Site Management What's the reason why you gave up on your site?

[Heatman]

A lot of communities have come and go for one reason or another. Some people find it easy to run a forum with everything being in place and ready for them to see things through while some people start struggling either from the beginning or mid way through running the forum. This will eventually lead them to give up and end the project.

What's the reason why you gave up on your site?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I gave up on a few sites throughout the years because I lost interest in them, or I didn't have as much time to work on them. I'm thankfully a bit better at this though, and have had Thee Zone around for a bit. (It is a combination of three communities merged that I started about 2 years ago respectively.)

 

[Cory]

I closed my Yu-Gi-Oh Marketplace forum on two separate occasions because it was a hard niche to promote and gain members. Both times it was open I didn't gain not one new member. Besides, most people trade TCG cards on social media these days.

 

[joelr]

The #1 reason why a hobbyist site closes is because of the owner. An owner really needs to think through their commitment before starting up a new community or forum: do you have enough money to sustain the community for several years, do you have any content, do you have enough time. This is all wrapped up in the life of the owner / forum admins.

 

[Tracy]

What's the reason why you gave up on your site?

I imagine that many are due to losing interest in the niche.
I know I sold one of my domains (and the XF script and database) to a friend for $25 because ultimately I did not have the time to devote to it and he wanted to try to make a go of it to get some additional income.
That site really did not cost me any extra as I knew that I was not going to be rushing out to upgrade the script since the developers had not given me crap to care about on it, and I already had a VPS for other sites that it could run on. I simply had lost interest in posting in the niche since my current one is rather expensive to support and obtain items to create content for.
I still pay for and maintain the VPS that site I sold is on, but it's now on another provider (Contabo) as I have some other sites on it also and main site is now alone on its VPS instance.
I just decided, as mentioned, that I did not have the time nor the interest to generate content for it. And to top it off, I did not see the point of my giving XF more money when they aren't giving me what I would like. I've got XF and several add-ons actively licensed.. and I STILL cannot upgrade to XF 2.3 because a few of my primary add-ons STILL are not updated to 2.3 version compatibility, never mind it's been around 6 months since the release of the 2.3 BETA (and that is telling that it takes 1/2 a year or more for a primary paid 3rd party developer to get updated as XF is SO dependent upon 3rd party add-ons to make it work well).
My main site I still run as a hobby for me and offer others the opportunity to participate there if they choose. It gives me somewhere I can post my content without having to worry about ticking someone off because I may offend one of their site supporters. Of course, I've NEVER been known for calling anyone out.
📣

 

[joelr]

and I STILL cannot upgrade to XF 2.3 because a few of my primary add-ons STILL are not updated to 2.3 version

Isn't the whole model of XF though to slowly upgrade at your leisure? Like, what's the rush to upgrade especially if you depend on 3rd party?

 

[Shortie]

The very first forum I had that was pretty successful was one I ran from 2009 - 2017. I was proud of the forum but in 2017, the hosting prices went up drastically and I had to decide to move hosts to one not as good or close the site. I chose to close the forum and move onto something new but kept the backup until my laptop hard drive died and I lost that too.

I still miss the place to this day and have tried to reopen it but never found the time to put into a forum like that one again.

 

[Tracy]

Isn't the whole model of XF though to slowly upgrade at your leisure? Like, what's the rush to upgrade especially if you depend on 3rd party?

There are bugs that are present in 2.2 that are fixed in 2.3. Several of them do impact the operation of the site.
Of course, there are a constant stream of bugs being found (and some even fixed) in 2.3.
I've pretty much just decided I'll be waiting on the next version that has a better editor. Where I am with 2.2 works, albeit with some issues that are present on any 2.2 site.
But honestly.. I don't think waiting 1/4 to 1/2 a year to update is exactly rushing into something.

But as for the topic... every site I let go was in a niche that I was playing in. Once I lost interest in the niche I also lost interest in the site. It is rather hard to create content on something that you are not active in unless it is one that you got out of but have a long history of being involved in before.

 

[Nomad]

My primary aim of creating a website to to make money if the website cannot make money for over a year, I cannot afford to run it further, therefore, I try to sell my website. If I cannot sell, I just move content to another site and then shut down the site. I cannot run my websites from my pockets.

 

[Tracy]

My primary aim of creating a website to to make money if the website cannot make money for over a year, I cannot afford to run it further, therefore, I try to sell my website. I

And sadly... that has become much of the watchword of the internet.
The old philosophy of providing content/data for free for users is long gone. But luckily there are many of us that still live by that motto. But even those are succumbing to the need to monetize since society has become more a consumer and less a generator of content/data.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I don't plan to give up on my forums now. I'll let them run their course. if they grow big, awesome. if they stay small, that's okay too.

Now, years ago when I had AAF the first time and my other forums, I did give them all up. But it was for a good reason - I needed to figure me out.

I smoked 2 packs a day, drank like a fish, was overweight, never exercised, was in pain all the time, and lonely. I almost did something stupid and I hate even thinking about that today.

So i had to figure me out.

I did, too. Starting riding a bicycle and that led to hiking - completely changed my life. I don't smoke or drink anymore. I'm at a healthy weight. I'm happily married. I have a great job. Life significantly improved.

I hate that I gave up my forums but I probably needed to figure me out so it was for the better.

 

[Nomad]

And sadly... that has become much of the watchword of the internet.
The old philosophy of providing content/data for free for users is long gone. But luckily there are many of us that still live by that motto. But even those are succumbing to the need to monetize since society has become more a consumer and less a generator of content/data.

Even people who try to make money from their site provide content for free. However, it costs money to run a site and so website owners try to generate revenue. Just because people run ads on their websites does not mean they are not offering value. Well, I agree that people do not like ads on the website but they also need to understand it costs money to run the website. As long as people get something for free, it should be ok for them to see ads.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Even people who try to make money from their site provide content for free. However, it costs money to run a site and so website owners try to generate revenue. Just because people run ads on their websites does not mean they are not offering value. Well, I agree that people do not like ads on the website but they also need to understand it costs money to run the website. As long as people get something for free, it should be ok for them to see ads.

I run ads on my blogs. My blogs offer significant value. I don't schedule blog posts unless they are of a high quality and packed full of value.

So, to say that people who run ads aren't providing value is pretty much fake news - LOL.

I'm not selling my content though. I'm using it to foster authority and a reputation in my niche.

What I'm selling are products that I have made or advertising.

 

[joelr]

I want to say that it's brave for someone to walk away from their forum and close it down. It's okay to prioritize your real world health and wellness (and usually your pocketbook - forums are "sneakily" expensive!).

What I wish more forum admins did, however, was provided a pathway for their exit. There might be a passionate member who wants to step up, a new owner who might breathe new life, a merge that might allow it still live on. The exits that bother me is where the admin just ghosts everyone's and doesn't communicate.

 

[Nomad]

When I was no longer interested in running the first public forum I created, I listed it for sale on Flippa. I found a good buyer and then sold it. I was a manager for the forum for one year and the owner decided to shut down because she said her priority changed. It must be pretty hard decision for her considering the fact that she paid money to acquire it and also paid money to run it.

 

[Tracy]

Even people who try to make money from their site provide content for free. However, it costs money to run a site and so website owners try to generate revenue. Just because people run ads on their websites does not mean they are not offering value. Well, I agree that people do not like ads on the website but they also need to understand it costs money to run the website. As long as people get something for free, it should be ok for them to see ads.

Sorry... if you are making money from your site (even with ads), you ultimately are not providing it free. If you want to see an example of true "providing it free" you can visit any site that does not force ads on you or subscriptions to access certain content (mine for an example). I do realize that if my site grows exponentially that attitude will have to change after it exceeds $200 a month to support (the amount which was set by me as excessive monthly expenditure for a hobby). But that's a long way away for me currently, and generally if your site is costing (self hosted) more than $200 a month you have entered the level of a business. Your statement does prove my point. At one time folks were not so concerned with making enough to "pay for the site". It was more about sharing the information for free (real free, where you were not subject to ads or any of the other money making silliness).

That was my point... yes, it does cost money... I pay it every month and in yearly renewals. But I choose to not run ads nor gateway content.

 

[Tracy]

I run ads on my blogs. My blogs offer significant value. I don't schedule blog posts unless they are of a high quality and packed full of value.

And as I mentioned... that is not a site that is ran for free for the ultimate consumption of users, but one that is designed to obtain financial input from.
And it's a fact that I do acknowledge. We all have a point that eventually a site moves from a hobby to an encumbrance. And once it reaches that encumbrance stage it needs to be able to support itself in some manner. My emphasis was that is now more a sad fact of reality than the initial dream of the internet.

 

[Tracy]

There might be a passionate member who wants to step up, a new owner who might breathe new life, a merge that might allow it still live on.

I'm a member of an alternative XF support site that the site admin is contemplating that very issue with.
The site doesn't get a lot of traffic (other than some trolls from over on the XenForo support site that heard about it). The theory of setting it up was altruistic... give users of the XenForo script a place to get support without worrying about the weight/power of the actual XenForo staff or developers to impact it.
But like all things, it requires the participation of a certain number of knowledgeable people to support it, and sadly many are afraid of making the XF staff/developers mad by participating on it. Several of the comments that have been shared in conversations on via email were that several license holders were afraid to participate on it due to them being afraid of it impacting their status on the official XF site (rightly or wrongly I have no opinion on).

 

[Nomad]

Sorry... if you are making money from your site (even with ads), you ultimately are not providing it free. If you want to see an example of true "providing it free" you can visit any site that does not force ads on you or subscriptions to access certain content (mine for an example). I do realize that if my site grows exponentially that attitude will have to change after it exceeds $200 a month to support (the amount which was set by me as excessive monthly expenditure for a hobby). But that's a long way away for me currently, and generally if your site is costing (self hosted) more than $200 a month you have entered the level of a business. Your statement does prove my point. At one time folks were not so concerned with making enough to "pay for the site". It was more about sharing the information for free (real free, where you were not subject to ads or any of the other money making silliness).

That was my point... yes, it does cost money... I pay it every month and in yearly renewals. But I choose to not run ads nor gateway content.

Tracy, I buy your argument.
But I also believe that if you are not running ads and if you end up shutting down your site because you can no longer pay for the maintenance, it is better to run ads and make the site self sustainable, if not making profits.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Passive income is a wonderful thing if you can accomplish it.