[Roadmap 2026] 'We have made the tough decision to sunset the UO Forum'

With the publication of the 2026 roadmap, among other things, the UO team said:

“We have made the tough decision to sunset the UO Forum.”

Thank you to everyone who has made this forum possible, contributed their knowledge, and created unforgettable moments.

See you in Sosaria.

Related links: https://uo.com/2026/01/15/2026-roadmap-update/

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

Lokea said:

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

Whatever sunset it means

Lokea said:

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

For all practical purposes, pertinent information should be archived somewhere.  

RIP UO Forums.  

Grimbeard said:

Lokea said:

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

Whatever sunset it means

That can mean putting the forums into an archive mode, with no new posters, no posting, etc.

Just to clarify a bit. I'll still be around, I'll still be writing for the wiki and I'll be in Discord. I just won't be wrangling trolls here

This is so wrong in so many ways.  We should NOT have to use a third party app to talk to our DEVs or @Mariah.

Lord_Frodo said:

This is so wrong in so many ways.  We should NOT have to use a third party app to talk to our DEVs or @ Mariah.

What do you think a forum is??

ForeverFun said:

A friend showed me the "General discussions" UO discord, seems extremely difficult to follow and organize?

It is not organized.  It's a stream of people writing stuff.   Questions get asked and answered.  It is pretty dead.  Violet removes the malcontents. 

Basically it's like someone said post all general stuff in this thread and that's the only thread.

The other discussion areas are by topic. So those have "Threads".

I guess that's how discord works.

@Mariah can I get a file of all my posts so I can feed them to grok?   😂

Grimbeard said:

Lord_Frodo said:

This is so wrong in so many ways.  We should NOT have to use a third party app to talk to our DEVs or @ Mariah.

What do you think a forum is??

This forum is tied directly to this site.  Do we use our UO sign in to log into discord, NO.  Will they put a direct link on the UO Site to go to Discord?

Frodo is correct. This is not a third party thing.  They said it is not worth the cost.  I don't know how much a forum costs.  I was around when websites were free to use and had no adds. 

How much money does this save?

We can ask Mariah to put things in the UO wiki.  It works great.

ForeverFun said:

A friend showed me the "General discussions" UO discord, seems extremely difficult to follow and organize?

Oh dang. Discord blew up today.  Its on one of my screens always.  I usually see 12 to 30 new messages from 1am to 4pm. I was on this morning at 9.  I just turned that monitor on, more than 150 new messages, I doubt ill read em.

Isn't discord a way to all be at home and playing a game and chatting with the others who are playing?  That's why I had not used it.  I voice chatted with players on The Sims Online.  I have no desire for that again.

Ive talked and written to other players in games with Yahoo old chat.  

My son in law now has to do his weekly D&D game night with his friends over the web on a camera.  That's what 2 kids under 3 get ya.  None of my monitors have a camera.

Basically the gen area of discord is like Gen Chat in the game.  But Violet removes the "chat from fel".

We will get info like this. 



Also things will be on UO.com.

@Community Manager  Will they stop the News feeds to stratics?

So if you happen to look at all the messages, you may see some from him.  

How would you find this next month?

Discord is easy to use.  I have a toon in the game, posting here and on discord.

I'm sure he and the team find it easier to just post a snippet.  It takes a lot longer to post in a forum.
But archiving is not there?  I dont know.

Wow.  We were talking about the new raffle.

He popped in for this comment. 

It is not exactly like a forum.  😂

Being old school, I like a forum.  However, you can organize Discord BUT it is a lot harder to search for info. 

The official Wiki is well maintained and you can find a lot about the game but you won't find the wealth of tips you find on the forum.   

It will take a lot of getting used too, especially with all of the people that will be posting there.  It will die down eventually after the newness has worn off.

Bummer...

Lord_Frodo said:

Grimbeard said:

Lord_Frodo said:

This is so wrong in so many ways.  We should NOT have to use a third party app to talk to our DEVs or @ Mariah.

What do you think a forum is??

This forum is tied directly to this site.  Do we use our UO sign in to log into discord, NO.  Will they put a direct link on the UO Site to go to Discord?

It's not 97 dude move forward and adapt or get left behind 

This place will be gone.

Kyronix — 10:09 PM

Lokea said:

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

Personally, I thought about copying some of my posts to Discord, particularly the guides.

Those of you who have posts sharing knowledge about skills, tricks, and explanations on important topics would be ideal to copy to the corresponding sections on the Discord server, the skills sections or wherever appropriate.

The downside is that it will only be accessible to those who have Discord (and are not banned from accessing it), as there are players who cannot access Discord due to country bans.

Mariah said:

Just to clarify a bit. I'll still be around, I'll still be writing for the wiki and I'll be in Discord. I just won't be wrangling trolls here

❤️

Why in roadmap 0 info about NL new season ? is it canceled ?

@Kyronix @Parallax

Pawain said:

ForeverFun said:

A friend showed me the "General discussions" UO discord, seems extremely difficult to follow and organize?

It is not organized.  It's a stream of people writing stuff.   Questions get asked and answered.  It is pretty dead.  Violet removes the malcontents. 

Basically it's like someone said post all general stuff in this thread and that's the only thread.

The other discussion areas are by topic. So those have "Threads".

I guess that's how discord works.

"General Chat" Is for just that, chatting with fellow players about general subjects. Can be fun, can be more serious. But overall, if it is a serious topic, such as something you would like to propose, a bug or any other issue, there are threads. There are quite a few means to ask questions and answer them. And a quicker process in getting in contact with us too (DMs) in more real time fashion. 
You are also able to use a search function in the discord, that allows you to search for keywords like "Kindlehart" or by username, if they mentioned something you wanted to look back on. 
I hope this helps a bit. I know it's a lot to take in. 

Pawain said:

We will get info like this. 



Also things will be on UO.com.

@ "Community Manager"  Will they stop the News feeds to stratics?

mis said:

Lokea said:

Anybody know if they are deleting the forum - do we need to archive the important information?

Personally, I thought about copying some of my posts to Discord, particularly the guides.

Those of you who have posts sharing knowledge about skills, tricks, and explanations on important topics would be ideal to copy to the corresponding sections on the Discord server, the skills sections or wherever appropriate.

The downside is that it will only be accessible to those who have Discord (and are not banned from accessing it), as there are players who cannot access Discord due to country bans.

You should post your guides on Discord.  There is no downside.

ForeverFun said:

A friend showed me the "General discussions" UO discord, seems extremely difficult to follow and organize?

This has been my experience with Discord too... I find it very hard to see "what's new" since the last time I was in a channel and even more difficulty following a discussion. I'm sure I'm using it wrong but separate threads like this for just this topic don't seem to be a thing in discord... it's just one long ass list of comments. 

@Community Manager  they get the news feed now. 

Maybe yall don't know that.

@keven2002 and all.  There are 2 gen chats.  3 if u count NL.

Ones last post is a picture of toons or something I put.  Don't use that one.

Someone needs to tach Popps how to use Google docs for his walks of text. You can put a goggle document there. 

Pawain said:

@ "Community Manager"  they get the news feed now. 

Maybe yall don't know that.

I know there are a lot of plugins out there to allow you to post news and stuff from various websites to your website/forum. So it would not surprise me. 🙂 

Here is the setup of discord.  The top general is the one used.

Its just a stream of talk, cant post images.  Can post images in other areas.

Some were using giant Gif size files all the time so no pics is better.

Sunsetting the official forum is a mistake.

A forum and Discord are two vastly different forms of communication with profoundly different consumers and purposes.

Perhaps more importantly, forums and Discord provide interaction, access to and recording of information, and searching of information, in substantially different manners. 

Losing the official forum will be a huge loss to the community.

--

I would suspect that Dark Age of Camelot and The Old Republic will both be keeping their forums?

As will Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, Diablo, Nexus Mods, Steam, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and pretty much every other modern company?

Normal businesses seem to add to their communication channels, not reduce them. Especially with a proven format that has been in use for decades and which the company has 100 percent control over.

Sunsetting the official forum is a mistake.

How much does a forum like this cost per year?

Switch kind of puzzles me... will lock many many players out. Also team don't forget that discord only records channels history so far, anything too old won't be able to be searched unless in permanent threads, at least it is so on all the other servers I am on, leading to a lot of frustration.

For example I could search for some information from a dev, and its been replied before so I get ignored, but the search is not able to find it anymore. This is especially a problem on channels that have a lot of action, as the old posts get deleted by discord faster.

And can I suggest posting the discord link in the post? Where do I find the link? ._.

nvm I have found the link in Fenneko's post. 

Arroth_Thaiel said:

Sunsetting the official forum is a mistake.

A forum and Discord are two vastly different forms of communication with profoundly different consumers and purposes.

Perhaps more importantly, forums and Discord provide interaction, access to and recording of information, and searching of information, in substantially different manners. 

Losing the official forum will be a huge loss to the community.

--

I would suspect that Dark Age of Camelot and The Old Republic will both be keeping their forums?

As will Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, Diablo, Nexus Mods, Steam, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and pretty much every other modern company?

Normal businesses seem to add to their communication channels, not reduce them. Especially with a proven format that has been in use for decades and which the company has 100 percent control over.

Sunsetting the official forum is a mistake.

100% in agreement. Cutting the official forums to save money reeks of desperation. Is the margin of profitability that thin? If so… that’s a bad omen for the game. Put ur heads together & come up with another viable alternative. Diminishing means of communication isolates community which is never good, proven time and time again.

Pawain said:

How much does a forum like this cost per year?

Pawain said:

sure meet me in . . .

I cant repeat what I did to see this, but here is the info today for the Discord.

 😂 

Will the Discord be set up so we do not end up having to see replies to posts that we are not interested in?

TimSt said:

Will the Discord be set up so we do not end up having to see replies to posts that we are not interested in?

General chat is a chat room.  The other areas are like a topic and replies.

Acid_Rain said:

100% in agreement. Cutting the official forums to save money reeks of desperation. Is the margin of profitability that thin? If so… that’s a bad omen for the game. Put ur heads together & come up with another viable alternative. Diminishing means of communication isolates community which is never good, proven time and time again.

mis said:

Acid_Rain said:

100% in agreement. Cutting the official forums to save money reeks of desperation. Is the margin of profitability that thin? If so… that’s a bad omen for the game. Put ur heads together & come up with another viable alternative. Diminishing means of communication isolates community which is never good, proven time and time again.

It has no bearing on that issue.

In the roadmap, the UO team comments that the software has reached end-of-life status and is no longer supported.

'Our current forum software has reached end-of-life status and is no longer supported. New forum software is necessary which would require extended downtime as we address feature implementation and critical security updates.'

Depending on how that text is interpreted, if the new software is installed, there will be a future forum in the future. 

But that is something that the UO team will have to clarify and announce when the time comes.

I'm not sure how else to interpret " we have made the tough decision to sunset the UO Forum. We expect this task to be complete by the end of February."  which is the line above what you quoted and the subject of this (your) OP. This means by the end of february they will sunset it as in, shut it down, make it read only, delete it etc. How they sunset it will be the "But that is something that the UO team will have to clarify and announce when the time comes." part.

I believe the Forum shutting down is a done deal, unless they are convinced to change their mind. About all we can do is start a gofundme to fund new hosting and software. I'll let others who know the costs of that chime in with a cost because i wouldn't trust AI to give me 100% accuracy on that figure. 

@Pawain

Mariah said:

I keep reading that there's information here that should be kept, but I haven't had a single email or dm telling me which information that is. 

I've been through the five on fridays and added a little to a couple of pages, and the reply this week on repairing I've made a complete page for under 'crafting', but what else is there?

When was the last time you looked back at an old post for information, and what information was it?

I believe everything we really need is in your WiKi, Stratics. UOGuide, UOCAH, Knuckleheads, our collective heads and so on. the only old posts i reference are the EC Macro ones and I assume you have those in the WiKi. They could delete all of this and we'd have the information we'd need or could get it with a quick post in discord saying "How do you do xxx again??" I will definitely mourn these forums, but the info here is in multiple other places already. my $.02

Mariah said:

ok, I don't have all the EC customizing information a few people have posted. Mostly because the later posts on each thread left me confused. If the authors of those posts will contact me I will add those to this area: https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/technical/enhanced-client-custom-user-interface/

I'm pretty good at figuring out what i want to accomplish, but there were a few basic ones that i rereference from time to time and you appear to have those. And Thank you for all that you (and @Rorschach) do. I know I cause trouble here and there, but you (and Cail) were the ones that gave me that nickname ;P 

Well Pawain and myself will need a section for our arguments then we'll need a popps poop area....

Grimbeard said:

Well Pawain and myself will need a section for our arguments then we'll need a popps poop area....

Well, at least on Discord you'll have the ability to block him.

I blocked the idiot that said all I do is complain.  It was a pleasant result.

@Mariah ; You have added everything I have asked for.  Personally, I used Stratics more for info because pics are difficult to post here.

Thanks and I'm sure you will keep doing a great job!

Pawain said:

@ Mariah  You have added everything I have asked for.  Personally, I used Stratics more for info because pics are difficult to post here.

Thanks and I'm sure you will keep doing a great job!

they are easy to post, but once you post a cut n paste pic, it says "that picture is already in the conversation" when you try to put a second one in the same thread, so you have to paste it in paint and save it, then add it. bit of a pain but workable.

Yes but do you see how many pictures one pet guide takes!!! I have temp files named all the types 1 - 9.  I write over what's there for a new thread.   I can save about 250k space on my PC without all those files.  😂

Pawain said:

Yes but do you see how many pictures one pet guide takes!!! I have temp files named all the types 1 - 9.  I write over what's there for a new thread.   I can save about 250k space on my PC without all those files.  😂

Come on, now you're sounding like a certain poster Bruh.

 😂 

Pawain said:

 😂 

255 to go.

My Orchid waterfalls will live forever on a backup of these forums!

I was a little involved with the proceedings that lead to this statement.  Also @Grimbeard @McDougle.  And he wasn't on. hehe

Matte — 12:27 PM

After reflection:  I may have wound up the perpetrator a little.

Pawain said:

After reflection:  I may have wound up the perpetrator a little.

Your attempt at getting to 12000 is weak pick it up slacker

Grimbeard said:

Pawain said:

After reflection:  I may have wound up the perpetrator a little.

Your attempt at getting to 12000 is weak pick it up slacker

🙁

Pawain said:

Grimbeard said:

Pawain said:

After reflection:  I may have wound up the perpetrator a little.

Your attempt at getting to 12000 is weak pick it up slacker

🙁

Mariah said:

I keep reading that there's information here that should be kept, but I haven't had a single email or dm telling me which information that is. 

I've been through the five on fridays and added a little to a couple of pages, and the reply this week on repairing I've made a complete page for under 'crafting', but what else is there?

When was the last time you looked back at an old post for information, and what information was it?

I typically search for skill development related posts and pet training.  Once per week maybe? Twice?  I don't track it I just use it.

Click on that Wilderness link and you will find tamer information including a detailed description of training a Juvenile Umbrascale written by @Pawain in October.

Mariah said:

Those channels are not in my channel list.  Shouldn't I be able to go to the Discord and see all of the channels without adding them?  

Mariah said:

Click on that Wilderness link and you will find tamer information including a detailed description of training a Juvenile Umbrascale written by @ Pawain in October.

I looked to see if I had hidden some channels, I did not.  In my skills list there is only "wilderness", none of the other as you have shown in your picture.  I only see wilderness because you had it linked before you edited out the three links and added the picture.

In Skills I only have template help ? Do I need to add them somehow? 

 Click on channels and roles at the top then Browse channels, then just add/remove whatever you want to.

God what a bunch of stubborn old tech impaired boomers 

Grimbeard said:

God what a bunch of stubborn old tech impaired boomers 

@Victim_Of_Siege Thank you.

sorry, as moderator there as well as here, I have to have all the channels. I tend to forget other people have just picked some of them.

Rocko said:

@ Victim_Of_Siege Thank you.

You're welcome, they ask you the questions at the beginning and your answers dictate what is put in the list. I have mine quite steamlined now lol.

Mariah said:

@ Pawain and @ Grimbeard If you two only knew how often I'd wished you were in arms reach so that I could bang your heads together!

*hug*

 😂 😂 😂  

I'm trying!

@Rocko ; Ill put guides there after stratics.  I am way behind because of NL pet, events, decorating.

You mention stratics, I've been trying to confirm my email address for years with no luck. 

Mordeed said:

You mention stratics, I've been trying to confirm my email address for years with no luck. 

Hmm. That is odd.  I signed up so long ago, they didn't do that.

Are you able to post anything as a visitor?  If so tag Merlin there and he can send the info to correct person. 

Pawain said:

Mordeed said:

You mention stratics, I've been trying to confirm my email address for years with no luck. 

Hmm. That is odd.  I signed up so long ago, they didn't do that.

Are you able to post anything as a visitor?  If so tag Merlin there and he can send the info to correct person. 

No, I can only view untill I have confirmed my email. 

I'll ask in the forum section and see what they say to do.  Tuesday.  I'm out of town.

Pawain said:

I'll ask in the forum section and see what they say to do.  Tuesday.  I'm out of town.

I got it https://community.stratics.com/threads/help-needed-to-access-forums.434860/ ; @Mordeed keep an eye on your inbox. I know a couple of the Stratics team are fairly active here

Pawain said:

I'm trying!

Very

I know my preference doesn't matter, but agree ending the forum is a mistake. When there are certain topics and they have many posts; it becomes a bit troublesome (at least for me) keeping track of the original topic. 

Again, I'm Discord handicap for sure so maybe it's just a me problem and these aren't issues but the forums to me are an actual website versus Discord is like our in game chat / journal... you sign into a channel to see what is being said but if you aren't paying attention you become lost and eventually the original topic has been lost in a wall of words. I've popped over to general chat in Discord a handful of times and I'm instantly lost. I also get an email from Discord saying XYZ tagged me but have no idea where because I think it's whenever someone tags "everyone". 

I can see why the Devs are in favor of making the switch though; it seems like it's easier to squelch/block people on Discord which largely seems like a positive but I also think it makes it easier to ignore people (on topics they just don't like rather than inappropriate topics). Here on the forums it's very easy to pop open a thread labeled "XYZ Bug" and see if it's been acknowledged and how long it's been unresolved... if I was a Dev I know I wouldn't want that sitting around. Much easier to sweep it under the rug and hope whoever brought it up forgets about it.

keven2002 said:

I know my preference doesn't matter, but agree ending the forum is a mistake. When there are certain topics and they have many posts; it becomes a bit troublesome (at least for me) keeping track of the original topic. 

Again, I'm Discord handicap for sure so maybe it's just a me problem and these aren't issues but the forums to me are an actual website versus Discord is like our in game chat / journal... you sign into a channel to see what is being said but if you aren't paying attention you become lost and eventually the original topic has been lost in a wall of words. I've popped over to general chat in Discord a handful of times and I'm instantly lost. I also get an email from Discord saying XYZ tagged me but have no idea where because I think it's whenever someone tags "everyone". 

I can see why the Devs are in favor of making the switch though; it seems like it's easier to squelch/block people on Discord which largely seems like a positive but I also think it makes it easier to ignore people (on topics they just don't like rather than inappropriate topics). Here on the forums it's very easy to pop open a thread labeled "XYZ Bug" and see if it's been acknowledged and how long it's been unresolved... if I was a Dev I know I wouldn't want that sitting around. Much easier to sweep it under the rug and hope whoever brought it up forgets about it.

It's not just a you problem, Discord is good for what it's intended purpose is, voice, Video and text chatting. It's lack the organization we are accustomed to with forums, hence my earlier statement in a post that said "I use Discord for discord things and Forums for Forum things" i'm not a tech geezer, nor do I refuse to learn it because i have used it for years, I just prefer the forum model for my communication on topics for asking questions and getting answers. 

Mariah said:

Pawain said:

I'm trying!

Very

You forget sexy after very.

@keven2002. Yes!  They are not the same.

I read everything here and Stratics.  I don't there.

And to your point of anyone can join.

OMG They have have some really bad ideas they want for UO.  There's 20 popps there.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

keven2002 said:

I know my preference doesn't matter, but agree ending the forum is a mistake. When there are certain topics and they have many posts; it becomes a bit troublesome (at least for me) keeping track of the original topic. 

Again, I'm Discord handicap for sure so maybe it's just a me problem and these aren't issues but the forums to me are an actual website versus Discord is like our in game chat / journal... you sign into a channel to see what is being said but if you aren't paying attention you become lost and eventually the original topic has been lost in a wall of words. I've popped over to general chat in Discord a handful of times and I'm instantly lost. I also get an email from Discord saying XYZ tagged me but have no idea where because I think it's whenever someone tags "everyone". 

I can see why the Devs are in favor of making the switch though; it seems like it's easier to squelch/block people on Discord which largely seems like a positive but I also think it makes it easier to ignore people (on topics they just don't like rather than inappropriate topics). Here on the forums it's very easy to pop open a thread labeled "XYZ Bug" and see if it's been acknowledged and how long it's been unresolved... if I was a Dev I know I wouldn't want that sitting around. Much easier to sweep it under the rug and hope whoever brought it up forgets about it.

It's not just a you problem, Discord is good for what it's intended purpose is, voice, Video and text chatting. It's lack the organization we are accustomed to with forums, hence my earlier statement in a post that said "I use Discord for discord things and Forums for Forum things" i'm not a tech geezer, nor do I refuse to learn it because i have used it for years, I just prefer the forum model for my communication on topics for asking questions and getting answers. 

Good answer. Good answer.  No whammies!