Today, I announce the closure of the RangerCrew forums – a Power Rangers message board founded in 2007 for fans of all ages. The closure will be effective October 1.
For many years, it has been my pleasure to host such a dedicated community of enthusiastic fans, who all shared one common trait: their passion for teenagers with attitude. Ultimately though, change is both constant and inevitable, and eventually, we must all move on.
This decision was made solely as a result of traditional message board forums having fallen by the wayside, as technology continues to evolve, and consumer habits continue to shift in favor of commodities that are either more capable, or more convenient.
RangerCrew was never one of those websites that could tout having 50,000 members (49,500 of which are inactive, 48,000 of which haven’t signed on in ages, and 40,000 of which have never posted), but for many it was still a place to call home. It is these fans that I both apologize to and thank for their contributions, but I encourage them to join us on social media.
Social media has become the ultimate communication and fan engagement platform that has uprooted traditional message board forums. For proof, imagine a website that promotes having 50,000 members, but struggles to crack 50 votes on an episode poll.
Traditional message board forums have become displaced partially because some are not friendly to new members, and not inviting when the “discussion” is simply troves of redundant arguing from the same people. However, the primary culprit behind the downfall of forums is the inability to be mobile friendly in a world that’s always on the go, and the inability to provide people the breaking news and fast-paced reaction that today’s generation intensely covets. Poor leadership that opts to further limit what people can talk about through excessive controlling/blacklisting also plays a part.
Simply put, a forum offers minimal value when someone can find live reaction from millions of people around the world instantly on social media, with hashtags and search engine abilities built in by companies that make communities even easier to tap into.
With this in mind, can you believe that some people spend all their energy on a discussion platform (social media), telling people to go discuss somewhere else (forums)?
Still, there will always be a select few who choose to turn to forums, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The RangerCrew name will live on as part of a new message board that Time CD (@MrChangeDragon on Twitter), Sir Silver (@MrSilverRC), CES715 (@ces715), and Mr. Blue have decided to open. The new board will be operated 100% by them as they take complete ownership of the RangerCrew name, and I wish nothing but the best for them in their new endeavor. Fans can sign up for their new website here at RangerCrew dot Boards dot Net.
Power Rangers NOW will remain unchanged with the same Power Rangers content you’ve come to know – on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and PowerRangersNOW.com.
RangerCrew enjoyed a tremendous 10 year run, exceeding expectations anyone envisioned for it in 2007, and for that, I can’t thank every member who actively contributed enough. Along the way, RangerCrew was fortunate to host various cast/crew members, who took the time to join the forum and engage with fans. A special shout out to those people:
- Robert Axelrod (Lord Zedd, Mighty Morphin)
- Selwyn Ward (Blue Ranger, In Space)
- Rhett Fisher (Titanium Ranger, Lightspeed Rescue)
- Michael Copon (Blue Ranger, Time Force)
- Jessica Rey (White Ranger, Wild Force)
- Jason Chan (Green Ranger, Ninja Storm)
- Rhoda Montemayor (Pink Ranger, Operation Overdrive)
- David Weatherley (Spencer, Operation Overdrive)
- Gerald Urquhart (Flurious, Operation Overdrive)
- Jason Smith (Red Ranger, Jungle Fury)
- Anna Hutchison (Yellow Ranger, Jungle Fury)
- David De Lautour (Purple Ranger, Jungle Fury)
- Bede Skinner (Dai Shi, Jungle Fury)
- Ari Boyland (Blue Ranger, RPM)
- Milo Cawthorne (Green Ranger, RPM)
- Mike Ginn (Gold Ranger, RPM)
- Davi Santos (Gold Ranger, Dino Charge)
- Scott Page-Pagter (Producer)
- Judd Lynn (Executive Producer)
- Ron Wasserman (Song Producer)
- John Tellegen (Writer)
- Eddie Guzelian (Executive Producer)
RangerCrew was never perfect, but to those who called it home, it was still special. I will forever be grateful to the RangerCrew community for helping foster such a morphenomenal gathering of fans for so many years.
Change is constant, and I look forward to connecting with you all on other platforms soon.
-Mike
I can’t even get on the site anymore since google is claiming it’s been hacked, and the guy who runs the Facebook page never replies. I just want to view the site one more time before it goes away. Does anyone know what I can do?
It works for me on internet explorer
It will log me in to the new forum, it keeps saying the page is not found!
No way……..RangerCrew was a lot more active than some of the online tokusatsu forums out there currently (HJU, Toku Network’s forum before it closed down, TokuNation, etc.).
It is sad to see it go, there was a lot of good content and discussions that I seen in this forum…..it’ll be dearly missed.
While this is sad, I’m not surprised. All forums are dead and anyone who says otherwise doesnt know the meaning of “active”. I think we are all sad to see them die but like you said technology has changed.
Damnn yall just ethered Rangerboard into another abyss lmaaoooo!
This is sad news for Rangercrew.
So sad to see RC close down… But as they say ~ All good things must come to an end. Will always cherish the childhood memories of interacting with virtual friends that were so nice and helpful!
What’s the connection between Rangercrew and Power Rangers Now?
I think there is still a need for message boards. Social Media isn’t the best place for long discussions. And they are a chore to slrt threw.
But congrats to Rangercrew for a good ten years. Its hard to stick around for that long. Good luck to the new forum. .
As soon as I read this I signed up to the new forums. There, I changed my username.
“Traditional message board forums have become displaced partially because some are not friendly to new members, and not inviting when the “discussion” is simply troves of redundant arguing from the same people. However, the primary culprit behind the downfall of forums is the inability to be mobile friendly in a world that’s always on the go, and the inability to provide people the breaking news and fast-paced reaction that today’s generation intensely covets. Poor leadership that opts to further limit what people can talk about through excessive controlling/blacklisting also plays a part.
Simply put, a forum offers minimal value when someone can find live reaction from millions of people around the world instantly on social media, with hashtags and search engine abilities built in by companies that make communities even easier to tap into.”
That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve read in a long while. Social media will NEVER be a proper replacement for forums, for a million of obvious reasons.