Hi, everyone, and welcome to the CoS Forums Students (unofficial) LiveJournal account! I decided to set up this off-site 'social group' as a sort of refugee page for CoS members, with the forums closing on Jan. 31, 2014. I don't intend this community to be used much as a discussion group or replacement for the forums, but rather a place for everyone to keep in contact with members from CoS. There are many users with whom I've become friends during my 8.5 years on the forums, and there are many more of you whom I know just from posts and casual interactions. I think it's a shame to let those informal connections die, so I would love if we can keep some level of membership alive here on this community.

I feel that a LiveJournal community is the best way to accomplish this sort of 'social network,' since it doesn't require such a personal commitment like Facebook, etc. If anyone has suggestions for a better method of keeping in touch, feel free. Again, this is designed to keep friendships and acquaintances alive, rather than letting them die with the closing of the forums. This community can allow everyone to get to know each other better on perhaps more personal levels - to the extent you feel comfortable.

I hope we can find a use for this sort of community. I've cherished my 8.5 years of interaction with so many of you, and I look forward to continuing those relationships for a long time to come. I know I'm not the best member to be coordinating such an effort, of course (looking back, I'm amazed at how impersonal I've been!), but I hope some of you can help with the effort of bringing members back to this group.

Cheers,
MrSleepyHead (Nick)

With the forums re-opening anticlimactic, things seem to be back to normal on CoS - more or less. JKR's revelation about Ron/Hermione definitely stirred the pot, but even that charge for debate does not seem to have held. Activity on CoS has declined since the passionate interest about the closing/re-opening, and I can't help but wonder if this is slow death will be the fate of CoS. I often see a couple of handfuls of users online, but public activity is sparse. Perhaps the decline corresponds with the resurgence of school/work after holiday breaks, but things have 'gone back to normal' since the re-opening, meaning that CoS is open but gasping for breath. Have people moved on entirely, or are we just witnessing the 'same old' CoS as before the closing was announced?

It looks like CoS's 'closing' has been averted - for good or for bad: Morgoth's latest announcement mentions delaying the reopening another 24 hours.

I'm skeptical of how this will work. As many pointed out when the closing was first announced, the activity of the forums had been dwindling gradually for over a year (looking at posts in The Stone, for instance, at least the 10th-most recently posted-in threads had a newest post over a year old). Perhaps the increased activity caused by the day of the closing may have breathed new life into the idea of CoS's survival, but I'm skeptical. I think so many of the members stopped by to say "Good-bye" to a long chapter in their lives/online experience, but most of us had come to terms with leaving CoS. Now, it seems like a new chapter in CoS will open, though it seems unlikely that it can come close to what it was. I'll wait to see how it has been changed, but already it seems like many of the staff won't be returning, and that - to me - emphasizes how different the community will be.