+1 to not liking the change.

Can we get an estimated rollout time for the forum? If it's more than a few months, I would strongly suggest the creation of a meta talk page, at least as a temporary solution. Takes only a minute to setup and CentralNotice to announce. FWIW, I don't think a talk page will be difficult to use at all, even for newer editors. I can't help but be cynical and think that the forum is solely a convenience for wiki-inept WMF staff. And given that many WMF staff already do not check their talk pages, how is the community engagement team going to ensure that the forum remains regularly checked and not become a graveyard of hundreds of unanswered questions? This is already the case for a large number of WMF staff's talk pages, and unless there's a significant change in attitudes or a dedicated community engagement role for each department, I don't see this changing.