UKDNF Gone Permanently

In my previous blog post, I mentioned why UKDNF was down and who was behind it. Recently, I had a bit of correspondence with Ryan Ewen. For reasons I’ve already mentioned in my previous blog post, my take on him is that he’s an idiot and a fantasist, and since that correspondence with him, my feelings on that have only strenghtened. I did remove my last post, I was under the impression the forum would return and whilst I was annoyed, best to let sleeping dogs lie. But now the forum is not coming back, Ryan's walking away scott free and most people don't know the hand he played in it, and I think it is important people know the part he played and that previous blog post should return.

Anyway, he's in the past now, there is no point in discussing him any further.

I’m extremely disappointed that UKDNF has gone - not because the owner decided to call it a day, which I can understand, but because he chose to turn it off rather than hand it over to someone else. There was a lot of work and effort that went into that site, including over 3000 posts from its members. Other options were available that could have allowed the site and its content to continue without posing any risks to the owner.

I know some people offered to buy the site, and others offered to run it, but these offers were turned down and disregarded. In my opinion, this approach is not justifiable and borders on being disrespectful to the members.

In his post that announced the closure, the former owner cited mental health as a reason for closing the site. While I sympathise to a degree, I must say this constructively and for the benefit of others: you don’t get rid of mental stress by walking away every time you face something difficult, all you do is store it away for next time. If you walk away once, you might forever walk away. At some point in your life, you have to tell people to feck right off and overcome your mental health issues by facing them. Everyone has issues, we've all been in tough spots, and we’ll all go through more of them. Unless you keep pushing the boundries of mental health outwards, they'll continue to come closer and will continue to box you in until it traps you and you have nowhere to go.

To the old owner, for your own good, forget the forum, but write the email and tell Ryan to stick it and that he's a moron.

You'll feel much better.

I gave UKDNF a chance because I thought it was different—great people, great content, great advice. I received valuable feedback and help there. I wrote a lot of content to try and help the forum grow.

Sadly, I don’t have time to start a new forum. I would have chipped in to buy UKDNF and placed it in a small company with others, provided others could run it. Unfortunately, that’s not possible now.

Anyway, enough about all that. It’s gone.

I’ve always said the best place to post content is on your own blog. I’m sick of putting content on forums only to see it disappear for various reasons. I’ve been burned way too many times. At least with your own blog, content can’t be taken down or removed without your consent.

I think I'll make the blog a bit more interactive and add a comments section in the coming hours or days. I’m always open to feedback good or bad.

This is my last post on the subject, got things to do.