What the holy moly has happened to HolyMoly! ?

I used to be an avid reader and contributor to a celebrity news and gossip website called HolyMoly! which could be reached at www.holymoly.co.uk.

The website was a great online place to go with little or even no moderation - a real "free speech" zone. I never went there for the celebrity gossip - far from it - but a little area of the site called "cunts corner". Cunts corner was a place for people to go and to nominate people/things which they felt were worthy of being nominated as a cunt. Such entries regularly included celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Dean Gaffney, but and also included products, radio stations, computer programmers, food stuffs, TV programs and everyday life experiences. Users were able to follow-up on nominations and this resulted in the regulars getting to know each other well (users such as BASIC, Bastardo, Big Vern, Little Leopard and Saleofthecentury to name but a few) and an online community thrived. Some responses were witty – some were just plain shit, but it was funny either way.

In addition to cunts corner there were other areas of the site where users could nominate their life heroes as well as discuss everyday issues in open forums. The posted were called “moles” and moderation was weak (which meant that users were able to voice their opinions with little or no recourse).

The effective (if somewhat basic) format of HolyMoly meant that the site was heavily used and it rapidly became popular. I used the site for years. However, as time went on the site gradually became more and more commercial and opened itself up to the owner as a great way to easily earn advertising revenue. With that came increased moderation, much more advertising and the site was generally toned down. They renamed Cunts Corner “the Corner” and started to moderate users more heavily.

Eventually, HolyMoly sold out (some would say sold itself short) to PremiumTV and the site was overhauled in October 2008 with disastrous effects. Not only did the revamp result in it being a slow as a piece of Jeremy Clarkson’s editorial, but the new look was very clumsy and quite messy in some places. Certain browsers just couldn’t handle it - even a simple task such as logging out became and issue.

So, after 3 years of being an avid fan, I hung up my HM boots and called it a day – after all there are hundreds of sites out there now that offer a good adult format – and I don’t have to put up with zillions of adverts and slow graphics to enjoy the sites.


There are too many websites that want to be like Facebook and My Space but many more users that just don’t desire all the crap that those sites seem to carry. Shame on you HM, I have no doubt the reduction in the level of visits your site now receives makes you regret selling out.