MYGNR closing down... (?)

Sad news, mygnrforum is closing down. Read about it here: http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=176071&st=0

Fellow GNR fans,

It is with regret to inform you that mygnrforum.com GNR Fan Forumwill be closing as of Friday April 15th.

Running mygnrforum.com since December 31st 2001 has been fun for a long time. It’s made me discuss and meet a whole lots of great GNR fans from all over the world (you know who you are), it’s also gave me the opportunity assist many GNR concerts for free, meet the band and Axl Rose.

In recent years, some aspects have grown to be whole lot less fun: leaks, lack of communication from management, even lawyer letters from the band. Those I lived with and became accustomed to.

Running internet Forum for a large website such as mygnrforum.com (38,452 members) and ten times more fans visiting (guests) requires expensive servers for which the monthly costs are significant.

Absence of promotion of Chinese Democracy, still no US tour, waiting for new material, the recession, are all factors which affect how much money can be made to offset the hosting fees which have been significantly higher than what ads and donations bring in.

I do thank the few supporters who have made donations. Unfortunately, it’s something that never really took off as only few people were able to donate (190$ in the last year). Supporters who have made donations in the last year have been informed how they can get a pro-rata refund if they wish.

So for many years now, I’ve been putting up my own money to help keep alive the Forum. This is a situation which I have discussed with GNR many times. Aside from expressing they want mygnrforum.com closed in the past, even after being offered, GNR has not shown any concrete interest in supporting and/or taking over the mygnrforum.com.

Aside from not making any business sense to run the Forum, it’s grown to expose me as the owner of the site to lawyer letters threatening lawsuits. So it’s making sense to throw the towel now and just close the mygnrforum.com. I guess GNR will finally have what it has wanted for a very long time!

I do believe that this was the best GNR fan Forum of all, with the best infrastructure, best moderating team and best forum members (GNR fans). It’s a shame that could not grow into something more. I often browse other band’s websites and fan forums and truly envy how those other bands have embraced the internet, fan forums, and fans! But not GNR unfortunately. I often think that the Forum could have been so much more for GNR. But then again GNR could also be so much more. But it’s currently not, and has not been for some time now. Great band, great music, great signer, but not so great marketing.

Thank you all for your continued interest during the last 10 years, I truly hope all the GNR fans will be able to find a place to continue to exchange. Thank you to all the forum members who made mygnrforum such a great place over the years, and a special thank you to all the members of the moderating team (past and present) who have put so much of their time into this. Special thanks to Highvoltage, Montrealer and Madison for their implication over the years of running this place.

I also wish all the best to GNR and to Axl Rose for the future.

Eric Romano, admin

I feel sorry for Eric. The good thing with the GN'R community is that there is one forum less now, hence the fan base is separated on one less forum.

Seems like there are talks to let one of the moderators buy the forum from Eric. I am on the fence to whether I approve. I would have preferred fewer forums but I understand the power a name has to so many and that they want to see their "home" preserved.

Eric, the admin at MYGNR, has said MYGNR will continue with the same management. Apparently an anonymous person has offered donated enough money to keep the ship floating and Eric has accepted the offer.

One speculation is that it is Axl who has decided to support MYGNR. The motif would probably be to have more control over what happens there, to bring it closer to HTGTH.

This might also explain why Eric accepted the offer, because it solves his financial problems and he receives the support from GN'R that he has been wanting.

Hmm, the forum is down today. Did something not work out?

..........aaaaand it's back up again.

What a soap serie. On the other hand..newgnr is so boring lately..

Yes, if you want action you should go to gunsnfnroses.com. They claim to be uncensored (which they arent't, but they use it in advertisement to lure fools) and hence has managed to recruit all the dregs and low-lives of the GN'R fan communities (who are usually banned from other fora anyway). I go there for the laughs now and again.