It's officially official: the move is over

I'd planned for a big announcement of the official opening of the new forum, but people have been more enthusiastic about moving than expected and nearly everyone has already made their way here on their own so the need for a formal presentation of the forum to the community has gone away. As a result this is going to be more like a press night for a minor cast change ten years into a long-running production than the first public unveiling of a new show. Nevertheless, to allow credit to be given where it's due...


There are still a few small changes to be made but for the most part this is it. We have our own domain name and our own branding and theme. There's a separate area for discussion of issues with the forum itself, and to support the friendly and tolerant nature of our forum we've introduced a shiny new set of rules that you can find there. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be spreading the word about our new home and making adjustments to reflect the needs of the community, but what you see now can no longer be considered a work in progress. The move is over.

I'm sure everyone will join me in offering thanks to the people who have worked to make this a reality, not just with this forum but also with the various other options that were under consideration but ultimately failed to make it. I've been the public face of this relocation but for the most part I've just been the coordinator, keeping matters organised and trying to rein things in when enthusiasm started to race ahead of practicality. Much of the hard work has been done by people behind the scenes. We had twenty eight days to do this; they brought it in in well under half the time.

There have been too many people involved to list everyone individually but particular thanks are owed to (in alphabetical order) andy614, BurlyBeaR, Michael, TheatreDust and theatremonkey.com, all of whom have put in far more time than anyone could reasonably have expected of them in order to build our new home. Special mention should also go to There'sOnlyUs and opern for setting up the test forums that were not chosen.

Thanks too to WhatsOnStage for hosting the environment that brought us together and created our community. I can't remember when the first forum was launched - the Wayback Machine suggests it was early in 2001 - but the "new" WhatsOnStage forum we all know was launched on Monday 12th February 2007. It rounds things off nicely that it should be scheduled to close on its ninth birthday.

Here's to the next nine years.