74hc595 | 2024-10-29 10:17:17 UTC | #107 Could at least the BBS be kept alive until US elections results are available? ------------------------- mallyboon | 2024-10-29 11:41:46 UTC | #108 Another thought - will BB make the effort to call out the racist substacks they are setting up shop beside? Or do they keep schtum to avoid embarrassing their new landlord? ------------------------- MrShiv | 2024-10-29 12:04:27 UTC | #109 And @jlw, @beschizza, @frauenfelder etc are all on board with this? Their silence makes me wonder whether the BBS was ever considered anything more than a comments section for BB. It's really sad to think the community is so easily discarded. ------------------------- RadioSilence | 2024-10-29 12:09:35 UTC | #110 The slew of conspiracy/clickbait-y articles recently, all seeemingly stemming from from [allan](https://boingboing.net/2024/10/14/et-head-on-mars.html) [rose](https://boingboing.net/2024/10/15/conspiracy-minded-cartophiles-spot-massive-hidden-doorway-in-antarctica.html) [hill](https://boingboing.net/2024/10/22/strange-pillar-to-heaven-photographed-in-thailand.html), has been putting me off. Now having to pay for the comments section is the final straw. My decade here has been fun, I'll see you in another place :wave: ------------------------- Stove | 2024-10-29 12:16:25 UTC | #111 Since everybody else is reminiscing: I've been reading boingboing since sometime in the early to mid 2000's, when [Rob Cockerham](https://cockeyed.com/) said it was the first site he visited every day. It's ebbed and flowed over the years, and recently the BBS has been what makes this place unique and worth visiting. I rarely comment, by the time I read an article the discussion has usually presented all my potentially interesting viewpoints, thoroughly dismantled them, and linked me to a great article about ducks. Boingboing will stay in my RSS feeds and we'll see how it goes, but the BBS going away feels like a big loss. > Disclaimer: When the transition from disqus to discourse happened I figured it would never work so its safest to assume I'm wrong ------------------------- bdeblier | 2024-10-29 12:20:22 UTC | #112 So, this is goodbye, my friends. Here unfortunately I'm forced to part ways with this community. ------------------------- MrShiv | 2024-10-29 12:35:43 UTC | #113 [quote="orenwolf, post:52, topic:286184"] drive by troublemakers can no longer disrupt the community [/quote] Were the costs & burdens of ever-vigilant moderation a factor in this move? You've often noted the huge amount of moderation this place requires. ------------------------- Simon_Clift | 2024-10-29 12:43:14 UTC | #114 [quote="jimr1603, post:103, topic:286184"] we might want to look at evacuating [/quote] Under your Profile -> Preferences, right at the bottom is "Request Archive". That archive has all your posts in a CSV/spreadsheet format. I'm writing a quick script to export all of the threads as PDF's and raw markup, that seems easy enough. Formatting HTML from that in the BBS/Discourse way would be next, I haven't figured that out yet. An archive of the linked articles in Firefox "Reader" format would round out the archive; save a bit of history. If I get this all done in time I'll post a link to the code. *(I like to keep a local copy of my stuff on a live, maintained, spinning hard drive. It may or may not survive the vagaries of time, but material on other people's computers almost certainly won't, for me anyhow.)* As my mutant children *(whose mutant friends describe our family as "like something out of Harry Potter")* have gone through their teenage years, I've found this a super place to be. Your perspectives have helped me enormously, your gentle corrections were appreciated, you all have my deepest respect. Cory Doctorow runs a Discourse server https://chinwag.pluralistic.net/. Just sayin'. ------------------------- sqlrob | 2024-10-29 12:46:49 UTC | #115 [quote="Simon_Clift, post:114, topic:286184"] Cory Doctorow runs a Discourse server https://chinwag.pluralistic.net/. Just sayin’. [/quote] Thank you! I did not know this existed. ------------------------- rightside-up | 2024-10-29 13:09:30 UTC | #116 [quote="catsidhe, post:96, topic:286184"] There was next to no warning, which is another shock. [/quote] Eh . . . In retrospect, I bet @beschizza 's comments about trying to get engagement with non-outrage content were a reflection of change on the horizon. Sad passage of an era that, in reality was mostly gone already. We just didn't realize it. Look back a ways and it's clear BB was already a pale shadow of itself. But hey, "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Right??! ------------------------- JonQuixote | 2024-10-29 13:14:16 UTC | #117 Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere folks are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in BoingBoing—Fucking Substack has won out. ------------------------- vermes82 | 2024-10-29 13:25:21 UTC | #118 [quote="Simon_Clift, post:114, topic:286184"] Cory Doctorow runs a Discourse server [https://chinwag.pluralistic.net/ ](https://chinwag.pluralistic.net/). Just sayin’. [/quote] ![Happy Homer Simpson GIF|320x320](upload://uQ1NuRfUNkvPxeX88kDNdMCON6v.webp) ------------------------- anon47182935 | 2024-10-29 13:29:22 UTC | #120 That'd make a lot less money though, people being able to talk about the election without paying. ------------------------- LvData | 2024-10-29 13:32:12 UTC | #121 Assuming the typical 10% pay 90% non-pay ratio for transferring to a pay service, it doesn’t seem to be priced reasonably given that the remaining users will only see 10% at best of the commenters. The export function is already overloaded and/or broken. At this point, my only question is “How do I delete my account?” ------------------------- anon29537550 | 2024-10-29 13:44:43 UTC | #122 It is. Worth a gander. ------------------------- FuckThisTimeLine | 2024-10-29 13:54:48 UTC | #123 May I ask what "other place" were you referring to? ------------------------- fiddlingfrog | 2024-10-29 13:54:50 UTC | #124 https://xkcd.com/1250/ ------------------------- anon43374320 | 2024-10-29 13:59:44 UTC | #125 I'm holding off saying goodbye just for a hint! ------------------------- joed | 2024-10-29 14:23:42 UTC | #126 I understand why you're doing this, I really do. But it's not for me. Buh-bye. ------------------------- Gnagn | 2024-10-29 14:28:48 UTC | #127 I've been reading bOINGbOING since it was a zine. The quality has gone up and down, but it's always been worth visiting daily. But at this point the main thing that keeps me coming back is Rob and the BBS. This has been a wonderful community, and I'm sad to see it go. ------------------------- RyeNCode | 2024-10-29 14:52:18 UTC | #128 Well, Darn I guess. Its been a couple years of constant loss, friends (to transphobia), family (politics , death and memory loss), communities (shutting down and changing in breaking ways), and work (company sold, can't/won't move to hostile place on planet [Houston, TX] to keep working for a planet killer) Boing-boing, fizzle fizzle. Thanks, it's been... ------------------------- ZamboniWogglebug | 2024-10-29 15:00:27 UTC | #129 This is a terrible decision. ------------------------- anon43374320 | 2024-10-29 15:04:10 UTC | #130 I have been reading BB since about 2007-2008. It's been my regular check-in several times a day since then. The change from Disqus was a bit difficult, but soon BBS became a treasure trove of great discussion. I have bought quite a few books, and listened to many podcasts, thanks to many recommendations here. I hope that I was able to contribute something, as much as much my introvert mind allowed. I did notice more ragebait posts in the last few years, a general increase of negative narratives and a decline in commentary about wonderful things and tech trends, and a certain ongoing genocide is barely mentioned here at all. To me, losing Cory was too major of a change in the mission and overall feel and tone of the place. The "happy mutants" seem to have left with him. But moving to substack this does feel like too big a step in the wrong direction. I can maybe only grasp the concept of the difficulty to moderate, run and fund this space, but moving to substack is a line I won't cross. As others have already mentioned, that is a place that invites and hosts horrible people with horrible ideologies. I might read BB there, but probably just occasionally, and if I do it would be via RSS. I will also say that this was way too short of a notice. A community has been building here for over two decades, and it will be pretty much gone in just a few days. I just want to say I really appreciated the eloquence of many comments, especially given that English is a second language for me. Thank you to the many extremely intelligent commenters and contributors here. Unwillingly, on short notice, it's time to move on. ------------------------- TheirFeldspars | 2024-10-29 15:21:14 UTC | #131 Come over to Metafilter. It's been swell, guys. ------------------------- Naltrexone | 2024-10-29 15:36:01 UTC | #132 Somewhere in a box, I still have this issue: ![1074839387_06fe4788bc_z|373x500](upload://5QMhS9zhwIW0bWuE7zeqaSv69fV.jpeg) Really hoping that the Powers That Be do some soul searching. The community on the BBS is the beating heart of whatever remains of the original vision. I'm happy to chip in to keep the lights on, but this feels like a hamfisted and alienating way to balance the books. Does anyone have recommendations for sites and communities that evoke BB in its prime? ------------------------- someguy | 2024-10-29 15:36:17 UTC | #133 I'm rejoicing *RIGHT NOW!* ------------------------- Jonathan_Mayo | 2024-10-29 16:08:15 UTC | #134 I don't know if it is my malware blockers or just me, but I can't seem to figure out how to access stuff on substack or make an account. Oh well. Farewell everyone. See you in the next life! ------------------------- nodolra | 2024-10-29 16:27:19 UTC | #135 There are so few good places on the Internet - especially good places which are open to anyone, rather than invite-only. This was one of them. I wasn’t a particularly active poster here, but I’ve come to rely on this place to find rational, kindhearted, often hilarious, but equally thoughtful, discussion of current events, technology, culture, and weird things. I will miss it dearly. ------------------------- erroneus | 2024-10-29 16:30:37 UTC | #136 I'll give the owners the benefit of the doubt here. They've done a tremendous amount of work keeping this going for decades, so it seems a bit unfair to treat this as some sort of betrayal without letting things play out. My guess is that BB has, despite being built by an excellent community, drifted in some fundamental ways from what the owners would otherwise want to spend their time maintaining. On the face of it that might seem selfish towards the needs of the very community who supports this place, but one cannot overstate that this place is a service made possible by a few people as a labor of love. I honestly hope the many people this change won't work for find a new home and community. But I do hope that BB will remain an excellent place for geeks, freaks, nerds, and other happy mutants to thrive together discussing the topics they love. ------------------------- zoidberg | 2024-10-29 16:45:01 UTC | #137 I recently migrated to a new machine and my experience hitting BoingBoing for the first time before my usual complement of privacy software was set up can be summed up as: ![|480x360](upload://uaAAUjpoI97kJbcGp3NP2OuwESG.webp) That said, there are still a lot of sponsored posts, which are just ads that adblockers can't block. If the Substack version of BB also does away with those I'd be tempted to pay up. Otherwise it's just another cable TV where the promise of paying to avoid ads is a Lucy and the football situation. Also: there are other platforms than Substack for this. Be better, BB. ------------------------- FuckThisTimeLine | 2024-10-29 16:45:04 UTC | #138 Are you Peter Thiel? /S ------------------------- DoomOne | 2024-10-29 17:04:21 UTC | #139 It's a sad day. I only posted a few times, but I've lurked here for YEARS. Now, that's all over. I just can't give any money or attention to sleazy Substack. I'll find another community to haunt. ------------------------- Naltrexone | 2024-10-29 17:16:19 UTC | #140 Just a heads-up: forum posts mostly don't get read by higher-ups, but politely worded, constructive emails to help@boingboing.net *do*. So... if you're feeling so inclined... it might not hurt. ------------------------- blackeye | 2024-10-29 17:34:02 UTC | #141 Thank you all for your contributions to my daily routine of enlightenment. Hope to bump into all of you here and there. ------------------------- anon47182935 | 2024-10-29 17:34:43 UTC | #142 Does it matter? BB has been talking out of both sides of its collective mouth on gen AI, so neither option would surprise me. Either way, I'm not going to the Nazi bar. ------------------------- Apizano | 2024-10-29 18:10:11 UTC | #143 Long time lurker here, it is a sad day indeed. I will miss the BBS community. It's been a fun ride, keep it weird everyone. ------------------------- vermes82 | 2024-10-29 18:13:23 UTC | #144 https://substack.com/@frauenfelder/note/c-74529205?r=4n86jf ------------------------- mnem | 2024-10-29 18:34:15 UTC | #145 I've only been a regular poster here since the pandemic kicked off, but as a long time lurker on the BBS, reader of Boing Boing pretty much since it first became a website, and prior to that an occasional dialer in to The Well at 2400bps when I could afford the long distance charges, I gotta say I am disappointed and more than a little angry. Mark me down as someone who probably would have paid a small annual fee to keep the BBS going but absolutely will not be financially supporting "freeze peach" absolutist nazi loving substack. As for all the other members here who helped get me through the past very trying few years, y'all have my heartfelt thanks. Hopefully we'll bump into each other again somewhere else. This was one hell of a good community and I feel lucky to have been a part of it. ------------------------- cheem | 2024-10-29 18:46:27 UTC | #146 Thanks for the reply. I would have happily chipped in for an ad-free experience linked to the BBS. But not for this Substack, nope. I’ll miss Popkin’s posts and will miss this community, which I think is the greatest asset BB had in terms of social and intellectual value, especially of late, but not to TPTB, I guess. Good luck in your future endeavours, BB authors, so long and thanks for all the fish. Maybe we’ll meet again elsewhere. ------------------------- anon47182935 | 2024-10-29 18:49:31 UTC | #147 Certainly, of course, there can be no bias to the sample of responses. ![firefox_MKdSunFvVg|404x273](upload://c7Vcjhsu3OQPClDUXf8OUAouU6X.png) ------------------------- MrShiv | 2024-10-29 18:54:43 UTC | #148 I don't want to be too negative towards the folks who provided me with more than a decade of (mostly) wonderful things for free. It's greatly appreciated. Comic Book Guy: Last night’s Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured that I was on internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world. Bart Simpson: Hey, I know it wasn’t great, but what right do you have to complain? Comic Book Guy: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me. Bart: What? They’ve given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? I mean, if anything, you owe them. Comic Book Guy: Worst episode ever. ------------------------- evadrepus | 2024-10-29 19:01:14 UTC | #149 [quote="vermes82, post:144, topic:286184"] https://substack.com/@frauenfelder/note/c-74529205?r=4n86jf [/quote] More 100 posts here saying how it's a bad idea. 16 total posts there, saying...dunno, not subscribed. Even by volume, it seems more "whelming" than overwhelming. ------------------------- chenille | 2024-10-29 19:04:23 UTC | #150 I wish we could have gone out on the note of celebrating that, instead of being told we should rejoice that it's over and we've succumbed to the creeping rot that is the modern internet. But what can you do? People wanted a goodbye and thanks thread and it was impossible to create one. ------------------------- oncebce | 2024-10-29 19:13:30 UTC | #151 Over the last few years I'd found myself engaging with fewer and fewer other sites. At this point in time I pretty much only engage online here in the bbs. It had occurred to me several times over the last months or so, especially with the rise of Allan Rose Hill and the like, that maybe I shouldn't have all of my eggs in one basket when it comes internet communities I enjoy engaging with. As has often been pointed out here in bbs discussions, BB is a privately run site, and can be run however those in charge see fit. Maintaining this community has also clearly been a labor of love, for which all of us Happy Mutants are grateful. Others in this thread have noted that they would happily chip in $ to keep this community running - I would too. I'm guessing the reasons for switching platforms instead of running a patreon or something are more than just money. But I wish something else could have been tried first, before making this drastic move. I think maybe I am rambling at this point. So I'll wrap up by saying that I share the concerns expressed RE substack. I will probably give the 7-day free trial a go. But I don't know if I want to stick around... Thanks to the wonderful hosts and members of this community who have shared so much enjoyment and perspective with me this last ~20 years. ------------------------- Groundman | 2024-10-29 19:24:45 UTC | #152 Yeah, what about our user names and badges? ------------------------- vermes82 | 2024-10-29 19:42:52 UTC | #153 Chat ain't BBS. Comments ain't BBS. ![forget it jake its chinatown GIF|480x360](upload://hByQmI5e6ONbOxRAPLQdQM7IU1w.webp) ------------------------- SmilingDemon | 2024-10-29 19:44:16 UTC | #154 ![ |480x448](upload://eokG9BI57QMuenhy4y2cFTTZ2wl.webp) Wish you all the best! ------------------------- Groundman | 2024-10-29 19:49:37 UTC | #155 So bummed. This is the only place online that I am sort of anything at all. I don't think it will feel the same at substack (if I even move there). ------------------------- orenwolf | 2024-10-29 19:50:19 UTC | #156 [quote="Groundman, post:152, topic:286184, full:true"] Yeah, what about our user names and badges? [/quote] Usernames we can't control, but badges is something I've asked about! ------------------------- ficuswhisperer | 2024-10-29 20:18:54 UTC | #157 [quote="MrShiv, post:109, topic:286184"] Their silence makes me wonder whether the BBS was ever considered anything more than a comments section for BB. [/quote] I’ve always felt the authors’ position on the commentariat to be apathetic at best, although at times it has been extremely adversarial. In my extensive time here, I can’t say I’ve ever seen the authors interact all that much with the BBS users (other than Rob). However, in the past year as the quality of the content has so precipitously declined, so has the amount of author involvement here. In my opinion, the BBS has almost certainly been a cost center. There’s almost zero profit to squeeze from here, and orenwolf works tirelessly to keep the lights on and the bad actors away when there plenty of other things I’m sure he’d rather be doing. It has long seemed like we were more of a tolerated nuisance than anything. It’s a little amazing to me it’s stayed alive for as long as it has. ------------------------- chicagobee | 2024-10-29 20:19:46 UTC | #158 Not liking this change at all. ------------------------- werdnagreb | 2024-10-29 20:25:30 UTC | #159 I respect the fact that the BB owners want a way to bring in some $$$ to support the site without advertising and tracking cookies. I know how hard it is to maintain a community, keeping the trolls away. I'm also happy to pay for things I enjoy. I just wish there were some other way to keep the community the same while offering a pay option. I can only assume that they checked out other alternatives. For example, the 404media folk have done a great job with Ghost and even offer a full RSS feed only for paid subscribers. I will be taking a look at the new community, but I can't say I'm even cautiously optimistic. ------------------------- anon58741709 | 2024-10-29 20:26:05 UTC | #160 [quote="ficuswhisperer, post:157, topic:286184"] There’s almost zero profit to squeeze from here [/quote] I don't know if that's true... orenwolf posted some figures about traffic through the BBS a while back that were startling. I wouldn't be surprised at all if traffic to BB drops overall as a result of the crippling of the commentariat and community. ------------------------- galatea2pt2 | 2024-10-29 20:30:33 UTC | #161 I've been a constant lurker here for years. This feels terrible. Thanks for the scintillation all you sparkling BBS regulars! It was a good trip :slight_smile: ------------------------- anon47182935 | 2024-10-29 20:52:31 UTC | #162 [quote="oncebce, post:151, topic:286184"] Others in this thread have noted that they would happily chip in $ to keep this community running - I would too. I’m guessing the reasons for switching platforms instead of running a patreon or something are more than just money. But I wish something else could have been tried first, before making this drastic move. [/quote] Given that Discourse offers subscription options and that migration always loses part of the subscriber base, I can really only see one of two options: 1. No, it really is all about the money, and Substack is offering a better rev share to whitewash their image 2. Going to the Nazi bar was desirable for reasons other than money ------------------------- RigelT | 2024-10-29 20:53:52 UTC | #163 The BBS is/was, if nothing else, a great news aggregator sorted by topic, what with the small army of prolific article sharers among the contributors. That loss, plus the unfortunately similarly-timed implosion of the WaPo, and I guess I'm going to go into this election less informed by fewer allies. It's been fun for twenty-ish years, but I've found some of the editorializing and discourse here increasingly toxic over time which drove me from participating to lurking and am not inclined to pay to pursue it in concentrated form. So all the best to the rest. I am grateful for what it was. Be safe, everyone. ------------------------- frauenfelder | 2024-10-29 21:17:50 UTC | #164 Hi all, We chose Substack because it provides the best available publishing tools to create the Boing Boing experience we've always wanted to deliver. After years of wrestling with aggressive advertising and technical limitations, we finally have a platform that lets us focus on what matters most - creating and sharing the content you love. Our direct experience with the Substack team has been overwhelmingly positive. They've given us complete editorial independence and the technical support we need. We maintain full control over our space and actively moderate our community to ensure it remains the safe, weird, wonderful place you expect Boing Boing to be. We understand some readers have concerns about Substack's platform policies. We've thought carefully about this. Our presence here isn't an endorsement of every voice on the platform - just as our presence on Twitter/X, YouTube, or any other platform hasn't been. We're here because these tools let us build something better for our community. Our mission remains clear: to keep the wonder and weirdness of Boing Boing alive for happy mutants today and into the future. We believe this move helps us achieve that mission while creating a more sustainable future for independent publishing. ------------------------- anon58741709 | 2024-10-29 21:29:02 UTC | #165 [quote="frauenfelder, post:164, topic:286184"] we finally have a platform that lets us focus on what matters most - creating and sharing the content you love. [/quote] Over 90% of the content that I love here comes straight from the BBS. Sometimes it makes its way to the front page, sometimes not. But the BBS is the most valuable part of boingboing to me. [quote="frauenfelder, post:164, topic:286184"] We’re here because these tools let us build something better for our community. [/quote] I'm not sure that there will be much of a community left after Friday. I'm not sure that there is now. This move is hurting a lot of us at a moment in history that is extra perilous. ------------------------- blondie | 2024-10-29 21:31:02 UTC | #166 That's all well and good but the tools the community most values do not exist on substack. Even simple, straightforward shit like formatting, or editing, the text of a post, or adding a link. It's no replacement for the BBS. ------------------------- anon3894935 | 2024-10-29 21:44:21 UTC | #167 [quote="anon58741709, post:165, topic:286184"] I’m not sure that there will be much of a community left after Friday. I’m not sure that there is now. This move is hurting a lot of us at a moment in history that is extra perilous. [/quote] This right here. It sounds like the community is considered expendable, as long as things become easier for the authors and moderators. I'm not entirely unsympathetic, as I'm sure running BB has only become more and more difficult, but unless Frauenfelder is talking about a hypothetical future community that pops up after this one is burned to the ground, this whole response feels tone-deaf. And choosing to move any engagement behind a right-wing-friendly site's paywall (and there utterly crippling it via Substack's vastly inferior comment system) right before this particular election can't help but feel like a betrayal to some degree. For myself and a lot of others, our news and engagement and online social discourse was centered right here at the BBS, much more so than the articles. ------------------------- FuckThisTimeLine | 2024-10-29 22:00:01 UTC | #168 [quote="anon58741709, post:165, topic:286184"] This move is hurting a lot of us at a moment in history that is extra perilous. [/quote] This can't be helped to feel like a calculated move to maximize the subscription using the most consequential election in recent memory as a bail. I also don't buy the subscription will prevent bad actors. Did people manage this site take a look at Twitter with its paid trollies? /S People with bad intent will find ways. The only things that keeps this place sane were the admin/moderators and the community. It's a two-way street. ------------------------- chenille | 2024-10-29 22:00:38 UTC | #169 [quote="ficuswhisperer, post:157, topic:286184"] orenwolf works tirelessly to keep the lights on and the bad actors away when there plenty of other things I’m sure he’d rather be doing [/quote] Full credit to orenwolf. But as something not yet mentioned, we have always been told how important the community is to maintaining this space is too...and @Mjolnir, @Sekhmet, and @Community_Mod_1 all took it on themselves to volunteer as moderators because they thought it was worth their time and energy. I am sure others would have too if they knew it was needed. To instead have it abruptly shut down on them in favor of a place *known* to promote bigots feels like terrible thanks for their efforts. ------------------------- Gelato | 2024-10-29 22:10:22 UTC | #170 I don't post much, but adding my voice to the chorus here. I won't go near Substack and am sad to be losing the BBS as one of my only social media platforms. As a child of the 80s/90s the old school internet forum format here has always felt comfortable, like your favorite neighborhood dive bar. Taking this away days before a pivotal election is pretty shitty. The folks here have really helped me keep my hope, and provide perspectives from around the country. The election thread has been especially amazing for wading through the noise. Miss y'all already. Stay safe out there. Punch nazis. Eat the rich. ------------------------- lostculture | 2024-10-29 22:10:13 UTC | #171 First thing I do after reading post, and maybe even the article, is check the comments for interesting views. Been reading on the regular for a very long time, I cant be bothered to look at my bookmark archives to find out, cue melancholy thoughts as I wonder where my life has gone. Alas I don't plan to subscribe, so this looks to be the end of the community as I know it. It's been mostly fun! Good luck everyone! ------------------------- subextraordinaire | 2024-10-29 22:35:15 UTC | #172 [quote="RigelT, post:163, topic:286184"] The BBS is/was, if nothing else, a great news aggregator sorted by topic, what with the small army of prolific article sharers among the contributors. [/quote] ![Oprah Winfrey Reaction GIF|250x179](upload://1y4R0RuqmmbroBL7R17gnSO8rpC.webp) Yes! I read so many different articles from so many different countries. I want to thank our following BBS friends who posted great newsworthy items from Germany, Finland, Scotland, England, Cumbria, Ireland, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ukraine, and especially our cousins to the north who worry more for us in the US than most Americans. All of you helped to broaden our minds! :heart: ------------------------- hecep | 2024-10-29 22:36:24 UTC | #173 [quote="74hc595, post:107, topic:286184, full:true"] Could at least the BBS be kept alive until **US elections results** are available? [/quote] That certainly would allow our group a venue in which we would either celebrate or commiserate together; that would be a worthy venue, either way. ------------------------- Scientist | 2024-10-29 22:36:51 UTC | #174 Thanks for posting a response. It's unclear if the move to substack required the simultaneous end of bbs. Given the option of paying for an ad-free BB and keeping the bbs going, I think plenty here would celebrate. If you don't mind, I'm very curious whether freezing the bbs was required to move to substack or if they're separate decisions ------------------------- blondie | 2024-10-29 22:44:23 UTC | #175 I'd imagine they're joined at the hip, unfortunately. The BBS could probably continue on on its own without fresh articles just fine but the investment from the owners probably wouldn't change much. Capitalism sucks. ------------------------- funkboy3 | 2024-10-29 23:11:03 UTC | #176 [quote="orenwolf, post:70, topic:286184"] The site remains unchanged. [/quote] Erm, that all depends on what is meant by "site". The landing page on www.boingboing.net, sure. The individual article pages which now bid you to go to Substack which *is* paywalled, not so much. ------------------------- anon81133038 | 2024-10-29 23:30:54 UTC | #177 [quote="blondie, post:166, topic:286184, full:true"] That's all well and good but the tools the community most values do not exist on substack. Even simple, straightforward shit like formatting, or editing, the text of a post, or adding a link. It's no replacement for the BBS. [/quote] Per Orenwolf in a comment above, they'll be working with Substack to enhance the community features. [quote="orenwolf, post:27, topic:286184, full:true"] 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. [/quote] But well... ![good-place-s1-ep01-chidi-okay-but-thats-worse-everything-is-fine-01|400x225](upload://qLLhNiA0aO07jpETO8gOYc01vIY.gif) So now not only does TPTB at BB want us to give money to Substack they also want us to be defacto beta testers irt expanding Substack's comment section to add more features and become more robust. IMO BB can't claim in good faith to just be one of the many regular people socializing at a bar that just so happens to be a Nazi hangout if they're also **literally helping renovate the Nazi bar.** As for alternatives, it's been mentioned here already but easy to miss, there's many out there but the most full featured would be Ghost.org Ghost also is fee only and doesn't take a percentage of revenue which is prohibitive for smaller newsletters but beneficial for larger ones, like BB. But this however is assuming that BB didn't strike a special deal with the Nazi bar. ------------------------- SoylentPlaid | 2024-10-29 23:19:38 UTC | #178 That's a shame. I'll check out the Substack some time, but I don't see myself paying for a subscription. I'll drop into the homepage from time to time, it's a regular read, but I'll miss the community, the weirdness, the article threads. I'm sure the Substack comments section will be populated by commenters, but I'm guessing that you won't be seeing nearly the traffic you got here. All good things must end, it's a shame, but that's life. Thanks for the memories, BoingBoing! Hopefully we'll see each other again, I'll always hold out hope. In the immortal words of Jack Karlson: Ta ta, and fare well! ------------------------- someguy | 2024-10-30 00:00:44 UTC | #179 [quote="orenwolf, post:156, topic:286184"] Usernames we can’t control, [/quote] I assume "orenwolf" is taken. Hmm. Who else might I want to become? [quote="OhHai"] Over 90% of the content I love comes straight from the BBS. [/quote] Huh...? /time passes/ OMG! HEY GUYS! If you delete "BBS" from the URL, it's like a whole different site! There's an article about a remote controlled lamp that shines in 16,000,000 (*million*) colors and it is 87% off! And a LIFETIME license to Microsoft Office 2024! Buy it now, and you can still use Office 2024 in 2074! ------------------------- LurkingGrue | 2024-10-30 00:19:31 UTC | #180 Wait, Do we need to transfer our accounts over there? Do we just lose all the community that is on this bbs? ------------------------- Christopher_Merritt | 2024-10-30 00:24:49 UTC | #181 Super sad in the way this was rolled out Mark. And to echo others, this feels like the very legitimate concerns/frustrations people have with this are falling on deaf ears. I can only guess you guys planned for a negative response based on the replies. I learned so much from so many people on the BBS. What a drag. ------------------------- LurkingGrue | 2024-10-30 00:37:59 UTC | #182 Welp, It was a good run huh? I've been with boing boing since "Ginger" the whole segway thing. ![127|500x275](upload://bUkMiQBNwypspqrH7PLOoSDX6DT.gif) ------------------------- LurkingGrue | 2024-10-30 00:40:06 UTC | #183 [quote="Stove, post:111, topic:286184"] Boingboing will stay in my RSS feeds and we’ll see how it goes, but the BBS going away feels like a big loss. [/quote] If there was no rss I would probably stop reading here. ------------------------- gatto | 2024-10-30 01:15:18 UTC | #184 [quote="LurkingGrue, post:180, topic:286184, full:true"] Wait, Do we need to transfer our accounts over there? Do we just lose all the community that is on this bbs? [/quote] so far as i understand, the bbs here will be read-only but accessible ( searchable and you can export and save your posts to your local machine if you want. ) you will have to create a substack account. you can use the same name and avatar you used here, but it will be a separate account from yours here. ( they have a thing called a "handle" which needs to be unique, but their names can be anything you want. so even if substack already had an @LurkingGrue you can use that again ) realistically, the community will fragment. substack isn't the bbs. although substack says they want to add features to make it more like this bss, that will take some time i'm sure. and at least some people have said they don't want to use substack. i'm going to try it for a while and see, but i think the experience will be pretty different. [quote="LurkingGrue, post:183, topic:286184"] If there was no rss I would probably stop reading here. [/quote] my understanding is that the boingboing rss will still exist. ( but not the bbs one, if there is such a thing ) ------------------------- MikeTheBard | 2024-10-30 01:24:41 UTC | #185 Welp. That's a hell of a thing. I'll reserve judgement until I see how the Substack looks after a couple months, but I'm not feeling overly positive. Then again, I stuck around for the Discourse migration, and the addition of ads way back when. I came here because it felt like the next generation of counterculture- The next stop after Robert Anton Wilson and Tim Leary, Discordianism and the Illuminati and the various proud freaks and weirdos that made me who I am today. This was one of the first places I heard about 3D printing, lastest DIY technology, and the kind of open source, post-scarcity, distributed architecture that actually gives me some hope for a future. I'm super proud of the stuff I had published on the front page during the [Market Basket revolution](https://boingboing.net/2014/08/28/market-basket-victory-worker.html). Happy Mutants Of course, I'm stuck with the basic dilemma of the modern world: Quality content is worth paying for, but it cuts into the food budget. If I supported all the creators I enjoy and think deserve to make a living, I couldn't afford a place to live myself. And like the rest of the modern world, I've been watching the BBS degrade into the same kind of politics as my Facebook feed and the Gaza Strip. I've tried several times to quit and think about some kind of positive shit instead, but the obsessive bit just won't let go. Maybe this is finally it. Who knows. The only constant is change. Sometimes you move with it, sometimes you move away from it. Thanks for the Discourse over the years, those of you that contributed, and I wish everyone a safe and prosperous future despite all likelihoods. Maybe we'll cross paths on the next board. Sláinte. ------------------------- ChuckV | 2024-10-30 01:31:13 UTC | #186 [quote="gatto, post:184, topic:286184"] you will have to create a substack account. you can use the same name and avatar you used here, but it will be a separate account from yours here. ( they have a thing called a “handle” which needs to be unique, but their names can be anything you want. so even if substack already had an @LurkingGrue you can use that again [/quote] I was under the impression that your handle is what you will be publicly known by. Your name is your real name, which is why duplicates are permitted as people do have the same name as each other on occasion. ------------------------- gatto | 2024-10-30 01:39:17 UTC | #187 this kind of shows what it looks like ![Screenshot_20241029-183317|416x500](upload://uWfPJ1hV7ykaSKE9iUt9rM4FSsz.png) ![Screenshot_20241029-183821|690x438](upload://uNOCIgsmKLtmoIhsfr0Pg6WkVQc.png) ------------------------- tcg550 | 2024-10-30 01:36:57 UTC | #188 [quote="ChuckV, post:186, topic:286184"] Your name is your real name, which is why duplicates are permitted as people do have the same name as each other on occasion. [/quote] I just put tcg550 as my name and handle, there's no way I'm using my real name on a platform that may accidentally or intentionally let my info out there. It appears as they use people's names in email notifications so be careful what you put in there. ------------------------- 29ggf | 2024-10-30 02:04:31 UTC | #190 What a year! I'm really surprised and disappointed on how this transition is being rolled out, with no early notice and downplay of the impacts on the community that formed on the BBS. I'm pretty sure that knowing the community it would be pretty obvious that said platform would cause outrage and a loss of veteran frequent contributors. I'm not moving to substack, the annual fee is too expensive (*global south* citizen here) for mostly reading comments (the part on getting rid of ads we already know how to do, don't we?) not to mention the brown shirted elephant in the room. Won't get my third world money! I'll miss the BBS even though I've been mostly lurking here. It felt cozy like the internet of my teen years. Thanks everyone, mods and fellow users, I wish you the best. ![](upload://c506WeODI4Bx218uKXcuY4H9afi.gif) ------------------------- DavidK44 | 2024-10-30 02:13:20 UTC | #191 I'd almost always scan through the articles on the main site, and read the ones that were interesting to me. The next step was always to go to the comments, as they added significant value to the whole experience. Moving the comments to Substack is a hard 'no' for me - I don't care why they're allowing Nazi/fascist content on their venue, but I refuse to interact with Substack because of that decision. Allowing Nazis to visit condones their activities; if you condone Nazis, you *are* one. Doesn't matter how *you* view it, history will view you as a Nazi. The timing and lack of advance notice is very troubling. Clearly Substack must have cut an amazing deal with the BB powers-that-be. However, having the best, shiniest, toys still means you're playing with Nazis. There are other, much less problematic, options that would have been much more acceptable. I've enjoyed visiting and reading interesting items, but the way all of this has been done leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I guess I could still visit BB to read the posts, even without access to the comments, but given all of the above, I think it's time to just depart, and do it cold-turkey - time to delete the bookmark in my tab lists. Thanks to all of you who made it an enjoyable place to visit. I wish it could have continued. ------------------------- apalatn | 2024-10-30 02:45:58 UTC | #192 This definitely feels like reading an obituary... The articles on BB are interesting, but the value for me was always in the discussions that followed, and considering how many of the most-edifying voices have already declined to follow the move, I don't expect NewBB to have the same atmosphere. I'd say I'd keep my eye on it in the future, but being unable to even *see* the new comments without paying in puts a pretty hard damper on that, too. Maybe I'll grab a free trial after some time, but if there are a lot of people with the same approach (but different timing), it's going to be everyone playing missed connections peek-a-boo and not actually coming back. Then again, I'm a pessimist currently off my meds, so maybe I'm wrong about all this. I hope I'm wrong, at least. Maybe-temporary-but-probably-not farewell to all the friendly and thoughtful mutants I've had the chance to write to here. It's been a nice ride. :wave: ------------------------- gatto | 2024-10-30 03:00:36 UTC | #193 [quote="MrShiv, post:189, topic:286184"] Not if it’s already taken (as mine is, apparently) [/quote] name you can. ( i appear as "gatto" over there. ) handle you cannot ( if you want to specifically @ me, it's gattaro. annoying but not the end of the world. ) i hoped the screenshots i posted made it clear. sorry if it didn't. ------------------------- MrShiv | 2024-10-30 03:02:57 UTC | #194 No, I was mistaken. Thanks for clarifying ------------------------- hastur | 2024-10-30 06:31:08 UTC | #195 Enshitiification. A product catalogue of monetized things. So long and thanks for all the fish. ------------------------- anon77190095 | 2024-10-30 10:05:28 UTC | #196 I've had a really good time hanging out here, expanded my horizons, learned something nearly every day, and I'm going to miss the humor, the pathos, the wit and intelligence of so many posters. That said, we're here by the grace of the guys who own the site, and if they can't do it anymore, that's more than fair. Had a look at Cory's site, not really the same vibe. Anyhow, it's been a lot of fun, and I hope to someday meet some of you again in some other context. ![Pew Pew Reaction GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants|500x323](upload://2HyH4QS2ukqItAb4HvJGoOsEfYu.webp) ------------------------- anothernewbbaccount | 2024-10-30 12:32:16 UTC | #197 [quote="anon81133038, post:62, topic:286184"] 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. [/quote] Well, that's what I thought too. But today, Ken says this: [the BBS isn’t going anywhere in the near-term](https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/migration-to-substack/286128/380?u=anothernewbbaccount) So maybe, the BBS will exist for non-blog-post discussions and blog-post discussions will now only live on Substack. Not quite what I understood when I read Ken's initial comments, either. (My bold below.) [quote="orenwolf, post:20, topic:286184"] 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.** [/quote] So, is the BBS going nowhere or is it imminently to become read-only? @orenwolf please can you clear up some of the confusion here? ------------------------- anothernewbbaccount | 2024-10-30 12:42:38 UTC | #198 I've been liking the posts above expressing / reflecting my feelings about all this. Several have said things I would like to have said. Yours sums it all up as well as I could, I think. Thanks. But with so many familiar handles saying they are off, is there anywhere we can all congregate instead? I will miss many of you, probably much more than you realise. ------------------------- David_Guilbeaul | 2024-10-30 12:48:47 UTC | #199 Happy trails everyone ------------------------- anon81133038 | 2024-10-30 13:21:20 UTC | #200 The BBS is going read only. It's staying up. Our ability to post or comment on it is going away. Time for me to use one last Futurama gif I guess. ![Futurama GIF|480x360](upload://aFpS4hGuLEJzKm1ljQn96DbC3RD.webp) ------------------------- anothernewbbaccount | 2024-10-30 13:11:03 UTC | #201 [quote="blondie, post:175, topic:286184"] The BBS could probably continue on on its own without fresh articles just fine but the investment from the owners probably wouldn’t change much [/quote] Enlightened owners do things for the common good knowing the common good can benefit them indirectly in the long run, too. Enlightened owners might have said - "well, we didn't plan to create this community - our focus is on 'giving them the content they love' and this community somehow arrived, but seeing as the BBS just costs us money, rather than shut iot down, why don't we 'donate' the BBS to the community, open up Discourse's subscription options and leave figure out if it can be kept going, separately from BB?" ------------------------- anothernewbbaccount | 2024-10-30 13:31:53 UTC | #202 Well, I'd like Ken to say that. Because ... [quote="orenwolf, post:380, topic:286128"] Hopefully it works. If it doesn’t, well, the BBS isn’t going anywhere in the near-term [/quote] ... not going anywhere means it is still usable. 'Reading-only' is not 'using'. I would not expect Ken to say something like "it's not going anywhere" when he means it will in effect be archived and no longer be used/usable. ------------------------- oncebce | 2024-10-30 13:58:43 UTC | #203 [quote="anothernewbbaccount, post:197, topic:286184"] Well, that’s what I thought too. But today, Ken says this: [the BBS isn’t going anywhere in the near-term](https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/migration-to-substack/286128/380) [/quote] And now that whole thread is gone... ![Come On Ugh GIF by NBC|500x281](upload://jOfqJnFANWnZQ9XJlIfEpYkoCF6.webp) ------------------------- anothernewbbaccount | 2024-10-30 13:51:52 UTC | #204 Umm, no. I found it ok, again. Still there. ------------------------- stebuu | 2024-10-30 13:52:36 UTC | #205 On one hand, it's been clear that boingboing has been in financial difficulties for a while now. However, the one two punch of "lean heavily on anonymous troll authors" and "blow up everything" is probably a great way of alienating your base. This is making me legitimately nostalgic for the awful boingboing store. RIP. ------------------------- cheem | 2024-10-30 13:52:42 UTC | #206 It’s not viewable by everyone. I can’t see it at all. ------------------------- oncebce | 2024-10-30 13:55:55 UTC | #208 Yup, I wonder what the criteria are. ![image|690x221](upload://y6F21tkGZDJrWQZzcjy84ED8gyI.png) ------------------------- ycleptShawn | 2024-10-30 13:56:53 UTC | #209 [quote="stebuu, post:205, topic:286184"] anonymous trolley authors [/quote] Took me a while before I could process this other than imaginng authors on a trolley. Rather that invoking something that lives under a bridge and asks about tip tapping. :-) -------------------------