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

Reads less like a takeover and more like a new forum with a similar name. The later doesn't really need anyone's blessing. If they start something new, promote it and it gets critical mass it happens but it isn't the same.

It was originally done by email in the few days when I was receiving hundreds of emails and notifications... so it got lost, I read it and thought "reply later", and then didn't, that happens.

I've replied, and will copy the core of the reply here:

I should've replied, but I will flat out reject your offer HighGear .

I am only considering a single option, and that's to hand it over to existing members of the LFGSS forum who are long-tenured and active members, on the basis that the forum in roughly the same shape continues to exist.

I will not sell the Microcosm platform, nor the communities or data therein, and nor would I move them in their current form to anyone who isn't a long-tenured member with aligned ethics... I will only gift it to the community itself, or shut it down and delete it.

That should also re-assure people here... I am not considering selling the forum or gifting it to any commercial entity. This is not a cash-in or sell-out.

And if a group does form to take over and has a leader, I will state roughly the requirements in a contract form: non-commercial, non-profit, respecting the privacy of users as much as is possible given reasonable constraints (that you may need technical measures to operate within the OSA).