I need your opinion, your advice

[Silmarillion]

I still have a forum which has been running on vB3 since 2004. For many years I have only marginally cared for the community and have had a guilty conscience for a long time. The problem is that the forum only has very few regular users and I have never earned a cent with the forum, have never placed advertising or anything like that.
What do you think? Should I give it up, or should I invest a little more money and move it to XF2? What about the Theme? Can it be taken over without any problems? In 2004 I spent a few days with creating. The style is not mine. I took it over from another software and rebuilt it, adapted it for vB3. With my own modifications, of course. Or should I just use the logo and the color selection?

Fantasy-Foren - Tauche ein in die Welt der Fantasie

Forum zum Thema Fantasy! Diskussionen über Herr der Ringe, Harry Potter, Star-Wars und vieles mehr!

www.fantasy-foren.de

Would you invest ~ $ 400 again for this? It's just a hobby. And actually not even that anymore. But somehow I would not like to give up the forum after such a long time.

I look forward to your honest opinions.

 

[StarArmy]

Forums are like trees. Just because a tree grew somewhere in the past doesn't mean you can just grow a new tree in the location - things change. What I'm saying is the internet has changed and building forum communities is way more difficult from a people standpoint compared to growing something that is still alive, even if it's struggling. Starting over, if you want to start over, is easier said than done.

 

[Max Taxable]

) moved a large forum for me

Possible to merge your old one with this large one? Redirect the old domain and mass email the old members?

 

[hstammlerj]

Hi,

the forum only has very few regular users

That's the one and only information you give concerning the heart of every BB: the community.
So, what do the active users say to your ideas/plans? If there aren't any, you just have "content", not a BB anymore.

cu
Herbert

 

[Silmarillion]

A question about the XF-license-system: is it possible to open a non-accessible test forum with a license for another forum to test a migration? Or do I have to buy a new license for this? If the migration works the way I want it to, I would of course buy my own new license.

 

[Nicolas FR]

It is possible yes and I seem to have read that the forum should be limited to a few users and should be password protected, something like that.

 

[TPerry]

Would you invest ~ $ 400 again for this? It's just a hobby. And actually not even that anymore. But somehow I would not like to give up the forum after such a long time.

Apparently it is an area you once had an interest in. Do you still have that interest? If not, then I would not actively pursue it.
My current site has been running since 2018, and I had done very little with it until the last few weeks when I finally was able to spend some time with the hardware I had that is part of what the site is about and rekindle the flame of interest.
If you are not going to participate and help generate content, what is your purpose of the site. Hopefully not to "make money" because it takes time and effort to get there.
To me (retired on fixed income) it's a struggle at times to "devote" the time and the money to the site, but I look at it currently as part of my hobby.

Don't get stuck on trying to duplicate your old style/look. Upgrading to XF is a no-brainer honestly.... currently supported, and officially supports all but the latest PHP.
All you basically needs to start with is the base XF forum package, then later you can decide if you need a gallery, resource manager, link directory, article system or showcase... and add them in. I luckily already had the base XF paid for that I used on another site with XFRM and XFMG, so they migrated over to my current site.
As for styles... I have to HIGHLY recommend looking at @Russ and PixelExit. You won't get much better support and their styles are a pleasure to work with on tweaking for your own site.

 

[Forsaken]

A question about the XF-license-system: is it possible to open a non-accessible test forum with a license for another forum to test a migration? Or do I have to buy a new license for this? If the migration works the way I want it to, I would of course buy my own new license.

Yes, you're allowed to have a test install, it just cannot have public registration or be used as an active forum (at least those are the requirements I remember).

 

[Alvin63]

I’ll second third the pixel exit styles and the amazing support you get from them. With that and a Xenforo licence you’d probably only be spending about $200. Unless you want addons - in which case yes you could spend $400 ish. I have Bobs article management system as an add on which makes the site look amazing - I use it as a home page with articles and photos and that makes it all look very professional.

But I think you need to be posting regularly yourself and having a presence - starting topic threads etc. I’ve been on forums that have dwindled away (partly why I decided to start one of my own) and in all three cases it was that admin had lost interest and had virtually no input. Members got fed up with the lack of moderation or a presence to make it feel alive so stopped bothering to post and went elsewhere. Then new members join and see an inactive forum and don’t stay.

So yes you can revitalise it and stop it looking older and samey. But I think you need to still have some regular input and be the driving force. And make sure moderators are doing their jobs. I was also a moderator on a forum where the owner/admin had lost interest and it was hard to even find out who it was or contact them. When they were contacted it was a lazy attitude. It annoyed people - who jumped ship.

If you are going to do it I would get on with it . Before one of your members decides they can do it better and starts their own.

 

[Alvin63]

I used the xenbase style - looks very nice and has extra icons for navigation tabs and extra footer settings. I’ve seen that style used with a different colour scheme as well.

 

[Alvin63]

Your current forum looks very nice by the way. I personally think if you’re still committed to it then a change to Xenforo would be a sign that it’s going on to new and greater things - with some added interest and perhaps regular competitions or something. Although I think it could be hard to get an existing forum back to where it used to be as it’s already “familiar “ to some and maybe now seen as a bit dead. But - there are millions of people out there who get interested in things at different times. I think you’d have to add new content regularly. Maybe an interview with a fantasy writer or something? A review of an event - that kind of thing.

Our personal lives go through different phases and we can’t always predict the life pressures or changes so it’s understandable that you’d lose interest at times (and I’m sure I will at some point). But if there is someone eise enthusiastic on the forum you could collaborate a bit maybe. I get a lot of sense of reward from the feedback of members sometimes.

Looking at the styling on your current forum, I think you would need to pay someone for a custom design unless you can do things like that - and that could be expensive. Although some of pixel exits gaming styles might be a different style upgrade.

If you decide not to continue with it you could maybe see if another member is interested in taking it over. Or selling it?