I think this squarely falls into Doctorow’s enshittification theory.
The irony, it drips.
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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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Happy mutants rejoice: Boing Boing launches clean, ad-free experience
Plus good
DoublePlus good . . . /s. 
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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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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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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There is no paywall on boingboing.net. The site remains unchanged.
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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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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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Clearly. And my memory was off. The prank I referenced was in 2011.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Well, I’m out. It’s been fun. Sometimes, at least.
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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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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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Capitalism comes for all of us in the end.
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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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