As someone just said to me an hour ago... Imagine the situation OUR community would be in today had we not obtained our independence three years ago...
It's heartbreaking, and hopefully the forum content isn't lost forever.
If any of you are active in the FlightSim community, please extend the invite to other friends to feel free and come over here. (I've since been told that many of the members have already moved over to sim-outhouse.org)
https://www.trainsim.com/flightsim
I won't commit to a file library just yet unless there would be member support from that community, but I've already created a FlightSim forum for folks to use if they wish.
Hello,
When we first shared our plans earlier this year, we said the site would continue to function "as-is" through December 2025 while we planned for its future. That phase is slowly coming to a close.
Over the past months, our focus has been on stability and security. We made sure the core platform was up to date, user data was protected, and a touch of naming consistency was brought across forum categories. Nothing flashy, just small progress to keep things running smoothly and safely.
We've also been monitoring the community and all the input. As long-time members ourselves, we realize how important it is to build something people will be proud to call their home base for flight simulation on the web.
Now that December approaches, it's time to prepare for what's next. On January 1, FlightSim.com will go offline for an unknown period as we begin the next phase of its evolution. This process will likely take months. The domain will be online, and a landing page will display our "under re-construction" status.
When it returns, things will look different. Expect a new look, refreshed layout, new colors, and more. There may even be a completely new platform, but our priority remains the same: continuity of your account and experience. Your credentials should still work, and your posts, discussions, and contributions will carry forward.
Change can feel disruptive, but it's also a sign of growth. Our mission is to ensure that FlightSim.com remains a welcoming home for all simmers, across every platform, past and present.
As promised, no forum content will be lost. Some abandoned dark corners will be archived for better organization, but the forums will remain the heart of the community, just as they've always been.
On the file library front, our position remains unchanged, we have no plans to host a living file library. Just recently, we had to decline a questionable executable uploaded by a new member with no description, a reminder of the risks involved. We don't have the resources to monitor that kind of activity safely, and we don't want to be part of compromising our users.
The file library will remain online in an archival-only state; this means archival downloads only, with no new uploads. Our goal is preservation, not expansion. We're still working through some red tape regarding long-term off-site hosting, but we're committed to keeping this historical archive accessible for as long as possible. If you have files you do not want in the archive, please delete them ASAP.
We'll take the time required to rebuild FlightSim.com into something we're proud of. When that day arrives, every member will receive an email invitation to return. Please ensure your email address is up to date to receive the invitation. We understand some won't come back, some may even return only to reject the change. But that's ok, others will discover us for the first time, and that's how growth happens. Communities evolve, and so must we.
The good news is that the numbers show the SEO changes we made and the minor cleanup are already putting us on the right track. Activity is up across all newer sim categories where it was stagnant before, and verified registrations continue to grow.
Thank you to everyone who's trusted us through this transition. There's still work ahead, but when we're back, we're confident you'll see it was worth it.
The FlightSim.com Team
When we first shared our plans earlier this year, we said the site would continue to function "as-is" through December 2025 while we planned for its future. That phase is slowly coming to a close.
Over the past months, our focus has been on stability and security. We made sure the core platform was up to date, user data was protected, and a touch of naming consistency was brought across forum categories. Nothing flashy, just small progress to keep things running smoothly and safely.
We've also been monitoring the community and all the input. As long-time members ourselves, we realize how important it is to build something people will be proud to call their home base for flight simulation on the web.
Now that December approaches, it's time to prepare for what's next. On January 1, FlightSim.com will go offline for an unknown period as we begin the next phase of its evolution. This process will likely take months. The domain will be online, and a landing page will display our "under re-construction" status.
When it returns, things will look different. Expect a new look, refreshed layout, new colors, and more. There may even be a completely new platform, but our priority remains the same: continuity of your account and experience. Your credentials should still work, and your posts, discussions, and contributions will carry forward.
Change can feel disruptive, but it's also a sign of growth. Our mission is to ensure that FlightSim.com remains a welcoming home for all simmers, across every platform, past and present.
As promised, no forum content will be lost. Some abandoned dark corners will be archived for better organization, but the forums will remain the heart of the community, just as they've always been.
On the file library front, our position remains unchanged, we have no plans to host a living file library. Just recently, we had to decline a questionable executable uploaded by a new member with no description, a reminder of the risks involved. We don't have the resources to monitor that kind of activity safely, and we don't want to be part of compromising our users.
The file library will remain online in an archival-only state; this means archival downloads only, with no new uploads. Our goal is preservation, not expansion. We're still working through some red tape regarding long-term off-site hosting, but we're committed to keeping this historical archive accessible for as long as possible. If you have files you do not want in the archive, please delete them ASAP.
We'll take the time required to rebuild FlightSim.com into something we're proud of. When that day arrives, every member will receive an email invitation to return. Please ensure your email address is up to date to receive the invitation. We understand some won't come back, some may even return only to reject the change. But that's ok, others will discover us for the first time, and that's how growth happens. Communities evolve, and so must we.
The good news is that the numbers show the SEO changes we made and the minor cleanup are already putting us on the right track. Activity is up across all newer sim categories where it was stagnant before, and verified registrations continue to grow.
Thank you to everyone who's trusted us through this transition. There's still work ahead, but when we're back, we're confident you'll see it was worth it.
The FlightSim.com Team
I have to agree that Eric has done an outstanding job with TrainSim.Com since taking over. Just keeping the site alive would have been a worthy accomplishment but he's done that and more, making the site significantly improved.
My how the tables have turned.
Randy
However speaking personally, although I got into digital gaming starting with the Amiga 600 back in 1993 primarily to play flight sims, my interests have waned over the years since the heady days of a new mil sim every couple of months to the latest MSFS. I still remember the excitement when I first loaded up Thalion Airbus A320 with its completely flat terrain and zero airport structures!
Vanilla FSX-SE is installed but not touched for many months, not worth the hassle of trying to keep a 20 year old game running on modernish hardware and operating systems.
I bought X Plane 11 but couldn’t really get into it and wasn’t that impressed by the demo of X Plane 12.
MSFS 2020 not currently installed due to the massive HD footprint and numerous bugs Asobo left untouched.
Can’t run MSFS 2024 as the hardware requirements above my pay grade, I don’t really want cloud based gaming and my wife is still holding out on upgrading or replacing the current PC having gone a bit loopy (sorry, minimalist) declaring if it’s working, don’t replace it.
My flight stick broke over a year ago and I never got round to replacing it, as the joypad good enough for driving games like the truck sims, Snowrunner or Farming Sim which, a,ing with the train sims, I tend to prefer these days.
So not really a level of interest there to visit a flight sim forum on a regular basis, let alone subscribe to a file library. Maybe I’m alone in how my interests have panned out, then again perhaps not.