The Future of EFK and MFX - ALL READ.

[Duckman]

Well folks, it's with a heavy heart that I write this message.  As you know, we (Ian and I, along with Triple B and Judge) created EFK back in 2008 for a couple of reasons.  The first was to have a place to promote the EFK podcast.  The second was due to a stupid falling out with Roughkut (actually caused by little old me) which lead to us leaving there and forming our own community.

EFK was formed to give people who listened to our show the chance to interact with it and become part of a larger community of likeminded people.  It was also created with the proviso of "no drama, no bullshit, no mods." 

We wanted people to come here, without having to worry about trolls or just the general weirdness that some people exhibit online.  If you were a known troublemaker, or caused trouble, the ban hammer was brought down pretty quickly.  Some people found this unfair and called us elitist.  We just wanted to get away from certain personalities and behaviours that ruin the game for everyone.

Over the last 5-6 years EFK has gone from strength to strength and proved our policy was correct.  We've built a community here that has no drama and no bullshit.  There's barely ever any problems and the people who have become important parts of EFK (be they forum leaders or not) have worked tirelessly to help us grow EFK and succeed. 

We've achieved everything we wanted to with EFK, but now times are changing and we once again find ourselves at a cross roads and needing to make a change.

There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to cut to the chase: we've made the decision that we're going to close EFK by the end of the year.  Don't worry; this is not the end of the community or the forums (at least some of them).

I'm going to try and explain what's going on and hopefully you guys will understand.  It's a decision that's been taken for a variety of reasons, which I'll explain now:

1.    Financial.  For at least the last 3-4 years I've been funding EFK myself.  The hosting costs are around $220 per year.  While people help out occasionally with donations when asked, the main cost of hosting EFK has fallen on me.  While I could happily absorb that cost when I was efedding, now that I'm not, I'm not willing to keep spending this money on EFK anymore.

2.   None of us play the game anymore.  Most of the guys who have been here for a long time are in the same boat.  No one who runs EFK is involved in efedding.  I don't think Judge has done it since 2008!  None of us have any interest in the game or continuing to provide a site which relates to efedding.  We've moved on and while EFK is important to us, the ewrestling aspect just isn't anymore.

3.   We're moving on with MFX.  This site was originally made to support the EFK podcast.  Ian and I have since moved on and produced over 100 episodes of MFX.  We've been able to grow a solid audience over the last couple of years.  We now want to move that forward and that means moving on from wrestling and making the show a more general show, with more emphasis on sports, movies, news stories and general nonsense from Ian and I.

Those are the three main reasons why we've come to this decision.  There are a few other issues, but they aren't as important as those I've listed. 

So what does this mean for you guys who post here?  Well, we're hoping you will understand why we've made this decision and we're hoping that you will support us in this new venture with MFX.

While we're done with ewrestling and are looking to move on from it, that doesn't mean we want to lose you guys or some of the great things that EFK has.  Our plan is to set up a smaller set of forums, on the revamped MFX website; along with a chat room and a few other features.

Anyone who posts here is more than welcome to join the new forums.  You don't have to listen to MFX (although the goal is to get more people listening) to be a part of the new forums.  We'll still have some of the boards, with Random Topics, Wrestling, Sports and some of the more popular games (mafia, FBL) now being part of the MFX site.  We might even bring in some new ones.  The rest of the forums, in particular the ewrestling stuff, will be closed and we'll move on from it.

Yes that means we lose a lot of history etc, but that isn't really a concern for us.  We're looking for a clean break from EFK/ewrestling.  We want to start something new with MFX.

This might seem like a strange decision, but you've got to understand that EFK in its current form isn't sustainable and there isn't the will from anyone running the site to keep it going.  We want to leave behind the niche interests of ewrestling/wrestling.  We also want to keep some of the other aspects of EFK that have proved popular and may be beneficial to MFX.  That's why we're making this move.

I understand some people may be annoyed by this decision, or upset.  All I will say is it's not a decision we've taken easily and it's not one we expect everyone to understand.  However, as the people who created EFK, we feel this is the right move to take things forward and help us grow MFX – which is going to be the main driving force behind everything we do from now on.

At the moment we don't have a time table for this, as I'm still awaiting people replying to me on the redesign of MFX's site.  However this is something that we want to be resolved before the end of the year.

So that's where we stand.  The doors will be closing on EFK soon, but everyone who posts here is more than welcome to join us at the new MFX site.  We've rested on our laurels for a while now and that's something Ian and I don't particular like doing.  We've taken EFK as far as it will go and now it's time to see what we can do with MFX.

I hope everyone can understand where we are coming from on this.  I don't expect everyone to be happy about it, but I hope it won't cause too many freak outs or tantrums.  We've been good at avoiding them for a while now!

Anyone who wants to comment on this is free to do so, but it's worth keeping in mind that the decision has been made and we're very unlikely to change it.

I just wanted to give you all the proper respect by explaining what's going on and why.  I'll have more updates shortly and if you want to discuss anything privately, please drop me a PM.

Thanks,
Sam

[J-Reb]

It makes sense.  I don't come here for anything e-fedding related but for the community of folks that I've come to know over the last 3-4 years.  I'll go where the community goes.

Also, hats off to you guys for putting so much hard work here. 

[Jon]

It makes sense.  I don't come here for anything e-fedding related but for the community of folks that I've come to know over the last 3-4 years.  I'll go where the community goes.

Also, hats off to you guys for putting so much hard work here.

This in a nutshell.

[GM Franchise]

It makes sense.  I don't come here for anything e-fedding related but for the community of folks that I've come to know over the last 3-4 years.  I'll go where the community goes.

Also, hats off to you guys for putting so much hard work here.

[T-Bonizzle]

I guess there goes my idea for the best e-fed ever conceived....

[Dorling]

It's all good with me man.

As long as this community has a home to go to, that's the main thing. I would love to help out more with stuff but I just can't these days. Please try not to close the boards and not leave me a forwarding address while I'm away on a ship!

MFX is the way forward for you guys and we will all go with you, even if some of us spend too much time learning about fog signals and isolated danger buoys to be able to listen to the show.

[Doug E Fresh]

Wherever you go we will surely follow.

[Tezmission Black]

I did not expect to see this when I woke up this morning. While I'm shocked you guys know I have always supported everything ya'll have done, and I can understand where you are coming from with the decision.

I'll make an account on the new site like I did here. Honestly with a few exceptions the Efed section has really fallen by the wayside the last year and only a few people actually using it from time to time, so I can see where you guys are coming from.

[Cory]

Agree with the decision, and will too follow.

Are you going to transfer the posts and stuff to the new boards, or like carry over these boards and just removed the E-fed stuff?

[T-Bonizzle]

What about the images and the like that are hosted by EFK/TFWF? Like userbars I think is the prime example of that.

[Duckman]

At the moment we're still discussing that.  The two choices we've got is new forums, new accounts, images, userbars etc or transfer over that stuff.

One of the issues is leaving behind the stigma that ewrestling has.  We're looking to move out of the shadows and leaving behind ewrestling links etc is something we want/need to do.

Once Ian's got his house moved sorted, we'll be able to have a proper discussion and get this sorted out.

Personally, I'd like to keep the history of the boards we keep, but prune out all the ewrestling references, so that new people who sign up aren't put off by it being forums that relate to ewrestling.

We'll get these details sorted in the next few weeks and keep you guys in the loop.

Cheers,
Duckman

[T-Bonizzle]

Replace the e-wrestling discussion with MFX discussion. BOOM I just blew your minds.

[Sgt. Josh Underpants]

Haven't been in the e wrestling portion in years now. Always been here for the community and will continue to stay no matter where we go

[Rob]

Honestly I've wondered for a while why we're still EFK here and not MFK. I love everything this site has been for me and the memories we've had on here but it's time to move into a lovely shiny new place. I don't particularly mind where we go as long as we've got somewhere.

Thanks for all the hard work admins and of course thanks to the rest of the community for making EFK the biggest place on the Internet for a dying hobby.

[Adam Wrong]

As a now non fedder I'm in full support of this and will support anything that goes ahead. With the prediction Game, I have all the details of the game and can work the game from wherever. I think it's for the best