10 Nov '12 21:45>
What Dean (if I may) describes is one potential use of the Clan forum that has been lost. The very same thing does still go on in the Clubs forum. Club leaders basically advertise interesting clubs or club activities and from the way some of them have grown and clubs have multiplied I'd say those recruitment efforts have been successful. A similar Clan forum could have similar results: increased clan participation and a revived interest in clan, and re-invigorated clan competition. But we all know those posts have been drowned out in the Clan forum by the ongoing regurgitated tripe to the point where they no longer get posted. And of course fewer people bother reading the forum so any such posts go unseen anyway.
Seems to me if the site shuts the forum down, nothing will be lost. Or rather it already has been lost if people are avoiding the forum because of its content. And if IVV and Metallica need to continue their little spat they can create a club and carry on in private. No reason their fight has to be public, deny everyone else a potentially useful and enjoyable forum, and present an ugly often obscene face to new visitors to the site.
Seems to me if the site shuts the forum down, nothing will be lost. Or rather it already has been lost if people are avoiding the forum because of its content. And if IVV and Metallica need to continue their little spat they can create a club and carry on in private. No reason their fight has to be public, deny everyone else a potentially useful and enjoyable forum, and present an ugly often obscene face to new visitors to the site.