Curse

In a very surprising move, Blizzard has chosen to do away with class-specific forums in favor of a role-based system.  Now rather than posting on the Paladin forums, you'll either post on the Tanking, Healing, or Damage Dealing forum depending on the spec you've chosen.  We've done the same on World of Raids since its revamp in May, but it's surprising to see Blizzard deploy a similar strategy.  Many players have felt the developers are beginning to blur the lines between classes in Wrath of the Lich King, and this certainly doesn't help, but as Nethaera's post suggests, this could mean a lot more focused developer presence than before.

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

With the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King and the many changes the expansion brings to classes and mechanics, we have decided to rearrange our forums to make it easier for players to hold constructive discussions. To that end, we have created three role-based forums -- Tanking, Damage Dealing, and Healing -- in place of the class forums. Why?

Common ground for common roles. The new structure provides central places for players of diverse classes and specs to discuss their common roles. Until now, there was no one obvious forum for a holy paladin to discuss Arena healing tactics with a restoration shaman, or for a protection warrior to talk tanking mechanics with a feral druid. This often led to splintered, fractured, and redundant discussions. In addition, the original class forum structure never properly took the impact of talents into account, lumping together a shadow priest and a holy priest (for example) when that didn’t necessarily make sense.

Celebrate diversity! While a tank tanks and a healer heals, the specific ways each class and talent build go about these roles are very distinct -- and the addition of new abilities in Wrath of the Lich King will continue to add even more ways to play. The new forum structure will still be a place for a frost mage (for example) to discuss tricks of the trade with other frost mages, while at the same time facilitating an understanding of the unique tools that rogues or other damage-dealers have to perform similar functions.

Help us help you. The new forums will also allow the community team and developers to follow discussions and gather feedback more effectively as the game continues to evolve -- which, ultimately, translates to a better World of Warcraft for you.

The current individual class forums will be active until Thursday, November 6. On that date, we will be removing the individual class forums. You can begin using the new forums immediately at the links below:

Tanking- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=13395580&sid=1

Healing- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=13395582&sid=1

Damage Dealing- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=13395581&sid=1

What do you think?  Is this good or bad for the official forums?  I personally think it could be good if it means less hassle for the class designers to participate in the forums, but I'd love to hear your thoughts as well in the comments.