I know...this is absolutely insane. o__o  What in the world happened?  Something's not right...at all.  Why would they just tear it down like that?  Without any sort of warning at all?  This is uncalled for.  I think we should all petition NOA and demand our Forums back. 

And what about the Brain Age contest?  Wasn't that supposed to be in the next Nintendo Power?  Dang...<__< 

I'm trying to contact via DA any NSiders that may have an account there.  It's really tedious, and unfortunately I think I may have lost all permanent contact with some of my friends there.  This really sucks....

Between the great posts by the good members being shot to hell and ignored for the fads or rank spammers, the not so great events, and an administrative staff who seems to be unable to get the job done, the place was a bloody mess! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the administrators and volunteer mods did all they could, but I believe it was rather difficult to do there jobs due to Nintendo's open arms and “Protect the children!” policies. A lot of the problems the community suffered from could easily have been fixed with stricter rules, kicking/banning sprees, and just generally having little tolerance for bull crap. If you even did half of the stuff I've seen a lot of the users get away with in other communities you would have either been smited with the suspension stick, bonked with the ban hammer, or made an example of by several community members as well as administrative staff.

That being said however, I am glad I was a member for as short period of time as I was. I made several friends, joined not one, but two communities with some of the best people I've ever met, and I really enjoyed the good posts I would find every now and then. Rather it was giving more information about the industry, talking about why they love a game so much, or just hearing about like minded gamers expressing there thoughts, there where several pieces of gold in that crap mine, it was just a lot of work and frustration to find it.

I hope they learn from the mistakes with this community and try again in the future, with a bit of a tighter lock down. However, for the reasons mentioned before in this thread (In the thread, people expressed concerns about Nintendo changing for the casual audience and possibly ignoring the hardcore), and considering Nintendo's new direction in games and marketing that they've been taking lately (Alpha moms and grandmas don't post on the Internet folks!) I wouldn't be surprised if they don't wish to venture down that path again. I'm just glad that I'm a part of this community and made the friends that I did, that way I'll always have some Nintendo or just general gaming fans to talk to.