Apple suddenly put the Apple Support Community into a read-only state on Tuesday and announced that the forums will permanently close on Friday, November 20. Those who contributed to the site, some for more than two decades, were blindsided by this decision and were unable to post farewell messages.
Even if you feel like the Apple Support community contains too many generic or unhelpful responses from users looking to increase their post count and earn points, the people who volunteer their time to the site still deserved a proper goodbye.
Below, we’ve highlighted some of these people and their experiences.
Jeff Donald from Florida had been a member of the Apple support community since November 2000, when the forums were still known as Apple Discussions. Last year, Apple recognized his efforts by inviting him to the Apple Community+ program, which launched in 2022 and offered members some extra perks and experiences.
Leroy Douglas has been a member since July 2009. He said he was a little shocked to see Apple’s sudden announcement, but he saw the writing on the wall.
Here’s a fun fact you might not know: In addition to English, Tobias Steen in Germany said there were also Apple support communities in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. For some reason, the French and German versions have no shutdown notices, but we’re told they’ll face the same fate.
The forums brought together people of all ages, from 16-year-old Evan Bato Rousseau in France to 83-year-old Nobel Prize winner Sir Tim Hunt in England, who told us he found this resource useful, even if some of the responses were choppy.
John Daniel, the Canadian developer of the macOS diagnostic tool EtreCheck, said he has been active in the Apple support community for over two decades. Users like him who reached “Level 6” or higher based on their contributions received access to The Lounge, a private category of forums that Apple employees sometimes participated in.
Prior to 2020, John said Apple occasionally hosted in-person meetings for members of the support community, including a special visit to Apple Park.
“I disagree with the comments so many are making about the Apple support community right now,” he said, in response to those who describe it as unhelpful. “We regularly fixed problems, identified significant problems with Apple projects, tracked down the cause of bugs and fixed them, and always learned new things. That’s what I’ll miss.”
Elías Rojano Núñez from Chile participated in the Spanish forums. He told us that he found it deeply satisfying when he could help others, and was saddened that the Spanish forums were closed without warning, but he is grateful for the opportunity he had and will always appreciate the interactions he had with other contributors.
Rojano Núñez shared a photo of some of the items he has received from Apple over the years, including a 5-year anniversary pin of the Apple Support Community. There were also 10, 15 and 20 year pins. Over the years, merchandise distributed included Apple-branded hats, shirts, bags and even umbrellas.
Whatever its flaws, the Apple support community was much more than just a place to ask questions. For some it was a place to belong.
To this we say goodbye and thank you, it is not a good liberation.
