, you used to get dragged if you posted music stuff in GD (TAKE THAT ISH TO THE LESSON!)

but once that crossover became normalized, i figure just discuss music in GD where more people are around to discuss it.

and all these names pop up that aren't around anymore

i still check this place ALOT out of pure habit, but i'll go a few days without, and i never used to do that

I feel like any thought I have for a post is something I've done before lol

Bc this happens annually and OKP clearly doesn’t have a good process in place to refresh their certs

the few before that were 6 I think

used to take a few days to fix, now it's weeks

someone must be holding the godaddy password hostage

that in my mind was insane.

>that in my mind was insane.

true but I think the "tech staff" on this site is on an unpaid/volunteer status at this point so we get what we get

so I'm guessing that it either has its own SSL certificate (which has to be managed separately), or they're all on 1 certificate but perhaps there was a configuration change recently that broke something only for the subdomain.

FWIW I don't think OKP is dead, but things definitely move slower these days. I've always assumed that the boards are still kept alive more as a favor to the community vs. being tightly integrated with the main site(s), the way things were 15 years ago...

I'm grateful the boards are up at all, basically.

>FWIW I don't think OKP is dead, but things definitely move
>slower these days. I've always assumed that the boards are
>still kept alive more as a favor to the community vs. being
>tightly integrated with the main site(s), the way things were
>15 years ago...
>
>I'm grateful the boards are up at all, basically.
>

I've been on here for years. I come at least once a week. Often several times a week. I miss the old days too.

This is still the best site for snarky interactions, most things black entertainment. You can't beat the variety of black intelligencia in here.

It's still a place for well known posters to go poast.
Long live the boards. I am all for a change to revive the place. I don't know what will do the trick but I will keep on coming until the site shuts down

This site is getting Boomer-esque.

OKP imo is a pioneer in social media. It’s one of the first to create a community of artist and fans digitally. It documents mindsets through various historical events ie same sex marriage, 9/11, first black US president, the coronavirus pandemic, Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, Sweet Tea party and more without the media bias of FOX, CNN and others. Unlike most social media outlets there’s no extreme post blocking and for the mods that got to heavy headed, the community was well informed of their dismissal.

I don’t think there’s a digital community on the worldwide web that goes back as far as OKP with such an open view. Top it off this has gotta be one of the few places you can read years if not decades of progression within a community beyond surface (photos of physical accomplishments). Pick an old head and read their input from their first year of posting then zip to their last year of posting, hella growth.

There’s no reason to throw it away annnnd if the folks who created this platform don’t hold it, some white folks will revamp it as theirs. (Ie France and Britains hold on African artifacts and Living Single ripped off by Friends)

If I recall correctly it was the first forum of that size to break conversations out into fanbases the way Reddit famously does now. But they also either concurrently or shortly after created their own Something Awful/4chan page with The Vestibule, which inadvertently led to them establishing other spaces for mental and sexual minorities that were also really hard to engage with (I never could) until you established your need for them.


But as far as forums I still care about (if I had to guess, I last lurked an IGN forum in 2011) OKP definitely has a similar variety of culture in its archives...and most certainly a more mature, slightly less nerdy and considerably less basement dwelling whiteness. Plus as the blue-check oldheads will never let us forget, because they're right, what festered in the caves of 04-08 OKP blossomed in the light of 10-13 Twitter and pop culture is still digesting the consequences.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

mostly because i found it amusing when certain people would get upset at their post having low ratings. let's bring it back to spice things up.

if someone else remembers when the post rating were happening please advise. the posts would have stars (i think) next to them.

I'm surprised something that recent doesn't ring a bell for me at all.

ten years ago at most, but i'm not sure.

i've never not been here and i'm blanking.

They were usually pretty entertaining. I don't have it in me to go searching thru the archives but maybe some of them are in there.

Sounds vaguely familar.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

someone here will remember. i believe the starts were located all the way to the right of the screen. someone help me out please.

back at this site's heyday, we had blackplanet, migente, and myspace--> facebook was in process. there was still some anonymity folks could operate under, and not to be sinister, but to project career/public persona/whatever and still share well thought out and reasoned viewpoints. folks could also be irreverent as fuck, often hilariously.

as more social media platforms emerged and some folks grewed up, there just became less singular focus on this place. IG, Twitter, Tik Tok, are a full out assault on one's attention span and focus. the way in which people go back in forth in an overall much more respectful and thoughtful way on topics that they DO not agree on is mainly devoid on the aforementioned platforms. it is also extremely time consuming, because it takes time to think and not just kneejerk react like a prick. underscoring this, the core group of people who messed with this from 2000-2008 can't be replicated. new folks coming in won't get it, can't get it.


it's still a beautiful thing, and a marvel for it to have stood for as long as it did. i remember loosie.com tried a minute and wanted to paint itself as the antithesis to hear, but it definitely had too much white liberalness and in a smug way. this place clearly has a lot of white folk but it's a different feel and more humble. the fact that i pushed for a sports board on there but was jokingly always denied was a testament to how uniquely special and singular OkaySports truly is. Some of the most diverse, enlightened, experienced, and intelligent folk I've ever come across (pause..smile).

It would be nice (also monumentous as fuck) if someone could trim the fat and keep the good meat as archivable content that people could come back to read through. I mean the fact that we knew Desus before he went Hollywood, kind of cool.

even being able to see the beautifully irrational Kobe hate transition to the heartbreaking sentiments shared at/since his passing, there's nothing quite like okayplayer.

In addition to the Roots being who they were, not to mention all of Soulquarians, I think what kept these boards popping in the early late 90’s early 00’s was the ability to gather offline as well. To see we were real. It opened the door for like-minds to collab in artistry of all sorts including family building (okaybabies).

It’s hard to sustain something so organic in a digital space. Not to mention social media platforms leave out and limit social connecting. At OKP you don’t have to question if anyone out of your hundreds or more “friends” actually saw your post, if the ‘hearts’ or thumbs ups are real or ai generated, no worry of the fallout from your post being muted cause it doesn’t go along.

I’m hoping too that OKP will archive the boards. Lots of history here.