Site Management Did you ever revive any dead forums?

[Baw$e]

What dead forums did you bring back? How long did it take to increase activity on the dead community?

 

[Nomad]

I recently revived a dead forum. The forum was shut down for almost a year. I have not posted a public announcement and have not sent emails to the users so no new posts are made on the site.

 

[joelr]

What dead forums did you bring back? How long did it take to increase activity on the dead community?

Admin Junkies merged in some forums that were offline. I don't expect any activity, but the past discussions have value

 

[Ravenfreak]

I revived my old Mighty No. 9 forum, but sadly I'm the only one who posts. :V I sent a mass email but I have a feeling lots of people don't have access to those email addresses anymore or it went to their spam folders so they didn't bother seeing it.

 

[Timelord_]

I tried to revive an old forum of mine (offline for 1.5 years), brought it back up, worked for approx 6 months to revive, but the ;love' just was not there.

None of the old members interacted, and growth was very, slow.

 

[Baw$e]

Admin Junkies merged in some forums that were offline. I don't expect any activity, but the past discussions have value

The content alone has its benefits with SEO, did you email members after the merge to try and boost activity?

I tried to revive an old forum of mine (offline for 1.5 years), brought it back up, worked for approx 6 months to revive, but the ;love' just was not there.

None of the old members interacted, and growth was very, slow.

It requires an immense amount of dedication to build an active community. You need to lead by example. My forum is more than a hobby for me, its my future career/business. Slow growth is better than no growth.

 

[Nebulous]

I did, after a few mass emails several people returned (six years after it was closed).

 

[Baw$e]

I did, after a few mass emails several people returned (six years after it was closed).

What forums did you bring back? Are any of them still running?

 

[Nebulous]

What forums did you bring back? Are any of them still running?

Yeah http://offtopix.com

 

[Shortie]

I can't say that I ever revived any dead forums, but I did attempt to revive Chat Addicts, a forum I had from 2009 to 2017. However, due to a lack of time, it never took off as I hoped.

I would have loved to have the backup for Chat Addicts still as I feel that would have helped a great deal but unfortunately, I lost that when my hard drive died on me.

 

[denyignorance]

Somewhat. Not completely dead, but definitely on its last legs. I was a longtime contributor to a very large conspiracy theory discussion board called Above Top Secret. At its height in the mid-2000s, we had 3.8 million unique monthly users. Fast forward a couple of decades, the ownership changed hands a few times and was ultimately abandoned by the last owner. Thankfully, the staff and I created a new forum in preparation for the demise of ATS, which finally went offline after 27 years, following its inception in 1997.

Deny Ignorance, its successor—named after the original site's slogan—is thriving. We're currently seeing around 200 daily active users, over 600 members, more than 20,000 posts, and about 100,000 unique monthly visitors, with growth continuing. Not bad for a little over a year's time.

It's exciting to watch it grow again. It reminds me of the good old days when BBSs ruled the internet.