I do think we lived in a sort of golden age. Back before everything was a transaction or about 'clout'. Despite this community being forme around a very specific interest, it grew way beyond that and we had people with varied backgrounds and interests and I think that was really healthy. Communities now seem kinda hyper-focused.

I do think the fediverse (mastodon etc.) recaptures some of the good of the old net. It's fundamentally twitter, but without the algorithhms (it's just chronological) and (bad) bots and, importantly, it's populated by people who tend to feel the same way about the internet. It brings it back, at least, to genuine interactions and conversations.

(actually spent yesterday setting up a fedi server since I fancied being on a single-user instance again. @uoou@fedi.drew.monster if anyone fancies adding me!)

Yve: I do love that there are still little pockets of old internet around. PhpBBs that have been going for decades and stuff. And a local bus forum sounds lovely! 
 

Funny you should say that. The bus forum is "powered by MyBB" which is great until someone updates something and a load of functionality disappears or the budget server overuns with maintenance. The sewing forum is on a similar platform, funded by many of us paying a £10 annual subscription for the ability to upload photos. It's nice have little community pockets not run for profit, regardless of their clunkiness.

Yesssssss. I'll put up with some clunk when it's a community-run thing.

Someone posted a video of Rendle on a completely unrelated friend's Discord server and I was reminded of Teh at 5am. :)

I also occasionally stick my head in here, though it's been a while now. Some kind of Meat would be a lovely treat.

Hello. I agree with everything you say, always.

And vice versa! (Though not in this case, obviously).

(Hello (hug) )

Haha, the YouTube algorithm keeps recommending Rendle to me on YouTube because I tangentially do a bit of C# .NET dev. I laugh every time