In October 2011 I launched a new discussion forum here at Exchange Server Pro. Since then the forums have seen almost 1,200 threads with just over 4,300 posts in total.
Today I am announcing the closure of the forums. While I am proud of the help that I and others were able to provide to the community in the forums, it has now reached a point where the effort can’t be sustained any further.
Edit: Just to clarify in case I wasn’t 100% clear, I’m only closing the discussion forums. The rest of the site will continue as normal with regular new articles 🙂
In short, I am having to spend 2-3x as many hours dealing with spam and other technical/administrative issues than I am able to spend on actually answering questions. As far as community contributions go this one has simply become too inefficient, which is why I have made the decision to close the forums and apply that time to writing articles, updating scripts, and other new activities yet to be announced.
A few more points:
- I have closed registration on the forums, so there can be no more new signups
- Existing members can still login and post threads and replies
- In about two weeks I will remove the permissions for posting threads and replies. This should be enough time for existing open threads to reach a conclusion.
If you’re looking for an another forum to post in I recommend the TechNet forums, which is where I will be spending some time answering questions when I can.
Thanks to everyone who supported the launch of the forums and made it a helpful place for the Exchange Server community.
Paul,
Sorry to hear that you have closed the forums.
Was it not a possibility to enlist the help of some trusted folk to moderate the forums and with maintenance?
Anything is possible, but keeping the forums open in any capacity was not practical.
I love to read your articles. Thanks for sharing your expertise and valuable knowledge with us.
Shame as I just had a query on an exchange issue thats bugging me and out of all the 1000s of sites and forums the first one I thought to go to was this one, ohh well. Thanks for all your help in the past Paul have a good one.
Roy
Thanks guys for the kind works. I certainly enjoyed running the forums while it lasted but this is definitely the right move. I’ve got some (hopefull) good things planned for this site now that I have that time back.
Appreciate all the effort you have put in Paul. As far as Forums go, it is my 1st place of call for Exchange related issues!
Sorry to see you go, great site, something to be proud of.
I’m not going, I’m just closing the forums.
Thank you Paul for the endless efforts made to help and time put in to satisfy a never ending thread of problems. Microsoft should actually have supported and rewarded your work financially because many-a-times you have been clearing issues which their team should have seen and corrected in the first place. Particularly the never ending saga with MS Exchange 2013 and the send and delivery errors due to the DNS settings.
Thank you again for all the indirect and even direct support you have provided. I am sure that this site will be missed by many professionals who knew this site as a source of meaningful information.
The site isn’t/hasn’t closed, just the forums.
Scumbags. Spam should be a criminal offence.
Cheers for all your hard work mate I’ve found it helpful on several occasions and will continue being a regular visitor to practical365.com