Symbianize, one of the most popular Internet forums for Filipinos, is shutting down.
In a forum post and on its Facebook page, an administrator said that “we probably have until the end of the month to enjoy Symbianize.”
The post included the hashtag #ChangeIsComing? which probably alludes to a new, entirely different direction for the beloved forum. There’s no clue as to what it could be.
Symbianize, whose name comes from the defunct mobile operating system Symbian, is a popular online forum covering almost every topic about tech, particularly mobile phones, software, computers, networks, and gaming. It even has a section for non-tech topics such as entertainment, health, sports, and relationships.
Symbianize started around 2006 when there was a need for Filipino members of imserba.com (an Indonesian forum) to have their own forum because of the language barrier. Since then it has grown to become one of the largest Filipino online forums. As of this writing, Symbianize has over 1.2 million members and more 20 million posts, making it one of the largest technology-related forums on the Internet.
Some members were saddened by the decision to close the forum. Several members thanked Symbianize for helping them with their Internet and tech-related problems. A few even said that they’ll miss the adult and download sections.
Personally, I’m a member since 2012 but rarely posted there (my last post was in 2014). With its vast wealth of information and resources, the shutdown of Symbianize would be a great loss to the Filipino online community. Hopefully, the admins will reconsider their decision or even have the forum archived as a resource for future use.
Fortunately, there are some other forums similar to Symbianize that you can migrate to. One of them is Pinoyden.
So just like Symbian, Symbianize will bid adieu. Thank you for the memories, Symbianize!
