Adding to the "I miss the internet before it died" chorus: All of the social media plaforms have gone completely downhill in the last couple of years due to sheer volume of algorithmically generated "suggestions" swamping any real-people interactions which were ostensibly the point of them. The recent trend of obvious bot accounts posting obvious AI art for obvious bot accounts or maybe boomer to comment on is a pain. Especially the really dodgy "classical architecture/mythology but really white supremacism" ones that are cropping up with frightening regularity.

The last post I did on FB that got any kind of decent engagement was me complaining about the incessant (and impossible to avoid) plugging of the Dull Mens Club and various derivatives. (And it was interesting to see how many Teh-ers are similarly afflicted.)

I kind of wonder whether it's just that I can't be arsed in my old age, or what the online experience is for people of the age we were in the golden era of PCFF/NotPCFF/Teh .

Hoping that things continue to be *good* for you. It sounds like you've had a rough more than a few years and I'm sorry you lost your lovely mum.

I stick to mostly interest based forums on t'Interwebs, these days. I do have a twitter account that I use on a read only basis, these days, because I would quickly get myself banned if I said what I thought to certain characters on there and then I couldn't be nosey. Mumsnet, like the rest of it, is troll and bot infested but can be entertaining /interesting. I'm on a local bus forum with littlewibbly, as bus nerding is one of the things we do together as a bit of a mum and son activity but there is very little off topic chat, there and an awful lot of arsiness that the grown ups with ban hammers have to keep under control. I'm on a couple of sewing forums and one of them is a lovely community and I've met a few other members but I'm always aware of being one of the youngest there. How things have changed :D

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

not sure why I thought to visit, I didn't post that much - but I was there. Hello. 

concur, things were better in the old days

Hi Al