Happy birthday, Metrocop!

That’s right, your trusty old Metrocop.net turns 11 today. Eleven! I know kids that age that are already hitting puberty! What is time even?

Exactly one year ago today, I relaunched Metrocop after four years of inactivity, with a bunch of old comics in tow and a steady release of new articles that took about six months to dry up (sorry again!). In the meantime, what was very much a dead community sprang back to life on our Discord server, and while I unfortunately haven’t managed to keep the pace I originally envisioned, our community members kept things rolling there with a plethora of new content and an always sunny and friendly disposition.

However, there was one thing that kept cropping up over the past year, a growing restlessness, a nagging feeling, a fault in our little paradise: where’s the forums?

You see, forums were a staple of the old Metrocop—and very much the Garry’s Mod comic making communities, really—, but Metrocop relaunched without them. At the time of relaunch, I explained it thusly:

Metrocop used to have forums, but we’re not relaunching with forums—not that I think they’re obsolete (in fact, quite the opposite, I love forums!), but going back to those isn’t in the cards right now, although plans can change (although, given the development efforts required, they probably won’t change anytime soon).

Instead, Discord was meant to carry the brunt of bringing back the community, which it has accomplished, but not without a few caveats. If you’ve tried reading a comic on Discord, you’ll know it’s a hassle, and even more so trying to find comics to read on there (although our very own administrator, Eastman, has found a wonderful solution to that problem). Plus, there’s something to be said for asynchronous communication that doesn’t require you to be constantly online, not to mention an open platform where even guests can read all the comics they want at their leisure.

As such, it’ll come as a huge surprise to those of you who clicked the link without reading the title that, yes, for the site’s anniversary, the Metrocop forums are back!

Much like the website itself, the new forums aren’t so much a continuation of the old ones, but rather a full-blown reboot. Whereas the old forums were built on the creaky old free Zetaboards platform (RIP), the new are a self-hosted instance of Discourse, the top-of-the-line open source forums software. It doesn’t get any better than this!

It’s worth noting, though, that we are very much launching these as an open beta of sorts. The software comes pretty well packed out of the box and there have been a few customizations already, but the new forums are a work in progress and are likely to grow and change in the future.

But enough of my yappering! Go ahead and click the link or the image below to visit the new Metrocop forums. Make sure to create an account and be one of the first to join the new home of our growing community!

Click here to be redirected to the new Metrocop forums.

If you’re still here and wondering what else is coming, the folks over on the Discord channel (which isn’t going anywhere, it’s just being complemented by the long-awaited message boards) are also getting another big surprise today, and the Metrocop team has more in store for the foreseeable future. But just join the forums and you’ll find out in time. See you there!