When your online groups close?

Damn, damn, damn!

One of my fave cooking groups, BBC Good Food Together just announced it’s closing.

131.2k members and only 4 days notice!

The BBC are saying it’s because Covid is over and it’s not needed anymore but I expect they just don’t want the cost and responsibility and they want people to pay for the Good Food Together app

It been brilliant, so many friends and ideas, lots of cooks who share recipes who are as good as professional chefs

So of course we’re all scrabbling to stay in touch and hang onto some of the brilliant recipes. My printer is red hot and a couple of people have set up new groups and their own pages, which I’ve joined

But it’s the end of an era

I really think when online groups you enjoy fold, it’s a real loss. I remember when Saga went, for example

What about you, any online groups you still miss?

Friends Reunited, but only in it’s originalist purest form, it lost it’s ethos whilst still active so, it wasn’t missed when it went.

1 Like

If the group or forum really interested me, I always make e-mail contact with a selected few and then if closure ensues, contact is still maintained.
I have done this with OFF too.

1 Like

I vaguely remember there was a Friends Reunited forum? That was a good few years ago, but I remember it being quite fun and lively

Yes, that’s a good idea and at least they’ve given us four days to exchange emails and send friendship requests ( it’s a Facebook group)

A few members have set up new groups, and I’ve joined a couple

But it’s the daily interaction and recipes with the people I don’t know well or are only one off or occasional posters that I’ll miss

Ah well, everything has a shelf life :sob:

1 Like

The only one I sort of miss is Friends Reunited before it went mad and got rid of all the school stuff and made the creation of new groups impossible.

It had really terrible software that didn’t work for all the browsers, I don’t know why but they seemed to employ the laziest programmers, they only seemed to test anything new in Internet Explorer.

In many ways I miss Google Groups, Yahoo and the old Usenet with its specialist groups too but time has moved on. MySpace and ICQ were from a different time, I made friends there that I still see.

1 Like

That’s correct, there were a few “Characters” on there, but, in some ways, this detracted from the essence of the site in that most of the contributors could not be linked to any member registered on the site, and as such, their posting style went without accountability. :boxing_glove:

1 Like

Ah, that would explain it, I remember it got a bit wild towards the end :rofl::scream:

Yes, I think for me private Facebook groups have taken over that role :+1:

Yep, hands up for my part in that. :icon_wink: :smiley:

1 Like

That was you! Naughty ……

For me, it’s AOL, Prodigy and GEnie, if we’re going back that far. Those were the days.

I can’t remember any group closing in recent memory.

Since Facebook groups are free, just seems a little baffling that they would give up free advertising for their app. The only Facebook group I’m on is basically an ad for their app.

1 Like

When Saga and MNC went belly up I bummed around a few sites and couldn’t settle until I happened upon this over fifties site. Over the last six months I’ve looked in on a few other sites but I guess I’m just a lifer on Over Fifties, and if Azz does decide to call it a day sometime in the future, I’ll not bother starting all over again.

Nor me Foxy, done my share of Gobbing Off. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like