Did you read the links? The official reason for the shutdown includes "threats of violence". That's a direct quote.

Yes i've read the links and it would probably be a good idea to take my comments as my own 0.02 as i'm not an insider at all. I will say that it would be a simple issue to just ban someone for chrisakes. That's all that you need to do. Just ban the troublemaker's, their IPs and any other accounts that they would try to set up to show an example for the rest of the forum. So, given that this action seems to be a bit extreme (for what we know) I am a bit suspicious of the explanation given.

This thread will never die

It was started as something that would last.....and last......and last.....as these format wars don't just begin and end over a weekend but yeah I'm just as amused that you see the same people arguing 4-5 months ago as today ..... over the same old thing.  It's like arguing over OJ simpson or abortion or something like that except that either choice isn't a sin.

What if it got too chaotic by then, and the mods couldn't stop it just by a few bans? It may seem ridiculous, but it's not impossible. 

I don't think that the arguing was the problem in fact the forum seemed pretty placid whenever i've been there. I think that a big part of it was the forum was losing credibility for being supposedly neutral but in actuality supporting one side. This is just my opinion btw.

But were you there during the actual arguments that shut those sections down? If you weren't, you aren't in much of a position to counter the official word. If you can find somebody who was, or can link to any offending threads, then you can give an opinion on what really happened.

And don't ask me if I was there. I'm just going by the official word, not acting as though I know what "really" happened. 

BD -drive prices are shrinking. With a BD reader for your computer at $199 there is no way that the HD-DVD drive for the 360 can compete. Is the format war over yet?

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All the action in the next-gen format war might be at the front lines of cut-rate players, but the battle rages on across the entire spectrum of devices -- which is why we've seen the poor $199 DH-401S BD-ROM drive from Philips and Lite-on touted as the answer to those $200 HD-A2s in a couple places. That's quite a stretch, obviously, but it's still much cheaper than any other BD-ROM drives we've seen. The read-only SATA drive pulls data off BD media at 4X, single layer DVDs at 12X, DVD-DL and DVD±RW at 8x, and CDs at 32X. Giving up write capabilites is obviously limiting, but for those of you building out HTPCs, this bad boy might be just the ticket

Looks like HD-DVD will get a boost this x-mas. But the PS3's still a big advantage for blu-ray.

I don't see this format war coming to an end.

The sky is looking bluer every day.

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One of the major Dutch music and video retailers called Free Record Shops announced that they see Blu-ray as the High Definition format of the future. They emphasized that Blu-ray offers the ultimate high definition video- and audio experience. Free Record Shops Netherlands explicitly supports this new format as the successor of the DVD and will give it a more prominent place in its stores.

Hans Breukhoven, CEO of Free Record Shop Holding says that this choice fits in their strategy concerning new developments: "More and more consumers own a high definition TV. Blu-ray offers the opportunity to watch movies in the highest possibile high definition quality. Sales results also show that the major part of sold high definition discs are Blu-ray. Based on the quality, the support from industry and the current sales results, we believe that Blu-ray is the high definition format of the future".

http://www.dvd-home.nl