I've tried not to be earnest here, for some good reasons and some probably terrible ones, but I think that a nice way of showing that a place is important to you should include not memorializing it before it's actually done. So I've held onto this a bit to avoid that context and am consciously sharing it now, when that wound is not quite so fresh.
No website and very few communities will actually last forever, and the ones I know that have lasted the longest have maybe created the most regrets for people within them. if there's one thing I've learned from getting over-attached in the past it's that there's little that's interesting or of value when it comes to spending time declaring something as "over" when in fact it continues on.
If a website or place of any kind that you love is ever over, let it be over, but then honor it by putting the effort in to keep your friends and make something new together where you can at that point in time. The website is not the people, it's the place you met them. Don't be afraid to reach out and rebuild with different media, different intents, and different combinations of people. It's been nice, here, to reconnect with people I knew from other places, and to add new ones, some I was vaguely aware of and some I had never met, to recombine us in interesting ways that have already produced new ideas and jokes and memories.
What we have had we owe to both @staff and each other equally, and maybe in the future we'll be lucky enough to feel like we're doing all our favorite places proud in some other place with some other name.
Last day! Let's go out into the world and make it a little bit more like what we found valuable here.
But first, let's party on this website one last time
