Right Sort of Forum Member. 
(I didn’t originate it, but when the original site was down for a bit I put up a copy of my local mirror because I found it so useful.)
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I just have to say, having been on the previous forum just a couple of months, still getting badges is fun!! I don’t mind starting from zero, is not like I had that many anyway.
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This is such an oh-so-cool meeting of friends! I was joking about being the “first introduction” guy, but now it’s kind of cool. Welcome everyone!! I’m afraid to ask but what happened to the other forum?
–Ron–
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They’re closing it (mostly) because it’s a liability. And I assume they can’t afford to hire official moderators, and possibly can’t afford (in a liability sense) to have it be an “official” forum hosted on their site with volunteer moderators.
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Throw in a bit of an argument there was a few weeks ago, where they had to remove a disgruntled user posts for legal reasons, and I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
They are doing a great job in what they really like (videos, reviews, news updates) so I cannot really blame them for not really wanting to deal with sh** like that, specially when they cannot mod themselves (or anybody of their inner circle: being honest, I cannot say I would want to deal with it either) But after yesterday’s clarification, I think they are being supporting to the community.
Don’t go and get scared now, I think the SU&SD forums were amazing and very easy to mod, as everybody (or nearly) is a delight, but these things can happen.
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I think the loss of their last active mod contributed as well.
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I haven’t seen this; more “we don’t have people we already know and trust whom we can put in as moderators”. They did, back in the old forum days, but those people have now fallen out of regular forum posting and the PTB have suddenly realised that MinuteWalt was effectively carrying it on his own.
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Ahoy! I’ve changed my profile picture from the old forums, but the name is the same.
I normally hang around in the Gloomhaven thread but sometimes post pictures of things I’ve made or LPs I’ve bought.
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Although founded as an ‘official’ forum, its always been volunteer led.
As such they are ‘officially’ responsible for how it operated and reflects on them.
With the sad passing of the last active volunteer running the site it needed to either recruit new trusted mods or become unofficial.
Sadly GDPR et all means its not as simple as handing over the keys.
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Hello friends and enemies! My name is Marc, and I’m veteran of the old SU&SD forums. I was very prolific in a few specific threads (Miniature Painting, 10x10 Challenges, Lists of Recommended Games, and “What Do You Get When You Cross a Rhetorical Question with a Joke?”), and lurked around a lot in several others.
I’m still coming to grips with all that has been lost, but I’m doing my best to look forward.
I’m a writer (science fiction, primarily… I’ve self-published 4 novels which you can find on ye olde Amazon by searching for “MH Questus”, or by going to the website I have listed in my profile), a scientist (I majored in Astrophysics and Medical Physics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then worked for over a decade at a private Research and Development firm launching satellites and building high-tech thingamabobs), and a game store employee (mostly a gopher, but specifically in charge of board game recommendations). I’m currently studying English to help my writing career (if you hang around any thread I contribute to you will find one of my many faults is using 1,000 words where only 100 would suffice), working on Novels 5 and 6 (my goal is to self-publish 4 novels this year… so far I’ve done 1 a year since 2016, but if I want to make this writing thing a full-time gig, and I desperately do, then I have to step up the production), and baking far, far too much bread.
I have 3 cats (Donut, Koko, and Bean) who are adorable, I play Infinity, Star Wars Legion, Star Wars Armada, and have 2 weekly board game groups (assuming they are still willing post-pandemic) and a monthly Twilight Imperium group (we’ve played over 15 games in the last year and a half, and I have won exactly once), and I live with my amazing, generous, intelligent, better-than-me-in-all-ways partner Andy.
My old forum avatar was the sublime Hitomi Yoshizawa, a crush of mine from university (a member of the Jpop super-group “Morning Musume”), but I think it was better to leave her in the past. The new avatar is from Summer Wars (Natsuki Shinohara), a movie I love far more than it probably deserves.
It’s nice to see so many familiar “faces”, and of course it’s great to see some new people as well.
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True, I should note, that’s conjecture on my part. They don’t have the volunteers (and with the change in privacy laws recently, I’m not sure if there’s legal issues with entirely volunteer staff), but moderators aren’t cheap and they’re not a large company, so I doubt they can afford to hire official moderators.
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Ah it isn’t a happy story, but perhaps a happy ending with a new home?
I’m an admin/mod at a small PbP forum, and the members there are great. The behind the scenes work is still, well, work (approving members, setting up PbP game forums, etc) but since there’s only one kerfuffle every year or so, it’s still a wonderful place to hang out and play.
Now I’ve recently agreed to become a Moderator at a ginormous D&D forum. Doing that stuff there (even though I have a lot less powah/responsibilities) can be tiring, and I’ve sadly lost interest in some of the higher post forums because of a few members that cause most of the issues there. So I definitely get what goes on.
Glad you are all here now, and settling in. Be well!!
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I think it’s more the aspect that: Yes, you can recruit new moderators, but then you have to moderate the moderators because they cannot be implicitly trusted unless they are already a proven member of the SUSD leadership (e.g. you cannot represent the values and intentions of SUSD unless you are SUSD)
Because they have been disconnected from the forum community for so long, they have no level of trust with any of the regulars there. And they have all demonstrated (mostly by action; some by word) that they are not “forum people”. That’s not their fault and I don’t hold it against them. Unfortunate circumstances, but there’s no ill-will.
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And by “loss”, I think it should probably be pointed out by way of explanation to those not in the know that while a lot of their mods moved on due to general attrition and becoming interested in other things, his was a loss in the much more sad and final sense.
There’s a very moving eulogy written by his eldest which can be read on the shutupandsitdown forums at the moment (https://discussions.shutupandsitdown.com/t/gone-but-not-forgotten/11289) until they are closed on May 8th. I hope that it will remain on view in some way once the SUSD forum is officially closed but for now at least, that link is active for those who would like to read it for more context.
In case any Tekelili old-guard were wondering about the sudden clamouring for “titles” here it’s because Justin/@MinuteWalt was the one who took great joy in lovingly (and idiosyncratically, as was his wont) conferring them upon us.
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That is very sad. Much worse than losing a community, so sorry for your loss. Sounds like custom titles are a fitting tribute and fantastic way to help MinuteWalt’s memory and legacy live on.
I have a close group of best friends, close since the early to mid-1980s. But I feel like friendships just as strong can be made in forums, at least for me I find that to be true. And having very recently suffered the loss of a friend I only knew through online D&D forums, and email, and never met in person, I know the feeling all too well.
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BTW, his son Mateo’s eulogy… words of praise would only demean how amazing it was, so I’ll leave it there. 
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Absolutely.
So many of us were named by Justin in a way. Felt like you’d made it y’know? Because he was always around, making everyone feel genuinely welcome and appreciated. He was the forums.
I don’t think I’ll use the same title here though.
They say you miss that which is gone. Never more so.
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Hello all - this is Michael from the SUSD forums.
I joined in 2014, posted a fair bit near the start, attended SHUX 2017, and then became very quiet. According to my profile there I still visited almost every other day to read a little. I can’t promise to be the most active poster, but I hope that’s OK!
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IIRC, that was one of Paul’s finest moments.
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Hi, everybody.
Popping in to see who all has migrated over from SUSD. Glad to see a lot of people whose posts I regularly liked but didn’t respond to because school makes my brain melt. Hoping to be more active now that my personal bubble of space in the world is actually making some sense and not wringing out every ounce of social energy I have! Cheers!
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