For anyone who hasn't seen the notice (quoted below), the ACS Users Group will shut down two weeks from today. Several other options are suggested in the announcement. I wanted to suggest also the Census Bureau Slack workspace. It has a FAQ, offers help beyond ACS data, has been a useful source of discussion and suggestions for me, and seems to be able to address concerns and needs at all levels.
Note that it uses the free version of Slack, so posts are available only from the past 90 days.
Dear Online Community Members,
Thank you for your participation in the American Community Survey (ACS) Data Users Group Online Community. Since its inception in 2013, the community has grown to over 7,000 members, sharing messages, materials, and announcements related to the ACS. Unfortunately, the U.S. Census Bureau was not able to renew the contract with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) to maintain the site, and the online community will sunset on September 30, 2025. We hope you will consider continuing your engagement on PRB's Federal Data Forum Online Community. You can also stay connected to the Census Bureau by subscribing to ACS email updates or contacting the ACS.
Thank you,
Donna M. Daily
Chief, American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau
Diana Elliott, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Programs
Population Reference Bureau
Jon
Thanks, Jon. I'd also been planning to recommend Census Bureau Slack as an alternative here.
Besides that, there's also the IPUMS User Forum.
IPUMS USA redistributes ACS microdata, and IPUMS NH…
IPUMS USA redistributes ACS microdata, and IPUMS NHGIS redistributes ACS data tables (the detailed B and C tables from the ACS summary files) as well as shapefiles for ACS geographies. Both sites are free to use and include various supplemental resources to help work with ACS data. Both sites also provide recent and historical decennial census data integrated with ACS data.
Even if you're not using IPUMS sites to get ACS data, the IPUMS User Forum may provide answers to your general questions about ACS data, and we at IPUMS welcome any forum posts that relate to our data sources, even if they're not coming from IPUMS users.