Guardian Unlimited talkboards

[Longtalljosie]

I've never posted on them in my life but apparently they've shut down without warning. Some of my friends on Facebook are really upset - especially as they had friends on there and had no chance to swap details before it happened.

Would it be possible for us to provide some sort of a meetup thread / topic area for them? There's lots of chat on Twitter about it to alert them, and then they may stay in their own thread PM-ing each other so they can stay in touch and then vanish - or they might stay here for good which would be nice as well?

Why did they shut them down? I've only ever read the weekly talk-board roundup thing in the Guardian, rather than the talkboards themselves, but they seemed like an interesting bunch.

A bit of googling shows there's an alternative up already www.thegraun.com/

Oh well there you are then!

They shut us down because they could. It was their gaffe and they decided 12 years of an excellent talkboard didn't matter and it could just go without any warning.

We thought, to be generous to them, it might have been forced on them by a super injunction. But that turns out not to be the case.

They just did it. Just like that. Despite the forums being a haven for so many for so long and for so many differing reasons.

I will try but I doubt I will ever in my lifetime be able to forgive the Guardian for this act of cruelty. Yes, it was cruel. Some very vulnerable people posted on there. To snatch it away like was callous and unfeeling.

It does seem astonishing. They must have known for a while themselves. Were the mods on it active? I mean, were you used to talking to them as we are to Justine / Helen etc?

Can't understand why they would do that without warning. What difference would a warning have made to them? All the difference in the world to the people posting on there though.

I lurked on the Guardian talkboards for years. Too scared to post on them, they made AIBU on here seem a soft, gentle place in which nobody was ever spoken to harshly [grinj].
I have absolutely no idea why they shut down and why there was no warning, especially as the boards seemed to be extremely popular and attracted a wide range of opinions. I do know that alternative sites have been set up, including one called The Grauniad talk, but don't know whether these will be sustainable.

Lawlsie was always very reasonable though .

I posted there for years. Ten years, in fact. I think a lot of people had been there similar lengths of time. It's unbelievably shocking that this has happened with no notice. I just wanted to say to Longtalljosie, what a lovely offer. I think we have things kind of sorted for now but it is nice to know that people might not mind if we were ever to need to use somewhere like here to regroup.

I've just been reading about this - never posted there, but am really surprised. All the talk from the G staff is very cloak and dagger, isn't it? It's quite funny - the way people were describing it sounds a lot like MN - swearing, pedantry, puns, the works...

how utterly odd, has there really been no reason given?

Apparently not, Aitch.

that is SO WEIRD.

i guess if anyone knows, Justine will.

Well, yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. But she's not going to spill, is she? Because then she'd have to kill us.

I blame DH!

They kept taking his posts down for spurious reasons - very odd reasons. I think it's a legal thing. They are v jumpy.

Ha, they banned DH too. He went and reregistered and the gave up.

It is the mark of a decent poster IME dittany

The told me off for citing legal arguments once (correctly) because it was 'too confrontational'

arguments - precedents (sorry tired brain).