Where’s the Old Forum?

It was tough to let go of the original forum.

Reading through all the comments, and seeing what it meant to people, I found myself wavering back and forth about whether to keep it going or not.

In the end it was nothing to do with money. It was a combination of technical and compliance issues. The EU GDPR compliance issue was not insurmountable. But the upcoming Online Safety Bill now going through parliament will make it very difficult for anyone who runs a forum. The intent of the legislation is laudable, it’s just that complying with it is going to be a technical and logistical nightmare. Failure to comply will result in potentially very large fines.

Will it return? Never say never, but right now we have this new format. Not at all the same I realise. Nevertheless, there is the option to login and comment on posts. Nested comments are possible too. There is no direct user to user communication which means that blogs or news sites like this with comments below are thankfully not covered by the forthcoming legislation.

Going forward, I hope that some of the old guard and maybe even a few new ones might send in contributions about which readers will be able to comment.

Once again I am in awe of all the amazing contributors to the forum and the incredible dedication of all the moderators. I know there is some disappointment and maybe a little anger too, understandable, but just wanted to give an insight into the reasons why the forum closed.

And also to say goodbye, on behalf of all members past and present, to that era.

Forum is no more. Welcome to F.O.R.U.M


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

18 responses to “Where’s the Old Forum?”

  1. Bundesrat Avatar
    Bundesrat

    Great to see we have a regeneration. It said I was already registered and sent me a password reset link, but it would not work so I’ve had to create a brand new account with a new email.

    1. Sparrow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Avatar
      Sparrow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      I mean, I’m here. I guess?

    2. admin Avatar

      Great to see you Bundesrat. What if I put page links at the top of the blog (where About/Privacy are) to permanent topics, eg New Releases/5″ Figures/General Discussion?

    3. Independently Cross Avatar
      Independently Cross

      Yep, similar issue but here now.
      I’ll have a nose around, but just dropping by to say hi.

  2. John Avatar
    John

    Looking forward to all the scoop in the New F.O.R.U.M. I hope Al shows up!!!

    1. admin Avatar

      If not, we generate AI Al

      1. Theta Sigma Avatar
        Theta Sigma

        Can AI Al predict future releases accurately?

        If so, I’ll buy him the beer. Or a digital version thereof.

  3. Deborah J Avatar
    Deborah J

    I mean this is a lot better than the absolute void I was feeling from there being no forum at all, coming here is so intrinsically hardwired in I keep going to go here and then realise I can’t. Hopefully we can still maintain some sense of the old community spirit around things like the new B&M releases and whatnot

    1. Theta Sigma Avatar
      Theta Sigma

      This does allow us to at least pop in and say we’re ok. 🙂

  4. Neon Wolf111 Avatar
    Neon Wolf111

    Well I’m glad we have something. It was an incredibly weird feeling coming online the other day and having the forum be absent for the first time in 14 years.

    Hopefully we can keep that same spark the old forum had and hopefully Al will pop back on from time to time.

    As a side note if any of you reading this are in contact with the other members then make sure to tell them about this version of the forum being up. The fate of this place seemed quite final and most would not have thought to check back in a few days after what was thought to be the end, let them know we’re still here.

    1. admin Avatar

      There is no end. Only new beginnings.
      Great to see you here!

  5. Doctor What Avatar
    Doctor What

    Do you intend to update the main site in future? If so, I can provide clean background images of pretty much all the figure sets that have been released since the last update.

    1. admin Avatar

      Congratulations to all on making it through the transition. I see only a select few did. But perhaps that was how it was meant to be…

      Updates to the main site are long overdue. One day soon I hope to take you up on that, Doctor What

  6. Dalekkiller Avatar
    Dalekkiller

    At least we can still keep upto date on what’s going on with the figures.

  7. chuglusty Avatar
    chuglusty

    New Doctor, New Forum! Gonna be an awesome year!!!

  8. Gek2Win Avatar
    Gek2Win

    How strange to see this transformation in my quarterly return to this site. While the sad decline of the original forum was something that always saddened me, and this new iteration doesn’t seem too popular just yet, I hope this marks a significant new chapter in this community. Strange to see names that I recognise from over half a decade ago, and indeed I realized that I am one of the more recent additions to the forum. Still getting the hang of this new format, but I hope to see fun things from this place.

    Lots of love from me to the admin and anyone else working on this website, as well as everyone returning and new.

    Thank you for everything,
    The former Gek2Win

Leave a Reply