Difficult decision: closing an inactive forum after years of efforts

[Miri]

I have a website powered by XenForo, over the years I have not seen much interest from people in interacting on it. It was originally created as a blog, then converted to vBulletin, and later to XenForo.

I wanted to create it at the time to provide useful information to people about a specific geographical area (region) of a country. I collaborated with school teachers to write high-quality articles, mainly about history, culture, tradition, tourism, and so on.

I asked some local public officials to write about the latest news regarding sports, cultural events, etc., but their response was that they would post the information on their "Facebook" profile. In fact, people use social media a lot and may not be interested in joining forums and creating discussions.

During the transition to XenForo, in order to offer a better user experience, I wanted to completely translate both the user and admin sides of XenForo, even meticulously translating system terminology, with the help of some language teachers and experts. It took 4.5 months to complete this task.

Despite my efforts and the contribution I wanted to make to the region by providing an informative and friendly community website, there are no people willing to publish. In my opinion, the reason is that everyone is on social media and does not have a particular interest in interacting through a forum. They use it more as a blog to read the content but without participating in the discussion. I have about 150-250 unique visits per day, which is a lot for a small region.

Perhaps it's time to make a decision, take a break, close a burdensome chapter, and these are the alternatives I have carefully considered:

1. WebArchive: (make the content available online through the archive)
2. WordPress.com: (Convert high-quality articles and keep them, but there's advertising)
3. Blogger: (Convert high-quality articles and keep them, no active advertising but not as powerful as WordPress)
4. Fanpage: (I don't like social media though)

The reason is that I still want to keep the content, attachments, and make them available to readers if possible.

What do you recommend?
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[richirich81`]

why not to try SEO services? it will help you boost the your websites and will give you the traffic. Simple is that !!

 

[Miri]

why not to try SEO services? it will help you boost the your websites and will give you the traffic. Simple is that !!

Please read the topic carefully, I am not interested in SEO services (I am quite skilled in the matter). I have asked a different question as I am not interested in wasting my time, but at the same time I want to preserve the content.

 

[Old Nick]

Is the forum totally inactive ?
How many members does the forum have? Do they log in regularly, rarely? In terms of posts, how many do you have per week or month?
If all of these numbers are close to zero then yes maybe consider converting the forum to something more static... like WP.

But if there is still a little member activity then there may still be a chance to improve things.
But I also think it depends on you, have you, deep down, already given up hope?

 

[Miri]

If all of these numbers are close to zero then yes maybe consider converting the forum to something more static... like WP.

Exactly, let's say the decision has been made, reason for the ordered list in the post.

 

[Wanji]

What are your considerations for adding Blogger to the list? I am curious.

 

[Davyc]

Do you enjoy running the site? I say 'site' rather than forum because the two are different entities although inextricably linked. If you do enjoy running the site and get pleasure from doing so, knowing that you are providing a service, then stick with it. If the enjoyment has gone and it has become a burdensome task, it could be time to let it go. The fact that you are willing to make the material available indicates that the passion you have has not waned to the point where you will simply delete everything.

It's a tough one, and it's a decision you will have to make for yourself. We all understand and appreciate that the days of busy and hectic forums are gone, that people simply want to consume rather than contribute, and those that do contribute will mostly gravitate to social media sites.

On a personal note, I have no illusions as to what to expect when I open a site - in fact, I've just purchased my third XF licence to open a site I've thrown my all at three times before, never quite felt it was right, but I believe I have sussed out what I want to do. I doubt whether people will flock to join, but if they take something away that will make their lives better, then the effort will have been worth it.

If you visit the links in my signature for my other two sites, you will see how many hits I've have since those pages were published (not when the sites were started, as those figures would be higher); scroll to the bottom to see those figures bottom right. Have I loads of members, no! But if those thousands of people visiting have taken something worthwhile from those sites, then I believe my job has been done. I get pleasure from my sites and if that pleasure stops, so will those sites, with no regrets. The good memories will stay with me and that is, to me, worth more than hundreds of members squabbling and arguing about trivialities, just as they do on SM.

Think about it, and if you can wait it out (it may be years away) things often have a habit of turning full circle and SM may burn itself out and people may actually want to become contributors again rather than just consumers; I probably won't be around to see that happen if it does, but the thought that it may, brings a smile to my face lol. Good luck with whatever you decide to do and, that whatever that may be, it is right for you.

 

[Miri]

Hi @Davyc, I really appreciate your post and what you wrote is actually what I think and fully agree with.

If the enjoyment has gone and it has become a burdensome task, it could be time to let it go. The fact that you are willing to make the material available indicates that the passion you have has not waned to the point where you will simply delete everything.

In fact, yes. The fun has decreased and I don't feel a particular attraction in continuing to keep it as it is, at least not as a forum. So I want to close this chapter definitively, in an "intelligent" way if possible and offer the contents "ONLINE" in read-only mode, without maintaining, improving or further feeding it.

I am very pleased to have "wasted" my time for all those contents and it would be a pity to erase it as if it never existed. But things change and so do life priorities.

I noticed (even though it doesn't interest me much) that some "Ctrl+C wizards" shared my online contents without even mentioning the original source. But this is another story and it doesn't sway me in any way, in my decision.

 

[mjda]

Do you have any friends or colleagues who are interested in taking it over? I had a similar decision about one of my sites last year. Since the site still had a few folks who posted regularly I hated to have to close up shop, whether archived or not. So, I talked to a friend who was willing to give it a go and made a deal with him to take it over. I still own the domain, just so the site can never be sold to anyone else, and he owns the content and maintains the server. The site is actually more active now that he's in charge and doing quite well.

 

[Miri]

Do you have any friends or colleagues who are interested in taking it over? I had a similar decision about one of my sites last year. Since the site still had a few folks who posted regularly I hated to have to close up shop, whether archived or not. So, I talked to a friend who was willing to give it a go and made a deal with him to take it over. I still own the domain, just so the site can never be sold to anyone else, and he owns the content and maintains the server. The site is actually more active now that he's in charge and doing quite well.

Nice question and a great suggestion, I would say. However, I fear that I will not find people in my close circle willing to continue. Moreover, it is an inactive forum, no new posts there.

 

[dvduval]

I have some forums that are less active than they were in the heyday of forum software, but I do have moderators and they continue to check in and make sure everything's okay. I'm wondering if you could create such a situation where things can continue without you having to get your hands dirty too much.

 

[MQK8]

I have a website powered by XenForo, over the years I have not seen much interest from people in interacting on it. It was originally created as a blog, then converted to vBulletin, and later to XenForo.

I wanted to create it at the time to provide useful information to people about a specific geographical area (region) of a country. I collaborated with school teachers to write high-quality articles, mainly about history, culture, tradition, tourism, and so on.

I asked some local public officials to write about the latest news regarding sports, cultural events, etc., but their response was that they would post the information on their "Facebook" profile. In fact, people use social media a lot and may not be interested in joining forums and creating discussions.

During the transition to XenForo, in order to offer a better user experience, I wanted to completely translate both the user and admin sides of XenForo, even meticulously translating system terminology, with the help of some language teachers and experts. It took 4.5 months to complete this task.

Despite my efforts and the contribution I wanted to make to the region by providing an informative and friendly community website, there are no people willing to publish. In my opinion, the reason is that everyone is on social media and does not have a particular interest in interacting through a forum. They use it more as a blog to read the content but without participating in the discussion. I have about 150-250 unique visits per day, which is a lot for a small region.

Perhaps it's time to make a decision, take a break, close a burdensome chapter, and these are the alternatives I have carefully considered:

1. WebArchive: (make the content available online through the archive)
2. WordPress.com: (Convert high-quality articles and keep them, but there's advertising)
3. Blogger: (Convert high-quality articles and keep them, no active advertising but not as powerful as WordPress)
4. Fanpage: (I don't like social media though)

The reason is that I still want to keep the content, attachments, and make them available to readers if possible.

What do you recommend?
Any advice is appreciated.

If you've made the decision to close up shop I would choose option #2, convert it to a Word Press blog using your high content blogs and join Google Adsense and make a little money via advertising. Tough these days on us forum lovers.

 

[Sim]

I have archived a XF forum in the past to keep its content online, but remove most of the administrative overhead - site is still online and generating traffic nearly 8 years later. It is not monetised in any way - the site owners wanted to keep it as a free resource - I just host the archived site for them.

I wrote a tutorial on how I archived the site and what additional steps I took to secure and clean up the forum: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/how-to-archive-a-xenforo-forum-to-make-it-read-only.7825/

 

[Faust]

There are some factors to consider here:

• Cost of hosting
• Daily visitors
• How much content you have
• How many users you have

Have you considered just leaving it as a resource and closing registrations?

I would agree with you, the era of forums is gone, people tent to consume more than giving, and people nowadays are focused on sharing and creating videos rather than typing and creating texts. The younger generation won’t join forums, unless is a TikTok or other sort of social media platform. We are not going to be younger, we are all getting olde and older, and as life is changing, we have to prioritise other things.

I have 3 Forums, all of them photography related, and from what I’ve noticed most active members on my forums are old people (40+). And from that you can have a conclusion, that forums are dying slowly, is just a matter of time. Take it from here on Xenforo community, pretty much same faces every day.

I was thinking to get an other licence for new forum, but most likely I will pass it away and invest in something else.

Also to add, while social media re growing quickly and they are adapting quicker to the people needs, forums takes years just to have something new in core.

 

[Miri]

I have some forums that are less active than they were in the heyday of forum software, but I do have moderators and they continue to check in and make sure everything's okay. I'm wondering if you could create such a situation where things can continue without you having to get your hands dirty too much.

This is exactly what I was trying to achieve, a way to keep it online without wasting any more time.

If you've made the decision to close up shop I would choose option #2, convert it to a Word Press blog using your high content blogs and join Google Adsense and make a little money via advertising. Tough these days on us forum lovers.

I doubt it will generate a good income, it's a small region and for a few cents, I don't think it's worth it.

I have archived a XF forum in the past to keep its content online, but remove most of the administrative overhead - site is still online and generating traffic nearly 8 years later. It is not monetised in any way - the site owners wanted to keep it as a free resource - I just host the archived site for them.

Actually, in recent years, the site had no interaction between users and it was almost as if it had been frozen/archived. So it's like I want to move on from this chapter.

I wrote a tutorial on how I archived the site and what additional steps I took to secure and clean up the forum: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/how-to-archive-a-xenforo-forum-to-make-it-read-only.7825/

Yes, great guide, congratulations. I also read it a long time ago in the resources. Thank you for sharing it with the community.

I would agree with you, the era of forums is gone, people tent to consume more than giving, and people nowadays are focused on sharing and creating videos rather than typing and creating texts. The younger generation won’t join forums, unless is a TikTok or other sort of social media platform. We are not going to be younger, we are all getting olde and older, and as life is changing, we have to prioritise other things.

I wish I could disagree with you, but that's what's happening. It's right for each generation to use and waste their time as they see fit.

Being something built with passion and having dedicated so much time and energy to it, perhaps I am wrong in the first place to give it and add even sentimental value due to dedication to the project. But sometimes we have to be cynical and pragmatic, let go of things that don't bring satisfaction and use our time with other alternatives or as free time for ourselves.

Thank you for your replies.

 

[eL_]

What`s the site name?

 

[JamesBrown]

I have 3 Forums, all of them photography related, and from what I’ve noticed most active members on my forums are old people (40+). And from that you can have a conclusion, that forums are dying slowly,

I don’t draw that conclusion at all. . Photography is a niche for 40+ year olds. I love Photography, have done for 45 years, but for youngsters it’s mostly just phones and filters. Your forum will die slowly, just like camera sales dropped by 95% in recent years. It’s a dying niche.

If you want a young audience, choose a niche that seriously interests them (I’d argue,thats not traditional photography) create quality content to attract them and start building a community.

 

[Faust]

I don’t draw that conclusion at all. . Photography is a niche for 40+ year olds. I love Photography, have done for 45 years, but for youngsters it’s mostly just phones and filters. Your forum will die slowly, just like camera sales dropped by 95% in recent years. It’s a dying niche.

If you want a young audience, choose a niche that seriously interests them (I’d argue,thats not traditional photography) create quality content to attract them and start building a community.

I would say it’s 50/50 , there are some youngster who are interested in photography too. Obviously they are not on their 20s. There is more content from older people than youngster to be honest.

What interest youngster is TikTok , and other video platforms, unfortunately XenForo is not that modern software to attract youngster. You can build a forum, and that’s it, deadend. Photography is the same as forums, dying slowly.

by the way, I’m 29 . So you can’t put everyone together.

 

[JamesBrown]

What interest youngster is TikTok

Are they interested in TikTok?

Or are they interested in the content on the platform? It's almost always about actual content.

Rather than be upset that xF is not more like TikTok, Why not grow your forum using TikTok?

Look at DP Review, it has really busy photography forums, probably one of the busiest around. But it also has a big TikTok presence with thousands of followers, which I'm sure gets youngsters onto their forums. It has a YouTube channel; It does zillions of blog post type reviews and articles; It has a busy Instagram, Twitter, Facebook channel. It does podcasts, seminars, webinars, courses and competitions etc.

These Social media channels are awesome. They have a ton of targeted traffic we can attract. IMO We don't need xF to do all these things or be cheap imitations of them, they are there for us to use already. A forum which is an island, just waiting for people to bother to register and post will rarely succeed.

 

[Faust]

Rather than be upset that xF is not more like TikTok, Why not grow your forum using TikTok?

While I don't want my forums to become social site, using social sites to gain new members is time consuming.

I do have Instagram account on one of my photography forum. I wouldn't say it working.

Or are they interested in the content on the platform? It's almost always about actual content.

They are interested in how easy the content is accessible to them. So yes, they are interested in TikTok, we can argue here all day long, but we both know that youngster are interested in consuming.

Look at DP Review, it has really busy photography forums

At the time when DP review started, there wasn't many social media sites around. It's well established forum with enough resources to have social media sites and maintain them. They are not hobbyist anymore.

These Social media channels are awesome.

I only agree here with you.

We don't need xF to do all these things or be cheap imitations of them,

No, but there's lack of user engagement.

And yes, I'm very upset with XF, there's poor communication from Team, no improvements over 2+ years or new features, they fail to meet the promise which was made 1 year ago.

While XF is cheaper forum software out there, is more expensive in a long run. I hardly rely on addons to achieve what I want on my forums. There aren't many developers on this forum, some are gone already.

As I said before, XF is great if you want as simple forum and nothing more, unless you are developer and you are using the framework for something else. But to have a successful community, you need more than just a forum..