We already have said it as directly as possible. As years go by, the internet changes and companies that use the internet have to shift to follow along. Somewhat like a hunter following the herd in days long past.
Reddit and Discord are both communication platforms that have hundreds/thousands of different communities which are accessible through a single interface. As Apps become more and more popular, that format has dominated. Our decision to embrace this as fully as possible is what we see as what must be done.
It sucks to move on from the happy hunting ground that is this place, but it is the nature of the situation.
It's really not. Others have pointed out that the expense for forum infrastructure is not high enough to break the bank simply for existing. The larger issue is that static-forums are not growing in the current internet environment, whereas the App-Consolidated formats are growing wildly. Our Discord recently broke 100k members several months ago... and is coming up on breaking 200k (170ish already).
We are hiring and we are expanding because WoWs is a great game that's roadmapped out years in advance. That being said, we only have so many CMs and the Player-to-CM ratio is pretty massive, so it behooves us to be as mindful as possible where we can engage with the most reach and impact.