My pragmatic two-cents as an (now) outsider ...
- Technically, there is no difference between using F4G and UOForums, seeing as they both run on the same Forum Software. The only difference are the modifications and add-ons you might find on one or the other.
- Reliability will be equal on both ends, though due to the heavier traffic on UO Forums, a dedicated F4G server on Jolt will be more responsive and quicker. Due to the fact that some of the Admins, if not all, come from your own community, you may even find some extras and advantages that you might not see on UO Forums.
- There is actually a chance that F4G might cease to exist if CoRE takes a unified step away from it.
- If the Dev's care enough about CoRE, they will come read the CoRE Forums whether they are on UO Forums or on F4G. If not, then the move to UO Forums is rather pointless.
Since everyone seems to be upset and focussing on the fact that there was no backup of the forums made and that all the posts were lost, I just wonder what your excuse is for not having made printouts/copies of the relevant posts and threads yourselves. I just wonder if people realise how much was done for them in the past, in addition to the invested money, without asking them for anything in return. After all,
F4G was here when Stratics started their crackdown, when the ERPA/CoRE shizm happened and none of you wanted to remain under Tillek's thumb and control, when the Stratics Guild forums were so slow that they were sheer unusable. Of course, whatever you do is for the best of the community, but just consider that this time, there might not be an
F4G to come back to if
UO Forums does not turn out to be the promised land ...