Any young forum owners out there?

Feline Forums

Feline Forums

Member
I started my forum during the pandemic at age 14. I'm 19 now (really getting up there in age). I'm too young to have used forums, so this was a novelty project. I never really liked social media, so forums were a great way to build community during social isolation. Not to mention, it's an amazing hobby. Hosting your very own community away from the grasp of big tech is a lost art. Another lost art? Being a paper boy (until that got shut down). It's funny, I would spend my spare money on themes and plugins instead of normal kid things. Just wondering if there are any fellow young people creating their own forums in 2026!!
Oh and also advice about forums from experienced people would be cool too :)
 
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Feline Forums said:
How did it turn out?
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The forum is 15 years old now :)

Growing pretty well.
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Personally I run my forum and while I don't like stating my age online I will say that I am a bit of a young guy.
Like Feline Forums said, I'm too young to have really used forums, but I mainly started mine just to show a friend how easy it was to setup a website when you have the right setup but now it's kind of just a place for me and my friend circle (and their friends and other people) to just talk about things and post random stuff and I'm quite glad it sprung out to be what it is.
Feline Forums said:
Hosting your very own community away from the grasp of big tech is a lost art.
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Totally agree about that! I feel like with Reddit it really just made forums go really quiet since it's more easy to make a subreddit than it is to host a XenForo forum (I think this is also a contributing factor as to why I dislike Reddit, and also because if they don't like your community they can ban you, but if XenForo doesn't like your forum the worst they can do is revoke your license).
 
I started my first forum back in 2000 (26 years ago) and there were few choices of what platform to use. I'm 71 now, still running forums but only for my own pleasure. There is one which I have that I promote on X (Hard Rock Junkies - links are in my signature) and have a good following on there, but very few people from there joining up, which doesn't bother me as the page views speak for themselves. I think of them more of a repository for others to gain from.

Social Media really did kick the legs out from under forums, but that's another story. I'm really pleased to see some younger people taking up the baton and running with forums. I have a feeling that they will make a big comeback sometime in future days - good things often run full circle.
 
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