WotC shuts down forums

[LordBlades]

Sorry if it's been posted elsewhere and I missed it

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

[MrWolfe]

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=16370.0

Makes sense to have it in the D&D section though. Good news is the internet archive appears to be snapshotting the WOTC boards like mad, so we should have a decent backup of the guides and whatnot.

[Azrael]

Aren't all the guides and handbooks already on here anyway?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Veekie is consolidating these threads over here:
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=16370.0

Yeah, we've still got most of the best guides
for 3.5e.  There's a pile of wotc stuff that is
linked, and were never fully exported to here.

Mr. Wolfe thanks for that wayback link.
They've had an M.O. for quite a while
and it's good to see people handling it.

[MrWolfe]

Yeah, the wayback's pretty much the best thing to happen to the internet since porn. 

[Childe]

Yeah, the wayback's pretty much the best thing to happen to the internet since porn. 

You can even wayback PORN.

[Giles the Cleric]

I have an index of mirrored content from WotC on GitP, here; please PM me or post in the thread if you have made copies of content so that I may link to it.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Niiiiiice.

[Giles the Cleric]

There's only 17 days left to mirror content. For a list of threads that have already been mirrored, see the Index of WotC 3.X Threads.

[Lokiyn]

I made a mirror of nine the forums. I had to filter out all the pictures on the site other than the avatars. I suppose i should change the format to something other than a rar, but i saved quite a bit. The only exception was a separate extract for the Demotivator thread

Just open the "Index.html" and it'll let you view a complete image of all the threads and posts. Sorry i had to compress it to save space.

Forum Mirrors

3.5 Edition	5th Edition	Campaign Worlds	Other World	General
Previous Editions Character Optimization Board	Dungeon Master Help 5th Edition	Darksun Forums	Other Worlds General	What's a DM to do?
Previous Editions General	Player Help 5th Edition	Eberron Forums	Birthright	What's a Player to do?
Previous Editions Archive	Rules Help 5th Edition	Forgotten Realms Forum	Dragonlance
		Homebrew Campaign	Greyhawk
			Mystara
			Oriental Adventures
			Planescape
			Ravenloft
			Spelljammer

Individual Threads
Pun Pun Thread
Demotivator thread
Walmart: Post Apocalypse


Ok, done.

[Keldar]

 

[Lokiyn]

part of me realized that wizards.community.com is available for purchase, and i could make complete mirror of the whole forums out of petty madness; and run it as a forum, but then i figured i'd better dial it back.

[bhu]

Does it say how much they want for it?

[MrWolfe]

part of me realized that wizards.community.com is available for purchase, and i could make complete mirror of the whole forums out of petty madness; and run it as a forum, but then i figured i'd better dial it back.

Knowing WoTC, they'd probably hit you with an infringement lawsuit if you tried.

[Lokiyn]

Does it say how much they want for it?

I think something like 30$ to register the domain, no idea how much the webhost would be.

Knowing WoTC, they'd probably hit you with an infringement lawsuit if you tried.

Ah, but re-read the announcement

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.

there's a pretty decent case to be made that they accidentally issued a free pass for taking the whole forum, just change the formats so it no longer uses their gif/jpgs and you'd be set to host all the user generated threads on a new forum.

Anyway, i'm running one last sweep to try and nab everything i didn't already save. I don't know if i'll make it in time for the whole forums, but i saved the old (ruins of the ) 3.5 forums for nostalgia's sake first so i'm content.

[Solo]

Does it say how much they want for it?

I think something like 30$ to register the domain, no idea how much the webhost would be.

I would chip in for this.

[littha]

Does it say how much they want for it?

I think something like 30$ to register the domain, no idea how much the webhost would be.

I would chip in for this.

same

[MrWolfe]

Ah, but re-read the announcement

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.

there's a pretty decent case to be made that they accidentally issued a free pass for taking the whole forum, just change the formats so it no longer uses their gif/jpgs and you'd be set to host all the user generated threads on a new forum.

Anyway, i'm running one last sweep to try and nab everything i didn't already save. I don't know if i'll make it in time for the whole forums, but i saved the old (ruins of the ) 3.5 forums for nostalgia's sake first so i'm content.

To be honest, I'm not sure the forums would be covered as part of WotC's intellectual property in the first place--but there's an important distinction between what the law says and the outcome of a lawsuit. I don't know that any of us are equipped to face off against WotC's flesh eating zombie lawyers, which is the salient point when considering a potential infringement claim.

Hell, most of the time all a company has to do is contact your IP or hosting service and you get shut down without any means to defend against the claim.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Wayback links:

5e Players --> https://web.archive.org/web/20151011142630/https://community.wizards.com/forums/132301

4e C.O. ------> https://web.archive.org/web/20150906084547/http://community.wizards.com/forum/4e-character-optimization/threads/1478896

3e C.O. ------> https://web.archive.org/web/20151011142624/https://community.wizards.com/forums/103131

3e Psi+ ------> https://web.archive.org/web/20151006012911/http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3417086

Good enough for the 3rd to the last wotc forums day.

5e Guides ---> http://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2014/08/5e-guide-to-guides.html

[Solo]

Ah, but re-read the announcement

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.

there's a pretty decent case to be made that they accidentally issued a free pass for taking the whole forum, just change the formats so it no longer uses their gif/jpgs and you'd be set to host all the user generated threads on a new forum.

Anyway, i'm running one last sweep to try and nab everything i didn't already save. I don't know if i'll make it in time for the whole forums, but i saved the old (ruins of the ) 3.5 forums for nostalgia's sake first so i'm content.

To be honest, I'm not sure the forums would be covered as part of WotC's intellectual property in the first place--but there's an important distinction between what the law says and the outcome of a lawsuit. I don't know that any of us are equipped to face off against WotC's flesh eating zombie lawyers, which is the salient point when considering a potential infringement claim.

Hell, most of the time all a company has to do is contact your IP or hosting service and you get shut down without any means to defend against the claim.

We take our struggle to the tubes! Spread the word to Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter! Get money via crowsfunding sites! We will not be stopped, we will not be silenced! Viva la revolucion!