My last photo on the camera SD card. Jubilee orchard in Kronberg.

Once upon a time general advice forums were going strong on the internet. In 1996, the greatest of them all was created by three computer science students: wer-weiss-was = who knows something. I joined pretty early on and the site was a source of knowledge, of friendly discussions and comeradery. You could find help on almost every topic if the users didn’t know the answer they could point you in the right direction to do further research. In those first years we had a great community, including a chat which was my go-to when living in Saudi Arabia. We had a large meeting in Frankfurt in 2006, the 10th anniversary of the forum. That’s where I got the cup.

This was the highpoint. And in many ways it was downhill from here on. The site was sold (and sold and sold again) and the new owners (a publisher, an advertising company, etc.) wanted to make it BETTER and BIGGER and destroyed the site in the process. They chose to ignore the users who knew how the site worked and what made it unique and successful. Step by step, they destroyed the unique structure and the archive, and more and more of us left. I think it still exist somewhere,

And a couple of days ago I dropped the cup and it broke. Finally.

Sorry, these are more words than I usually add but for me that it is the finaly step in a grieving process. I have a consolation, though, and those are the friendships from that time that have lasted, some now for 25 years.

For Brian Bushboy’s The Last on the Card in November