I tried to access englishforum.ch and I always get redirected to www.thelocal.ch. There was quite some valuable info (plus lots of rants) in that forum…
Looks like the admins closed it because of costs: https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/comments/1asvi6n/englishforumch_to_be_closed_down_after_admins/
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Unfortunately, yes. It was killed off and now everyone moved to Swiss Forum
There’s an effort to try to recover some of that old information.
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Is there a way to somehow download the cache from google?
Google discontinued their cache (just at the wrong time). Some threads are available on archive.org.
Former users archived much of EF and you can request specific threads to be revived by the Swiss Forum members. Others are re-posting their content there, so if you are looking for something specific, then just ask.
Because the shutdown was done with so little warning, there wasn’t enough time to inform everybody so many people (such as yourself) don’t know what happened.
EF pages are still showing up in google search - not sure for how much longer
If you are able to find the link via the method above you can use wayback machine to see the cached page
Have they killed the “groan” function?
I closed my account after being groaned at when I was trying to help someone
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was a very loved function of the forum 
As ridiculous as it sounds, the ‘groan’ functionality seems to be the most hotly debated topic. But to answer your question, the groan button is now gone.
I asked if the person could explain why they groaned at me and they just groaned at me again.
You should eliminate toxic influences from your life, I didn’t need the aggro so I left. A shame because there were cases where I could have helped people.
It made me realise how much I appreciate the politeness and collective moderation on this forum !
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Sounds like it could be st2lemans who was one of the most prolific ‘groaners’ on that forum. I actually quite liked his posts, but you needed something of a thick skin to be on that forum which might have been off-putting to newcomers.
It was best not to take the groans too seriously.
But you should join, there’s a serious attempt to avoid the toxic elements of EF and the new forum needs members who want to help others and set a more cooperative and friendly environment.
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It’s a weird domain choice, .co.uk instead of .ch.
I originally had an account at englishforum, but then ditched it for mustachian post. Big factor for me was the use of Discourse, a much more modern forum engine.
What do you think, how long will this forum survive until it also disappears? Might it also happen once all of a sudden?
Yes it was. That person was lurking and insulting people. It was toxic and per the link shared by Wolverine it seems I was not alone thinking this.
The forum also lost its helpfulness from a personal finance perspective when “Fatmanfilms” and a few others left
It looks like you are the brave admin - bravo! I will take a look.
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fmf was a great contributor to various topics on EF, esp. the finance forum. No doubt, he helped a lot of people financially and also to re-think how they looked at their finances.
I’m not sure what happened behind the scenes, but he was made a moderator for a while and then was removed as a mod after which he stopped posted (presumably to protest his treatment). I would love for fmf to start posting again, but maybe he’s now done with EF and perhaps also any successor forum.
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The plug was pulled on EF as it was costing the local money and not making them any money.
The owner of the new forum has no illusions about the fact that the forum will just be a loss-making endeavour so there’s no pressure from the financial side.
The real question is whether the forum can re-grow its membership base after the sudden closure.
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wow, even I remember him, was really helpful indeed. Retired in Malta, or something like that.
still it’s weird the admin didn’t make it clear in advance that this model isn’t working, and they didn’t offer to migrate the data to anyone willing to take it over. I wonder how much does hosting of such a forum cost per year? 300 CHF? It’s weird that these endeavors are not profitable, as people spend thousands of hours there, and yet they will not chip in even 1 CHF per year to keep it running. They didn’t even ask for donations? Some patreon?
Yes, he’s enjoying his well-earned retirement
The writing was on the wall when sister forum toytown died.
I and several others reached out to the Local to offer to buy it out, but were met with silence. I guess it wasn’t really worth their while to deal with it.
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