Gather ‘round, lovelies. Let me preface this by saying a few things: First off, generalizations will be made. That’s how this works and I think that many of you are capable of putting two and two together. Regarding the idea of groups and the small communities within, I understand that real people are involved. Relationships are forged and lives are changed. I’ve been going here since I was a child. I credit my getting through some very dark times in my life to this site. I understand how strong these bonds are and I’ve maintained friendships originally forged through groups on this site. Some groups dissolved before the darkness or .next, but those relationships remain. Here’s the thing: many groups are created to be some sort of “refuge from the public forums” during the later years of Bungie.old. People wanted that because the public forums had ridiculous amounts of rules and many people who didn’t heed them anyway. It was quite a bit chaotic. Yes, they had character and they had an identity (see: Flood), but people still wanted that controlled environment. Groups provided that. And sometimes the outlined purpose would be a bit more specific: forge discussion, sci-fi, etc. But the point was to control the discussion area for whatever the group founder wanted. And for Bungie.old, that was fine. But it also pointed out some severe issues with Bungie.old that would not be acceptable for Bungie.next. So now, that controlled environment or “safe haven” is now available in the public forums and groups are redesigned to serve a new purpose, although that detail is still in the making. Granted, it’s difficult to figure out how to utilize groups for their new purpose without having the product they’re designed to accompany (Destiny) available. Remember, this whole place is under construction. Objectively, this explains why many groups are gone. The group system and public forums are no longer compatible with the ideas of bungie.old groups. There are other factors for people leaving, the main one being not wanting to deal with the new site/holding out for improvements (each to his own). But there are some very specific groups that even before the darkness evolved outside the confines of serving the purpose of fixing what people didn’t like about the public forums. So, let’s take slightly different direction from my original reply for this one. Let’s not go with leaving Bungie.net completely, but a group evolving in to a community that is no longer dependent on the design state of Bungie.net to exist. Groups that survived managed to do this. Groups that remained dependent on Bungie.old to exist died. They could not, in theory, serve their purpose any longer. Keep in mind that this encompasses several types of groups that were meant for discussion that was difficult to have on the old public forums, but are now possible. The purpose of many groups became irrelevant with Bungie.next, but the relationships and people remained. And I honestly think that if a different website was enough to drive a group apart in such a dramatic manner, I would question the stability of that little community. Maybe it had its glory days at one point, but, as I’ve stated previously, maybe it wasn’t meant to stick around and remain relevant in the face of a public forum that now has massive amounts of potential for being the haven that members once sought in private groups on the old site. I’m not going to argue that this is the best situation for the Bungie community as a whole. If more groups had survived, it would have meant that maybe they could have grown to accompany the Destiny community wonderfully. And I feel that the groups who did survive have great potential to do so. Granted, the vast majority of groups that have survived aren’t buzzing with the activity they were once used to. This is likely due to the mass confusion and general slower traffic the site is seeing. Additionally, these groups need evaluate where they want to go in the long run, especially in the face of the new faces and community culture that Destiny will bring in. I feel that there are things that desperately need improvement in these new systems, and many groups can feel a bit lost using a system that’s meant for a product that we don’t understand yet. That is going to put us all in a situation where everybody is going to lose. And remember, groups have come and gone long before Bungie.next and it hurts to see these little communities disassemble as a casualty of time and change in Bungie.net format & culture. This situation was on a much greater and drastic scale, and it’s jarring for many of us. Now here’s the meaner part: I work as a director for an offsite organization that relies on the presence of a stable community to keep sponsors around. In order to entice new people and keep current members, my organization needs to offer a unique and relevant incentive for people to join. Originally, the organization was to be an online refuge for players to form bonds in a safe environment safe from rampant sexual harassment online. But as more organizations started to pop up and the online atmosphere began to improve, we realized that we wanted to remain as a relevant community. So we evolved our purpose. We started programs to teach people how to work at industry events like PAX or MLG. We’re still around today. The point is we had to evolve our purpose in the face of a changing platform and culture in order to stick around. I feel that the things that we went through rings true for groups here. Many groups had a great thing going, but were objectively no longer necessary with the advent of a customizable public forum. I understand the OP’s sense of loss and expressed grief. I grew up here and I’ve seen groups of people leave altogether that really stung. As a community, we need to drop our continual refusal to accept this kind of change. Better yet, we need to articulate what we need to improve upon a system that needed to change for this new game. It’s not going back to what it was like on the old site. But if we communicate beyond a dialogue of nostalgia and pleas to revert things back, we can revive the sense of belonging that works with a new platform that was needed. I stand by what I previously said, but perhaps now that I’m not sleep deprived, my point will be clearer.