The day the Forum died

100% agree. The Forum was *much* more valuable before it was restricted to only USMS members. For example, Foreign nationals, USAS and HS swimmers added lively and diverse contributions.

People who only know of the new forum can’t imagine how I felt when I could not reach the forum when I was in the waiting room for my wife’s surgery. There was a real sense of community then and I planned to be spending the time with friends while I was waiting

I completely agree, Allen. I remember when everything changed too. There was always lots of interesting discussion. Then…………..crickets. Almost nothing when things changed. Sometimes WEEKS without a post here. I suppose the decision to change things had to do with money. Discussion forums do actually need human intervention for maintenance. Years ago, I was a member of the RUNNER’S WORLD discussion forums. The RW forums were even more active than the former iteration of the USMS discussion forums. There were paid subscriptions, and free memberships participating in them. Then, they (RW) announced that they were selling off the discussion forum, and some of their other online services to ACTIVE.com. It was probably no more than ACTIVE buying for access to the contact info of all those users, and they never had any intention of keeping the forums going. Eventually, a year or so I guess, the discussion forums were completely eliminated. We (users/members) were told it was for financial reasons. An entire active, vibrant online community eliminated. There is one thing I will point out about non-paying membership in discussion forums. I am also currently a member of the BIKE FORUMS — discussion forums for all styles, and aspects of bicycling. I use the free membership, but it’s opened up to people all over the world. It’s fun, and very active…like the old USMS forums. But, because the forum is open to the non-paying public…it gets a lot of riffraff. Every now and then it’ll get hacked into, or a fraudulent free membership, and the forums will get inundated with unwanted posts that are advertisements for any number of things. It’s very distracting. It always gets cleaned up, but obviously that takes time for someone to do. And I’m sure it costs the forum owners some money to have it done. So, there is some advantage to allowing only paying members access. But the result is an almost useless service. I just can’t say if keeping it open only to paying members outweighs giving access to the public. But it is certainly more interesting with more activity. — Dan

BEST post since 2018 !! Here is a simple example and we all know this is part reason our sport is changing !! I did not swim for way too long 2009 until 2024 -- gives me a different "view" - I noticed changes -- biggest change - MUCH less USMS / club swimming, swim meets, people going to club workouts - but MUCH more lap swimming - so the amount of "swimmers" may actually be more - just not in club system. How can club recruit more swimmers ? Have the BEST forum for adult swimming of all levels - soooo simple - club or no club - we are all swimmers - lets keep it OPEN !!

I’m just replying to hopefully keep the thread alive. Here again is an example of the status of the forums — it’s been more than a week without a reply. Perhaps/hopefully a moderator or USMS official could join the discussion and explain what happened, and why USMS membership is a requirement to be active in the forums. — Dan

I for one miss the flame wars of the early 2000s. 

Maybe we need someone to say something inflammatory! ...like: whoever decided to close the forums made an egregious mistake that devalued the USMS membership and probably indirectly led to a decrease in fitness among members because there is less spirit of camaraderie and less cutting-edge training advice being shared. They are a horrible person (or persons) who should be flogged with a pool noodle that will only stop when they agree to swim a set of 100x100, LCM all fly, in a pool that is either <60 degrees F or more than 90 degrees F!

That sounds appropriate. I think that could get a lot of views on YouTube

sad... miss the old forum format

Here is some information to help answer some of your questions and clarify your comments. 

• The USMS Community was launched in March of 2021
• The old forums was decreasing in activity for many years before launch of Community as the rise of Reddit and Facebook groups grew larger
• Many members were having issues accessing the old forums because of the old architecture and it required a second login from the USMS site
• It is member's only to post but it is open for the public to see (in most areas)
• ForceDJ noted a lot of the reasons for going with a member's only forum

We will continue to enhance the features and integrate with other areas of USMS.