Omegle, the site that paired up strangers for 1-on-1 chats and, uh, other stuff, has closed: 'Frankly, I don't want to have a heart attack in my 30s,' founder says
Do you remember Omegle? It launched in 2009 as a chat service with a twist: Instead of picking a server to join or people to talk to, users were randomly paired up for one-on-one chats with anonymous strangers from around the world. That sure sounds like a terrible idea, doesn't it? And sure enough, racism and discrimination, pornography, and child abuse were all persistent problems the site faced. Yet it continued to operate for more than 14 years, until earlier this week when site founder Leif K-Brooks announced that he's pulled the plug.
«Over the years, people have used Omegle to explore foreign cultures; to get advice about their lives from impartial third parties; and to help alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation,» K-Brooks wrote in a lengthy shutdown announcement. «I’ve even heard stories of soulmates meeting on Omegle, and getting married. Those are only some of the highlights.»
But he also acknowledged that there was plenty of the opposite, too, writing, «There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.»
Without going into details, K-Brooks said Omegle has in recent years become the subject of «attacks» from users unhappy with its policies and procedures, which is what ultimately drove the decision to close the service.
«The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service,» he wrote. «Sometimes they say so, explicitly and avowedly; other times, it can be inferred from their act of setting standards that are not humanly achievable. Either way, the net result is the same.
»Omegle is the direct target of these attacks, but their ultimate victim is you: all of you out there who have used, or would
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