Bringing back old forums?

juststeven

juststeven

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Do you think it's possible to bring back forums that have been dead and gone for a long time? Or do you think it would be better for that person to start afresh? Personally I think it's a difficult and time consuming task to bring back old forums but it is possible with the correct approach. Have you ever managed to bring back a forum from the dead or have you tried and failed?
 
I think it is possible, if done in a good way. You obviously need to promote it well, but I think the vital thing when bringing back an old forum is to make something worth coming back to. This means having new features, new forums etc, otherwise there would be no reason to go back.
 
Probably it would be easy to bring back an old forum to life than totally new one. Old members won't come back in most cases but you will have big base of topics/posts to start with.
 
It is probably just as hard as making a new forum, and situationally easier.
 
I think it is definitely possible, it would just take alot of hard work from the admin(s) and they must be willing to devote alot more time to make it more successful than it previously was.

One forum that wouldn't be much of a success to bring back would be a sports forum because alot of the posts will be live and in date.

If you were to bring it back (a sports forum in this case) you would need to archive most of the posts. It just wouldn't make sense if one was bringing up those old topics, discussing the games as they are years or months old now. For a sports forum the topics would have to be new and fresh so it just wouldn't make sense to me but overall, for other genres it could well be done with the right person in charge.
 
depends on how long the forum has been dead, its ok having a number of posts and topics but if they are way outdated you may aswell cut your losses and start a fresh, maybe use the old forum, to message the member base and inform them of your new forum and what its about, however i think thats about it.
 
Haha, wow, what a coincidence. I'm actually bringing back Advertise Hotspot (my own forum) soon! I got it all planned and decided to get back into "foruming" just yesterday. I got huge plans for the site after going offline for half a year.

Anyway, yes, I think it is definitely possible to bring back a dead forum. Of course its going to be quite a tough job, but I believe if you're determined, its possible! 🙂
 
Joel said:
Haha, wow, what a coincidence. I'm actually bringing back Advertise Hotspot (my own forum) soon! I got it all planned and decided to get back into "foruming" just yesterday. I got huge plans for the site after going offline for half a year.

Anyway, yes, I think it is definitely possible to bring back a dead forum. Of course its going to be quite a tough job, but I believe if you're determined, its possible! 🙂
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Good luck with that although the niche has got even harder in 6 months you've been gone with the rise of some unique promotion forums like Forum Hour! You better have some tricks up your sleeve!
 
Definitely possible. I've done it after my forum was 'off the grid' for quite a long time. Although it really does depend on what your activity was before the break, how many old members you can reach and what you have in mind to bring in some freshness to the forum.<br /><br />-- 06 Nov 2012, 20:12 --<br /><br />Definitely possible. I've done it after my forum was 'off the grid' for quite a long time. Although it really does depend on what your activity was before the break, how many old members you can reach and what you have in mind to bring in some freshness to the forum.
 
Depends. If you still have some active members there and some decent content, then it's a good idea. If you have done some bad SEO and will need to do it again and the content is not worth the hassle (under 10k posts - unless they're really outstanding), just delete and start all over again. With a decent plan and some investment you can get a forum up and running in months and maybe starting from scratch is better than trying to use something broken.
 
I had thought about bringing back an old forum, but ultimately decided it was not worth it.

I would say it's possible. But at least for me, it proves challenging.
 
It's definitely possible, I have seen forum owners do this before, and become successful once again.
 
I've done it a few times and have had some success, mostly with my roleplay forums 🙂 Harvest Moon Ivy was my most successful comeback; the original had about 4k posts and 60 members - and when I brought it back it reached 80k posts and almost 400 members.
 
Ive almost done it before but for some reason members never stick around out of 10 only 2 seem to stay, the best way to get an old forum going again.
 
I've seen this happen before, but it's not impossible. I think what depends on the forum's success is what the admin bringing the forum back does with it. If he totally revises it and leaves it like the original owner had it, then it can be a success. If he can't, the site could end up not lasting long.
 
Well, Affinity is a revival, though it's on a new board since I wasn't the root admin (I was member #2) on the old board. Bringing back an old forum, as someone else said, can be harder or can be easier depending on the situation. Really, the only thing Affinity kept is the name Affinity and a couple features. We have a similar layout as before, but a debate forum can only change so much. If you think it will be easier and better for you to bring back an old forum, do it.

The biggest thing to ask yourself is how will you make it different than before to prevent another closing. For me and Affinity, it's now three years later, I have a lot more experience as an admin and a lot more knowledge to use in debates as well. I won't make the same mistake of giving up when things get slow as I did before.
 
I did, in a way or another. One worked, the other didn't.

I had a forum. We used to be active as much as we decided to get independent in terms of domain and forum control. But then problems came one after another. I had to leave it because I admit I was frustrated and real life got busy too. When I got the time I returned and tried to be more active, but barely anyone stick around and combined with yet new problems it died officially. Another forum I had was a small one and it was never alive. When a friend and I decided to bring things together again, I thought to give it a shot with the forum once again. And it just came that way to me, as we recruit more members. Surely there was quiet times, but since I didn't really put high expectations on it and just did what I could and enjoyed it, it returned somehow. And even though we are not as big or active as FP is with the post rate, we are still a happy community.

Basically reviving is not something impossible. I appreciate people who wish to continue their old passion which got stopped for some reasons. But unless we analyze what we did wrong before we restart the forum, I don't think it'll get us anywhere far. And of course your 'objective' in reviving the forum. So think carefully before you spend your energy for something that may go to waste. XD
 
Personally, I would never try and bring back a site that has already died. Too much going on at the old site. I would always recommend starting from scratch. You can use the same ideas as you did on your old site, but maybe now you could come up with better ideas to incorporate to bring a steadier flow of users.
 
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