Well, it looks as if the MacFormat forums are changing - it seems that TechRadar are taking a reverse approach to Dennis - they are subsuming the MacFormat boards into something bigger (and potentially worse). Naturally, the MF lot are a little miffed about this - they fear the spam and flame wars from the Windows and Linux users.

Wonder if we need to pop over and say hello

Already have done.

I'm a very regular contributor over at MacFormat and I'm bitterly disappointed with the change. MacFormat is a great forum with an excellent community and this will be destroyed by the change.

I know a lot of other members are also unhappy about the change.

By all means give it a try here and see what you think. It's a good community and it was great to have a place to go after the Dennis Forum underwent self-destruction.

Welcome to the forums.
Make yourself at home.

Hi and welcome to x404.
The exact same thing took place over at MacUser.co.uk / dennis fora in general (restructure of forums, destruction of community), though some people stuck around after the dust settled - I'm a very infrequent visitor there myself, but I do still go back from time to time - getting back to my point … there are people here that understand your current situation very well indeed.
It stinks, for sure. It's not nice to be treated in such a way, especially after all the time you've put in to contributing and creating to the community feeling on the forums.
You're in good company here.
(8+(

Mark

A bit harsh... I know the air freshner ran out some time ago and JVs chip bags are cluttering up the place but its still quite nice here

but welcome to big-blue-wolf :D The inmates here are generally nice, some are wierd but most are.....ok

I find that the biggest problem for me back at the old forums is that i cannot actually post. It always gets stuck on the account details so never get any further.

I really haven’t bothered with the old place(s) for a long time. I really did not like the idea of segregation that Dennis felt they had to impose on us.

Yeah, it's a shame MacFormat has to be moved, even worse that you can't keep the same user name so all your post counts will probably be reset when you re-register at TechRadar. I still occasionally visit MacUser's forums (as username MacOS10) since the split, but it's a sad place to go - a shadow of its former self. I also visit MacWorld (also as username MacOS10), but that's never been as lively as MacUser/PCPro used to be, nor as MacFormat is currently.

I know it seems a bit churlish to complain, especially when the forums are there for free so cost you nowt, but it's a shame when the powers that be decide to break up a community in that way.

From what I can see the TechRadar forums are full of spam and porn posts, so I doubt I'll be hanging around for long - will give it a try out on Thursday, just to be charitable.

Oh well, one more link to remove from my bookmark bar.

Not really - when you consider that the forums are pretty much ad supported, plus you get The Branding in your face on every page visit, it makes sense to build a community up. The aim would be to engender a feeling of loyalty. As you keep going back, the brand is in effect associated with friends and acquaintances. Any change like this will break the spell, and sometimes the spell can be recast and the magic returns. In other cases, its up to others to pick up the pieces and continue, which is what happened with the Dennis forums.

At the end of the day, you will end up where all those people you like talking with end up.

They appear to be rolling their own: http://mac4mac.freeforums.org/