Why did the BWTF.com message forum close down?

[andersonh1]

If you say so. From my POV as a semi-outsider, it feels like Hasbro's on the downswing of the brand right now and it's driven interest away. No more Q&A, prices have skyrocketed ($18.29 at Target for Prime Dlxs), quality has diminished, low exposure for TF Prime, I think the Transformers fandom has contracted and reduced in number over the last year.

I agree. The brand peaked with the first live action movie and stayed up for awhile, but now it's on a downward trend. It will probably come back strong eventually, but it will take something to jumpstart popularity again. What that might be, I can't say.

[Tigermegatron]

FYI,For those who don't know. Ben yee isn't inactive in the TF Fandom. Ben yee was one of the guys Hasbro asked to help Fun Pub run the TFCC club/Convention. Ben yee,I think helps write the club/convention comics & probably does other stuff behind the scenes. Rumors have it their is a dozen+fans that help Fun pub run TFCC,some of them even get weekly or once in a while pay checks.

the guy who owns Fun pub is a lazy @$$ & he sits back & lets others do the work. then the owner swoops in & grabs all the credit.

[Shockwave]

BWTF was the first fan forum I ever posted on. I started back in late 2006 right when we were getting the first glimpses of the movie designs. I was reading a thread with everyone going 20 rounds of why everyone was pissed off about Prime's design and I logged on to point out that the longnose cab version was nothing like the flatnose cab they had draped at SDCC to imply that they were essentially doing a "G1" movie only to see designs that looked nothing like G1.

Anyway, after that debate I wandered into other threads and eventually started posting regularly. Then the website went down and I decided to go "off the grid" for about a year. Somewhere around the middle of 2009 Scourge found me over on TFW and told me about this place and I've been posting ever since. I was glad to hear that most of the old BWTF gang had found/created a place to keep posting. We really do have a fun group here.

[Sparky Prime]

Whatever happened to BigMD? I'd love to get in contact with him again. Last I heard, he had largely sworn off the franchise because of the movie.

Sworn off is an understatement. I've seen some negative reactions towards the movie but his was way over the top, to the point he was insulting anyone who had a difference of opinion about any aspect of it. Which was strange because he was normally more level headed. At any rate, last I saw of him he'd set up his own message board with some comic book project of his own making. Might be able to dig that up...
Edit: Here's BigMD's message board for those interested.

[Onslaught Six]

Well, hey, good for him!

EDIT: Also, JT, I know you're really harping on the lack of Q&A being a sign that the brand is dying, but I'm assuming it's because they were getting shitty questions from everybody...pretty much because of their wholly unengaging nature towards them, too.

[Tigermegatron]

Well, hey, good for him!

EDIT: Also, JT, I know you're really harping on the lack of Q&A being a sign that the brand is dying, but I'm assuming it's because they were getting shitty questions from everybody...pretty much because of their wholly unengaging nature towards them, too.

Hasbro probably took away the Q & A sessions due to so many internet TF fans having all those "HATE" compaigns via their threads/replies on the various TF moderated forums.

[JediTricks]

Also, JT, I know you're really harping on the lack of Q&A being a sign that the brand is dying, but I'm assuming it's because they were getting shitty questions from everybody...pretty much because of their wholly unengaging nature towards them, too.

They were getting shitty questions because they refused to answer good questions and then limited the types of questions we could ask. Compare the run of Hasbro TF Q&A to Hasbro Star Wars Q&A and it's like night and day. They took Q&A away because either there was a lack of interest at Hasbro to continue or a lack of time to answer the questions properly.

[Tigermegatron]

Also, JT, I know you're really harping on the lack of Q&A being a sign that the brand is dying, but I'm assuming it's because they were getting shitty questions from everybody...pretty much because of their wholly unengaging nature towards them, too.

They were getting shitty questions because they refused to answer good questions and then limited the types of questions we could ask. Compare the run of Hasbro TF Q&A to Hasbro Star Wars Q&A and it's like night and day. They took Q&A away because either there was a lack of interest at Hasbro to continue or a lack of time to answer the questions properly.

1- Internet TF fans kept asking the same questions over & over. so the fault is with the fans not hasbro. 9 out of 10 submitted fan questions were overly repeative ones

2- TF sites/forums like the allspark,TFW2005,Tformers & Seibertron pretended to create a lottery of submitted registered members fans questions. sadly this was a farce/scam,as the board owners,mods,admins & elite favorites only submitted their questions to hasbro. LEAVING 99% OF THE REGISTERED MEMBERS NOT GETTING THEIR QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO HASBRO.

3- Once again I blame the fans & the questions that the Site owners/crew submitted. they kept getting more trollish,repeative & insulting as time went on.

4- Hasbro pulled the plug/cancelled the Q & A due to the #1 thru #3 reasons I gave above. plus the more hateful campaigns against Hasbro via threads/replies on the various moderated TF forums & visble from the Botcon convention rude/disrepectful attendee behavior against hasbro.