Thinking about closing your community?

[Floris]

Ever thought about just closing your site and doing something totally different?

Real life, bills, negative posters, we all have these issues, and they create a negative feeling towards the site or forum you're running. And that's a shame. Because one has a nice hobby running a site, and part of it means the responsibility to keep it online for the others who you provide the service too. But it's not that simple.

Sometimes you hit a downer and you feel like you can just stop working on the site, close it, and throw it away. Perhaps do something else with your time. Perhaps sell it. Whatever.

Thankfully I hear this a lot so it is not just me. Thankfully, I do realize this is just a temporary downer and things will catch up and go better eventually.

Do you know what I am talking about?

Any advice on how you deal with that?

My advise to people who feel this and are about to really do it: Don't! You will most likely regret your actions.

 

[Mikey]

I have two forums currently.. I've been thinking of closing one down because of inactivity, or moving it over to a different forum platform.

Then I realize, "Mikey, you're being an idiot, Simply changing to XenForo won't help anything.". I do have a constant number of guests on that site, but the site has a LOT of good resources and knowledge, so there's always about 15-30 guests online. If only I can convert them to members.

I simply don't have much time any more. I don't even post on my Off Topic site much nowadays.. But thankfully there I have an awesome userbase who don't need me to actively be posting in order to post, however with the other forum, it's a constant battle, members don't post if I don't post. So frustrating..

Some days I just feel like closing down every web site I own and that's that, keep to social networks only, but then I realise that it's a stupid move, I'd lose all faith from any people who know me, I'd become a joke.. and I'd be bored. So I keep them up for when better days come along.

 

[Ian_imported]

It always seems a shame to let a community/forum disappear, even if activity has dropped off. Selling them on can do wonders in some cases - I've bought and sold forums over the years, and some that I took on hadn't been active for years and they're now flourishing. Likewise, the opposite is also true and someone else has turned something I started in to an active forum after I sold it on.

FWIW, if anyone is keen on selling a forum - please do let me know, as I'm always on the lookout

 

[aam]

It can be disheartening when a forum is not doing well. In most instances a bit or drive and restructuring can revitalise the community. However, in some instances, it just doesn't seem to work. It's really tricky to decide what to do, especially if you have put some serious time and effort in. At what point do you decide to just cut your losses and close?