On some pages you can see this announcement by Xper regarding the MSFN forum.

http://www.msfn.org/board/announcement/33-msfn-will-be-taken-offline-12-august-2017/

Changed title, formerly: "MSFN will be taken offline 12 August 2017."

New announcement:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/176958-msfn-will-be-online-one-more-month/

 

Edited November 27, 20178 yr by Tripredacus
Changed title

RIP best boad ever.  I guess this is permanent?  if so I'm so sad.  Someone please back to board up on waybackmachine pls.

Edited August 10, 20179 yr by Destro

Anyone have any idea what the problem is? If it's financial I'm sure several of us could step up and help. I'll help as much as I can...

This is a disaster equivalent to losing the Great Library of Alexandria - information exists here that exists nowhere else.

17 minutes ago, LoneCrusader said:

Anyone have any idea what the problem is? If it's financial I'm sure several of us could step up and help. I'll help as much as I can...

This is a disaster equivalent to losing the Great Library of Alexandria - information exists here that exists nowhere else.

It is a longstanding issue and Xper has said it is not only the financial burden but also there is no time he has to put into the forum. You can see from this post how long it has been known publicly about this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/162548-multiple-messenger-recipients/?do=findComment&comment=1044695

10 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

It is a longstanding issue and Xper has said it is not only the financial burden but also there is no time he has to put into the forum. You can see from this post how long it has been known publicly about this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/162548-multiple-messenger-recipients/?do=findComment&comment=1044695

I remember that thread... and I understand completely how hard it is to find time for online things and for real life as well. Kudos to xper for keeping it up as long as he has.

Has the possibility of someone else taking over the forum ever been considered?

I'm devastated.

Goodbye. RIP.

24 minutes ago, LoneCrusader said:

Has the possibility of someone else taking over the forum ever been considered?

Yes, Xper had been wanting to sell the site, but I do not know of any details regarding price or if anyone was interested or what.

Sad to see it go. It's the best forum for topics about old operating systems.

I could help out with hosting the site, because I have a fairly decent machine in a datacentre and running this forum wouldn't be a problem for me.

What about site back-up from server side? 

13 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

Yes, Xper had been wanting to sell the site, but I do not know of any details regarding price or if anyone was interested or what.

I never knew that. I wish this had been made more widely known... maybe we could have come up with a salvage plan at least.

Sad to see a liberal forum as this, where somebody can say how bad is Microsoft's "telemetry" for example, being closed.

I have sent xper a message and offered to help him out with hosting this website.

If I had the money, I would throw in a donation...but I can't.

And another great website falls, when there's so much crap on the rest of the internet still online... One of the few forums you could talk openly about how bad Windows 10 is, without getting shut down.

I really wish there was something I could do to avoid this tragic downfall.

This is just tragic. MSFN has been an invaluable source of information for me over the last few years, especially for older operating systems. I've been making Internet Archive backups for certain threads. Would be great if somebody could make a full site backup/mirror to preserve all the information accumulated over the years. It would be disastrous to lose it all.

I just miss the words, one of the best forums for Windows goes offline!
A community where distinguished mainly by great tolerance and a substantive cooperation.

It makes me very sad.