What was it like to be on Exhale during 2006/2007/2008?

[thesimplelife]

38 minutes ago, ppiotr said:

back then i always thought the melt down was from when her aunt sandra passed. She died from cancer right before britney shaved her head.   . . I thought britney shaved her head in a mental breakdown because she lost her aunt sandra. Other people thought it was because of dr**s, i never did

I think it was a mixture of things. the passing of her aunt, the divorce, adderall abuse and mostly untreated postpartum depression. Most people don’t understand how serious it is, they undermine it a lot. I’ve met women that went through it and it almost killed them. And with having kids so close together like Britney did it gets worse! 

Edited Yesterday at 01:08 AM by thesimplelife

[thesimplelife]

40 minutes ago, descg said:

Theards of 53 pages every day.

God I need to read these 

[Body ache]

It was like the pits of hell 

[J2thB]

It was such a crazy time to be a fan! Breaking News on a daily basis! The amount of money photogs and media made off her could feed a small country! Maybe even a big one 😂

[thesimplelife]

10 minutes ago, J2thB said:

It was such a crazy time to be a fan! Breaking News on a daily basis! The amount of money photogs and media made off her could feed a small country! Maybe even a big one 😂

she was single-handedly keeping tabloids, TMZ, and X17 alive

Edited Yesterday at 02:26 AM by thesimplelife

[Isla]

Forum must have been blowing up especially in 2007/2008 during Britney’s breakdown, the hospitalisation, the cship becoming a thing etc. and of course when Blackout and Circus are released.

I’m curious about 2006 as that was a much “quieter” year in comparison. 

[thesimplelife]

13 minutes ago, Isla said:

I’m curious about 2006 as that was a much “quieter” year in comparison. 

Me too. November 2006 started off well; the GP was on her side with the divorce (even TMZ was rooting for her). Then the partying with Paris started (no underwear era), and it all went downhill from there  I’m curious to know how that shift felt for the ppl here

Edited Yesterday at 02:39 AM by thesimplelife

[setlimitations]

It was a weird few years for sure.  Speaking of media and gp, it was a roller coaster.  On one side there was the lovers (which here was the majority), the haters (here they were less in numbers, but still here). Trolling has been around since before there was a name for it.  
I still remember all the Xtina fans early on 😂.  

[Alvy]

well, I wasn't here back then but I was on another Britney site and it was literally hell  I was WORRIED for ma gurl. I was 15/16 years old at the time, so I couldn't understand many things, I was ignorant in certain topics. 

[---]

it was like being in an abusive relationship with yourself, britney, and the forum. you genuinely never knew what would happen next and we had zero idea what britney's intentions were. we were constantly disappointed and judgemental while simultaneously being enthralled. i think the community was stronger back then and the general section had more traction than any other section of the forum. we communicated a lot and the forum itself had more of a focus on our interpersonal connections during the traumatic experiences. most of what occurred was us having zero idea what britney was doing and zero idea of what would happen next. we were constantly hoping for the best and ended up confused.

[---]

the trolling was out of hand and the forum was constantly being hacked with images ranging from fecal matter to ****ography. there were many predators on the forum and way more trolls.

Edited Yesterday at 05:05 AM by ---

[---]

media outlets were constantly writing obituaries for britney, perez was consistently trashing her and using his windows paint skills to write over top of every paparazzi outing. we saw her *******, we saw her period stains. we heard every rumor and every blind item, while giving it life due to having zero idea of what was actually happening on a larger scale.

[---]

a lot of us saw the conservatorship as a positive because we didn't have cognizance of britney the person for a long while. we just knew that no matter when we logged in we would have an idea and a visual of britney's day-to-day. it was very invasive.

[Alio]

Well I was here everyday so what I think we need to remember is that we didn't know the future, we had no idea of what was going to happen the next day so concidering Britney had such a carreer and public image for all those years we never believed everything was over, we had hope ! We believed the situation will go back to "normal" very soon, or at least we were hoping. Also, things didn't change over night, when the meltdown happened we actually already got used to her "eccentricities". We had pictures like this for few years at this point : 

Spoiler

So the situation got more and more weird but we just thought it was impossible that things could happen the way it did. I mean she had the best album of her career out and the only logical thing was that she was going to give us amazing music videos so when she was going to the dance studio for exemple we were all thinking "Oh here it is she's going to rehearse a new iconic choreography", the same way we kept asking "when is she going to give an interview ?", "when is she going to have a performance on TV for her new single ?" "When is the real Gimme more video going to be released ?" and then we had no photoshoots, no interviews and we ended up with the animated video for Break the ice. We couldn't believe it. And we were right because when you think about it she DID go back to being extremely professional just few monthes later (Womanizer performances/ Circus era music videos etc..) even though we know now the price she had to pay.

 

What I remember was that it was VERY busy all the time, remember we didn't have the internet on our phones, when you were leaving the computer you had no news. So when you came back to Exhale at night or the next day you had like 4 different clothes she was wearing as she was changing many times a day and everytime we had new photos and videos from the paparazzi. And she was talking to them. So many new "informations" all the time. Now if we're being completly honest it didn't feel like Britney was trying to run away from all this mess, it looked like she "enjoyed" it. I know it may sound weird but she actually had more moments laughing, being goofy, playing with her wig etc..than crying. The same way she's currently acting like her Instagram is so amazing and she loves it. The reason I say that it's because I think we should not rewrite History : in the middle of this chaos there was some fun. Plus she never had a better style (as superficial as that sounds).

Now with the shaving head scandal, well it was a new (and bigger) wedding at Vegas episode. It looked just like a very Hollyweird Rock n roll mess. And the official media were horrible. It all started, from what I remember, when she got "drunk" at the new year's eve party with her black dress. A lot of the things the media said would be impossible today, like writing the word FAT on the cover of a magazine with a picture of her VMA's performance. It was just a roller coaster, and we didn't know what was the next loop.

Now, things totally changed the night of the ambulance. The party was over. The lights were turned off and honestly I feel like they never went back on to this day. We thought we would hear about her death every single day. That was very shocking to experience.

Remember we didn't know the future so everything was possible, every day was a new day.

[ChrisBritSlo]

I found out about Exhale in 2008. It has gotten so wild at that time, Jordan had to close registrations for new users for a few years, because of all the trolls signing up

 

You could lurk tho, and he only opened up registrations again in 2010. And this is when I joined, just in time for the original Femme Fatale dragging

[TTrouble]

It was hell in here. I remember being afraid to post because of the chaotic users 

Thus the name Exhell 

[ObsessedBritFan1]

I was honestly in such denial. It all started for me when Britney had her shut gun wedding. Then Kevin and her was such a blur, their crazy reality show, her two back to back pregnancies, divorce, head shaving, and her dropping her kid in front of the paps …

I was like, Britney is fine.

[BUWYGF]

It was honestly horrible, I remember I was only a teenager back then. I was like 15-16 years old and everyone on Exhale was horrified every day because we genuinely thought we'd wake up with the news she has died. So many media were predicting she might join the club 27, which was so insane. The world was against her and all Britney stans were laughed at. It was basically something to be ashamed of, so a lot of fans decided to basically abandon her. 

Everyone kept saying she was crazy, a d**ug addict, a horrible mother, etc. Every day there was a new thread on Exhale about some new chaos surrounding her. It was exhausting and very anxiety inducing ngl. 

[Imnotcrazy]

Honestly, I wasn’t even aloud to use internet at the time, but I do feel like I wouldn’t be able to handle the situation emotionally because my child-love and fan emotions blooming towards Britney/ also being 10-11-12 years old, wouldn’t be able to understand and cope with a forum chaos.
 

I mean, just imagine how ANGRY I got when someone calls Britney (crazy ) around 2008-09-10, literally cried when she lost at the teen choice awards 2008 for gimme more. 
 

Don’t come for me, I was a child 

[thesimplelife]

13 hours ago, Alio said:

Well I was here everyday so what I think we need to remember is that we didn't know the future, we had no idea of what was going to happen the next day so concidering Britney had such a carreer and public image for all those years we never believed everything was over, we had hope ! We believed the situation will go back to "normal" very soon, or at least we were hoping. Also, things didn't change over night, when the meltdown happened we actually already got used to her "eccentricities". We had pictures like this for few years at this point : 

  Reveal hidden contents

So the situation got more and more weird but we just thought it was impossible that things could happen the way it did. I mean she had the best album of her career out and the only logical thing was that she was going to give us amazing music videos so when she was going to the dance studio for exemple we were all thinking "Oh here it is she's going to rehearse a new iconic choreography", the same way we kept asking "when is she going to give an interview ?", "when is she going to have a performance on TV for her new single ?" "When is the real Gimme more video going to be released ?" and then we had no photoshoots, no interviews and we ended up with the animated video for Break the ice. We couldn't believe it. And we were right because when you think about it she DID go back to being extremely professional just few monthes later (Womanizer performances/ Circus era music videos etc..) even though we know now the price she had to pay.

 

What I remember was that it was VERY busy all the time, remember we didn't have the internet on our phones, when you were leaving the computer you had no news. So when you came back to Exhale at night or the next day you had like 4 different clothes she was wearing as she was changing many times a day and everytime we had new photos and videos from the paparazzi. And she was talking to them. So many new "informations" all the time. Now if we're being completly honest it didn't feel like Britney was trying to run away from all this mess, it looked like she "enjoyed" it. I know it may sound weird but she actually had more moments laughing, being goofy, playing with her wig etc..than crying. The same way she's currently acting like her Instagram is so amazing and she loves it. The reason I say that it's because I think we should not rewrite History : in the middle of this chaos there was some fun. Plus she never had a better style (as superficial as that sounds).

Now with the shaving head scandal, well it was a new (and bigger) wedding at Vegas episode. It looked just like a very Hollyweird Rock n roll mess. And the official media were horrible. It all started, from what I remember, when she got "drunk" at the new year's eve party with her black dress. A lot of the things the media said would be impossible today, like writing the word FAT on the cover of a magazine with a picture of her VMA's performance. It was just a roller coaster, and we didn't know what was the next loop.

Now, things totally changed the night of the ambulance. The party was over. The lights were turned off and honestly I feel like they never went back on to this day. We thought we would hear about her death every single day. That was very shocking to experience.

Remember we didn't know the future so everything was possible, every day was a new day.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! I’ve always been curious about this era cause I saw everything after it happened, I can’t even imagine what it was like to live through it.

I agree about Britney having fun with it, even if she was going through some of the darkest moments in her life, it was the first time she was “free”. She was signed at 15 and from there it was years and years of nonstop work so it must’ve been liberating in some strange way. 

I can’t even watch the videos of the night of the ambulance, it’s honestly horrifying to see the paparazzi following them and taking pictures of her in such a vulnerable state. The media was vile towards her and completely wrecked her self confidence. 

It’s a miracle she survived all of it