History NetworkDecay / InfluencesOnOtherMedia

Nowadays most of Netflix's old catalog are exclusive to [[FollowTheLeader newer competing streaming sites]], and the the [=DVD=] rentals service has been shuttered (The [=DVD=] rentals were spun off to their own website, aptly titled [=DVD.com=], before Netflix ended the service in September 2023). However, as long as the site provides movies and TV shows through the internet, Netflix will always stay true to its name.

Nowadays most of Netflix's old catalog are exclusive to [[FollowTheLeader newer competing streaming sites]], and the [=DVD=] rentals have been spun off to their own website, aptly titled [=DVD.com=]. However, as long as the site provides movies and TV shows through the internet, Netflix will always stay true to its name.

* Website/MySpace resorted to a {{Retool}} in Fall 2010 due to fewer and fewer people using the site, having lost most of them to Platform/{{Facebook}}. The new CEO proclaimed that [=MySpace=] is no longer a social network, but "Social Entertainment", revamping itself into an entertainment site and alienating the few people who still used the site. This included a new logo, new homepage and a new profile layout. They were about to force everyone to upgrade their profiles to the new layout (though considering how many [=MySpace=] sites were considered ugly, this was considered an improvement) when the uproars of TheyChangedItNowItSucks caused them to back down and allow users to change their profiles back to how they originally looked, glitter [=GIFs=] and all. This still hasn't stopped people from abandoning the site, unfortunately, and it was sold for a pittance to a group which includes an ad agency and Music/JustinTimberlake.

* Platform/{{Wattpad}} is a social networking site meant for publishing online literature, in a serious fashion. It has also become a host to lots of {{Fanfiction}} and, thanks to its multimedia features, even text/art dumps similar to that of Livejournal and Website/{{Tumblr}}. Wattpad still shows off itself as an online literature host site, displaying such on its homepage, hosting annual awards for them, and even allowing their popular ones to be ''commercialized''.

* Website/BZPower used to be the biggest fansite for the Franchise/{{LEGO}} ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' franchise, although other LEGO themes were regularly featured in the news and discussed as well, and in its heyday in the early-to-mid 2000s the site's traffic numbered in the thousands at any given time. Around the time the toy line was put on a near 5-year hiatus and the forums were taken down for updates, which eventually lead to the loss of the site's archives and the deletion of various reference sections, the bulk of its userbase left. In the early 2010s, the site became an all-round LEGO themed news, discussion and review site, with entire sub-forums dedicated to the more fantasy or action-oriented LEGO themes, such as ''Hero Factory'', ''Ninjago'' or ''Legends of Chima''. However, after most of these brands were discontinued, including the failed ''[[Toys/{{Bionicle2015}} BIONICLE]]'' reboot itself, and the majority of the userbase segregated to other places (various Discord servers, Platform/YouTube, the rival fansite [[WebOriginal/PandemicPanda TTV]], and even Website/FourChan), [=BZPower=] lost what little relevance it had and only has a handful of active members. Yet it still keeps posting general LEGO-related news updates.\\

* The case with the Website/YouTube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGamerFromMars The Gamer From Mars]]. In the very beginning, the owner mainly showed video game reviews. After the success of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de3cONeaR_8 The Lavender Town Theory]]'' (which is the only video of his channel to have more than 1 million views) he decided to quit reviewing video games and focused more on discussing some fascinating theories that he found on the internet. He however has not stopped with making top 10 lists though, which he originally showed in between two video game reviews, but nowadays it is in between two video game theory videos.

* Website/MySpace resorted to a {{Retool}} in Fall 2010 due to fewer and fewer people using the site, having lost most of them to Website/{{Facebook}}. The new CEO proclaimed that [=MySpace=] is no longer a social network, but "Social Entertainment", revamping itself into an entertainment site and alienating the few people who still used the site. This included a new logo, new homepage and a new profile layout. They were about to force everyone to upgrade their profiles to the new layout (though considering how many [=MySpace=] sites were considered ugly, this was considered an improvement) when the uproars of TheyChangedItNowItSucks caused them to back down and allow users to change their profiles back to how they originally looked, glitter [=GIFs=] and all. This still hasn't stopped people from abandoning the site, unfortunately, and it was sold for a pittance to a group which includes an ad agency and Music/JustinTimberlake.

* Website/BZPower used to be the biggest fansite for the Franchise/{{LEGO}} ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' franchise, although other LEGO themes were regularly featured in the news and discussed as well, and in its heyday in the early-to-mid 2000s the site's traffic numbered in the thousands at any given time. Around the time the toy line was put on a near 5-year hiatus and the forums were taken down for updates, which eventually lead to the loss of the site's archives and the deletion of various reference sections, the bulk of its userbase left. In the early 2010s, the site became an all-round LEGO themed news, discussion and review site, with entire sub-forums dedicated to the more fantasy or action-oriented LEGO themes, such as ''Hero Factory'', ''Ninjago'' or ''Legends of Chima''. However, after most of these brands were discontinued, including the failed ''[[Toys/{{Bionicle2015}} BIONICLE]]'' reboot itself, and the majority of the userbase segregated to other places (various Discord servers, Website/YouTube, the rival fansite [[WebOriginal/PandemicPanda TTV]], and even Website/FourChan), [=BZPower=] lost what little relevance it had and only has a handful of active members. Yet it still keeps posting general LEGO-related news updates.\\

* Website/DeviantArt still focuses on being a website for users to generate and share their own artwork to others, but has spent the past couple years trying to {{Retool}} itself into an art-themed social-networking site. In addition, the "Deviant" part of the name has come into question, as the site has gained reputation for deleting artwork that they find to be risqué or outright pornographic, then again there is still a good-sized amount of pretty risqué artwork regardless, not to mention that there is still an [[ItsNotPornItsArt "Artistic Nude"]] category.

* The Website/YouTube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBZe0HUDEM3I_1pCU7nP8hQ/feed In Respect Of Maurice De Wilde]] was launched by a fan of the journalist ''Maurice De Wilde'' that wanted to KeepCirculatingTheTapes of his documentaries about UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 . He would eventually move on to KeepCirculatingTheTapes of Belgian documentaries about UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 that were made by other journalists.

* Website/YouTube was originally meant to be a medium for people to broadcast self-made videos (hence the motto, "Broadcast Yourself"). Then people started uploading copyrighted material so that others could watch their favorite shows and movies anywhere without the hassle of commercials or having to buy the DVD. Today, it seems most people go to [=YouTube=] for mostly clips or episodes of mainstream commercial shows, while the site deals with lawsuits from companies like Viacom, with [=YouTube=] accused of letting copyrighted material be posted to increase the site's exposure. This led to the creation of Vevo, which is backed by the industry and specifically caters to music.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/illumistream Illumistream]] (now known as Healthguru) used to be a general health channel on Website/YouTube, and they still do some general health advice videos. Then they started introducing a sex health segment. Then they started focusing more and more on sex health, to the point where it seemingly became their main focus. Then they started doing more and more videos on steamy sex confessions with little visible or tangential connection to actually health advice or even sex health advice, almost as if their whole intention now is to turn into a softer-than-softcore version of Penthouse or something. They have appeared to have learned the error of their ways and in the past several months returned to being a sex health/general health channel, with about an equal emphasis on the two.

* Website/GOGDotCom was originally designed to 1: provide quality old games, 2: do so at low prices and, 3: with no UsefulNotes/{{DRM}}. It has always had a few newish titles in its library, though all very much {{Cult Classic}}s (like ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' and ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'') and the newest titles being sequels (like one would get in the bundles that one would otherwise buy to get the old games) or spiritual successors to games that fit (such as ''VideoGame/UFOAfterBlank'' to the not carried ''VideoGame/XCom''). However, eventually they started selling ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' series due to GOG being owned by the company that makes the series. Eventually they rendered "GOG" as a meaningless acronym and started selling new games, usually for prices that aren't particularly low. However, much like TV Tropes itself, this doesn't take away from any of the old games on the site, which tend to sell the most, and games still do not come with DRM. (They ''have'' introduced a Steam-like client called ''Galaxy'', but it's completely optional)

[[AC:UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina]]
* Raleigh-Durham radio station WQDR inexplicably transformed from a rock station to a country station on September 1984, while still keeping the initials "QDR", which stands for "QuaDraphonic Rock". Of course, this led to lots of backlash.

* Encyclopedia Dramatica started out as a catalog for Website/LiveJournal drama and other internet culture. In the years since, the site has gradually deteriorated towards {{imageboard|s}} culture and trolling (part of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of a NewbieBoom) and getting the distinction of being the "Wikipedia for Trolls" in the process. Eventually, the head administrator, Sherrod "Girlvinyl" [=DeGrippo=], had enough and {{Retool}}ed the site in April 2011 into [=OhInternet=], which returned to the tradition at cataloging memes and internet culture while purging all the NotSafeForWork material and trolling culture and style. Users of the site, however, were infuriated, quickly setting up mirror websites as a replacement and bombarding [=DeGrippo=] with hate mail and death threats. Worse, [=OhInternet=] didn't catch on with new users, who accused it to be a Website/KnowYourMeme ripoff among other things, and it was shut down in 2013.

* Website/LiveJournal started out as the personal online journal of Brad Fitzpatrick way back in 1999 before becoming a blog hosting service. In 2011, however, its current owners (SUP Media) started plans to turn the site into a social media network like Facebook, [[http://manonon.livejournal.com/6816.html with a preview of the proposed new system here]]. Some changes have already been implemented, despite the loud protests of much of its userbase. These changes [[http://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/keep-your-customers-dont-pull-a-livejournal/ have also drawn criticism from observers]] and even sparked a migration to some of [=LiveJournal=]'s sister services, such as Dreamwidth. The site's current Russian-centric ownership which is bound to the political pressures of Moscow really isn't helping either.

* Platform/{{Wattpad}} is a social networking site meant for publishing online literature, in a serious fashion. It has also become a host to lots of {{Fanfiction}} and, thanks to its multimedia features, even text/art dumps similar to that of Website/{{Livejournal}} and Website/{{Tumblr}}. Wattpad still shows off itself as an online literature host site, displaying such on its homepage, hosting annual awards for them, and even allowing their popular ones to be ''commercialized''.

* US radio stations have an interdependent relationship with Billboard's charts (the charts reflect sales, sometimes online streams and airplay -- which is partly determined by the charts), making stations' playlists very susceptible to changes Billboard makes. In October 2012, they [[http://www.billboard.com/column/chartbeat/ask-billboard-chart-ch-ch-changes-1007979382.story included digital sales]] in chart calculations for rock, country, urban, Latin and other genre charts (the Hot 100, the rough equivalent of top 40 and almost entirely pop, already factored them in.) This doesn't sound like much, but it meant that artists with niche genre fanbases, like R&B singer/songwriter Miguel or country artist Music/EricChurch, saw their chart positions decimated by the likes of pop artists Music/{{Rihanna}} and Music/TaylorSwift -- ''in just one day''. The No. 1 song on the rap charts that day? Music/{{PSY}}'s "Music/GangnamStyle", a KPop song that technically has rapping but whose audience is clearly different than, say, Music/{{Drake}}'s. The UnfortunateImplications [[http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=94009#unread suggest themselves]].

* Social networking sites/apps in general have a tendency to try to become clones of one another, as they all jockey to be the one place users spend their online time. So Facebook tries to be Twitter, Twitter tries to be Facebook, Snapchat tries to be Instagram, Instagram (which has already been bought out by Facebook at this point) tries to be Snapchat and later [=TikTok=], and everybody else tries to integrate tightly with the big social networks (and maybe get bought out by them for big bucks). Whatever made any of the sites unique in the first place might get forgotten in the process.

* Website/{{Neopets}} followed a very similar path: bought by a major corporation (Viacom, via Nickelodeon), more product placement and intrusive advertising, virtual currency, slight bowdlerization, etc. The changes haven't been too major, but they are widely noted. Now they're owned by ''VideoGame/JumpStart'', and the site has gotten considerably worse since then with major features like Key Quest and Habitarium being purged, certain features e.g. the Almost Abandoned Attic glitching and being left unfixed and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an uncalled-for 55th pet, the Vandagyre]].

* The UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} rock station 102.1 The Edge (aka CFNY FM, "The Spirit Of Radio" that Music/{{Rush}} so famously wrote a song about) has suffered this, especially over the last few years. The station started broadcasting in 1961, and experienced a critically positive reception in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it was known as one of the few Canadian radio stations which played alternative music. In the late 1990s, the station was bought by Rogers Communications, and became another corporate rock station. Its programming was homogenized to a point that listeners started to rebel against the station, calling in for alternative songs during all-rock countdowns. Another buyout, this time by Corus Entertainment, completed the transfer of CFNY from truly independent to corporate radio that stifled all creativity. Its decline culminated in a round of layoffs in the company, which included two prominent DJ's: Barry Taylor (who hosted the Thursday block of programming, a traditionally dead block that flourished through his charisma and personality) and Martin Streek, who had worked at the station for over 20 years (he was part of the station's success in the 1980s) and hosted the weekend "live-to-air" events at Toronto clubs. Shortly after the two men were fired, the station whitewashed their biographies and any trace of their careers from the company's website. A few weeks later, Streek wrote a cryptic status message on Facebook ("So...I guess that's it...thanks everyone...I will see you all again soon (not too soon though)... Let the stories begin.") Soon after, Streek committed suicide, and many called The Edge to task for their non-existent coverage of his death. There may be The Edge, but The Spirit Of Radio has finally left the station for good. Though they play indie bands and Canadian alternative acts that are difficult to find on other stations, they mostly rely on alternative hits from the 90s-2010s, mostly ones that even non-alternative listeners are familiar with such as "[[Music/TheKillers Mr. Brightside]]" and "[[Music/{{Nirvana}} Smells Like Teen Spirit]]".

* XM had a hard rock/metal-oriented station called "The Boneyard" which played all kinds of hard rock and metal, new and old. It wouldnt be that odd to hear, for example, Music/YngwieMalmsteen followed by Bon Jovi. Once the XM/Sirius merger happened though, the Boneyard basically became a Classic Hard Rock station (lots of Music/{{ACDC}}, Music/BlackSabbath, Music/{{Rush}}) with some harder metal (Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/JudasPriest) thrown in. Meanwhile all the hair metal acts got moved over to Hair Nation. However, both stations mainly stick with the past (Boneyard will occasionally play a newer track by hard rock acts, but Hair Nation is for all intents and purposes a retro station).

* Website/{{Wattpad}} is a social networking site meant for publishing online literature, in a serious fashion. It has also become a host to lots of {{Fanfiction}} and, thanks to its multimedia features, even text/art dumps similar to that of Website/{{Livejournal}} and Website/{{Tumblr}}. Wattpad still shows off itself as an online literature host site, displaying such on its homepage, hosting annual awards for them, and even allowing their popular ones to be ''commercialized''.

** Really, motel brands as a whole. The whole point of a chain motel was to present a uniform experience for customers — i.e., they could count on consistent quality and amenities just based on the name out front. Some also differentiated themselves architecturally: Knights Inn had a castle-like appearance; Holiday Inn had blocky green buildings with giant, flashing neon signs; Super 8 had Bavarian architecture; Red Roof Inn had, well, its red roof; and so on. Now, re-branding runs so rampant that most chains are extremely diffuse in their offerings. You could stay at a really nice Motel 6 in one town and a really bad one in another, based almost entirely on what brand the building carried in its former life.

* Believe it or not, this almost happened to Creator/{{Disney}} in the mid-2000s. At that time, then-CEO Creator/MichaelEisner decided to convert their historic feature animation division into an all-CGI studio in an effort to mostly compete with Creator/DreamWorksAnimation[[note]]Given that Dreamworks Animation is the brainchild of Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had a major grudge against Eisner even back when he was a Disney employee in the 90's...[[/note]], which was outstripping their films in popularity by that point. Despite their acquisition of the Creator/{{Pixar}} animation studio during that same time, between this and Creator/DisneyChannel's focus on tween-centric entertainment in the wake of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' and ''Series/HannahMontana'''s popularity people started to think the company was changing itself into a tween-star-spewing factory rather than an entertainment company focusing on animation and family entertainment. This turned around in TheNewTens when their in-house animation studio yielded up its biggest hits in decades starting with ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', though they permanently gave up on hand-drawn animation at the same time (after its much-anticipated revival with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' didn't prove profitable at the box office).

* Franchise/StarWars.com had plenty of content, from humorous "[[CaptionHumor subtitle this pic]]" to a database on items, characters and places. Now it's much more streamlined, to the point that the database pages are simple, leaving most of the content to be found on links to [[TheWikiRule Wookieepedia]], and much (but not all) of the previous pages [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes can only be found on the Internet Archive]].

* Don't get any [[strike:cranky old broadcasting codgers]] industry veterans started on Clear Channel. Or JackFM. Or voicetracking, where a DJ in Philly fakes that he knows all about "the haps" in Walla Walla.

* The network decay for commercial stations in Britain came when Creator/GlobalRadio (who bought out GCap, a hybrid of GWR & Capital Radio Group rebranded "heritage stations" into Heart (softer, more female music) or Capital (generic top 40, usually with Music/KatyPerry in StupidStatementDanceMix format - note the station is named after 95.8 Capital FM). People were not amused. Personality-driven radio, which is common [[EaglelandOsmosis in North America]], was common in Britain, until 2008, for GCap until Global came in.

** Speaking of [=YouTube=], the COPA implementation of 2020 was mainly done automatically, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids causing videos not meant for kids to be flagged as being for children]]. This has lead to bizarre situations ranging from television commercials (especially those with animated or puppet mascots) and GameShows having kids' shows like ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' and ''WebVideo/RyanToysReview'' in the recommended section to adult animated sitcoms and WebAnimation/YouTubePoop displaying an ad to watch them on [=YouTube=] Kids and automatically disabling comments.