Well there goes our #1 linkage farm! Warren Ellis has announced via Bad Signal that the Engine, his message board for professionals and aspiring professionals, will be closing on August 31. He hints a new message board venture of some kind.

THE ENGINE will close a little before midnight UK time on August 31 2007.

The first year was about getting creators together and facilitating conversations that didn’t have anywhere else to go. The second year was about just providing people with an interesting place to talk. Two years is enough. Time to move on.

So you’ve got three weeks to mine out the place for the data you need, exchange contact details and all that.

I’ve informed Andrew, the host, of my intent — it’s up to him whether or not the Engine remains as a static archive, though I’ve told him it’s not necessary. The search function has always been a bit weird, so I’ll be opening a thread for you to help each other find what you need.

http://engine.ning.com will remain open — in fact, I’ll add a forum function to it for those of you who want to stay together and stay talking.

At this time, I have to extend my thanks both to Andrew, and to my team of moderators, who took a lot of crap for no reward at all: Jessica, Maddie, Rachel, Ariana, Victoria, Melinda and Lauren made it a better place for me, and for all of you. Also, I have to thank Charity, who did the initial design and installation, Brian for providing the Engine marks and logos, and Billy Gray for early mechanics and troubleshooting.

As for me: well, as ever, there’s a plan. I won’t be out of the online community game for long. News on that will follow later in the month.