Opeth.com said:
It got to a point that I saw no reason to keep up the off-topic forum. First of all it is not Opeth related at all and I got loads of complains and people offended each other in that forum. So I got sick of it. The Off-topic forum is moved so it is not gone!
//opeth.com
*serious out of character comment*
While i agree with all of these, what more people here are debating about ( whenever they realize it or not ) is that lack of action on the part of the moderators that ultimately leads to this kinds of situations.
Shure some of the people ( or well all ) immediatly think i am the last person who should say this, most of my In Character critique and extreme behavior was a well deserved cry for moderation, the forum was always a chaotic place and as time went by and the forum followed unsupervised, the situation grew out of control. All original users who indulged in serious, constructive and quite frankly, enjoyable discussion, where driven away by this kind of behavior.
I understad the position the band is taking, and i also realize is too late to change the current situation, but i would hope that in the near future the band realizes that having a forum ( or a chat or a sign book or a news group ) is not a simple matter of setting it and forgetting about it, and it was an error that you guys asumed that either the um community would control things for you or that it was not necessary to check out on it or interfer.
Take the example of the Dark Tranquillity forum. Since the moderation started and Rahvin helped out, the forum has, while kept a relatively low profile, nevertheless kept a reazonable state where there are both on and off topic comments.
So in the future, the lesson here is that a forum doesnt works just because the internet provider is working properly, or because a comunity like this takes care of those details, a forum requires control and supervision and is a shame that now that things grown out of control drastic measures have been taken, while smaller affirmative actions in the past years would have preserved a comunity that me and a lot of people will miss. Next time you guys think about starting a forum, think that some of the people who will use it WILL take it seriously and that is not fair that they have to suffer because the band decided to give a place to the comunity that was half complete at best, specially when it was incredible easy to correct the situation.
Its nice when a band remembers their fans and gives em an space like this, but is sad when the band thinks they can forget about them and think things will be ok.
Ernesto Nàñez ( since it was a real comment, not a misanthrope comment )