(10 Jun 2018, 7:44 pm)R852 PRG wrote If anyone has wondered where I am, yes, I'm still alive.

I also have to admit to losing a degree of interest in this hobby in the last few months. With sixth form comes a rather substantial workload, and, as such, when the weekend hits, I often just can't bring myself to go and spend a day chasing buses. My ability to get out as much as I once could, even with an increased workload, has also been impaired by a medical diagnosis several months ago.

Above all, though, I find that the toxicity of the enthusiast community has had a significant impact on my devotion to this hobby. I think there is too much of the fundamentally ill-educated and misinformed who take an inch and go for a mile, power-hungry busy-bodies, lack of personal hygiene and overall self-awareness, the inability of most to take a half-decent photograph, blatant attention seeking in order to bring about as a futile sense of belonging, and general backbiting and character assassinations, almost entirely on social media, for me to be able to genuinely wish to associate myself with at least half of the enthusiast community in the north east. I also blame social media a lot for the way this has happened. If you look at some of the stuff that happens in the enthusiast community, and then look at the medium through which it comes to fruition, you'll find almost all of it tends to be communicated through social media. Does anyone genuinely think that, with an absence of social media, there wouldn't be anywhere near half as many issues in the community than currently exist? I, for one, certainly do.

It really pains me to say it, but at this point, I honestly do believe that the enthusiast community is a sinking ship, and one that is going down as a result of the detonation of explosives from deep within its innards. My interest in buses remains, but my desire to disassociate myself with a number of people in the enthusiast community, entirely down to what a god-awful environment it is most of the time, has never been stronger.