Steorn’s online forum was shut down today. Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy made the following terse announcement:

Please note that the Steorn public forum has been closed. The forum will return at some point in the future.
Regards,
Sean

The forum opened in 2006 and initially was a crowded and lively venue full of intelligent scientific discussion, anticipation on the part of believers, scoffing on the part of disbelievers, and a wide range of provocative banter in between. With each failed demo and delayed announcement, and finally with the negative jury result, more and more people fled the forum. Recently some of the more outspoken skeptics were banned, and those who were left seemed to sense that the end was near for the forum, at least in its current form. Today they turned out to be right.

Whether this is a step toward the disappearance of Steorn altogether, or part of the preparation for a renewed Orbo launch, remains to be seem. As recently as last month Sean McCarthy stated in forum posts that launch is still scheduled for before the end of 2009. We’ll soon find out just how much Sean’s word is still worth.

Here are some other forums where Steorn discussions have migrated to:

http://www.moletrap.co.uk/forum/ (very active discussion)
http://www.fizzx.org/ (not very active)
http://www.freeenergytalk.com/

If you know of other corners of the internet where forum members have found a new home, let me know at contact(at)dispatchesfromthefuture.com and I’ll list them here.