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

I'm not a troll, but I've said my piece and I don't wish to outstay my welcome. I'll move on. I enjoyed the opportunity to write about my passion. Thank you. And thank you for running an independent forum for 16 years. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Truly hard to tell as I'm sure you'll appreciate: no username, no cited links to support what you say, anonymous / masked email... and some of your phrasing is more ad-hominem attack, or at least felt that way to me.

I respect your opinion too, some of your points are valid, but you also state yours with personal circumstances shaping your risk assessment, and that too is very valid, and of course individuals run these services and individuals all have very different personal circumstances and risk thresholds that change over time.

I might argue my risk thresholds have remained static, but that is likely a fallacy, when I was younger, fresh off the streets (rough sleeper) and hacking together forums... I had nothing to lose and everything (a chosen family) to gain... I could take all risks and laugh them off and hadn't yet experienced things that would give me reason to pause or that would suggest I was naive. Now I am older, and I have far more to lose, and far less to gain, and running so many forums I feel like I've seen it all online, and experienced a lot personally... my risk threshold has changed.

To me though, the OSA feels less like a straw on the camel's back... the GDPR felt like a straw as being so privacy conscious and storing so little that was trivial to comply with... but this feels more like a bale of straws. You likely (obviously?) disagree, that is your opinion and is shaped by your risk assessment, but for me it is a bale of straws, not a minor thing, a major thing... and from that perspective my decision is rational and reasonable, as are similar decisions taken by other forum admins.

I still love the tech side, still love the people side, am happy in life, but this for me is a lot that I would not and do not choose to sign up to... if it falls within the risk threshold of others to take the baton, great... good for them... but I've asked for volunteers in the past and none materialised and in that light, with a clock now ticking... shuttering gives the greatest notice period possible for finding another place... jumping in the Discord life raft... or maybe, just maybe, a team figuring out how to organise and take over.