boingboing | 2024-10-28 18:49:39 UTC | #1
Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/10/28/happy-mutants-rejoice-boing-boing-launches-clean-ad-free-experience.html
…
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cheem | 2024-10-28 17:51:08 UTC | #2
How will this premium experience interact with discourse? Will subscribers get redirected to the premium experience away from the non-ad free version?
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anon77190095 | 2024-10-28 17:55:29 UTC | #3
I'd pay $.10 a day to have the article summations stop disappearing after 15 seconds.
I'd honestly pay mostly for an ad free BBS experience, as it's 95% of what I interact with around here.
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gracchus | 2024-10-28 18:15:48 UTC | #4
[quote="cheem, post:2, topic:286184"]
How will this premium experience interact with discourse?
[/quote]
As I understand it, it won't interact with Discourse at all going forward. Commenting will instead take place on Substack's commenting system* and be limited to premium members only. The Discourse BBS will be turned into a read-only archive.
[This is not a personal endorsement of the change, just an answer to your questions.]
[ETA: premium is hosted on Substack.]
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anon77190095 | 2024-10-28 18:10:07 UTC | #5
[quote="gracchus, post:4, topic:286184"]
Commenting will instead take place on Substack’s commenting system and the Discourse BBS will be turned into a read-only archive.
[/quote]
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anon58741709 | 2024-10-28 18:07:10 UTC | #6
Since you mentioned Substack, it is worth noting that Substack hosts and monetizes publications from hate groups and has expressly stated that they intend to continue doing so.
I don't feel great about any of this.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/09/substack-nazi-content-policies-controversy/
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politeruin | 2024-10-28 18:15:19 UTC | #7
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Scientist | 2024-10-28 18:16:21 UTC | #8
The ability to create new topics or change titles has already been removed from the bbs. We'll see what substack is like, but
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HappyHead | 2024-10-28 18:07:38 UTC | #9
So you're making a place where the articles aren't constantly bouncing up and down and making things hard to read because of rotating ads with uncontroled size changes at the top of the page?
But if it's not constantly bouncing the text we're trying to read up and down, would it still be right to call it boing boing?
I mean, I get the draw, but couldn't the same effect be had just by actually enforcing uniform size restrictions on the ads like a sane website would do?
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robertmckenna | 2024-10-28 18:10:19 UTC | #10
Haven’t seen a website that doesn’t bounce around in a long, long time.
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Enochrewt | 2024-10-28 18:13:02 UTC | #11
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doctord | 2024-10-28 18:25:34 UTC | #12
Does this include the mobile experience - will that be ad-free as well?
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jhuggins | 2024-10-28 18:26:37 UTC | #13
It's not just that there's been a lot of ads for a while now, it's the egregiousness of how they exhibit the absolute worst kind of web advertising possible. Pop ups on load. Sketchy content. More pop ups as you scroll. If you leave the page unattended too long, sometimes it forwards to a completely different sketchy site. Posts that are clearly sponsored trying to get you buy Microsoft 365 or whatever. From the Punk beginnings of the blog/zine, and the contributors who started it, it sure seems like a long fall. But maybe that's just me. Not sure I'll subscribe, but everyone gets to make their own decisions.
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Jan_B | 2024-10-28 18:39:08 UTC | #14
For a long time I have assumed that the boingers expect everyone to use an adblocker on their site, which has always worked fine.
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Simon_Clift | 2024-10-28 18:43:51 UTC | #15
Substack's comments are not going to replace Discourse, at least not in a good way. I think that's a *bad thing*. Our best threads are ones that are not spun off from topics.
As for ads: what ads? I haven't seen an ad on BoingBoing ever, but I run with shields up all the time. So I'll happily subscribe, already done so, but I think Discourse should stay.
And the whole "Substack is evil" thing is a concern, for sure.
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FloridaManJefe | 2024-10-28 18:45:15 UTC | #16
or just peruse the BBS for the hot topics garnering comments and never have to visit the Front Page.
i will make the move, but adverts have never been an issue for me here on the message board.
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milsyobtaf | 2024-10-28 18:46:05 UTC | #17
[quote="gracchus, post:4, topic:286184"]
[ETA: premium is hosted on Substack.]
[/quote]
Until I saw this fact, I was willing and ready to hand over the cash. I give Kottke $60 a year with no hesitation.
But I just can't support Substack in any way. Ugh.
If it's not too late, BB should really check out the alternatives - https://www.citationneeded.news is a great modern example of this business model done right.
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Melizmatic | 2024-10-28 18:49:45 UTC | #18
Change is inevitable.
Substack, though... that raises **major** concerns.
It's like moving your bar into a building where there's already a tenant who runs a Nazi bar; they allow *a lot* of fascist, phobic and just outright hateful content.
Too close for comfort.
That said, I already have a substack account which I never really use.
I guess we'll see how it goes.
And if "how it goes" ends up being 'awry,' I'd just like to say:
# So long, and thanks for all the "free" ice cream!
It's been as real as anything on the internet *can* be.
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Tribune | 2024-10-28 19:08:15 UTC | #19
I will try but I have concerns. Sounds like there is a good chance you will be closing the best bits of BoingBoing. The BBS has been amazing over the years. It has been a safe space for some amazing people and I don’t want to lose that aspect. It has been educational with a diverse pool of experience and viewpoints. I would say that is at risk with the proposed changes. We will see.
This post had me going from
To
Fairly quickly.
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orenwolf | 2024-10-28 19:03:39 UTC | #20
[quote="cheem, post:2, topic:286184, full:true"]
How will this premium experience interact with discourse? Will subscribers get redirected to the premium experience away from the non-ad free version?
[/quote]
I can answer this!
As of today, new Boing Boing posts will not be created here on the BBS. Since BB posts have a five-day posting period before they lock, that means that the last of those posts will close by Friday.
Once this happens, I will also lock the remaining community topics as well, essentially making the BBS read-only.
Each BB post on substack (at premium.boingboing.net) will have a comments section, the same as today, and the community has already set up threads in BB’s substack chat (at premium.boingboing.net/chat) for all the major community threads.
As mentioned, everyone gets a free 7-day trial of premium, so please feel free to head over and have a look!
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FrancesTheMute | 2024-10-28 19:04:11 UTC | #21
Will this include all the "ads" from the Boing Boing Shop disguised as posts?
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orenwolf | 2024-10-28 19:05:16 UTC | #22
No ads from BB’s shop are disguised as posts. They all clearly indicate they are from the shop, and always have. The few sponsored posts BB has from time to time are labelled as such as well.
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Tribune | 2024-10-28 19:06:30 UTC | #23
Tried to subscribe - would not work on mobile (iOS). I cannot select a subscription option and if I submit without one it give me a blank screen. (Not sure what I expected from submitting without a choice - probably an error?)
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FrancesTheMute | 2024-10-28 19:10:46 UTC | #24
I mean, yes, they are labelled as from the shop, but they show up in the blog feed along all the other posts at boingboing.net/blog, which is how I usually browse. Will the premium version still have those ads from the shop in the feed?
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Gordon_Simpson | 2024-10-28 19:11:58 UTC | #25
Don't think I'm going to move over for various reasons. I've enjoyed my time with you all, it's a shame it's going to end.
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Simon_Clift | 2024-10-28 19:26:56 UTC | #26
[quote="orenwolf, post:20, topic:286184"]
the community has already set up threads in BB’s substack chat
[/quote]
And it's only a chat; it's missing the mark-up that allows links. The ability to link and share was one of the things that made threads like the Continuing Coronavirus Happenings so valuable and timely.
Edit: No links to threads, so no sub-thread index. I'm all for a bit of whitespace, Discourse already provides lots of that. On the SubStack chat I'm looking at 19 lines of text on 32" of monitor space and lots of blank. It's not really that different from the 40 lines of text I used to get on my local BBS in the 1980's, although that old BBS had a better sub-topic/thread system. :thinking:
Edit edit: And timing... right before one of the most consequential elections in :us: history?
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orenwolf | 2024-10-28 19:15:37 UTC | #27
So substack is working with us to expand the capabilities over there. Much as what happened with Discourse when we migrated here, there may be some growing pains as we get things where they need to be.
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Amstrad | 2024-10-28 19:48:35 UTC | #29
I appreciate that running a website isn't free, and that people hate ads and so use adblockers.. and I'm sure a large percentage of BB's users are using said adblockers, meaning BB isn't really getting the revenue it expects from ads.
And I also appreciate the addition of a premium subscription service for people who want and can afford to support the site more directly... but I can't get behind that service completely replacing the existing BBS and making it impossible for non-paying users to participate in the community here.
Personally I'm not looking for another subscription in my life.. so I guess I'm losing one of the few communities I do still participate in. It's been fun guys.
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awfulhorrid | 2024-10-28 19:58:26 UTC | #30
Well fuck.
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Piraat | 2024-10-28 20:06:16 UTC | #32
That's a fucking bummer, man.
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Jared_Moore | 2024-10-28 20:11:29 UTC | #33
What happens with the RSS feed?
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dculberson | 2024-10-28 20:12:03 UTC | #34
Farewell sweet BBS folks. See you in another life!
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Tribune | 2024-10-28 20:16:52 UTC | #35
So I subscribed on my desktop. On my desktop I am not logged into boingboing (the bbs identity I am posting under here) do I need to link the two or are we severing ourselves from the past?
Also the included items that show up on mobile. Sense of humour or oddity because it is listed as an item for the founders subscription?
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rebecca_romaine | 2024-10-28 20:34:51 UTC | #37
For me it was the weird articles attacking James Randi (right after he died)
Then the AI generated content
Now we're closing the BBS?
Bye, kids. It's been real :)
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rebecca_romaine | 2024-10-28 20:37:21 UTC | #38
Oh, but cheers to whoeever in the comments used to post the Beau of the Fifth column videos. His and Belle's channel is a daily watch now and I treasure them.
I miss Beau probably every day
https://www.youtube.com/@BeauoftheFifthColumn
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gracchus | 2024-10-28 20:43:22 UTC | #39
[quote="Jared_Moore, post:33, topic:286184, full:true"]
What happens with the RSS feed?
[/quote]
@orenwolf says the current WordPress site will be left up as an ad supported version of BB, so the RSS feed should continue as normal from there.
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bluehenbear | 2024-10-28 20:46:33 UTC | #40
Does the main substack premium boing boing page have an rss feed?
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williamkattwill | 2024-10-28 20:47:27 UTC | #41
https://boingboing.net/2024/10/28/three-sisters-inherit-a-dime-and-they-sell-it-for-over-500000.html
I'll hold onto my dimes, tyvm.
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Simon_Clift | 2024-10-28 21:27:20 UTC | #42
[quote="gracchus, post:39, topic:286184"]
the RSS feed
[/quote]
But not the RSS feeds for the Discourse topics, AFAICS. These are now on the SubStack chat, which well behaved members are splitting off into threads... keeping the top clean... for now.
[quote="orenwolf, post:27, topic:286184"]
there may be some growing pains
[/quote]
Substack is currently not quite to the level of IRC, but with CSS. Is it realistic to think they are going to replicate the functionality of Discourse, a functionality which has facilitated a pretty vibrant community of folks?
Edit: Oh come on... :man_facepalming: SubStack chat doesn't even let you search at the chat level. Search doesn't go into article discussions.
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gracchus | 2024-10-28 20:55:30 UTC | #43
[quote="bluehenbear, post:40, topic:286184, full:true"]
Does the main substack premium boing boing page have an rss feed?
[/quote]
Maybe?
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038239391-Is-there-an-RSS-feed-for-my-publication
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bluehenbear | 2024-10-28 21:01:19 UTC | #44
can confirm `https://boingboing.substack.com/feed` worked in feedly app on my phone
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Haikumatt | 2024-10-28 21:03:16 UTC | #45
[quote="orenwolf, post:22, topic:286184, full:true"]
No ads from BB’s shop are disguised as posts. They all clearly indicate they are from the shop, and always have. The few sponsored posts BB has from time to time are labelled as such as well.
[/quote]
It's disingenuous to claim Boing Boing ads aren't disguised as posts just because they're tagged as being from the shop. By appearing in the regular feed with article-sounding headlines, they're clearly dark-patterned as regular content.
Substack? Really? I'd have thought a website as anti-Nazi and anti-Right Wing Crazies as Boing Boing would have made a better choice.
As for locking the community experience behind a paywall:
https://boingboing.net/2024/02/13/enshittification-is-coming-for-everything.html
Good luck on your new path. I won't be following.
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tcg550 | 2024-10-28 21:12:18 UTC | #46
What happens to the long running topics like Pets, Food, Elections, Melizmatic's Meme, and on and on?
Are those types of topics now gone? Because those are a big part of why a lot of us visit.
Why not a subscription fee right here?
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anon65433207 | 2024-10-28 21:12:49 UTC | #47
So long and thanks for all the fish.
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anon58741709 | 2024-10-28 21:17:20 UTC | #48
I think the answer to the last question is "Substack." From what I see, they don't offer any integration with Discourse or even have an API. Ghost does, but not Substack. And I assume Substack is offering some sort of incentive to BB as part of their ongoing efforts to left-wash their reputation without resorting to giving up all that sweet revenue from publishing Nazi newspapers.
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anon87143080 | 2024-10-28 21:17:22 UTC | #49
They all go the way of the dinosaur.
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DasKleineTeilchen | 2024-10-28 21:18:01 UTC | #50
I hate all of this. and a mighty fear this decision will eventually kill this amazing comunity.
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politeruin | 2024-10-28 21:21:15 UTC | #51
[quote="Simon_Clift, post:26, topic:286184"]
Edit edit: And timing… right before one of the most consequential elections in :us: history?
[/quote]
I think you may have answered your own question there.
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orenwolf | 2024-10-28 21:24:38 UTC | #52
Indeed. A safe space for happy mutants where drive by troublemakers can no longer disrupt the community is one of the many benefits of going subscriber-only.
It’s also why we are offering everyone a free trial - so you can “try before you buy” at our new home.
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tcg550 | 2024-10-28 21:27:56 UTC | #53
But why not sell Boing Boing memberships?
A quick search turns up this...
>Discourse Subscriptions allows site owners to sell recurring and one-time purchase subscriptions that grant access to a group on a Discourse instance.
Now, admittedly, I know nothing about the nuts and bolts of Discourse so I maybe be all wrong and the people running BB know better than me why Substack is a better choice, I'm just thinking out loud and tossing in my unsolicited opinion.
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anon58741709 | 2024-10-28 21:37:05 UTC | #54
Yeah, I don't know. I wish that ad-supported front page and ad-free BBS-on-Discourse (with a paid membership) was the route they had gone with. Being a part of the Substack ecosystem will probably help to drive new membership more than Discourse would, though.
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Bonivus_elderheart | 2024-10-28 22:23:37 UTC | #55
[quote="anon58741709, post:54, topic:286184"]
Being a part of the Substack ecosystem will probably help to drive new membership more than Discourse would, though.
[/quote]
... Except that, as others have stated, Substack will not boot right-wing and hate spewing publications out.
Much as the UI for Discourse annoys me, it's something I'm used to now, and would certainly pay for if given the option to do so. But not Substack.
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funkboy3 | 2024-10-28 22:25:27 UTC | #56
[quote="Amstrad, post:29, topic:286184"]
I can’t get behind that service completely replacing the existing BBS and making it impossible for non-paying users to participate in the community here.
[/quote]
This. So. Much. This.
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anon58741709 | 2024-10-28 22:31:04 UTC | #57
Yeah, I get it. I stated it twice up-thread. My intent was not to provide an endorsment of Substack or the move to Substack, but just taking a guess at why it's happening instead of charging for Discourse membership. I could be wrong.
But Substack publishing and financing hate groups is, unfortunately, just a hard fact.
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funkboy3 | 2024-10-28 22:32:51 UTC | #58
[quote="orenwolf, post:52, topic:286184"]
drive by troublemakers can no longer disrupt the community
[/quote]
I recognize its easy for me as an end user to perhaps be unaware of the effort that goes into moderating things in the BBS, and perhaps that's the prime motivator behind your comment.
But I feel compelled to say that this leaves a really really really bad taste in my mouth in a way I can't quite put words to.
Being a long time BB reader and occasional poster, I was always of the opinion that dissent was desirable, and even somewhat encouraged. And most times, the community will at worst ignore trolls.
But at its best, the BB BBS community has (in my experience anyway) been able to open discourse with people who may have started off as troublemakers. And, frankly, sometimes some rabble rousing helps to bring in other viewpoints. I've found myself frequently enlightened by regulars and "drive by" posts alike --sometimes in the same thread.
The last thing I need in my life is another echo chamber.
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Mark_Sniadecki | 2024-10-28 23:01:18 UTC | #59
End of an era. I don't really see myself making the leap to the next.
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ficuswhisperer | 2024-10-28 23:18:01 UTC | #60
[quote="funkboy3, post:58, topic:286184"]
Being a long time BB reader and occasional poster, I was always of the opinion that dissent was desirable, and even somewhat encouraged. And most times, the community will at worst ignore trollies.
[/quote]
Dissent is not the same as intentional agitation. That's the problem -- most people who come here aren't interested in nuanced discussion about differing views on politics and such. They are here to come in, shit all over the floor, and watch the fallout from afar. Or there are cases where literal Nazis have come here to try to stir up the userbase. Many people here consider this community to be a safe space, and the moderators work very hard to keep it that way. Just because most tr*lls are quickly identified and dispatched doesn't mean it doesn't represent a Sysiphean effort on the part of the site mods (and that's *after* adding several new moderators in recent months).
I have no doubt that going scorched Earth with a paid platform will greatly reduce the moderation and administration burden. Nobody aside from perhaps the most determined tr*lls will bother with a pay-to-play site with a savvy userbase when there's far larger and easier to manipulate targets out there. On the flip side, the savvy userbase here seems unlikely to make the shift.
I didn't know about the Nazi Bar aspects of Substack until recently, and now that I do I feel the same kind of ickiness as I would get when using Twitter or Hacker News. That makes me not want to go along for the ride.
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KarlS | 2024-10-28 23:40:35 UTC | #61
It's been a year since my last post. I have always had my issues with this place, but from time to time I thought I might come back. I guess now I can rule that out. It will never be that urgent.
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anon81133038 | 2024-10-29 01:41:29 UTC | #62
If this is effectively announcing that the BBS is going away (still unsure if that's the case with the language used btw [**edit: I just read Orenwolf's comment and yes it is**]) it's a pretty awful way to do it.
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gtmac | 2024-10-29 00:29:08 UTC | #63
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gtmac | 2024-10-29 00:29:35 UTC | #64
I think this squarely falls into Doctorow's enshittification theory.
The irony, it drips.
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Christopher_Merritt | 2024-10-29 00:33:22 UTC | #65
I hung in there after Xeni left. I hung in there after Cory left. I hung in there with Boing Boing Store advertisements cleverly disguised as actual articles. I even hung in there with the somewhat trollish and weird appearance of "Ellsworth Toohey." Sad to see my favorite website, that I check at least a few times a day go this way. R.I.P.
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rightside-up | 2024-10-29 13:37:45 UTC | #66
> Happy mutants rejoice: Boing Boing launches clean, ad-free experience
Plus good
DoublePlus good . . . /s. :rage:
[quote="gtmac, post:64, topic:286184"]
I think this squarely falls into Doctorow’s enshittification theory.
[/quote]
:bangbang:
https://youtu.be/WYpm5FWFnlg?t=40
Not that it matters much in the scheme of things, but I'm out of here. Nothing good lasts forever . . .
Certainly not in our late greed-capitalism world today. In *that* context, this is virtually nothing.
Happy Trails!
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gtmac | 2024-10-29 00:34:26 UTC | #67
On a less trashy note, I want to seriously thank all of the regular commenters that I've seen about for the last 20 years or so for the valued commentary on topics totally serious and totally not.
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carterdavis | 2024-10-29 00:42:51 UTC | #68
Wasn’t Boing Boing implementing a paywall used as a fake landing page for the site as an April Fool’s post back in 2008 or 2009?
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orenwolf | 2024-10-29 00:43:58 UTC | #70
There is no paywall on boingboing.net. The site remains unchanged.
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rightside-up | 2024-10-29 00:49:13 UTC | #71
[quote="carterdavis, post:68, topic:286184, full:true"]
Wasn’t Boing Boing implementing a paywall used as a fake landing page for the site as an April Fool’s post back in 2008 or 2009?
[/quote]
It's not April, and I don't think there's any fooling going on here.
Pure business, and possibly investment capital involved. Folks got bills to pay, I'm sure.
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carterdavis | 2024-10-29 00:47:33 UTC | #72
My larger point was that paid access experience tiers, or however this is being spun, would have been anathema to the “old” Boing Boing. Nothing gold can stay, I suppose.
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carterdavis | 2024-10-29 00:48:26 UTC | #73
Clearly. And my memory was off. The prank I referenced was in 2011.
https://www.neatorama.com/2011/04/01/this-years-best-april-fools-day-pranks-around-the-web/
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Jerry_Sneede | 2024-10-29 01:59:48 UTC | #74
They’ve also gradually but ever increasingly moved towards an outrage-based content model (the posts are often about something that outrages people). It’s true, outrage drives engagement, but it’s far from the original spirit. Maybe the new subscription version will change that aspect.
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anon81133038 | 2024-10-29 01:45:34 UTC | #75
I'm *not* against paying for premium BB access.
I *am* against giving money to Substack.
This community has always had a trend of fiercely criticizing things like consumerism, AI art, crypto, NFTs etc when other people do it but not when BB does.
I figured it was because it was seen as a necessary evil to pay the bills. That's why I never brought it up before because that's how I saw it.
Moving into the Nazi bar is something I **absolutely** won't do however.
It doesn't matter if my first drink is free.
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Fireonyx | 2024-10-29 01:56:49 UTC | #76
End of an era. This was one of my favorite blogs/bbs out there. But 1000% not following anyone to a substack nazi haven, much less pay money for the privilege. Yes, you will dramatically reduce your moderator load.... pretty much all of it for that matter, as the community drys up hidden behind a paywall. Enshittification indeed.
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CongenitalOptimist | 2024-10-29 02:17:41 UTC | #77
Ever since I started reading in 2005, and posting/participating much later - I had envisioned actually meeting some of you. I think Xeni and crew organized something like this in San Fran in the 20-oughts.
Sharing a joke w @gracchus or getting a history lesson from @anon61221983, or asking a random medical question to @anon29537550 - there are so many interesting and intelligent people that pop by here.
A great deal of the appeal to participate was that there was no cost of entry other than to not be dumb or disrespectful (yeah I’ve failed that a few times).
So now I’m at a crossroads - stick it out on a new platform/method/cost or start my journey into less traveled regions of the interwebs. Gonna be a tough decision.
Thanks all!
Marcus
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smilr | 2024-10-29 02:21:45 UTC | #78
I am, officially, disappointed Boing Boing.
I've lurked a long time, and enjoyed reading the many many many interesting comment threads on the BBS. I would be willing to pay for a subscription if it kept the lights on and the BBS open to the public as it is today. I will not pay for a closed echo chamber comment system, much less one hosted on such an unsavory service as substack.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
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JohnS | 2024-10-29 02:37:34 UTC | #79
I've been coming here on an almost daily basis since the late aughts. It has been interesting, enlightening, and even downright fun at times. There have always been some amazing humans congregating here and I thank you all for your contributions to the experience. Despite already having an unused substack account I created when it first started up, I won't be spending any time there.
SLATFATF
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Ceran_Swicegood | 2024-10-29 03:06:03 UTC | #81
Well, I'm out. It's been fun. Sometimes, at least.
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rocketboy1971 | 2024-10-29 03:23:37 UTC | #82
I started reading BB maybe 25 years ago, around the same time as plastic.com, based on an article in Wired about the best stuff on the web. Plastic.com shut down back in 2010 or so, so this was a site I still looked at and even sometimes commented on from time to time that still reminded me of the early internet. Thanks to all the commenters here who made this an interesting place. I guess everything has to end.
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FuckThisTimeLine | 2024-10-29 08:02:42 UTC | #83
It's been fun. I was a lurker for years before finally signed up. It was short but I enjoyed the time spending here. Man, I seriously need to get off this time line.
Edit: no, this is brought to a Nazi bar, with paywall. This had become pay to have a voice game. Sure, moderation will be great because the community will be the shell of its former self. This will severely prevent access by large portion of users here, either by principal or financial. There is nothing to be rejoiced about this. Just view the new site, it looks like a generic AI content mill. Well, without the BBS, it may as well be. Is it cleaned up, ready to be sold to some VC? /S
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vermes82 | 2024-10-29 03:45:36 UTC | #84
Capitalism comes for all of us in the end.
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Loudmouth | 2024-10-29 03:59:59 UTC | #85
Angel: *Will we still get to keep our badges?*
Devil: *We don't need no stinkin' badges!*
[A ghost edited this post.]
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ashe | 2024-10-29 03:56:09 UTC | #86
It's been fun my fellow internet weirdos...
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vermes82 | 2024-10-29 04:15:01 UTC | #87
[quote="boingboing, post:1, topic:286184"]
And coming soon: **Ad-free searchable archives** dating back to 1989!
[/quote]
That seems like a good thing...
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Miros | 2024-10-29 04:25:42 UTC | #88
So, going forward, I'll not be able to VIEW any comments without paying substack?
Did Peter Thiel buy this site or something while I wasn't paying attention?
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anon34846435 | 2024-10-29 04:30:13 UTC | #89
I wish that I had found boingboing a few years ago instead; spending time here and reading what others had to say I feel that I learned more than I expected to and enjoyed everything. This community looked really cool, and fun from the outside, I'm glad I took the chance to be part of it when I did but I'm sad to see it go away from what I liked about it. This place gave me a lot of hope for the future and I really feel my life was made better by getting to experience it.
So thanks for being a wonderful place with a lot of wonderful voices.
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katin | 2024-10-29 04:43:22 UTC | #90
Given the general tenor of the comments here (which I’m in accord with), I don’t see how BB itself will survive this change.
Thanks for the community.
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
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Davet | 2024-10-29 04:47:05 UTC | #91
I’ve had some interesting conversations here and learnt a lot from many different people. I hope that my net contribution, small as it is, has also been overall positive.
Seems like all good things must come to an end.
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MrShiv | 2024-10-29 05:11:09 UTC | #92
There's little to rejoice about here.
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_Bob | 2024-10-29 05:12:16 UTC | #93
I'm staying here, reading the blog and BBS, till the end. This is not the first online community that I've stayed with until they were busy unplugging the hardware and turning out the lights. It also will not be the last.
I'm happy to pay if the new community is sufficiently similar in size, activity, and diversity, but that is not proven yet. Also not proven is the value that's added by paying. What is proven is the many mistakes the new platform has made, and has not corrected.
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zzzz | 2024-10-29 05:14:56 UTC | #94
These *weren’t* the droids you were looking for?
Yea. Sigh.
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MrChristian | 2024-10-29 06:52:54 UTC | #95
This is like, a bummer man.
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catsidhe | 2024-10-29 06:54:10 UTC | #96
Whatever the reasons why this had to be, it feels like a death. Because it is one.
The community which exists here *cannot* exist on Substack for any number of technical and logistical reasons, even if large numbers of people didn't have issues with it in its own right, which they do. Many people won't go there. Many others can't.
When this BBS goes RO, what was here will die. Something else will try to replace it on Substack, but it can't: at best it will be something new and very different.
There was next to no warning, which is another shock. We are told that what we have is about to die, when we didn't even know it was ill. It's a shock, and a gut punch.
Change may be inevitable sometimes, but change can also be a small death, and people are hurt, and people will grieve what was, however it is replaced.
bOINGbOING is moving, but the BBS is to be buried.
Vale BBS. It's been great.
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Jesse13927 | 2024-10-29 06:57:48 UTC | #97
I honestly don’t know what the transition to Substack will bring, but I am really trying my best to savor these last few days of posting on Discourse.
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74hc595 | 2024-10-29 08:01:24 UTC | #98
I haven't been posting much recently, but it was still my favourite online community. I don't believe it will be anything like this on Substack, and it's sad to see it end. I wouldn't mind paying, but killing off BBS means that it will not be worth paying for, and supporting platform such as Substack would feel unethical.
Thanks to all the wonderful people I met here. Your opinions (especially by @gracchus and @anon61221983 , and so many others too) have genuinely helped me become a better person.
If anyone has recommendations for any other online communities as cool as this one where I could lurk, please do share.
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fnordius | 2024-10-29 08:21:42 UTC | #99
Look, before I say goodbye for good, or subscribe, I do want to say this is the one social media I have felt most at home in. And I do feel this is a good case of "if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product."
Yeah, Substack has a racist/fascist problem. It subtracts from my experience reading Heather Cox Richardson's *Letters From an American* (which I discovered through this BBS, btw), or Lisa Schmeiser's *So What, Who Cares*. It feels less like a bar, though, and more like a shopping mall where the owners are pretending it doesn't fall under private property and don't want to pay for security. Which means the nazis keep coming in because the ones able to chase them out are unwilling to put in the hard work.
I still haven't made up my mind yet. Maybe because I can't think of a place anymore that is an alternative.
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jimr1603 | 2024-10-29 08:36:54 UTC | #100
For clarity, will BB shop posts be cross-posted to the Substack? Some of us still mostly interact through the RSS feed, and they *do* pop up there.
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failquail | 2024-10-29 08:39:31 UTC | #101
Rejoice? Really?
Sigh.
Bar closing of the BBS entirely, this is probably the worst case scenario here.
By paywalling off the BBS you'll lose a LOT of commenters here, so you're starting things out by asking us to pay for a greatly reduced community.
Then there's the choice of substack.
Given thier links to the far right and the sensibilities of many of the users here, it's either a mind-bogglingly stupid decision or one deliberately chosen to upset as many people here as possible...
That's pushed me from "I doubt I'll pay a subscription here" to "hahaha! ...No"
And finally the timing.
A community that's highly critical of a certain angry orange moron (and for good reason ) in the run-up to the US elections being suddenly paywalled off reeks of political influence here, to say I'm suspicious is a major understatement.
Either by management idiocy or malice, I think this'll highly damage or destroy the community.
Let's hope it's idiocy as there's a chance it can be undone later in that scenario.
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newbrain | 2024-10-29 08:45:11 UTC | #102
I initially came to BB for the odd stuff - at the time it was even a forbidden site at my job!
I stayed for the experience of sharing comments with like minded people.
I'm the epitome of the middle age cis white guy, and so are most of my friends and coworkers.
The BBS has given me the opportunity to interact, albeit remotely and in this virtual way, with an incredible variety of interesting people.
It's been fun, mind opening (never a bigot, mind you, but people here gave me so much more perspective), and pleasantly relaxing, and sometimes infuriating.
I'll miss this experience.
I'll miss some of you with whom I felt a greater affinity.
I'll miss the challenging of my views.
I'll miss sharing my hikes and my music and my points of view, and the many opportunities at bad jokes.
Thanks to all of you, I've loved being here.
And that was the 'me' part.
I also think that this was a safe place for many persons that are challenged daily due to their being who they are - and this is incredibly sad.
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jimr1603 | 2024-10-29 08:49:57 UTC | #103
Since it's the death of this BBS, we might want to look at evacuating. I'm not sure what thread/topic it belongs under.
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vermes82 | 2024-10-29 09:20:51 UTC | #104
[quote="failquail, post:101, topic:286184"]
Bar closing of the BBS entirely, this is probably the worst case scenario here.
[/quote]
The Chat is not the BBS.
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Jesse13927 | 2024-10-29 09:57:03 UTC | #105
[quote="74hc595, post:98, topic:286184"]
If anyone has recommendations for any other online communities as cool as this one
[/quote]
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