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…
This is a terrible decision.
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.
Come over to Metafilter.
It’s been swell, guys.
Somewhere in a box, I still have this issue:
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?
I’m rejoicing RIGHT NOW!
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!
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.
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.
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:
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.
Are you Peter Thiel? /S
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.
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.
Thank you all for your contributions to my daily routine of enlightenment. Hope to bump into all of you here and there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
