I hear you and if it were up to the forum members the old forum would not be disappearing at all... A lot of our lives, success and struggles are documented there and it will be a shame to lose those years of experiences and data. We are all frustrated with this.

Keep in mind I'm hearing everything third hand through vets and mods from the old forum... But I can assure you it's coming from keystone members of the old forum who directly know what conspired with the old forum.

I can say that the new forum will not be purchased by or ran by SO.

We are all greatful for the time and the financial sacrifices he made to keep the old forum running... He owned and operated the old forum, but no one owns the community itself, we are free to congregate and chat wherever we want.

We will live on and if the old forum doesn't come back at all (which it likely won't ... If it does, I won't be part of it and I'm sure other vets and mods will leave as well). We will have learned a valuable lesson that we should have had mirrors and backups which are open source and owned by everyone / no one.

I will leave it to the new forum mods to explain everything. I know it's frustrating not knowing the whole story, but it's not my story to tell and I'm not sure what sort of arrangements have been made regarding what can and can't be public.

Your post has a lot of truth and the old vets and mods are on the same page as you. We would have rather updated and upgraded the old forum. But sadly, we need a new place to share. We will have a home very very soon (this week likely).

Sorry for the lack of communication but this is a delicate matter and I will leave it to those involved to explain. All will be more clear shortly.

Sizemic