Hopefully, directly. Sponsoring a forum is 'risky' to liability risk-averse legal departments, for the reasons stated on Marlin's site.

Where they had hoped it would be a place for Marlin owners to brag about their guns (which it was), it also became a locus for the bitch-and-moan crowd.

Perhaps some Marlin fans will put up their own (unofficial) site without Marlin's involvement.

George

Looks like I was wrong. It appears that Marlin is caving in to some legal weasel/parasite. They seem to imply that they are afraid of liability due to the stupid loadings, safety deactivations, etc. that were getting posted.

Too bad. I wonder how they will get feedback now?

I think part of it was the negative press Marlin was getting. Marlin's shoddy production quality was being talked about quite a bit and I don't think Marlin had the nerve to take it.

A lot of manufacturers would rather have total control over their product information - to give it the best spin possible.

Or it could be that they offshored to India their website maintenance

I suspect that the posters didn't dance with the one that brought them.