The Library has been closed to new acquisitions since the forum ceased to be at the end of 2008. What remains are hundreds of Posts of the Day, and a reading room much reduced from its glory days.
To mark the recent 10th birthday of this site, which as you can see retains a skeleton caretaker staff, the following links have been collected which provide a glimpse into its tumultuous history.
Or you can just scroll down (or up, depending on your orientation) for the post of the decade.
A note to the curioustl;dr ↓
The story of a forumFor the considerably more curious.
Quis leget haec?The Library still provides a translation service: "Who will read this?"
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bombForum addiction.
The OfficeAbundant material here for forum anoraks. Quite dusty indeed.
The memory holeWe left Kansas a long time ago.
It’s a small world after allLocked and loaded.
Room 101.1Now with BunkerCam.
Message in a bottleOn ethos.
Shocka"Just when I thought I was out, I pull myself back in."
And the band played onTaped confessions.
and finally,
It's a wonderful lifeThere was a great forum that had erudition in spades, crafted posts that jumped off the page and tugged at your cerebrum, making run of the mill forums look exactly that.
Then it all went away and here was born. Other internet stuff is ephemeral, but that forum was different. And people still remember it and miss it...
Post of the decade is perhaps a bit strong, but it's nice to be remembered.
Speaking of history, before the forum there was
BikeReader, which arrived on the scene in February 2000. Time flies*
The Guardian visits in pre-aspic days* like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
