I suggest that I add a pinned thread for Fallen London patch notes, and I'll cross-post them when I can. That might sometimes be a while after they go up on Discord, depending on what else I have going that day. If you notice there are patch notes which haven't been shared here, it'd be a great help if you'd post them. How does that sound?

I'm sorry but I don't understand. You feel we need a better forum, so until then the old one is more or less abandoned even though the player base uses it?

Oh, is that why the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/fallenlondon /) has not been updated since ... march?

the old man wrote:

I would suggest you rage rage rage against the dying of the light

That seems to be the theme of the entire topic.

• Communication that is meant to be openly available should be posted on a venue that is openly available. Something like patch notes should not be restricted to a platform like Discord, which requires another sign-up, and I think maybe an app install as well. It's ok for some discussion to be gated or not widely broadcast, but announcements like seasonal events, upcoming content changes, and patch notes really need to be at least as available as the game itself. (I can't comment on Discord itself because I haven't used it.)
• I would like more clarity from FBG on what are the "preferred" communication channels. There used to be a lot of direct engagement on the Forums, then for a while it felt like there wasn't. I understand that some changes in direction were probably reactionary or organic, and thinking about the forest from the trees is harder when the comms person is out (<3 Hannah, hope the injury is getting better). While I would not like to see an official announcement "The forums are dead, long live Discord!" having that be actually announced would be better than just seeing forum involvement taper off and wondering where the party is.
• I think it would be better to have fewer official channels rather than more. I feel like the community is currently being fractured between different platforms (forums, reddit, discord), and some of those sub-communities are not large enough to sustain themselves. It also just naturally means that discussions won't have as many participants as they could. (Obviously there's nothing FBG could or should to to prevent unofficial platforms, which reddit might be one.)
• All else being equal, I think that FBG would be doing a better service to its players to use its own platforms (Blog for announcements, forums for discussion) rather than relying on third-party platforms (reddit, discord, twitter, facebook). A third-party platform means that as a player, I have to have a relationship with some other company in order to have a relationship with FBG. I don't always want to do that, and I hear a lot of other players saying they don't want to do that either. It also puts both FBG and players at the mercy of that platforms content and moderation policies, which can also have downsides. (I understand that it is not always equal. E.g. spam goes up on the forums outside of FBG's working hours, and no one's around to deal with it. Managing your own platform is a headache. I'm just trying to tell you, as a player, what the impacts are to me.)

On a related note, we got a teaser on the discord of the upcoming merchandise: Fallen London playing cards, featuring the Topsy King as the King of Bats!

5. We also desire a place for the community to, well, be a community, a place for serious discussions or even serious roleplay, where we can pound out thousand-word contemplations at need, where we can go back and see exactly who said what about which mayoral candidate three years ago. Fallen London, particularly, attracts thinkers and speculators, people who want something more than disposable communication. The game itself is, in a sense, at odds with the Age of Snapchat. Discord... is not.

We open a thread here called "Recently Shared on Discord" or something like that where those fine gentlepersons among you who follow the full gamut of FL-related communication channels (Forum, Reddit, Discord, Twitter, maybe even IRC if that still exists) keep us updated on things we would otherwise miss.
What do you think?

Plus I doubt the organized, easily-available-for-years convos here can be replicated anywhere. I am using guides and playing old ES according to help given in the forums.

Discord is a mess, and now apparently official content can't even be accessed at all without having to sign up - which, like others, I refuse to do for multiple reasons.

• All else being equal, I think that FBG would be doing a better service to its players to use its own platforms (Blog for announcements, forums for discussion) rather than relying on third-party platforms (reddit, discord, twitter, facebook). A third-party platform means that as a player, I have to have a relationship with some other company in order to have a relationship with FBG. I don't always want to do that, and I hear a lot of other players saying they don't want to do that either. It also puts both FBG and players at the mercy of that platforms content and moderation policies, which can also have downsides. (I understand that it is not always equal. E.g. spam goes up on the forums outside of FBG's working hours, and no one's around to deal with it. Managing your own platform is a headache. I'm just trying to tell you, as a player, what the impacts are to me.)