Dark Culture has a long and sorted history. It began in 1997 when the internet was still a fairly new phenomenon. At the time, there weren’t a lot of “gothic” oriented sites and there certainly weren’t any that provided news, coming events, or articles of interest to the dark/gothic communities. I finally decided that if I wanted something done, I should do it myself. I taught myself HTML and started The Gothic Preservation Society.

The Gothic Preservation Society (or GPS as it later came to be known) was a content-filled web magazine with news, articles, interviews, stories, poetry, and commentary. We had several regular columnists and a pretty good following. Over the years, the GPS was updated fairly regularly. However, after numerous catastrophic host and server mishaps (one host simply disappeared in the night and never came back) and several total losses of data, I realized that it was time for a change. I decided that we had to stay firm to our roots, but also look to the future.

Late 2001, The Gothic Preservation Society changed it’s name and became Dark Culture Magazine. The focus would remain on written content, but I also wanted to concentrate on new music. In 2004, Dark Culture Radio was born. Podcasting hadn’t quite hit the mainstream, so I ran a stream via Live365 and changed the rotation frequently. Due to the limitations of Live365’s free service, I was overjoyed when the podcasting medium became more publicly accessible.

In July 2005, I recorded and published the first Dark Culture Radio podcast – which was sometimes known as “Podcast Dark Culture”. For the first few years, I managed to record new shows weekly and monthly. Over time, life changed. I went to school and started my career, I fell in love and got married. Somewhere on the side-lines, Dark Culture remained gathering dust, as writers moved onto new (and more profitable) ventures and I found I just didn’t have the time to give the site what it needed. I was no longer able to dedicate 10 hours a day, make frequent runs to the post office, chase after writers, or write content myself. Despite half-baked schemes to generate revenue, the site never actually made any money. I could no longer afford to spend my days on a project that wasn’t even paying for itself.

Here and there, I would find a few spare moments to record a new podcast, but the glory days of The Gothic Preservation Society and Dark Culture Magazine were far gone. It was no longer a magazine, in any sense of the word. Somewhere in between, new and better gothic/dark magazine popped up. These people had more time than me, were better at it, and had figured out the system I never could. Truth is, the web had changed, the scene had changed, and so had I.

Whenever the domain name comes up for renewal, I labor over what I should do about it. Should I allow Dark Culture to finally rest in peace, become another footnote in the archives of the internet, or can I find a way to bring it back to life? As of December 2009, I still can’t say. I do, however, know that what I always loved about the GPS and Dark Culture was the music. I enjoy doing the podcast and I love looking for new bands. I will continue to do the podcast, but as for the magazine aspect of the site, I’m afraid that’s ancient history. Besides, the gothic scene isn’t what it used to be. It’s morphed into a blend of Hot Topic meets Twilight meets Emo. I’m too old for that crap. I’ve always been about the music and I always will be.

What will the future hold? I have no damn idea.