Why

Reading https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/time-for-tech-firms-to-act-uk-online-safety-regulation-comes-into-force/ and we're done... we fall firmly into scope, and I have no way to dodge it. The act is too broad, and it doesn't matter that there's never been an instance of any of the proclaimed things that this act protects adults, children and vulnerable people from... the very broad language and the fact that I'm based in the UK means we're covered.

The act simply does not care that this site and platform is run by an individual, and that I do so philanthropically without any profit motive (typically losing money), nor that the site exists to reduce social loneliness, reduce suicide rates, help build meaningful communities that enrich life.

The act only cares that is it "linked to the UK" (by me being involved as a UK native and resident, by you being a UK based user), and that users can talk to other users... that's it, that's the scope.

I can't afford what is likely tens of thousand to go through all the legal hoops here over a prolonged period of time, the site itself barely gets a few hundred in donations each month and costs a little more to run... this is not a venture that can afford compliance costs... and if we did, what remains is a disproportionately high personal liability for me, and one that could easily be weaponised by disgruntled people who are banned for their egregious behaviour (in the years running fora I've been subject to death threats and stalking from those whom I've moderated to protect community members)... I do not see an alternative to shuttering it.

The conclusion I have to make is that we're done... Microcosm, LFGSS, the many other communities running on this platform... the risk to me personally is too high, and so I will need to shutter them all.

What and When

So here's the statement...

On Sunday 16th March 2025 (the last day prior to the Act taking effect) I will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS.

It's been a good run, I've administered internet forums since 1996 having first written my own in Perl to help fans of music bands to connect with each other, and I then contributed to PHP forum software like vBulletin, Vanilla, and phpBB, before finally writing a platform in Go that made it cost efficient enough to bring interest based communities to so many others, and expand the social good that comes from people being connected to people.

Approximately 28 years and 9 months of providing almost 500 forums in total to what is likely a half a million people in that time frame... the impact that these forums have had on the lives of so many cannot be understated.

The peak of the forums has been the last 5 years, we've plateaued around 275k monthly users across the almost 300 websites on multiple instances of the platform that is Microcosm, though LFGSS as a single community probably peaked in the 2013-2018 time period when it alone was hitting numbers in excess of 50k monthly users.

The forums have delivered marriages, births, support for those who have passed (cancer being the biggest reason), people reunited with stolen bikes, travel support, work support, so much joy and happiness and memorable experiences... but it's also been directly cited by many as being the reason that they are here today, the reason they didn't commit suicide or self-harm. It's help people get through awful relationship breakups, and helped people overcome incredible challenges with their health.

It's devastating to just... turn it off... but this is what the Act forces a sole individual running so many social websites for a public good to do.

I don't know where to recommend... I know lots of people have moved small groups to places like Signal and WhatsApp, and that some people are on the fediverse, and some are in other websites and groups.

There is no central place that could take us all and preserve the very special thing we had... so it's done.

This is a really special place... the people are special... I guess the next 3 months will be a time of sharing what it meant, and of groups figuring out where they want to go next.

Love you all forever, it's been amazing to be a part of it all, I never thought I'd touch the lives of so many people by running websites, and in turn to give so much reason to my own life. In the end, the person I save most was likely myself.

Dee

Oh, and I will go into PayPal and cancel all donations by everyone in late January, to ensure that we do not take in money that won't be used to cover the costs of the service.

Any monies donated in excess of what is needed to provide the service through to 16th March 2025 will be spent personally on unnecessary bike gear or astrophotography equipment, but more likely on my transition costs as being transfemme I can tell you there is zero NHS support and I'm busy doing everything DIY (reminder to myself, need to go buy some blood tests so I can guess my next dosage change)... Not that I imagine there will be an excess, but hey, I must be clear about what would happen if there were an excess.

Being part of the forum and the real life rides got me through some pretty tough times in my life when I was in London. Devastated it has to end this way.

What a crap bill.

Wowser. I might have to start actually doing my job. Could this be what kick starts UK productivity?

Well, this is just devastating. I don't know what to say, and obviously don't know what else might be done, either.

What the fuck

Wow. Obviously disappointed as I enjoy the forum a lot but for you @Velocio this must be a huge loss. So much of your time and talent gone into make this a special place. Thank you.

What the fuck

Yeah, and there was me thinking one day I'd be knighted or something daft for the unbelievable effort of a lifetime of building communities and making the World a nicer place... but it turns out I'll just have the risk of life-ending debt and other penalties thrown around in return for a kind of internet national service.

No good act goes unrewarded.

The act only cares that is it "linked to the UK" (by me being involved as a UK native and resident), and that users can talk to other users... that's it, that's the scope.

What if it wasn't run by you in the UK? What if it was run by someone not based here?

Also, even if you do tape out, rather than destroy everything, why not archive it? Make it static and stick the content in S3 bucket?

ah, grim! :/

can only imagine you're way ahead of me on this one, but no way of circumventing via making it some kind of paid-for/paywalled members-only club of sorts..?

Totally get it, but don't think the work hasn't been appreciated.

You've made the world a better place

I happen to be, by chance (not luck), one of the first to read this.
What a sad piece of news.
There are no words.
If the Act leads to the closure of LFGSS, then it simply can't be a good piece of legislation.

Is there not a way for us to come together and crowd-fund what's needed to pay for compliance work? If we're thousands of people, it should be doable.

PS: complying, or circumventing -- moving it abroad, whatever.

Came here to say this. I for one would be more than happy to donate a healthy chunk to keep this going. It’s invaluable for my mental health.

What if it wasn't run by you in the UK? What if it was run by someone not based here?

It doesn't work... yes I'm the obvious link, but still...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio­ns/online-safety-act-explainer/online-sa­fety-act-explainer

The Act applies to services even if the companies providing them are outside the UK should they have links to the UK. This includes if the service has a significant number of UK users

I don't think moving it aboard matters - it seems to cover anything with UK based users.

If the Act leads to the closure of LFGSS, then it simply can't be a good piece of legislation.

This is known to not be good legislation, but there was a culture war stoked by the Conservatives that Labour are not choosing to extinguish... forums and other UK sites are collateral damage.

The only thing we could do is let our MPs know, and to let Dame Melanie Dawes who runs Ofcom know... but I can guarantee you that they just do not care about the collateral damage, they care about this legislation being a tool to go after all social media.

Reddit here we come? :(

A final group flounce.

There's still some hope in me that something survives, including all the important things mentioned about community, there's also a massive knowledge base of mechanical knowhow and how-to.
Thank you all (but mainly @Velocio ) for a life altering and mostly enriching place. We really need to get this book sorted, and I guess some kind of closing down party before we lose the ability to communicate.

"Platforms have three months to carry out risk assessments identifying potential harms on their services or they could be fined up to 10% of their global turnover."

"platforms will need to identify if, where and how illegal content might appear on their services and ways they will stop it reaching users" so, you summarise the Admin reporting function, same as spammers are dealt with.

So, let's say I've just done a risk assessment and decided we're cool. I write that down and we're good, right?

"10% of turnover" = is £0. There's no income from sales so you can't be fined.

"The regulator's illegal content codes will still need to be approved by parliament before they can come fully into force on 17 March.

But platforms are being told now, with the presumption that the codes will have no issue passing through parliament, and firms must have measures in place to prevent users from accessing outlawed material by this date."

This all sounds like you need a document outlining how content is removed and that's your lot. It doesn't seem to impact non-profits so what am I missing that would lead to you being fined?

Yeah, but if you were to hand over the keys to an anonymous, foreign administrator... what then?

Awful news, what a terribly implemented bill.

Thinking practically, would a Discord work? I don't use it much but I know you create different channels (i.e. threads) within a server. I don't know where the liability would sit with something like that.

I mean, Pirate Bay and shit like that still run happily along so how can something like lfgss be shuttered? Sounds fucking mad.

What if you sold lfgss to a foreign investor and they hosted it and you were simply tech support?

10% of turnover

You read that wrong... £18M or 10% of turnover, whichever is greater.

Ofcom are clear on it.

Like GDPR? How's that working in practice with foreign companies? How are they going to fine a foreigner? How are they going to fine anyone that doesn't make any money from a service?

Will this be the end of all the niche forums like retro bike etc?