The Cellar is closing at the end of the year (sooner, if the new location is stable)

[DanaC]

The Cellar hasnt been much joy for UT for a while now - there have been odd fallings out, and the divisiveness of modern politics have made themselves felt - into this already not fun situ a new member arrived (jam) and as I understand it posted a lot of stuff about alternative health including some stuff about Covid that many considered to be part of the large covid misinformation drive that has been hitting much of the interwebz.

Responses to teh new member were not overly welcoming (some suspected a troll) and in response the new member doubled down on their assertions and this further fed the notion that they were a troll or spambot - therefore responses got quite vitriolic.

New member (perhaps understandably) is more interested in fighting their corner and reminding us all that they are in their 80s and taking the forum to task for the amount of swearing, lack of manners, lack of welcome for new members than in addressing the fact that their posting style was spammy and abrasive enough for people to think they might be a spambot (or sock puppet for the member who introduced them).

UT is a decent caring man and it did not sit well with him that a human person got dogpiled on the site by people who suspected trolling - and once it became clear they weren't a spambot nevertheless continued to meet the new member with hostility

This was basically the final straw for UT who had already commented a few times over past year or so that he might not want to continue with the cellar and has at times stepped away as a poster, though continued to host.

It's a mess - but it is probably not entirely unexpected - was probably going to happen at some point and this was just the thing that tipped it

We are currently looking at ways to rehouse the community on a new board for any who wish to keep it going.