Log in | Register
Forum > General / Nonfiction > Thread

The end of an era. R.I.P. Diana the Valkyrie and its webmaster after 27 years in operation

Apr 01, 2024 - edited Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Some people were reporting a few days ago that they could not access Diana The Valkyrie, and unfortunately, it's because the site is no more. After 27 years, the site shut down when its owner passed away. It looks like it was confirmed when someone tried to submit a story (after a period of no new stories getting published) and was told of what happened. https://x.com/Diana_Valkyrie/status/175817127... https://twitter.com/Ritualist_dA/status/17734...

Normally I'm not one to be overly sentimental to stuff like this, nor do I get nostalgic as often, but hearing this weighs pretty heavy on me for a couple reasons. The first is that thevalkyrie.com was one of the first, if not THE first, site that I discovered that truly opened the floodgates to female bodybuilding and muscular women as a kink, and to me discovering at the young age of 13/14 in 2000/2001 that there were a bunch of other people out there like me who were also into this. It sounds cheesy but it was like the cliche beam of light that shined down from the heavens on me. The site also taught me an unintentional harsh lesson about how something like this can easily turn into an obsession (easier to do now given how much more content there is compared to back then,) and that it takes conscious work to enjoy it without letting it consume my life.

What I also found amazing about this site is that it was, to my knowledge (and please correct me if I am wrong) the ONLY fetish/kink site that sponsored bodybuilding competitions (I remember seeing their banner at a New York Muscle Club competition) and athletes. Hell, they had a BOOTH as The Arnold back in 2002 where they promoted strength competitions.

The second reason (and as a forewarning, it's a bit morbid so I apologize if I bring the mood down a bit,) it kind of made me reflect on mortality and the fact that we are all getting older and that nothing lasts for ever. One of my favorite bands, The Midnight, centers their music and lyrics on the theme of "mono no aware", a Japanese saying that loosely means: "a sense of nostalgic wistfulness and the awareness that nothing lasts forever." I discovered the site at 13/14, and now I'm 36. I feel heaviness and sorrow with that, as I also do with seeing institutions and places that I grew up with shuttering, entertainers and artists that I followed for decades retiring, and loved ones dying.

But I think there is also joy to be found in that. Because if we lived forever and things never ended, would we really appreciate memories like I'm sure lots of us have with a site like this? It teaches me (and I hope my post reminds you of such) to enjoy the fact that we can look back fondly on things and people that aren't around anymore, while at the same time not forgetting to enjoy just living in the present.

So here's to you, Diana (and the webmaster.) Thank you for being such an integral part of this world and for being a gateway for many of us. And here's to everybody on this forum and those who are into this who may not be here: I hope all of you take a moment to reminisce on a happy memory of something and/or someone no longer with us, and that you enjoy the present life to the fullest. And of course, here's to a long and happy life for everyone.

And speaking of The Midnight, here is a song from them that hits perfectly every time. Hope you enjoy :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7EPO9Rtyqw

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

I agree with you, very sad. I was a member for a lot of years, although I hung it up sometime ago. I just found that I was going there less and less, especially after a lot of the message boards were closed down. I first met -Jabber (remember him?), Tre, Mike E. and a few others there :). I read a ton of the stories there. Well, rest in peace, DTV wherever you are. It was fun for a lot of years.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink
Deleted by Tyrex51
Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Wow, nicely said Gatsby… was almost the same experience for me. Really so sad. Is there any info on who the owner was?

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Maybe someone/company can take control of it and not let it die. It'll be really sad if the site can't be brought back in some iteration. The stories were a lot of fun.

MGL
Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Has anyone archived the catalog of stories?

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

yea it a bummer it seemed like that site was so basic and had been around for such a long time it seemed like it would survive the apocalypse. i could always rely on it when i had very shit internet or hardware .like i used to go to a boarding school they banned video game consoles and laptops. no wifi we only had nokia brick phones 2g internet slower than dial up 96p screen that could go online but were so primitive even wikipedia wouldn't load on it and i could only use a few megabytes before they shut the internet off. but Diana the Valkyrie worked used maybe 100kb and i could read these stories on the toilet without anyone knowing.

or at some point i had a Nintendo ds and again 99% of the 2009 internet didn't work on it. yet Diana the Valkyrie worked and i was able to read stuff in private .when my sister was using the laptop or t was broken for the 100th time that year .even more recently only 5 years ago i was in an hotel in another country and the wifi was so shitty nothing worked expect for you know.

and i have also started learning Italian and Spanish recently .and there are a lot of hidden gems out there on there that i missed out on in those languages .trying to find these stories on other sites can be annoying since they cater to all fetishes and you end up reading something gross or just very random Diana the Valkyrie was pure female muscle and even things like futa were rare. i think there is a more modern trend were people try to combine multiple fetishes into 1. but that didn't seem common in the 90s and 2000s .

this site inspired me to become a writer myself since i had some fantasies but i can't draw anything. i post my stories on deviant art because i thought you had to be a paying member just to post anything so this is a pretty bad business model in modern times and i am surprised it lasted so long. i like deviant art but i don't trust them since they may randomly decide to ban my stuff.

i naïvely thought the site was perfectly preserved on the wayback machine. but it seems a lot of stuff posted after 2018 is lost and a lot of stories that used accents or had limited graphics are messed up too. at least its better than more complex sites that are messed up because they use too much images or JavaScript or flash. even this site is quite messed up on the wayback machine.

i sometimes wondered what would happen to smaller sites when the owners die of old age .i hoped the owner was young when it got started and is now about 50 and would keep it going fr another 30 years and then sell the site or give it to a friend or at least archive everything or give us a warning that he was very ill and the site could shut down at any moment .but seems like he was older or had cancer or had an unexpected accident and didn't give the site to a successor or sold it. i also wonder what will happen to this site in the distant future? there isn't a lot o stuff similar to this left .

i first found that site in 2007 when i got my own laptop and kept searching body scissor one of the result's was sex and scissors a matter of life and death by tom walker from 1997. i ofcourse clicked it since most results didn't involve sex directly. but at first i didn't see the appeal of a story compared to images .but my internet was so bad i gave it a chance and it was very hot because it described the feelings of the character something you can't see in a video and i kept coming back.

like i told my friend once that i used to watch text based porn and he looked at me a boomer despite being only 2 years younger than me .but this stuff is still popular among many people because its very hot to be able to read about how the characters feel. you are not going to experience that and often you probably wouldn't want to anyway and you wont notice it in a video

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Yes, this site was the go to place after the magazines of the 80s and early 90s.... and yes it does bring awareness to our mortality.

It was much appreciated.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Diana the Valkyrie was the best!

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Some people were reporting a few days ago that they could not access Diana The Valkyrie, and unfortunately, it's because the site is no more. After 27 years, the site shut down when its owner passed away. It looks like it was confirmed when someone tried to submit a story (after a period of no new stories getting published) and was told of what happened. https://x.com/Diana_Valkyrie/status/175817127... https://twitter.com/Ritualist_dA/status/17734...

Normally I'm not one to be overly sentimental to stuff like this, nor do I get nostalgic as often, but hearing this weighs pretty heavy on me for a couple reasons. The first is that thevalkyrie.com was one of the first, if not THE first, site that I discovered that truly opened the floodgates to female bodybuilding and muscular women as a kink, and to me discovering at the young age of 13/14 in 2000/2001 that there were a bunch of other people out there like me who were also into this. It sounds cheesy but it was like the cliche beam of light that shined down from the heavens on me. The site also taught me an unintentional harsh lesson about how something like this can easily turn into an obsession (easier to do now given how much more content there is compared to back then,) and that it takes conscious work to enjoy it without letting it consume my life.

What I also found amazing about this site is that it was, to my knowledge (and please correct me if I am wrong) the ONLY fetish/kink site that sponsored bodybuilding competitions (I remember seeing their banner at a New York Muscle Club competition) and athletes. Hell, they had a BOOTH as The Arnold back in 2002 where they promoted strength competitions.

The second reason (and as a forewarning, it's a bit morbid so I apologize if I bring the mood down a bit,) it kind of made me reflect on mortality and the fact that we are all getting older and that nothing lasts for ever. One of my favorite bands, The Midnight, centers their music and lyrics on the theme of "mono no aware", a Japanese saying that loosely means: "a sense of nostalgic wistfulness and the awareness that nothing lasts forever." I discovered the site at 13/14, and now I'm 36. I feel heaviness and sorrow with that, as I also do with seeing institutions and places that I grew up with shuttering, entertainers and artists that I followed for decades retiring, and loved ones dying.

But I think there is also joy to be found in that. Because if we lived forever and things never ended, would we really appreciate memories like I'm sure lots of us have with a site like this? It teaches me (and I hope my post reminds you of such) to enjoy the fact that we can look back fondly on things and people that aren't around anymore, while at the same time not forgetting to enjoy just living in the present.

So here's to you, Diana (and the webmaster.) Thank you for being such an integral part of this world and for being a gateway for many of us. And here's to everybody on this forum and those who are into this who may not be here: I hope all of you take a moment to reminisce on a happy memory of something and/or someone no longer with us, and that you enjoy the present life to the fullest. And of course, here's to a long and happy life for everyone.

And speaking of The Midnight, here is a song from them that hits perfectly every time. Hope you enjoy :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7EPO9Rtyqw

Would be nice if owners of sites like that one - AND THIS ONE - had some kind of arrangement to pass the site onto someone capable of continuing it.

I hope there is an arrangement in place for this one.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Oh no -- if new Sandi Stone stories are written, where will they appear???

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

I share the same sentiment as some of you here. thevalkyrie.com and brawna.org are one of the first websites I came across at an young age of 13 in 2008. These websites gave me a new way to explore my female muscle fetish via text based stories. The websites were simple enough to load on the slowest Internet connections.

While brawna was shutdown years ago, theValkyrie remained as last hope. I had never thought that I will see this day, to see the end of the Valkyrie, but as some of you mentioned it acts as a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

May the webmaster rest in peace and thank you for all your years of service towards this community.

PS: If someone is interested it might be possible to get the data from waybackmachine

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Oh no, the death of a piece of nostalgia.

I am surprised it sponsored bodybuilding competitions though.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

All these questionable stories about muscular stepdaughters and sisters, now they are gone... I read some of them... but of course just to improve my English 😉

fp909
Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Has anyone archived the catalog of stories?

it SHOULD be available on the web archive indefinitely. lord knows its been up long enough to take several snapshots. though some stories have moved around all the years.

however, all the media behind the paywalla is gone.

fp909
Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Oh no, the death of a piece of nostalgia.

I am surprised it sponsored bodybuilding competitions though.

this was ages ago, and AFAIK it was only nyc muscle club? dunno if they did any true shows.

fp909
Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

The second reason (and as a forewarning, it's a bit morbid so I apologize if I bring the mood down a bit,) it kind of made me reflect on mortality and the fact that we are all getting older and that nothing lasts for ever. One of my favorite bands, The Midnight, centers their music and lyrics on the theme of "mono no aware", a Japanese saying that loosely means: "a sense of nostalgic wistfulness and the awareness that nothing lasts forever." I discovered the site at 13/14, and now I'm 36. I feel heaviness and sorrow with that, as I also do with seeing institutions and places that I grew up with shuttering, entertainers and artists that I followed for decades retiring, and loved ones dying.

as ive gotten older and more mature the frustration i felt when bodybulders retired or left the scene has gone out the window. we're all human, our window of opportunity to LIVE is limited, and I won't begrudge anyone their choices in how they choose to live their life (if it really is a voluntary choice, and if it's not of their own volition then it becomes very unfortunate).

in the case of DTV, for many of us it was ever present. it was only 5-6 years old when i stunbled upon it for the first time and it's been a constant ever since, although i have to wonder how much work was put in after the first decade. those years really were a wonder. TONS of writers posting new, good stuff every week. i know that stories aren't as popular as they once were but as far as things that have stuck with me over the years or inspired me, there are dozens of stories from the early 00s that really just stuck in my craw.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

I am a relative stranger to GWM but David in our customer service dept. shared your forum post about DTV with me today. I heard a couple weeks ago about the passing of DTV and was sincerely saddened. A lot of time has flown by and things come and go but Rowena and I have to say that if not for us coming across DTV back in 1998 on or 28k dial up modem running on aol we would not have had the epiphany that made us start up Awefilms. Once we saw there was a world community of female muscle fans like us, no matter how small in comparisons to other fetishes, we would have never started our company. It is impossible to measure the enormous impact that site had on us over the years. RIP Diana. Steve & Rowena Scibelli

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Diana the Valkyrie, will always hold a very special place in my heart. I was already buying videos and photo sets from WPW, so I knew there were others, in the world like me. DtV however, gave me the absolute privilege, to converse with others, about my passion for strong, muscular women!

For the younger guys on here, who were heavily exposed to the world of Muscle Girls, due to the internet, finding others to share experiences and favorites with, may not seem like a big deal. However for older gents like myself, who hid our deep, dark, secret love for "Femuscle" from everyone, finding DtV, was like finding an oasis in the desert.

Fistman, Tre', Jabber and many others were so enjoyable to chat with. I also conversed openly with several female bodybuilders. Diana the Valkyrie was a treasure for me.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

Oh wow, that's a bummer. DtV was definitely the gateway drug for millions of us. I remember it well and fondly. Sorry to hear that...

Apr 01, 2024 - edited Apr 02, 2024 - permalink

I was a member in the 2000s. The galleries may have looked very basic but back then they were what the technology allowed. The format and the online membership subscription payment facility was passed on to other early sites like Herbiceps and others. Then as online technology progressed, it did remain as a time capsule anachronism still written in non- responsive HTML. Other than on thousands of past members' computers, I doubt the content has been preserved though which is a great loss.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

WPWmax has also been down for a number of days.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink

There were a couple werewolf stories on Valkyrie I enjoyed. I wish guys wrote more of those.

Apr 01, 2024 - permalink
Deleted by thatguy888
« first < prev Page 1 of 5 next > last »