So, Plastic is dead. I don’t blame Carl; after all, it seemed to be largely a labor of love for him, and he seemed to get a largely sycophantic response from the community.
Plastic was unique; as Slashdot is to Digg, so Plastic was to Slashdot. A smaller community of readers, but a community, and smart readers at that. Discussions were meaningful. You learned the personalities of the regular crew. It made you think. It was addictive. It was heartfelt. There was passion.
There you were, stuck at your crappy cube farm job, a web browser one click away, and it was so tempting….sooo tempting….
And what an ego boost when one of your stories was accepted, and people actually commented on it. 200 comments on your story? Score! Unlike Digg, in order to get your story through, you couldn’t just use the words “awesome” and “ubuntu” (although those are fine words).
Anyway, now Plastic is dead. The servers are down. Plastic will live on in the minds of probably less than 1000 people, and on wikipedia. There is a blog waiting for Plastic to reappear, but I don’t think it will. And there is no substitute. It was a flash in the pan, a ship in the night, a pretty girl smiling at you from a passing ship. It’s gone. Don’t try to resurrect it.
My advice? GAFB!
(~TRDE)