VerticalScope Inc Headed toward Bankruptcy?

[frm]

I know the topic is slanted towards "forums dying" or "forums thriving" with the outlook, but VerticleScope should not be a metric that we compare it to whatsoever.

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone in the finance world when 43% of the company is owned by private equity.

 

[Mr Lucky]

. And since they're locked to an old version of XF 2.1, they're gonna be in some trouble sooner than later.

Are they “locked” and isn’t that likely to be a very long time in the future?

 

[Max Fridman]

I know the topic is slanted towards "forums dying" or "forums thriving" with the outlook, but VerticleScope should not be a metric that we compare it to whatsoever.

True, is just a way to track Google changes data and some online communities engagement.

 

[Ricsca]

Google has been considering forums as places where people chat and without valuable content for many years and this makes them indexed poorly!
whoever says otherwise is lying knowing they are lying

 

[MySiteGuy]

Google has been considering forums as places where people chat and without valuable content for many years and this makes them indexed poorly!
whoever says otherwise is lying knowing they are lying

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:

.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

 

[Chris2]

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:
View attachment 322834.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

IMHO, that’s just an excuse to move forums off the main search index list and thus away from being as visible to the vast majority of viewers. This gives Google’s pride and joy, Reddit etc, all the more visibility they obviously don’t need. Since they implemented this new tab “tool”, our forum has done nothing but lose views and clicks. Just stating facts…

 

[Suzanne O]

This flies in the face of the fact that Google added a forums tab to search results:
View attachment 322834.

Google's new tools help discussion forums and social media platforms rank higher in search results | TechCrunch

Google today introduced new tools for website owners, including those running social media sites and discussion forums, who want to better elevate their

techcrunch.com

You use the "do not index" option on your forum. It prevents your stuff from being viewed by idiots online.

 

[MySiteGuy]

IMHO, that’s just an excuse to move forums off the main search index list and thus away from being as visible to the vast majority of viewers. This gives Google’s pride and joy, Reddit etc, all the more visibility they obviously don’t need. Since they implemented this new tab “tool”, our forum has done nothing but lose views and clicks. Just stating facts…

If it's an excuse to move them off the main search index, why do forums still appear in the main index? They added the tab to give them a boost in addition to normal search results, not instead of.

Here's what happens when a forum, even in a competitive niche, decides to put in the extra effort:

How I Started a Forum and Ranked It on Google

Build a community and

medium.com

And Google about the topic:

The rise of forums: Why Google prefers them and how to adapt

Discussion boards are cool again. Find out why Google now prioritizes them and how to foster community and engagement on your niche website.

searchengineland.com

Google Defends Statements On Its Search Quality & Forum Results

Recently, we covered some of Google's rationale for ranking forums like Reddit and Quora so well in the Discussion and Forums box for many queries. Just a few days ago, we covered how I was sad to see Google ranking some dangerous and potentially harmful forum threads for health-related queries.

www.seroundtable.com

 

[Chris2]

If it's an excuse to move them off the main search index, why do forums still appear in the main index? They added the tab to give them a boost in addition to normal search results, not instead of.

Here's what happens when a forum, even in a competitive niche, decides to put in the extra effort:

How I Started a Forum and Ranked It on Google

Build a community and

medium.com

And Google about the topic:

The rise of forums: Why Google prefers them and how to adapt

Discussion boards are cool again. Find out why Google now prioritizes them and how to foster community and engagement on your niche website.

searchengineland.com

Google Defends Statements On Its Search Quality & Forum Results

Recently, we covered some of Google's rationale for ranking forums like Reddit and Quora so well in the Discussion and Forums box for many queries. Just a few days ago, we covered how I was sad to see Google ranking some dangerous and potentially harmful forum threads for health-related queries.

www.seroundtable.com

They do for now, but slowly disappearing. Believe what you want. No reason in wasting my time debating this with you about it. As I stated, only facts pertaining to my experience with Google.

On a side note. Who all in today’s society is actively going to search, then scroll over to the forum tab, click that and sort through those, when the topic/answer they were looking for in the first place is right there on the main search listings page. Whether it be in AI forum, or on one of the top links listed, to Reddit or Quora…

Heck, on top of that, a lot of younger users don’t even know what a forum is or want to use one. When they search, they insert Reddit after the search string if they want a forum/discussion type answer.

 

[Mr Lucky]

They do for now, but slowly disappearing.

Google seems to chop and change. There seemed to have been a decline for our forum, then it boosted back up again.

I would assume (as we are talking about VS) they are such a huge corporation then they should have some real market experts/analysts.

But no fire sale yet. Seems to be investment in AI though - perhaps that is a sign of desperation?

 

[Chris2]

Google seems to chop and change. There seemed to have been a decline for our forum, then it boosted back up again.

I would assume (as we are talking about VS) they are such a huge corporation then they should have some real market experts/analysts.

But no fire sale yet. Seems to be investment in AI though - perhaps that is a sign of desperation?

I’ve noticed the ups/downs also, in a very downward trajectory overall.

It seems VS is not doing that well and as they make public, due to google’s search updates and the negative effects of them. I’m seeing the exact same challenges they are. As far as AI goes, I’ve read that Google doesn’t like a lot of AI on end user sites and may demote them as a result. Typical Google arrogance however, they never tell you the exact reason your site is demoted, only giving you a long list of possibilities to work with. In the end you, you get to choose one of those possibilities, make the requested changes, cross your fingers and wait for weeks/months to see any possible search improvements. If I was VS, I’d be very careful implementing AI.

 

[Ricsca]

On a side note. Who all in today’s society is actively going to search, then scroll over to the forum tab, click that and sort through those, when the topic/answer they were looking for in the first place is right there on the main search listings page. Whether it be in AI forum, or on one of the top links listed, to Reddit or Quora…

You said exactly what I wanted to say!

Among other things, in Italy the forum card is not yet there.The forum card is a very negative thing for the forums other than positive! Already in the home page it was a miracle if some posts appeared, let alone now that they are confined to a tab where nobody click ever ...

 

[briansol]

VerticalScope still makes $13+ mln a year.

No, they lost a million or 2, again.

q on q loss along with y on y declines is not a successful business. If i was on the board, heads would be rolling. I guess they already did that though, ditching unprofitable channels like threadloom and who knows what else.

With 13 mil in rev, they don't have a rev problem - they have a spending problem.
2-4 mil can probably host/serve/support/moderate the sites they have. Where's the rest of the burndown?

 

[HotRodCarts]

They just bought several big musical instrument forums a couple months ago.

 

[Chris2]

No, they lost a million or 2, again.

q on q loss along with y on y declines is not a successful business. If i was on the board, heads would be rolling. I guess they already did that though, ditching unprofitable channels like threadloom and who knows what else.

With 13 mil in rev, they don't have a rev problem - they have a spending problem.
2-4 mil can probably host/serve/support/moderate the sites they have. Where's the rest of the burndown?

Shows they have 245 employees. That seems like an awful lot based on that revenue. Also looks like their stock is back at a 52-week low.

 

[GCT2007]

Shows they have 245 employees. That seems like an awful lot based on that revenue. Also looks like their stock is back at a 52-week low.

All the innovations.

 

[zappaDPJ]

They just bought several big musical instrument forums a couple months ago.

They have been buying up destroying guitar related forums for the last eight years. I've lost count of the number of such forums I no longer visit.

 

[GCT2007]

Introducing an AI assistant. Curious how this goes, tbh.

ForaFrank - New Community Assistant - Coming Soon

We understand that some of you may have concerns about the use of AI-generated responses in our forums. We’re approaching this as an experimental feature. We've noticed some threads, especially ones by newer users or involving niche topics, sometimes go unanswered under “What's New” > “Looking...

www.lawnsite.com

 

[Max Fridman]

AI Mode is obviously the future of Google Search

The internet’s biggest search engine is going to be unrecognizable in just a few years.

www.theverge.com

Google announced "AI Mode" yesterday coming to US users.

Basically you get AI responses for every query (even longer ones) like ChatGPT or Gemini does already. Like AI Overviews but personalized.

When I ask Fox and Reid what this might mean for the web, and for the millions of website owners and publishers that have long depended on Google to send them traffic, Fox says he’s convinced the rise of AI is not the end of the open web. “I deeply believe this is an expansionary moment,” he says. “The death of the web has been 25 years coming, and it’s not happening. The web is growing.” He says Google’s data shows that people do click the links in the AI Overviews, and can actually be more engaged in the sites they go to because they’re deliberately looking to go deeper on something. But he allows that he’s an optimist on this stuff.

I feel like question and answer forums are basically doomed long term, you need to provide different value to your users, the death of StackOverflow is another signal of this change.

What value forums could provide long term?

 

[Chris2]

They have been buying up destroying guitar related forums for the last eight years. I've lost count of the number of such forums I no longer visit.

They bought Marshallforum.com recently. From briefly visiting, I could immediately tell members weren’t very happy about it.