Big Finish closes its forums

I should have been more surprised by this: Big Finish, the company that produces (among other things) the DARK SHADOWS audio dramas, shuttered its forums over the weekend. Trying to manage this kind of feature is insanely difficult, thanks to humanity's tendency to take disagreements to stupid extremes. When you factor in the growing population of SpamBots on the Internet, this kind of endeavor can quickly turn into a joyless chore for those that manage them. And that's when people bother to participate, at all.

Here's the explanation posted earlier this morning by one of the site's administrators:

We are sorry to announce that the Big Finish forum is indefinitely suspended with immediate effect. The increasing demands on our time both in urgent moderation and countering extensive spam attacks are frequently exceeding our resources and good will, and at a time when other social media platforms now prove not only considerably larger, but far less open to attack, we have taken this decision.

For those wishing to continue following Big Finish news, updates and releases, you're recommended to subscribe to a Newsletter sent out regularly with news and exclusive free offers, and of course there's always the Big Finish news page and podcasts

Alternatively, seek us out on any of:
Facebook,
Twitter,
You Tube or
Soundcloud

For the moment this forum has been turned to a read-only mode for archive/information purposes. New posts are not possible.

So, that's where things stand at the moment. It's not impossible for Big Finish to change their minds about the forums, should customers voice their displeasure ... but I have a funny feeling that message boards/forums are going the way of the dinosaur.