Don't get it confused, UO left Stratics--not the other way around. In my uninvited opinion, the decision to open Stratics to the entire UO community--not just Broadsword's instance of UO--was made reluctantly, but was overdue.
I agree. To be honest, they treated every other site like ****, they would make promises over and over, but never lived up to them.
The best times, were when people like Wilki, Draconi, Cathat etc were part of the team, because they would engage with everyone, even on occasion, on UOForums, which as corny as it sounds, really made us feel special, if just for a moment, but it really did lift our spirits when they did.
It really started to go downhill for UOForums AND stratics I feel, when Mythic took over, they didn't have or want an "official fansite" program, so that was the first sign they didn't give a damn about fansites.
They would make promises like "Oh we'll start a discussion thread on XX in a few days", never happened and it was promised repeatedly.
At the end of the day, this site is for the
community, not the company, I'm glad Stratics has embraced free shards again like it did in the distant past.
If these sites didn't exist anymore, UO would probably cease to exist as well, it's a shame they don't realize that, I personally feel they abused Stratics for years with the whole official/unofficial/slightly official status of the forums here.