Apple just made their support forums read-only and will completely kill them on November 20. Yet another sign that internet discussion forums are becoming extinct.

I was a moderator on the MacRumors forums for about 7 years. Last winter I finally stepped away because some of the discussions were just getting too political and toxic, and I no longer wanted to pass judgement of what was acceptable. But we always called ourselves "the largest Apple discussion site, aside from apple.com". I guess they will now just be "the largest Apple discussion site"?

https://www.macworld.com/article/3282552/apple-suddenly-shutters-its-support-community-forums-and-wont-say-why.html

Thats a Catastrophe!

Granted, haven't been doing any of the work on the computer that Ive wanted to due to numerous other things that have a must-do higher priority, but....this winter was supposed to be the "light at the end of the tunnel". And, hopefully not that from a train.

downsize the number of older computers running older operating systems, being one
file organization
archiving files or deleting them
even copying slides, 8mm and 35mm film
start some some serious family portrait stuff that can be framed nicely
etc
Really planned to be getting some detail on-line research with regard to a number of details with some of these projects. Got the Sony a7IV with the Nikon slide copier and micro lens, but the devil is in the details.

Unfortunately, being behind the outside work right now doesn't help.
Then this news!

With some of the recent rain a few days ago I was looking around on MacRumors then went to check in with Apple Communities but ran out of time. Checked Apple Communities just before writing this....

Looked at the "Check compatibility with macOS 27" page with the Golden Gate Bridge and the rocks in the near shore https://support.apple.com/en-us/127455
Seems like there is some symbolism there!

Don't like it.
Not really looking forward to the future.

*Thanks for the news* (I guess).
At least I have an idea of what to look forward to now.

Well, I wouldn't call it a "catastrophe". Just a sign of the times. I usually couldn't find solutions to my Apple problems there and the forum software was just horrible. I won't miss those forums, there are better places to discuss Apple issues.

Really not happy with the direction Apple has taken recently anyway, this huge focus on AI is not what I want. And don't get me wrong - I spend hours each day developing advanced code with Gemini and it's amazing - my first big project just went into public beta, which is an experiment in user interface design as much as anything else: https://boydsmaps.com/search

But I don't want AI integrated into everything I do on my computer or phone. And what I really hate is my devices always trying to guess what I want to do, or suggest something I should do. I want a computer to just sit there and shut up, until I *tell* it what to do.

Yeah, I'm old and cranky. ;-)