Its core community, predominantly composed of anonymous posters, shares news, opinions, gossip, personal stories, and political views from a gay perspective.
While the forum guidelines nominally require posters to be respectful of others, much of the site's appeal lies in its appreciation of wit, satire, and "pointless bitchery."
Following its closure, Out.com users were redirected to DataLounge, which adopted Out.com’s discussion forums, dating service, and weekly survey.
Users were also given the ability to customize aspects of the site's layout, including filtering out political, gossip, and/or "Flames and Freaks" (troll) threads.
The 2005 redesign also introduced a policy change that restricted access to the DataLounge Forum during high-traffic "Primetime" periods to fee-paying subscribers.
DataLounge administrators explained that the Primetime policy was necessary to prevent server slowdowns affecting other Mediapolis-hosted sites and to generate revenue for hosting, bandwidth, and maintenance expenses.
In another effort to manage trolling, the latest iteration of DataLounge uses cookie-based tracking to assign "reputation" to site visitors.
Previously, posters had the option to remain completely anonymous, post under any name of their choosing (as mentioned above), or be authenticated by registering with a unique email address.
In May 2019, DataLounge implemented mandatory email-based registration as an additional measure to combat trolling, while still allowing users to post anonymously.
Another much-revered DataLounge character is "Momma," who frequently reports on the latest crime sprees and the attractive imprisoned "cagemeat" she would like to date.
[8] In recent years, the site has been inundated with news items, discussions, and threads that take on an obsessive quality, often focused on narratives about celebrities and their personal relationships.
[citation needed] DataLounge made mainstream news in February 2005 when a "friendly spy," claiming to work at ABC posted that Desperate Housewives actress Marcia Cross was preparing to come out as a lesbian in an upcoming issue of The Advocate.
Within days, the rumor spread rapidly and garnered mentions in the media, including CNN, Entertainment Weekly, and Fox Television's Los Angeles affiliate.
Many DataLounge posters assumed that Cross—who was believed by many to be a closeted lesbian, due to direct assertions made by gossip columnist and DataLounge user Michael Musto, as well as the fact that she had not publicly dated a man since her then-boyfriend Richard Jordan died of a brain tumor in 1993—had entered into a relationship of convenience at the urging of her PR team to quash the rumors about her sexual orientation.
"[citation needed] In 2017, talk show host Andy Cohen criticized DataLounge, calling the website a "vile pit of trollery.