How's that story go?
Step by step....inch by inch....
It's hard to say when the actual lowering of the curtain occurred for the Jake Gyllenhaal fansite, Wet, Dark and Wild. By at least early November of 2013, the administrator (who was active on Twitter) was openly trying to find someone to take over the blog. I say "openly" because literally, an offering for the website was extended to another Jake Gyllenhaal fan via a tweet conversation.
I know that by January 30, 2014, Wet Dark and Wild was still posting, but by April of that year, I had made an observation that many of the old familiar Jake fan twitter accounts were rarely seen posting on online as they had in the past. I can't help but attribute this lack of activity to several factors, but likely highlighted by 1) the unexpected passing of popular tweeter @Mermon7 and 2) Jake's movie role choices and large decline in visibility and appeal.
On January 2, 2015, administrator Kate published a goodbye to her readers. No longer visible online, the following is an excerpt from the post entitled, "Happy New Year and all best wishes as WDW closes its bar doors"
I've had such a wonderful time here over the years and I'm so sad to say goodbye. I think it will be very hard for me in the coming days and weeks. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a bit teary now. Not surprisingly really, as running WDW has been one of the best and most satisfying things I have done in my entire life. I wouldn't dream of deleting the blog - there are riches in the WDW archives so do dive in! I know I will. Who knows? I may pop back. Never say never again as someone once said. And I can always be found on Twitter if you want to say hello. I will always be Wetdarkandwild.
Well, look at that. "I wouldn't dream of deleting the blog". Looks like the administrator was acknowledging and appreciating the obvious fact that her site was indeed an archive of valuable information.
This past Sunday on Aug 6, M&M
and I discovered that at some point along the
way, Wet, Dark and Wild had gone totally dark: aka "no outlet". Aka "truly nothing to see here". As late as November 5, 2016, WDW was still visible online because Narnia Dispatches had searched many Jake websites in search of a particular video, and WDW was one of them. See source
There is a link which will take you to a web page that looks like the fan website, but what you are met with is a statement by someone named Rob Wickings. His page is dated January 5, 2015. The following are three excerpts although we have now deleted the URL because a link which is on his site leads to inappropriate content:
[I
come to celebrate, not to mourn. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be sad.
In a move last week that tilted the infant 2015
into ‘crappy’, friend of the blog (and good mate IRL) Kate Atherton announced
that she was shuttering her long-running Jake Gyllenhaal fan-site, Wet Dark And
Wild. I have many feels about this.]
[Rather
than just delete the site, Kate’s letting it stand as a monument to past
glories. As the designer of the site logo, this pleases me–even if she never
did let me use the full res version of the artwork.]
[For
now, though, I’m simply glad that WDW is there. A little shot of Gyllenhaal in
the dark.]
Hmmm. "I'm simply glad that WDW is there." Well, something seems to have happened since that day in January because when you click on his link to see the administrator's goodbye, you are met with a salmon colored web page which tells you the domain is for sale .
At the height of Jake's popularity, there were multiple fan blogs, many inspired after the release of Brokeback Mountain. Trying to find an active one today will provide an extreme challenge. Many civilian fan twitter accounts have gone inactive, now replaced by a new breed of "stan accounts", often with some form of "Gyllen" in their tweet name. These new accounts began springing up like dandelions in 2014 and to this day, continue to sprout.
Wet, Dark and Wild was a big dog, along with the Dave Cullen Forum website, the original Waiting for Toothy, Gyllenbabble and later on, Oh My Godot. DC Forum imploded due to a dwindling supply of Fan Fic writers, but also stifling intimidation and censorship. DCF is now a ghost town, although still breathing. The original Waiting for Toothy is long gone, now replaced by its kindred spawn, Waiting for Toothy 2, a website whose proclaimed purpose was all about hanging out, with other like-minded posters, waiting for Jake Gyllenhaal to come out of the closet. Much later the site curiously changed to a Jake and Austin blog, but really only to hyper focus on selling the notion that Austin Nichols-Is-Straight, which was completely contrary to everything Ted Casablanca ever wrote about Gray Goose.
Gyllenbabble is still active as well, a good resource for Jake's professional activities, but like the DC Forum, thumbs its nose down at talk of Jake's "personal" life, unless, of course, it pertains to a "new woman".
Oh My Godot? OMG is an extensive archive of Jake AND Austin Nichols history dating back to 2007. Jake's social media team ensured that Oh My Godot would not survive online activity by using a troll(s) to spam discussions 24/7 by 2016 so much so until moderation was a necessity everytime bloggers tried to discuss any topic. Eventually, cyberbullying the blog into silence. Special K, very much still a Jake-Austin and Family Tile believer, has thankfully kept the blog available in its original form and did recently post, so never say never with Oh My Godot.
This aggressive, silencing attack on free and open discussion however, created the birth of Narnia Dispatches, a closed community where Jake's Team has tried in so many ways to infiltrate, but has continued to be unsuccessful. Interesting, isn't it, that none of these other Jake Gyllenhaal blogs experienced the foul, relentless trolling that Oh My Godot did?
It will probably remain a mystery about the total disappearance of WDW, but the picture remains clear that Jake's team are drawing shutters, closing windows, and sealing doors. The first sign was the firing of Ted Casablanca within six months of Jake signing with WME in 2012, and the expunging has only continued since then. Articles being deleted from the Internet, links removed, dates altered, twitter accounts suddenly inactive or privated, etc.
Let's just say, it's gettin' mighty lonely out here. ;-)
pic sources: Giphy, PBase
our playlist: Disappear - INXS
Thinking About You - Norah Jones
That Ain't No Way To Go - Brooks & Dunn
Kiss Goodbye - Little Big Town
