Hi Everyone,

Long time, no post. Well, I did chime in the other day but that's beside the point.

There are indeed plans to update the site in anticipation of the upcoming album. Most likely the site will go down for a bit (there will probably be a 'coming soon' type landing page) while the new site is being developed.

However it should be known that the forum is not a part of those plans. This type of platform is antiquated, cumbersome, the farthest thing from mobile friendly, and as long as we're being real here - the decision to call for its end has has been a long time coming. And soon - I'm not exactly sure when - our little corner of the universe will unceremoniously cease to exist.

So what to do?

Some of us have our little group on Facebook, and there's another larger group on there as well. But as those groups tend to be exclusionary (and not everyone particularly enjoys Facebook) that's not the way forward in carrying on our discussions and love of all things Chemical, and Chemical related things (or loosely related things, like bullshit chat)

The most viable option at this point to carry on our discussion would be reddit. There is already a sub-reddit for the Chemical Brothers r/chemicalbrothers - though I don't know if there will be an "official" one made. Will keep you posted.

The nice thing about reddit is we can be ourselves, yet still maintain the anonymity we have here with our usernames n'all. We can participate without having to post, we can upvote, downvote.

Anyway brothers and sisters, please feel free to cry, vent, share ideas, have group hugs, etc, etc.

Love is all, til the end of ends.

NO!!!

I'm heartbroken!

This place is... I practically grew up here. I've been here since I was... 14. And, I mean, I know I haven't been around as much as you guys have, I've never met any of you, fucking hell I wasn't even born until 6 months after Loops of Fury came out. But of the few constant day-to-day things in my life this was one of them. Damnit, I have to start referring to this place as 'was'. I wouldn't be the person I am if I hadn't spent so much of my digital time in the presence of you guys, seriously, you all half raised me. Even Iggy. Probably best I had the rest of you around to balance things out.

I'm not going to forget any of it. The Further launch and my abstaining from everything Further till the iTunes Pass finished downloading, then having my mind blown out of the universe. The new forum itself dropping and us abusing the smileys and font options like there was no tomorrow. The chat on the Pete Tong takeover. Me and Champi jockeying for best footage of the new 2011 sets and slobbering over all the new shit. Whirly trying to adopt me. The picture countdowns and the rage over the Kings of Potato Rock. Kodiak Theater! The Nous Sommes t-shirts. The bloke off the internet getting named The bloke off the internet. K+D+B being godlike. The disgustingly hilarious "Worst Thing Ever" thread. The whole 'gay bands' fiasco that I'm still embarrassed about to this day. Putting together FurtherRemixed with everyone else, despite it kinda falling apart towards the end. Getting basically everyone's names read off in the 6music Chems take over. Unloading my Don't Think experience on you guys.

I don't know of any other online format that can really build a community like a forum can. Seriously. Reddit is too regulated and too "Content and Comment" focused to really bring people together, the discussions aren't linear and controversial people can just get downvoted, instead of sparking interesting and disagreeing conversation. And Facebook is so far from ideal. If this place was structured in any other way, if I hadn't gotten to know you guys, I'd have left a long time ago. And then I never would have had this in my life, and that would have sucked.

This can't be happening.

Can't we do anything about this? One of my biggest losing the forum archives - there is so much history and information there. And don't forget our post counts!!! What's gonna happen to those?!?

Yeah, this is sad. I haven't been around here much lately, but I was looking forward to coming back when the new album drops. Surely they can just let this forum run as it is?

I've only just come on here when I read your FB message, Mia.

I'm very sad to see this place go, but it's expected. Forums are an extremely old model. Especially the smilies!!

I can see that I've bee a member for 10 years! I started coming here after the live show in 2005 and it's been great to interact (only a little by my post count) with you all and MEET some of you, even though I've posted probably 5 times in two or so years (I'm sorry)!

We still have FB, although I generally hate it.

You guys will have to wake me up again through FB messages when a new track is played on Radio1 though. That was fun.

Going to miss the infamous "Buzzed Posting" and "Now Playing" threads the most I think (I love to know what people are listening to, especially when they are 'buzzed').

I'm not sure If I can commit to another social networking site but it would be a shame if we didn't have any discussions about the new album!

So sentimental, much nostalgic.

...I'm nearly at a loss for words.

I check this site nearly every day, and still love communicating with people on it. I can't adequately express my sadness, how many moments I've had on here.

I know that those of us that have connected through here will keep in touch, but nonetheless, I feel like this is a breakup of sorts.

Thank you everyone for all of the moments here. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for all of the wonderful responses, support and love.

MadPooter, on 16 April 2015 - 6:59 PM, said:

You know this place is old when you can't "like" or "heart" a post but these words exactly!

I'm going to miss you all!

Something inside me just died! Sad day folks!

at least keep the forum till the end of the year! Same with Krisper! New album is on the horizon, and now we don't have a home any more!

It's way to early to say adios to you guys and girls. Too many memories here and there! I have this forum as my homepage for a reason you know!

I agree with Whirls on the sub-reddit r/chemicalbrothers. its best to migrate over there before the forum implodes.

In my spare time I've been cooking up a Chems fansite/database/wikia, like a big extension of that guide I did for Ben_J's FTP, as a web-dev learning project and a portfolio booster, and definitely not an excuse to completely geek out over Chems stuff and call it productive. It's not close to being ready, and I've no idea how to do it all, but I want to integrate a new forum into the fansite. It won't be as fancy as this place, but I can cut out the features we never use, and add likes and other stuff to modernize the place. We'd also be able to trade mixes/bootlegs/leaks/stuff as much as we want since it would be unofficial. I'm planning on mirroring Ben_j's FTP plus extras for the fansite anyway.

Migrating over to Reddit feels wrong to me... this place is it's own thing, it's a forum, not an auxiliary part of a bigger networking site.

I know forums are outdated but we're still buying vinyl aren't we?

Unhappy news, indeed.
This is only forum I've ever been member of, and soon to be gone.
What to say? I'll miss you, folks

Well, goodness gracious me.

This forum was such a huge part of my life for so many years, I am genuinely a little bit choked up at this.

Times change I guess, forums are a bit old hat now with all the social media and everything and I hope the migration to Reddit works well.

It gives me hope that a band can bring together such a diverse and lovely bunch of people. I had so many incredible experiences off the back of posting on here, and the quality of the posts always made me grin. Life kind of gets in the way of online fun sometimes what with having a new baby and all, but this forum and all it's characters are never far from my thoughts. Its been an honour to banter both electronically and face to face with everyone.

I feel very lucky to have got to know forumites that I count among my friends, even if time and distance get in the way sometimes - if this was facebook id post some cheesy meme about 'when you dont see someone for a number of years but when you do it's like you saw them yesterday' - hell on Reddit maybe ill be able to do that haha.

Thanks guys, its been emotional.

'tears'



(im at work, and cant see youtube, but hopefully you can see let forever be in the above link hahaha)

What? What is happening??? Are they.... arghghhg!

What is so oldschool about forums? Can I write prose-length texts on facebook or the like? Is click-porn really the only currency in the realm of public success these days? What about bonding between fans and their favorit musical (or any other) artists through the exchange of thoughts, the central idea of forums? Are 140 letters enough (which you can barely read because of all those fucking hashtags, @'s and illegible symbols) these days? Do thumbs up count more than real virtual conversations out of which you can get more information and fun facts than out of any of these frigging social network posts? Fans want to share deeper thoughts and not read through short messages and "significant" statements like "you're awesome", "thumbs up", "I'm here because of Misfits" etc. pp.

What have we come to... This is a sad day and I feel this might be something more than just the probable inevitable closure of a forum...

Why aren't they even pondering the idea of updating this forum to a more modern type of platform with all the bells and whistle young kiddos are so fond of?!
Well, it kind of feels like the number of fans conversating on this site was just to small and insignificant which let marketing experts to conclude this forum should be scrubbed.

First we get the info that Ed won't be partnering with Tom on tour and now that - and we still haven't got any news for the new album yet. I'm really pissed right now.

Changes are welcome, but this is plain bollocks and makes no sense at all, unless... No, I do not even want to think that thought through...

Sorry, I had to vent.

And I was sooo close to 5,000 posts. Damn!

Completely agree with Csar on all points. Look at the subreddit - it's pretty devoid of any meaningful content, just youtube links to new songs, unanswered questions and noob topics (not that those are a bad thing, but when they're the _only_ thing there...) I'm not sure moving there would change that. Reddit is a place to go for links and making clever comments on them to score karma, it's really not set up for discussion between people who know each other pretty well. Healthy discussion isn't supposed to be a competition for more internet karma.

Csar, on 16 April 2015 - 4:49 AM, said:

There's at least 110 users who post regularly or were really active back in the day and still post from time to time.

Maybe if they'd actually released an album in the last 2.5 years there'd be more discussion here!

Double post.

Maybe they ran out of room for all the dead kittens? Is that why they're shutting this place down?

WhiteNoise, on 16 April 2015 - 8:21 AM, said:

Skyscraper LIKES this comment! :THUMBS UP: and other more up to date emoji things.

Also some forums are thriving. Take a look at LanaBoards which only started in 2012 (I think). I stumbled across it in Feb when looking for info on early FKA Twigs stuff. Found a thread for her there SIXTY pages long! And I don't think these people are old fogies clinging to an outdated thing. When the new Chems album drops I'm sure people will come here and go "Where's the forum?"

Csar, on 16 April 2015 - 9:49 AM, said:

So you made US think it!

WhiteNoise, on 16 April 2015 - 10:10 AM, said:

Your dedication is admirable WN but I suspect eventually you might regret it.
But if people do want to kick it around, just a thought: Primal Scream have a forum (Webadelica) which is unofficial but is nonetheless considered 'almost official'. In fact Mani, their longest serving bass player (now reunited with the Stone Roses) has his own login there ("Mr Gary") and even used the forum to break the sad news to Scream fans about Robert "Throb" Young's death.
It looks like an off-the-shelf package that is basically looked after by one Primals fan. I guess he has to pay for server use but otherwise it's probably cheap to run (if a little basic). I'm sure there are others here who would know more than me about costs/aggro on that stuff though. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Whirly, is there a known "End date"? A month? Less than that?

WhiteNoise, on 16 April 2015 - 12:10 PM, said:

I'm almost certain, given the hype about youtube clicks and fb likes and all that, 110 users would bring tears of laughter in the eyes of marketing managers, it's all too insignificant. But at the same time, this forum has been neglected almost since its inception and never really received any real support or care (except for that one mod guy who popped up one or two times in the very beginning and eventually handed it over to Whirly).
We've seen how many album releases over the years? It were quite a few and both forums (that I got to know) never really experienced a boost in active user numbers. Even some of the more active members from back then vanished as well.

With that said, this or the other types of forums we had (the spambot issues aside) never really bound large amounts of captial or labor/ man hours to keep it up resp. to maintain it because nobody would ever care for them. Hence, no real costs were generated. This is why I don't understand the decision to extinct this little obscure but cost-inexpensive place from existence. It doesn't do any (financial) harm. Or maybe it does in the mindest of marketing managers.. But we live in a world where cost-efficiency is all, even when its consequence is to the detriment of the lively relationship between fans and their (in this case) band.

Too bad neither Ed or Tom would come by anymore to give us heads up or statements, so we could understand.

skyscraper, on 16 April 2015 - 12:47 PM, said:

I'm sorry. I really am! And this goes with an outdated, old as fuck smiley:

The Reaction:
I am disappoint. I know I don't post on here much these days but I'd pop on here to see what the nerds have found in their late night Internet searches using customised algorithms. I can't be mean to you guys with my veil lifted

The Reality:
Our people will suffer for this. If it wasn't for this forum, I wouldn't have the experiences that I've had and I looked forward to all the experiences that I would have had, which will no longer be.

The Goodbye:
As a goodbye I'd like to say a few words as iguanapunk, the man, the legend:In the beginning I was a little troll to all you f*cktard mong c0ck sucking fag*ots but over time I started to get to know the real people behind the posts. You may all have ugly faces but I could look past that which makes me a better person than you. Some of you I've met, some I haven't, some I wished I hadn't but I know for those that did meet me, I made your life better, even if it was for such a short space of time. I'll miss Pink_Shoes the most, the rest of you are just 1's and 0's to me. That being said, I hope to see you all again in some format. F*ck all of you

The Reality(1):
This post, however brilliant as it may be, will be gone forever just like every other memory posted on this board.

Hey everyone, points taken, and lovingly so. I expected this news to go over like a lead balloon and totally am in agreement with the sadness and nostalgia running through this thread. There is a lot of my life on here - all the highs and devastating lows, some things I'm proud of and other things I'm not, buried deep within the pages here. At the end of the day it's not data to me. It's memories and the people I got to know through here.

Updating the forum as it has been done in its previous incarnations would make sense, but it's the maintaining it and keeping it up to date and current that has always been the problem. This forum, has been quirky and buggy since day one. All the forums, actually.

I agree the current subreddit is lacking but that's because it's not official or semi official or advertised/linked by the Chems in any way. But is it possible to bring what we have here, to the table there? If I think back to the first forum here, it wasn't like a standard message board like we have now, it was kind of like a reddit sort of format. Yes reddit's a different way of communicating and change is hard (I'm not a redditor) but I'm game for change for you guys and my favorite band.

So anyway, I wasn't given an exact end date but it could be as soon as the weekend. That's not in stone, though.

Common, there's gotta be a way to keep the forum going? Anyway?
I haven't been regular here also recently, and was waiting for the new record to drop.
This is the only forum on the internet that I've been on, for so many years.
Everything dies! At a loss for words. Sucky days.

Ed responded to me on twitter, says he wants forum to stay:

EddyChemical said:

https://twitter.com/...736240993886208