Not long after the World Chat Channel opened, a bombshell announcement dropped. It even caused the number of messages in the Chat Channel to plummet, as everyone was reading it.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Song Yingwen, leader of the Great Newspaper.
Today, we have to announce something regrettable-the Sea Weekly will be suspended indefinitely.
This is a heartbreaking decision, but considering the transaction fees and delays, as well as the tight daily trading window of one hour, we have no choice.
Starting today, the Great Newspaper will no longer provide any printed paper materials.
But in exchange, we have another announcement to make. The Sea Forum officially goes live today!
After the Newspaper reached level four and constructed its special building, my Newspaper acquired a special server. So we began trying to build a forum like the ones we used to have. It took about a week in total..."
Yang Yi finished reading the announcement. To sum it up in the words of one player in the Chat Channel...
"Without spending even a moment mourning the passing of the Sea Weekly, next onto the stage comes-the Sea Forum!"
Almost none of the players, including the Great Newspaper itself, regretted the discontinuation of the Sea Weekly. The subsequent chat messages also largely revolved around the forum.
The forum used a monthly subscription model, with membership costing 1,000 Conch Coins per month.
An annual subscription came with two additional months free, for a total of 10,000 Conch Coins.
The current player base could all afford that price.
Like most players, Yang Yi tried opening the forum link sent by the Great Newspaper.
It was a hyperlink similar to those for item information, but opening it displayed a simple login screen rather than item information. It required an account and password and supported registration,