WotC Community forums to be Shut Down

[Agita]

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/wizards-coast-community-forums-be-shut-down-2015-09-16

The link's title speaks for itself, I think. Their reasoning is interesting and strikes me as odd at first glance, but they have a point in that I haven't really heard a peep about the WotC boards as a MtG or D&D (or anything else) community in years - when people are talking about discussion, it tends to be about rpg.net, MtG Salvation, Giant in the Playground, etcetera.

Of possibly more interest to this community in particular, people may be interested in saving content from over there before it's deleted. Content older than a few years (I actually forget when that happened - it was sometime after BG's founding but before Min/Max), from before the change in the boards' architecture, is already gone, but if there's any content you deem worth saving, it's best to back it up.

This thread is for discussing the decision and coordinating any backups people are interested in making, from any board (which is why it's in Off-Topic, rather than the D&D board).
As a request, I'd like us to refrain from bashing WotC (forums, company, or community) for its own sake, as per general policy.

[Libertad]

Link.

Although the WotC boards were never the most user-friendly, there's been a sheer amount of stuff written for them.  Literally thousands of pages worth of guides for 3rd and 4th Edition, and possibly 5th as well.

Personally a lot of the most iconic stuff has been copied/transferred to other sites, this news is good to know in case there are any beloved threads nowhere else.

[Keldar]

That is a seriously bizarre decision.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

" ... The shutdown will occur on October 29, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. PT ... "


After chasing away so many people willing to do Free Work
on the various previous editions, this shouldn't be a surprise.
It sucks. 
It's unfathomly stupid.
At least they gave a long-ish forewarning.


HEY WHAT'LL HAPPEN TO MY KITTY AVATAR ??? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

[Nanshork]

On the one hand I have no idea how much traffic they have since I ran away from 339 back in the day and never looked back (every time I talk about 339 I feel like I'm dating myself).  Maybe there really isn't much going on there and they want to get rid of the hassle and cost of managing the forums.

On the other hand I feel like it's a dumb thing to do from a business perspective. 

I don't have anything specific that I use or think should be backed up, but are there any good/useful/great guides that are there and nowhere else?  That's the only thing I can think of.

[MrWolfe]

If you ask me, it's about time. That place was a cesspool.

I remember stumbling across it back in the 3.0 days. There was a sticky at the top of board announcing that any discussion of katanas was banned until further notice.

Yes it was that bad. More trolls than you could shake a flask of alchemist's fire at.

[ksbsnowowl]

(every time I talk about 339 I feel like I'm dating myself).

You and me both, buddy 

The only sad thing about it will be the loss of hits on google searches for a random D&D topic that becomes pertinent to a game at a specific time.  For example, I'm unexpectedly running the second half of Speaker in Dreams as a side adventure due to my PC's getting banished back to Oerth in the middle of Expedition to the Demonweb Pits.  Unfortunately, the BBEG's motivations and plans are pretty much non-existant, or at least non-sensical, and I was in quick need of others' opinions on how to make that part of the module better.  That's the only real loss I feel about the board shut-down.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Allow me to translate the Original

(click to show/hide)

"Choosing to retire a former foundation of our community was not an easy decision, but we feel that we must adjust our communications structure to reflect where conversations about Wizards of the Coast games are taking place.

Social media has changed significantly over the last ten years, and discussions about games aren't exclusive to company-hosted forums. The majority of community conversation takes place on third-party websites (such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and many other fantastic community-run websites), and it is up to us to evolve alongside our players.

We encourage past and current users to retrieve any information you want to retain from the Community Forums for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. The shutdown will occur on October 29, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. PT. We want to provide enough time for our forum members to move their content, and we recognize that given our forum's vibrant user base and extensive history, this may take time. Any information still on the forums on the cut-off date will be deleted.

Thank you to all of our past and current forum users. You helped build our community into what it is now, and we look forward to continuing to interact with you on our many active social platforms."

"Choosing to kill a competing community is always an easy decision, but we feel that we must pretend our communications structure will reflect conversations games actually use.

Social media has changed significantly over the last ten years, and discussions about games aren't exclusive to company-hosted forums. We are throwing a tantrum about this. In reality, we'd like to kill every last one of you bastards who don't switch to whatever we want to shove down your throat. The majority of community conversation takes place elsewhere, so get the freak out of our house. No we aren't going to make official replies to your twitter account. Stop trying. Didn't I say I want you to give me your money and go away already?

We don't care if those of you left retrieve any of your hard work from the our site, including our cash cow. Stop pointing out our mistakes. We were serious when we told you, we don't like that. The shutdown will occur on a random day. We know how pissed you were last time we killed our forum members' hard work, so we recognize that given our forum's vibrant user base and extensive history, you have only a month. The clock's ticking. Any information still on the forums on the cut-off date will be deleted, and we would rip it off the internet archive, if we could too.

We decided time once again to shit on all of our past and current forum users. You helped build what we are going to tear down, and we look forward to never interacting with you longer than have to. Maybe not even then."

[MrWolfe]

Pretty much.

The stupidest part is that line about how "communication has changed so much!" Um, no. People have always talked about D&D on the internet, pretty much since there was an internet. We were talking about D&D on the internet long before the official WOTC forums went up. Long before WOTC even owned Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards is just pissy that we didn't abandon our conversations elsewhere and restrict all discussion of their products to the venue they provided, where it could be carefully overseen and controlled by their IRON FIST OF LAWFUL CAPITALISM.

In short, they acted like jerks and now no one wants to play with them. Clearly the solution is to throw a big tantrum and further alienate their customers, right? That always makes you seem cool and likable. 

[veekie]

Eh, are there any useful items to loot off it before it shuts down? Last I heard there wasn't much activity there, which is probably why it's getting shut down in the first place.

Might be good for anyone who actually uses the place to point out interesting things to take away.

[Gazzien]

Eh, are there any useful items to loot off it before it shuts down? Last I heard there wasn't much activity there, which is probably why it's getting shut down in the first place.

Might be good for anyone who actually uses the place to point out interesting things to take away.

The ACF list and Template list, perhaps? I don't know if those are on any other sites.

Oh, and Tempest Stormwind's weekly optimization series; the builds use some pretty damn interesting tricks, and the showcases for tricks are downright impressive. Edit: Could someone actually grab these for me (the optimization; I couldn't care less about the ACF/template list)? I'm busy packing for college / moving there.

[MrWolfe]

The "Optimization by the Numbers" post from PlzBreakMyCampaign's compilation thread is up there.

I'd recommend going through the guides and checking if any are hosted on the forum--or contain any references in the guide itself that link there. I've already come across a number of handbooks in the past couple weeks that have links pointing to WOTC pages that give a 404 error when clicked. Don't know if that's related to this current debacle or if it's just old stuff that got dumped when the new editions came out.

[Agita]

Merged redundant topics.

The "Optimization by the Numbers" post from PlzBreakMyCampaign's compilation thread is up there.

I ported that a long while ago, here.

I've already come across a number of handbooks in the past couple weeks that have links pointing to WOTC pages that give a 404 error when clicked. Don't know if that's related to this current debacle or if it's just old stuff that got dumped when the new editions came out.

Those are most likely from the last big purge, when they changed to their current boards. Considering they announced the shutdown early for the express purpose of letting people backup stuff before it gets deleted, I doubt they will start deleting anything ahead of schedule.

[Risada]

I dont know if there's stuff in there that needs saving, but if you guys need arms and hands to copy/paste, count on me. I got some free time for the next few days.

[Solo]

And another one bites the dust!

[Necrosnoop110]

we recognize that given our forum's vibrant user base and extensive history

If they recognize this, then why shut it down? 

[Gazzien]

I dont know if there's stuff in there that needs saving, but if you guys need arms and hands to copy/paste, count on me. I got some free time for the next few days.

Could I trouble you to grab Tempest_Stormwind's optimiztion showcases?

[kitep]

The shutdown will occur on October 29, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. PT.

If somebody knows how to use the Wayback Machine, maybe they could back up the forums before they go under?

[MrWolfe]

Looks like other people had the same idea.

A lot of other people, by the looks of it. Most recent backup is from yesterday, the 17th.

[kitep]

Wow, you're right.  Looking at the whole year, it looks like people have gotten so used to WOTC purging stuff off their website that people have been doing it every 2 or 3 days on average, and every day this month (although I do see the note that the calendar is just when Wayback crawled WOTC, not necessarily when it backed it up)

Thanks.