I don't think I heard anywhere that said this forum was being retired, though it makes sense to archive it if there's an improvement somewhere else.

I don't think what's on the smartcommunity fulfills the same role, or perhaps I didn't spend enough time there.

If plotted on a Venn diagram, this promotes general discussion, and the other allows users to vote on ideas. Other activities overlap. There's no upload option, so you have to come up with an alternative method to sending files for help tickets.

If that is to become the replacement, it would make sense to archive the UBB forums for reference. To put things into perspective, the very first message on these forums predates MySpace by 4 years, and Facebook by 5.