New Forum FAQ's

Why are you changing the Forum?

We’re just changing the Forum platform for now – moving to a new provider that brings a lot of benefits, not least easier access to the Forum from a wider range of devices. We’re not planning more fundamental changes unless they are ones you want – this is your community as much as ours!

Will your user accounts carry over to the new Forum?

Sorry, but as it’s a new platform, we can’t simply port users over, so you’ll have to register again. It won’t take long (and gives you chance to update your details if you want.)

Will the new Forum be in the same layout as the existing?

For the time being, we will keep the existing categories, but we will be using the new Forum features to run polls in the future to ensure our new community works for you. All ideas welcome!

Will the new Forum be available immediately?

We are hoping to launch the new Forum on the 15^th January to coincide with the closure of the old Forum. We will be testing with our beta users beforehand.

Where will the new Forum be located?

When you visit the Forum on the 15^th January you will see a webpage explaining where the new Forum and the archive of the old Forum will live.

Will the new Forum be moderated?

The new Forum will continue to be moderated in the same way as the previous one.

Are the rules the same?

We have taken this opportunity to revisit our Forum rules, so please be aware of this when using the new Forum.

When will the old Forum stop working?
The old Forum will cease operation on the 15^th January 2019 at 8am (GMT) and will be removed from the website for a short while. It will them come back online as an archive, available to be browsed and searched for years to come.

What will happen to the data created by the Forum?

The current Forum was created using Hoop.La, an online community platform from US based Social Strata Inc. When our Forum stops working on the 15^th January they will export all data and send it across to ourselves and completely delete their records.

We will then take this data and cleanse it. Everything except the username and Forum posts will be deleted, if there is anything you would like removing from the Forum, we recommend you delete it yourselves before the 15^th January and it won’t carry through to the archive. If at some point in the future, you require something deleting then please contact us through our support channels and you will be directed to the person best placed to help you.