(Let's see if the owners of this site dare to publish this. I don't think they will.)

The "General" forum – as we knew it literally for decades – is gone. The "Faith and Religion Mega-Thread," with more than 10,000 posts, is nowhere to be seen.

"LQ" has suddenly decided to re-invent itself as a forum which now has no history. I have no idea what advertiser pressured them into doing it. But, they have in so doing utterly destroyed the unspoken [advertising ...] value of this site.

It's been pointed out to you multiple times now that every thread in every forum, including General, from the very beginning of the site is still available. I can't imagine what conspiracy you have in mind or why you're not willing to read the direct responses that others have given you, but the information in your post is demonstrably false.

--jeremy

Click this link, bro.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...c&daysprune=-1

It's the options to filter for posts since the beginning in URL form.

It's the long gap that is causing this behaviour. The old threads that no one was allowed to update for weeks have now lost their "current" status and no longer appear by default. You'll have to extend your personal date range spec for viewing in order to recover them.

General is still here, including that post where you said weren't going to post in General anymore: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...te-4175741034/

I personally feel that it's no harm to let old threads die. A lot of them caused concern and seemed to break down along the US political divide. Some others were otherwise acrimonious. I'm not intending to resurrect any.

Yep, the old General is most certainly gone in the sense it's not basically a free-for-all anymore.

About the only positive thing about the "new General forum" is that it now has two moderators who actually still participate here.

Apart from that, and while it may discourage people that want endless political "discussions", it doesn't discourage people who don't actually want to discuss technical matters in the actual technical forums, and who instead want to use this site as their own form of "social media" - which IMO (if I'm allowed to have one of course) really destroys the value of this site as a technical forum, first and foremost.

Jeremy may as well rename this forum, or indeed the site itself to "LQ Social" and be done with it - with the motto "The place to be if you can't handle what most would consider to be social media, but no politics allowed".

Hi,
I like the <NEW> <General> forum as it is now, especially with the NO political/politics Rule!

Jeremy's attention to this forum and encouraging more MOD involvement will make it better than ever.

As to the no history pointed out by you has been correctly addressed by other LQ members'.

I get a little tickle from a posting titled GENERAL IS GONE posted in GENERAL!
What is the total opposite of BRILLIANT again? ;-)

We can use our signatures to flaunt our political inclinations and that will be visible in every forum, not just in General. Interesting.

If you make a signature violation then that too can be addressed by Moderators.

I really hate it when people do that. You should just include a link to your blog or website or wherever you normally sound off and people can visit if they want. If they don't like what they find, they can make a mental note not to go there again. But when I'm investigating a post to see if I can maybe help the poster solve a problem, I don't want to have his woke politics jammed down my throat.

+1, hazel. Whereas LQ may tolerate such sigfiles, individuals may react negatively, if it's taken as your opportunity to sound off.

Agreed! By posting here we agree that we're not going to post politics. That's an underhanded work around on the rules here in General.

Agreed. A ready made scenario to use the 'ignore list' - one of the several tools people could have used to keep an engaging and vibrant 'General' forum instead of the neutered, shadow of itself, it now presents.