LFGSS and Microcosm shutting down 16th March 2025 (the day before the Online Safety Act is enforced)

Yes

I'm somewhere between denial and shock.

I came and lurked for all the amazing mechanical advice, then the Classifieds followed by Current Projects got me into posting.

Having this place, both as an outlet and irl drinks helped me through a tough period where I'd managed to sever my existing friendships and helped to rebuild confidence to regain them. The support and advice from this community has been invaluable. The knowledge and opinions here have informed and challenged me. The help on everything to DIY to parenting... honestly I could go on and on.

Thank you to everyone (especially @Velocio) for making this place what it is.

I’d offer to move the hosting to Singapore but I suspect that would be frying pan to fire.

Here is the UK's productivity output per hour since 1994. Whilst economists have struggled to deduce the reason for the huge downturn in productivity growth since 2007, I am not confused.

It's clear to me the entire Online Safety Bill is a devious plan to get us back working again. I protest.

1 Attachment

Memories will be lost like…tears in the rain

That’s Blade Runner (Final Cut).

Never heard of it

Cries in gif.

1 Attachment

Eh?

The quote is actually

All these moments shall be lost in time, like a fart in the wind.

From Blade III.

Struggling to come to terms with it as others are. All I can say is thank you @Velocio and all my friends on here, IRL and online - especially for keeping me sane during the lockdowns.

All I can think of is a petition, which would likely cross-threshold for getting an answer from the government (10k signatures), but not a debate (100k signatures), but that doesn't seem to offer much of a lifeline.

One thing I'd wager is that a lot of users may not be aware of this yet though. I've messaged users who haven't. I typically look at my /updates/ and occasionally /today/, where I spotted it when bored at work.

Is there a way to broadcast to all users or add a notice to the banner? In the interests of getting onboard with Discord, this would help mobilise.

Is there a way to broadcast to all users or add a notice to the banner? In the interests of getting onboard with Discord, this would help mobilise.

I could send 70K emails :)

I'll do so when I have the motivation.

I've moved this back to the front page so it's more discoverable.

I still personally believe that the Discord life raft is probably the wisest thing to put effort into, but to enjoy this and other sites for as long as we can.

They'll just be sold at some point and it'll turn even into a shitter monetised craphole than it already is.

I still think off-shoring (Fuck you, Shorsey!) this lot and sticking fingers firmly up at the UK is the best option.

In case it's useful for having links in one place, here are some -

Forum shutdown announcements:

LFGSS - https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/
GamingOnLinux - https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/6463/
Ready To Go - https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/the-end-of-the-forum-is-nigh.1646227/

News articles:

Telegraph - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/17/hundreds-of-websites-to-shut-down-under-chilling-internet/ (https://archive.is/QHGqk)
Computing - https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2024/legislation-regulation/online-safety-act-obligations-spark-concern-among-small-sites
The Times - https://www.thetimes.com/comment/article/online-clampdown-puts-sites-like-mine-at-agitators-mercy-k0707wccl (https://archive.is/16lyo)
New Scientist - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2461213-hundreds-of-small-websites-may-shut-down-due-to-uks-online-safety-act/
BoingBoing - https://boingboing.net/2024/12/18/britains-online-safety-rules-come-into-force-andl-ocal-sites-are-already-shutting-down.html
TechDirt - https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/20/death-of-a-forum-how-the-uks-online-safety-act-is-killing-communities/

Please reply with any more and I can add them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1hfwxzr/lfgss_and_microcosm_shutting_down_16th_march_2025/

Came across this.

I will keep an eye out too. Currently looking for how other forums are discussing it, e.g.: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=111867.0

While we are at it.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/uk-online-safety-act-lfgss-disappearing.488277

Figure political climate is not going to be helped by the verdict on the Gisele Pelicot where an online community was used to bring perpetrators together. I realise that the private nature of the online community makes the situation different but this nuance might be lost by politicians

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/12/coco-website-pelicot-rape-trial

These two posts are somewhat positive, but don't really address @Velocio 's primary concern of personal targeting.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=111867.msg5797470#msg5797470

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=111867.msg5797488#msg5797488

Also added this link to a 2022 article from the admin of Mumsnet - https://archive.is/16lyo - as I wasn't able to find anything recent from them.

“We are trying to dismantle the idea that these criminals are monsters,” Antoine said. “The Mazan case showed with websites like Coco these people can be your neighbors – even in the smallest town people can connect online and commit these crimes.”

Lol. Wtf. Yeah, these dudes are the real victims here. They were just your average Joe... it was the website that perverted them and turned them into bloody rapists and murders 🤦

I’d love you

where an online community was used to bring perpetrators together

Illegal stuff will always happen, it just goes underground. Bad stuff will still happen when the OSA is being enforced.

The OSA does not stop bad stuff happening... it just causes a chilling effect where non-compliance of the good stuff triggers shutdowns, and consolidates everything into the hands of big tech.

Know that this is what Ofcom and the politicians desire as they believe that makes it easier to regulate and control the communications then.

The bit of me that thinks "fuck it, put it in another country and make it an anarchist collective and a maze of volunteers in multiple countries"... is the bit of me that is angry that this is happening.

But there's a lot of realisation too that this is Cnut the Great sitting on a throne on a beach and trying to turn back the tide... I have a happy and busy life, letting go is the best thing to do. Let Discord figure out the compliance.

Conventional media has suffered because of internet competition.
I think they have a huge interest in painting online forums and boards as dangerous and unsafe.

I'll admit im not super informed on the subject, but would arrive to a different conclusion. With this, more and more communities are pushed to the large social media sites that were the ones that made conventional media suffer in the first place (already read the headline on facebook, why visit their website).

For me, there's a very simple distinction. The large sites are anti-social media; they use the pretext of facilitating communication to interpose themselves between people and siphon off their data, like if you're trying to have a conversation on the street or at a party and some creepy person is trying to listen in. LFGSS is a social medium, as the owner doesn't try to exploit the data, and so it genuinely facilitates communication (except when the subject of pie vs. crumble comes up and all gloves are off). The rest of the Internet is an increasingly negative place by comparison.