ffs
While I'd not given it a lot of conscious thought, I've been aware of the slow destruction of anything of value on the net thanks to increasingly over-zealous oversight / regulation by our overlords - either in the name of nanny-state, free-speech-curtailing rubbish and / or thinly-veiled attempts to further the surveillance state.
I've been active for many years on various small, interest-focused forums such as CC and agree wholly with
@wiggydiggy's position. While such forums have largely remained constant (if perhaps in the face of declining traffic) in the face of the "new breed" of social media, sites like facebook, instagram, tiktok etc seem to have mutated from decent, legitimate platforms that simply allowed you to stay in touch with friends / those with shared interests into warped, toxic, exploititive, ad-driven rubbish.
Unfortunately it seems that as usual, the few decent interest-driven forums are being swept towards the collective internet cesspit on the tidal wave of effluent that is the "social media".
While sad it's hardly surprising since this is the way the net has been trending since its inception; imagined initially as a borderless, libertarian platform to allow free communication, it's increasingly been destroyed by the insatiable human need for profit, surveillance and control.
Naievely I'd sort of assumed that the humble forum might be immune to / slip under the radar of such nastiness; but of course I should have known they'd try to get us somehow.
I can see that all this will achieve - like most other acts of control and prohibition - is to drive stuff underground... does all this shite still apply if the forums aren't publicly-visible?
