Where To Find Speccy Fans: Musings by LaesQ

____ __                                                      __
\  // / -- ------------------------------------------- - -__/  \
 \ \    Where To Find Speccy Fans by LaesQ               /  \__/
--\ -------------------------------------------------- - \__/  \
                                                            \__/

A long long time ago, fans of the ZX demoscene used to gather on IRC, on IRCNet on a channel named #z80. It was a great place, plenty of Speccy related chat and good times had by all.

Mostly. OK, there were some disagreements, etc. but generally it was a good place to hangout (online) and enjoy chats with some of the scene greats.

There was also the World of Spectrum forums. Another great place to discuss Speccy related stuff with other Speccy fans.

Then there was the great crash of the World of Spectrum. I won't go into the details, but what emerged was never quite the same for me.

Then social media happened. And everyone seemed to runaway from IRC. But where did they go? Some people jumped to Facebook, others to Twitter (now X — why Elon, WHY?) to name but two. Others moved to ICQ, and later WhatsApp, Telegram and even Discord. I'm sure there's other platforms I'm missing. It just feels like there's no longer a central place for everyone to come together to discuss Speccy stuff and even general life with other Specchums. Maybe somewhere never really existed, but it felt like it did at the time.

So what am I trying to point out here, we don't have somewhere where we can meet and chat online. Everyone does their own thing and it feels like I may be missing out on stuff if I'm not connected to all the social media platforms, forums and other messaging platforms. It'd be nice to go back to something like IRC, but I think IRC is almost dead if not completely dead already.

Slack gives a similar platform but it seems not everyone likes it.

What's the solution to this situation? I honestly don't know.

This is where I throw the subject open to the rest of the scene.

Could Slack be the answer? Or Discord maybe? Telegram possibly?

Send in your thoughts, comments and suggestions on the subject.

We need a new home, preferably one where the beer is served cold and the sofas are cosy.

Keep Speccy alive,
LaesQ