Just checked the Digest Daily Discuss Digest for 2009. Found an email about multiplaying, where I discussed strategies for cheating and asked about ways to prevent it/what was illegal and what wasn't. Response: "I don’t for a minute believe anyone has that many friends that would stick around long enough for anyone to pull this off."
Ahahahahaha.
To stay on topic, though:
I hate IRC. I hate it more than forums, because you can at least police forums. IRC, it's a lot more dicey - you get people forming their own little branch chats, excluding others, discussing IC plans for invasions and weddings and what not, building up relationships that should be done ICly that are entirely orchestrated OOCly. And it's almost impossible to police perfectly because mods can't be on it all the time, and the messages aren't easily (to my understanding) logged.
Forums, the most you get are some people whining about each other, and then getting their posts deleted by moderators, and then whining about that.
So if we're going to get rid of the local forums, or forums, or whatever - you'd be better served getting rid of the IRC, too. It's an exclusive old boy's club where people orchestrate wars, not-wars, and other things behind the scenes.
