Star Wars.Com Forums to Close April 29th. RIP TOS FORUMS

LucasFilm has announced that it will be closing the StarWars.Com Forums as of April 29th for posting.  From April 29th until June 3rd you will be able to read the Forums but no posting will be allowed.  On June 3rd the entirety of the Forums is going into the trash compactor. 

OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING STARWARS.COM FORUMS:

At StarWars.com, we are always evaluating the various features of the website in order to provide the best experience to our users. As we review new community-based interactive features for the future, we have decided that the Official Message Boards at forums.starwars.com will no longer be part of the site.

April 2011 will be the last month of active message boards on StarWars.com. On Friday, April 29 the forums will be locked into a read-only mode, so that users can look through older posts and copy any they may wish to keep for posterity. On Friday, June 3rd, the official StarWars.com forums will shut down entirely.

For those who wish to continue discussions with fellow fans, we encourage you to check out the commenting available on website articles as well as posts on the StarWars.com Facebook Page, as well as following and interacting with @StarWars via Twitter.

Thank you all who have contributed to the fun discussion and lively debates at the Official Star Wars Message Boards, and a special thank you to our volunteer moderators who have helped maintain this community since October of 2001.

 Link to Press Release

While I was hardly the most active member of the Forums, I enjoyed interacting with fellow fans there and particularly with Lucasfilm/Lucasbooks Editor Sue Rostoni in the VIP Thread.  I will miss the little tidbits of info that Sue gave to fans.  Hopefully we continue to see her interact with fans in another way.

This also raises the question as to what will happen to the StarWars.Com Blogs.  In order to have a blog you need to have a Hyperspace Membership, but with the discontinuation of that program you are no longer able to sign up for a blog at StarWars.Com.  Will the Blogs be next on the chopping block?