Refugee thread!

[DLJ]

How so?

It was an act of vandalism.

WELL, I mean more so in the way of:

Choosing to shut it down in the first place? Was very random and strange from my perspective, but it was Seth's call. I don't agree with it, but I don't have much say in what he does.

Shutting down altogether instead of moving existing stuff to a new server? This seemed to be the right course of action, as many users didn't want their data being used, with a few asking to have it all removed prior to any potential move as well. Seemed like closing down altogether was the right way forward, in my opinion at least.

I've sure the new forum is going to be great, but this place seems to have a hive of activity and lots of awesome members as well.

From a Realism / Hedonism perspective, yes. If a forum is a meeting place, this view makes sense... the important components (the people) move on to existing or new meeting places.  A political-realist could justly argue that if we could wipe all memories away there'd be no racism and the Israel/Palestine tiff would be a thing of the past... a past that itself would be forgotten.

Yet, from the perspective of Meliorism, no.  The important component (the knowledge and wisdom) has gone. The town council wanted to build a by-pass and some things had to go.  But there is a reason why even uninhabited medieval castles or Edwardian palaces don't get demolished.  That forum was an historical record, a reference library; recorded and time-stamped.  It had an identity of its own.

This act was more than vandalism, not just carving a love-heart into a tree, it was the destruction of the tree itself. It was the digital version of genocide... memeocide.

Like Alexander destroying the Avesta, like the demise of the Library of Alexandria, like ISIS bulldozing Nineveh, like the fire at the National Museum of Brazil... future historians will have nothing but a footnote and some salvaged wreckage to work with.