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BioWare Forum Shutdown: Life Rafts are Available

posted Aug 9, 2016, 1:38 PM by Princess Stabbity   [ updated Sep 12, 2016, 11:00 PM ]

What you need to know

BioWare is shutting down their forums. 
I've put the post up in its entirety since the forums are not just being archived - they're being completely deleted.

Important Dates

Forums go Read Only: August 26, 2016
Fully gone (deleted): October 25, 2016

Life Rafts: Where you can get your Forum on instead

IMPORTANT

Except for bsn and topshelfgaming I would highly, highly suggest - if you want drama-free and stable - to stay away from any other "bioware" or "bioware social networking" forum currently set up at boards.net (proboards). Follow the links on this page to get to the correct ones. I do not make this warning lightly, and I am not being melodramatic. If you feel I have missed a forum there that should be included in the "drama-free and stable" list, please contact me and let me know.. otherwise, it is definitely in your best interest for forums at boards.net to go with a) bsn.boards.net for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, or b) topshelfgaming.boards.net for general gaming and off-topic.. and to leave any others you may find there alone.

There are a couple of other fine forums not located on boards.net, and I will keep the list updated as I discover others.


Top choices (and the two where I will be):

BSN [Bioware Social Network] Unofficial Forums at bsn.boards.net
  • Newly set up with hundreds of members from the original BioWare forum signing/signed up
  • Twitter threads already in place and going strong
  • DragonRacer is Community Manager (!!)

Fextralife Game Forums at www.fextralife.com
  • Fexelea, site owner and very-long-time BioWare Forumite, is importing all Dragon Age and Mass Effect threads from the BioWare forum as we speak. The forums are being imported to archive them. 
  • This is an absolutely huge undertaking on her part, in time, energy, and funds. The forums and threads will be imported into the same configuration as they are now, with everyone's images, videos, memes, and documents intact.
  • She is importing carefully so that post histories can be preserved if people wish to sign up and keep posting with the same username. If you would like to preserve your post history, go to this thread and follow the instructions: Save your BioWare Forum post history [or see the page archived here]
    • If you do not see this until after the forums go read-only on August 26, you can still follow the instructions in that post - when you get to the point where you would post your usernames, send a message to fexelea via your EA account instead. If you are unable to do so, contact me here with your username from both fextralife and the BioWare forum and I will pass the information to her.
Other boards:
http://topshelfgaming.boards.net - Ex-BioWare-ians, off topic
http://vroomvroom.freeforums.net - Ex-BioWare-ians, off topic, more strictly moderated
http://www.rpgcodex.net - RPG in general
https://realdragonagefans.forums.net/ - Dragon Age specific

Most of the above do not have forums for the older, legacy games. The following are where you can find community for those*:
Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2
The Neverwinter Vault
NWN1 and 2 on Nexus
Facebook NWN Community Group

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2
Beamdog Forums
Sorcerer's Place

These are not competing boards - you could join them all and get something different from all of them. Topshelfgaming was set up as off-topic when BioWare shut down their Off Topic boards and tried to force those discussions into the rest of the forum. Vroomvroom is another of the same with a different moderating style (more strict).

Fextralife has other game forums such as Dark Souls 3, and wikis and articles for the games as well. So there is a board for every play/chat style - even more than one. 

I am still gathering my thoughts about this and will post them later; wanted to get the list of possible new forums out first. I've messaged quite a few people on the board about this so that they know - 90% have not logged in for a very long time, and the rest I could not tell because that part of their profile was set to private. A few of them have signed on and posted in Fexelea's thread, and I'm hoping more make it before the forums go read-only.

Is everyone landing safely? Don't be afraid to tweet, post, or email about this so that people who have been gone from the forum for a while can find out about it. Spread the word!


*Thank you to Lady Artifice on the BioWare forum for putting a list together there - the NWN and BG links were copied from there