Yes, what Paul said, I second that
I think, from my personal perspective, that there was plenty of reasons to shut down that forum, though I can't say that these reasons are why it was in fact shut down. Just my personal opinions really....For one thing, alot of people on that forum were very rude and disrespectful not only to each other but to the band. It's okay to voice your opinions on things but many people would get offensive and even make negative comments about Mike's wife. I'm sorry but I wouldn't stand for that shit myself. There were alot of cool people there as well, don't get me wrong, but that old saying about letting the rotten apples spoil the whole bunch holds true. I pretty much stopped going there because it just got so ridiculous with the shittalkers and the large quantity of elitists who looked for every opportunity to knock other people down. Add to it the fact that people were doing things like the aforementioned illegal downloading/trading of the new material, bootlegs, etc., well it just seemed to have gotten a bit out of hand. You have to realise that, while the band puts up the forum for the fans to enjoy and talk on, it's still THE BAND'S forum, meaning it's theirs to do what they want with it, and they can close it for whatever reason they feel is right. People going onto their forum and talking shit about them, or towards them and their friends and families, and trading illegal files, is sort of like going into someone's home and insulting them and openly selling off their personal goods you stole from them right there, haha. Same goes with this forum here. We're paying for it to exist. What goes on here does matter to us because it reflects us and our band and our music, and we've created it as a means to be able to communicate with fans and friends, and we're always open to discussion and debate. But if it was to get out of hand and become insulting, and became more of a source of stress than fun and relaxation for us, then it goes bye-bye. That's just how it is. And I think you're going to start seeing this occur more and more with bands, because the internet has unfortunately opened the floodgates for every mouthy rude piece of crap to be able to "make their voices heard". People say bands shouldn't let it get to them, and should be more laid back about it, well that's their opinion and thats fine. But bands have alot of bullshit to deal with in this business as it is, without having to worry if their forum is becoming a haven for shittalking, personal insults, and illegal filesharing of music that's not even supposed to be heard yet.
Luckily for us, we have alot of good people here at this forum, who might not always agree or share the same opinions or ways, but generally everyone respects each other enough to behave decently about it, and I really hope it stays this way.
Anyhow it seems to me that there's still enough forums and mailing groups and such related to Opeth that people can still be able to sign on and discuss their favorite band if they want to. And people are free to come here and discuss Opeth with us too if they like, because I like Opeth as well. But yeah, let's keep the discussion about the new album to a fair minimum until it's officially released, out of respect for them. I'd want the same done for us if the shoe was on the other foot.
