RIP Y&Ying forum?

Totally agree . 

Why won't y talk to him no more.

Cos he's borin'

"Yer all XXXXING boring"

Maybe Shoibhán had a point.

Hi all

Just catching up on this after a couple of week away.

To clarify, the forum has always been a very small part of YachtsandYachting.com, and now is even smaller. There are undoubtedly better places and methods for sailing discussion now, with social media's rise, and undoubtedly the different formats of that will and do rise and fall.

YachtsandYachting.com is far more about sailing news and editorial. It's what we spend our time on and concentrate on very hard. It's where the site's traffic is, and there are a vast number of reports and articles on the site. Overall site traffic is huge compared to when the forum first started and continues to grow.

For those that don't know, ST / Y&Y paper magazine hasn't been the same company as YachtsandYachting.com for well over a decade now.

With reference to grass roots I was a bit surprised by a few comments on this thread. We try our very best to publish full results and talk about all levels of the fleet. On a personal level I run youth sailing at my club, and participation in sailing is probably my greatest passion. I can only assume either the posters of the comments haven't read of seen any of the work I've done on that front or I'm getting it seriously wrong.

I'm all for seeing discussion groups elsewhere, such as on facebook, and I do believe they provide a better solution for chat, as they should with the resources they have! I also tend to watch (and contribute) more on some of those than I do here.

So is it time to put the forum down? Probably. The software is outdated (as many have pointed out). It's also quite tricky to switch everything over to a better solution, so is something we've avoided doing, instead concentrating on the core areas of the site.

I'll have a good chat with Mags and see what's the best way forwards.

Many thanks, Mark

 All the other forums I am on that still have a reasonable amount of traffic have had loads of updates and improvements, plus consistent moderation. 

Unfortunately this forum is the state it is because it’s just not important to its owners . It’s a shame but there is nothing any of us can do about that .  As 423zero said it will be a shame to see it go .

If it’s does go and become a dead parrot, the best I can suggest is more over to SA. I know it has a bad reputation but it is better now than it used to be . Plus to be honest I’ve had much confrontation on here than I ever had there . Also it would be nice to have more uk/Ireland/ Europe voices on it .