A popular Carlisle United online forum is set to close down.

Moderators of theCumbrians.net, whose messageboard has been a regular outlet for Blues fans for years, have announced that it will no longer operate in the new year.

Those who run the forum say a "combination of factors" is behind their decision.

It will bring an end to an era of supporter debate on the most popular United messageboard of recent times.

Some of those who moderate it are involved in other supporter projects, such as the new CUOSC chair and vice-chair Matt Spooner and Dan MacLennan.

Dan, along with fellow moderators Lee Rooney and Mike Booth, also run the Brunton Bugle supporter podcast.

They have been moderators since 2016, having taken on the role from Mike Denovellis.

They announced the impending closure of the forum in a statement to forum users today.

"We have taken the decision to close the forum come the new year," they said.

"A combination of factors - time, effort, other projects for some of us - we could go on!

"We’d like to thank you all for using, commenting, even complaining over the years -there’s certainly no other fanbase like the good ship Carlisle United!"

They recommended supporters follow other fan outlets such as the Brunton Bugle, the Be Just And Fear Not Facebook group, and various Twitter accounts.

"Who knows, someone else may set up a new, decent forum for you all?" the statement added.

"Once again, many thanks for your patronage down the years!

"Dan, Lee, Matt, Mike, Neil and Mod X. 😀"

The forum has about 1,400 registered users, of which about 1,000 have been active in the last year.

A longer-standing messageboard, CUFC Online, still runs on the Footymad network.

That forum was, many years ago, the original and most popular messageboard, launched by Al Woodcock and then continued by Tim Graham.

But thecumbrians.net has attracted more users in recent years.

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