End of an Era: Triond Forum Closed

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On the afternoon of 23rd October, 2011 (BST), the Triond Forum closed. I decided not to write about this straight away, opting instead to let it sink in first. At the time it was quite a shock. That very morning I had been chatting with fellow writer Marie Milton on the forum, about how nice it was to see some “older regulars” there again. We were also glad to see that the recent heavy trolling and spamming by one or two idiots had eased off.

That afternoon I returned to Triond to have some banter with Steve666 (another writer) about Manchester City beating United 6-1. I also wanted to celebrate going above Alistair Briggs in our “Triond People” Fantasy Football mini-league. Alistair himself had formed this mini-league through the forum, where he had recruited “players”.

But where was the drop down link to the forum? Could they have? Instinctively I checked and read the Triond Blog. Sure enough, there was that historical announcement. The Forum, started with such high hopes and expectations in January 2009, was now CLOSED.

I Miss The Forum

I read Triond’s brief explanation. And a few supportive comments there. Sure enough, some articles had been written about it. Soon I was reading a fair few articles on the subject, old and new. One article of January 2009 reported how the writer was enjoying the “new” forum, which had “at last” been created through popular demand.

But then an article as early as APRIL 2009 bemoaned the fact that the forum was infested with “trolls” and “spammers”. The forum had been taken over by someone called “The Chief”. At first you could leave links there to advertise your work, but a few months later if you did that you were “flamed” as a “spammer”!

I personally only started to participate in the forum about October 2010. But once I started, I soon became addicted. I made a lot of friends there. And one or two “enemies”. Thanks partly to the forum, I now have a loyal little readership on Triond. Some “Forumers” are now my Facebook friends, alongside my relatives and real-life friends.

To be honest, I still think, “Better check the forum now and see if anything’s happening. Whoah, can’t do that. It’s gone!” Addictive indeed.

“Good Riddance”

As I say, there seem to be two camps regarding the closure of The Forum. Some say, “What a shame! Mistake, Triond.” And the “other” camp says, “Good Riddance, not before time!”

Being the complex person that I am, I can sympathise with both camps. Sorry to say, but outside my own family, the forum was the only place where people were ever cynical or hurtful towards me. Lord Banks wrote an interesting article on that and about forum “bullying” in general. Sure, I deserved some “stick” as I probably posted comments on the forum far too often and made too many weak “one liners”. I was just trying to liven up what was, when you take out the trolls and spammers, often a quiet place. My efforts may have been “irksome” at times, but I was well upstaged by those trolls.

I see that even the comments on Triond’s Blog re the closure have now been trolled. False “personalities” have now appeared with their silly insults, just as they did on the forum. Of course, you seldom really know who you are talking to on the internet: and those forum trolls made the very most of that.

Yes, the forum was a cesspool. Yet there were islands of sheer delight to be found too. As I say, very mixed emotions here. I wonder if Triond might resurrect the forum in a few months?

Paul Butters