Den of Angels

I'm for expanding the off topic section, as well as for brands that have become more popular like tinyfox. 

My two cents is the way things are looking for the future of DoA, we are going to be getting an influx of resin doll owners regardless of if we are for or against it. We are, (as far as I can tell) the only other well established doll forum. There are reddit and discord, but many people don't favor those styles of communication and will come here instead.

So I think the practical and good faith move is to make a little space. It may not be that many people coming over, there is no way to be sure. But bad blood or not this is a niche hobby and we should try to act in good faith in a bad situation. If someone starts causing trouble, things can get sorted then.

I'm also for the expansion of the mod team if possible. I think this place is well loved and additional mod would set many peopes hearts at ease for any troubles that may come with the addition if many new faces at once.

 

I'm not too plugged in to the DoA / larger BJD community lately since a lot of it has moved to other platforms (facebook, insta, ??) that I'm just too old for, but it sounds like some of the DoA people are trying to build another successor forum of their own already. Like others have said, people who don't like vinyl dolls would probably not come here at all in the first place. I don't think this forum is well known enough to expect too big of an influx of people who aren't interested in vinyl dolls already, is it? (no shade intended, like I said, I mostly stick to here and just a few subforums on DoA so I may be clueless)

The way the forums are separated right now already does a pretty good job of weeding discussion away from company-bashing. Like, I'm not too interested in SmartDoll, so I just have that whole section minimized and don't give it a second thought. I imagine people who don't like AngelPhilia or any other style could just do the same, right?

Like @Monty said, just adding one or two subsections for resin discussion vs. resin photo threads sounds like a pretty good idea, the resin section as it is now feels too cluttered to really look through imo.

3 hours ago, sunlightandtea said:

Especially given the frequency and severity of some of the spam/phishing attempts that have been made on here lately.

Just so people are are aware, Averis may not post much, but he is actively policing spam and blocking URLs. 

 

3 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

perhaps enough time has passed or circumstances have changed that you could re-open this issue for discussion.

It has been re-opened by this thread, but I'm still going to be outvoted. I'm afraid I'm a bit too progressive in my beliefs on forum operations. 🤔

To be fair too, I have been less active for a few years due to sleep issues and associated exhaustion. I'm dozing most of the time I'm not working. During winter I was waking up too late in the afternoon too even take any photos given the shortened daylight hours.

 

I also would like if our Off Topic section was expanded in general and would be in favor of it allowing more discussion of resins. If DoA does close down, like Giragira said, I think people would naturally find their way here anyway, so if they're amenable to the culture here and follow the rules, I don't see why the forum couldn't accommodate them to a degree. My experience with DoA is/was very minimal because I also didn't especially enjoy being there, so I definitely don't want DD to change too much, but I do think us adapting in response to such a large forum closing down would be a positive progression. 

Just to clarify my previous post, I am not suggesting that we prepare to absorb DoA in its entirety. The population likely dwarfs ours by magnitudes and, again, those who are not at least interested in or like vinyl are unlikely to transition here regardless. What I am suggesting, however, is that the other major social medias are unlikely to be useful for coordinated efforts to get another DoA-like forum off the ground due to difficulties with searching/organization/prioritizing short-form content/etc. If nothing else, those looking to start spiritual successors or connect with lost DoA connections may end up using here as a stepping stone, which would still involve a temporary uptick in traffic and activity until other means of communication could be established.

Bare minimum, I don't think it would hurt to have a stickied thread in the resin section for people looking to reconnect with lost friends from DoA and those looking to advertise their social media/forums/websites.

18 minutes ago, Thespian said:

Bare minimum, I don't think it would hurt to have a stickied thread in the resin section for people looking to reconnect with lost friends from DoA and those looking to advertise their social media/forums/websites.

There are a few clothing makers / face-up artists who I plan on letting know they can post their services here. They have no issues with vinyls and the clothing maker I am thinking of has the measurements for DDS and SDGr from me.

oh. Shame about DoA. I didn't use it much, but it was a wealth of information regarding resin doll models.

I love my resin dolls, they are works of art, but I am drawn more to anime-esque vinyls.

Wouldn't mind an expansion, or at least better usability of the resin section.

I think if DoA does close, it'd be a great idea to expand the offtopic section for more resin dolls ^^

Obviously it'd likely require a lot of work, but if DoA does close down, I imagine there'll be many hobbyists looking for a forum space that is similiar. I believe there's already quite a big call for it amongst resin collectors ^^

There are certainly reasons behind this, I hope, but I do feel compelled to say one thing: It's highly irresponsible to hold the keys to such a large and important community and then disappear without passing the baton to someone else. I hope nothing serious has happened.

I had to let this one sink in because I am not very fond of DOA. I met there awesome helpful people but also met a few not awesome people in combination with the vibe there that made me quit DOA a few years ago. A few have crossed some of my personal borders. 
 

Even with what I mentioned above. I think we should welcome the members from DOA and expand our section. I believe that the people who will come here leave the toxic and the bad behaviour there. 
I always believed in the good side of people and I hope they prove me right. 

(But just in case: is it an idea to ad a rule against shaming and blaming? That was the point that drove me away from DOA.)

In the end we all have the same hobby. Regardless of the material the doll is made of. 

Edited Wednesday at 03:48 PM by Rajke
Misspelled something that could be interpreted differently than ment

Only just saw this since I'm not active here much these days

On 4/8/2026 at 10:47 PM, ragnamuffin said:

it’s also the talking through/at people instead of actually engaging with what they wrote

NGL I think a big part of this was pressure to make lots of posts because people wanted to get into the Marketplace. Still not good behavior, but it has an explanation I think.

That said, I don't think I can say much about what would be a good idea for this forum since I'm not super active here and ngl am more resin-BJD-focused these days re: what dolls I work on and acquire. I do think that it'd be cool to have more space to talk about those dolls, but I don't want to intrude in a space I'm not welcome (and I mean this in a completely lighthearted way- some spaces aren't "for" specific topics and I don't mind accepting that).

Re: Elitism and general negative outlook, I definitely agree DoA has plenty of symptoms of that, but it varied heavily by where you look. It really is(was)? a decently large community and I personally found I could avoid drama just due to luck of being in more chill circles. But then again I was also guilty of posting in threads more as if I was writing a blog post, a habit I have been trying to break, so other people with more interpersonal interactions might find it harder to coexist there, and maybe I was just lucky.

I do worry about what @BeyondTime is describing with forum software issues and mod issues though. I hope this forum itself is sustainable, and I absolutely don't want to fearmonger, but if it's not sustainable long term, that would be pretty upsetting to find out without warning as with DoA.

I've run and continue to run forum-based communities. I'm not privvy to the exact details of what's going on behind the scenes with the software, but at a glance, the issue is the tight integration between the Doll Directory, which looks like a bespoke piece or heavily customized from something others wrote (and aren't currently maintaining) and the forums, which themselves are customized from a standard Invision build.

As time passes, the forums start falling out of date because you don't want to break that important custom plugin, and it progressively becomes really hard to upgrade until you reach a point where your hand is forced, and you have to upgrade for critical reasons (like security).

I say all this because I've gone through this exact scenario before where I heavily customized a forum and wrote plugins for it that were specific to the community in question. The only solution is to upgrade and lose a little bit in the shorter term rather than risk losing everything. 

3 hours ago, chef_mai said:

The only solution is to upgrade and lose a little bit in the shorter term rather than risk losing everything. 

The new forum version is supposed to be less likely to have upgrade issues with apps. We just have a few specific ones it would suck to lose. I believe Averis is going to upgrade, but needs to schedule some time, and the forum may be offline while he does so. 

 

4 hours ago, Starwaia said:

I do worry about what @BeyondTime is describing with forum software issues and mod issues though. I hope this forum itself is sustainable, and I absolutely don't want to fearmonger, but if it's not sustainable long term, that would be pretty upsetting to find out without warning as with DoA.

It’s not going anywhere, and a lot of people still lurk even though they aren’t posting.

I told Averis I don’t mind helping with administration, but I don’t write code. We could potentially take on a new mod, but both are up to Averis.

 

19 hours ago, Starwaia said:

NGL I think a big part of this was pressure to make lots of posts because people wanted to get into the Marketplace. Still not good behavior, but it has an explanation I think.

Right, but people here also make lots of posts so they can enjoy the benefits of being a full member, and they usually interact with other users when doing so.

15 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I told Averis I don’t mind helping with administration, but I don’t write code. We could potentially take on a new mod, but both are up to Averis.

I’m wondering if you guys would be open to taking on new members not just as mods, but to help code stuff too? It sounds like there are two issues here: the recent increase in spam and a potential mass migration from DoA (which may necessitate new moderator(s)), and the issues with the plugins and re-writing the Doll Directory (which could be alleviated by bringing on people to help code). As mentioned both above and during the Zoom meetup, there are multiple users here that have experience running forums and using this (or similar) software.

I would like to bring to light that Armeleia, former owner of DenofAngels, has decided to work on a new forum and is collecting user-input feedback and ideas on their Instagram (*￣▽￣)b   Not to throw all the eggs in one basket, but I hope it's less stressful for everyone knowing that someone with forum experience is making a new one regardless.

Additionally, according to a post on BJD Addicts, there is also a user named Puerile Poppetry who is currently backing up the entire DoA website and will be making it available to access via shared drive. I wouldn't count on it too much and DoA is still going to stay up even after August, but it's worth noting at least.

 

I enjoy my time on DoA and appreciate it as an all-encompassing hub for everyone in the doll hobby to gather, but I do like Doll Dreaming for what it is - that is to say, not as the new all-encompassing hub.

In general it's recommended practice to back up anything important to you, and to have multiple backups! The situation with DoA is a good reminder of that.