RIP Y&Ying forum?

I even prefer the framework of this forum over others I've seen; if the few functionality issues could be ironed out it'd be a great space for sharing.

Forum discourse is pretty sparse now compared to when I started in ~2007ish. Less people, less incisive conversations on interesting subjects. I think that forums are less relvant to younguns these days although to be honest some seem quite healthy in car world as an example.

SailingAnarchy is still useful / vibrant although if you might be offended then it is probably not for you.

Forums are far more valuable as I don't think FB is searchable. Maybe someone can tell me I'm wrong on that. I spent half an evening looking back through a hundred page thread on SA the other night for technically interesting stuff that would be impossible to find anywhere else.

I sacked off FB maybe 2016 as I recognised the pernicious fake news stuff and also in an unsuccessful attempt to encourage my other half to do the same. No regrets re FB whatsoever would recommend that course of action to anybody but lucklily / regrattably can see some public pages which usually have replaced websites for stuff like small class associations, where the challenge of finding someone to edit a website has become too much for many.

Ultimately it comes down to the lowest common denominator / path of least resistance and where most people are hanging out which is or maybe was FB. But like someone said, I dare say things are moving on to other platforms, mostly surrounding being advertised to and showing off rather than scintillating intellectual badinage. Cue me moaning about dumbing down, Blairs Britain etc.

That said Mozzy does a great job on his youtube channel and the comments are often interesting / illuminating, he seems very dilligent in responding to them but again thats not the ideal searchable format and pertains to AC or formerly RS800 only. 

I think that Office 365 has that yammer thing that nobody ever uses in any company I've worked in. I think is supposed to have similar functionality to internet forums but pertaining to work topics. Oddly enough M**rosoft isn't offering a 365 app to companies to best allow employees to parade touched up photos of one's pursed love island lips and other edited records of one's suspiciously enviable "lifestyle."

My kids only have meta accounts by zucker-stealth: WhatsApp and Instagram.  They're not in to metaverse / oculus quest stuff.... I guess that's their generation's Games Workshop equivalent for incels, uglies and the future victims of creepy dudes.  

Even insta is decidedly middle-age (and very middle-class mum-sy), can't see my youngest sticking with that for much longer, she thinks it's decidedly naff compared to TikTok.  However WhatsApp still has a stranglehold on cross platform messaging... so a shout out for Signal, download it.. it'll only achieve critical mass when enough of us have it

As for Clubs and Classes - despite the failure of Google+, I think Google accounts and contributors still have role to play in collating lists and search content worth a damn.