Could a free hosted forum last for five to ten years?

Dashing was on Forumer for 3-4 years, then Zetaboards for 2, so combined that's 5+.

Definitely possible, just gotta have the persistence.

Not going to lie though, I mainly went with free hosts because I didn't know self-hosting was a thing. Why did it take so long for someone to tell me? :<
 
I honestly have no means to pay for a forum, so that's why I'm in my situation.

I am not sure if free hosts can work for 5-10 years at a time, but I do know that when my forum was hosted by iPBFree we were around from 2006 until they shut down without a notice. When they closed I had over 6,000 Members on my board, which based on Power Rangers. Although having a paid for host could have saved everything, I couldn't have afforded it back then. Some regrets, but it hasn't stopped me from trying to change with the times.

When I started out, I was in High School and my Mom was 110% against forums, so there was no way I could have one. Now, I'm paying way too much for rent, attending college, and working an unpaid internship in hopes that it will lead to my dream job. Honestly, right now I just couldn't afford it.
 
Technically as long as the provider exists, a free forum can exist. But maybe it's just me, but I can't take a free forum seriously. What I mean is a domain costs generally $1-10/yr, shared hosting goes quite far and that's $10-50/yr and the actual software can be free. Looks just way too amateurish to be on a sub-domain with a free supplier.
 
I agree, that a lot of it depends on the owner. If the owner is truly dedicated and passionate about their forum, then it can stay up and running for a long time. As long as the owner doesn't give up or get frustrated easily, then that forum has potential, at least.

Also, we had a competition earlier this year among forums. The two finalist were both on free forums, not from a paid hosting. I think one of them was "The Mario Forums" belonging to Hissae2. I can't remember who the other one was. My point is, the most popular forum isn't always from a paid hosting.
 
I don't think it matters whether it's on a free forum host or not. It depends on how it is managed. You can fail or succeed anywhere, whether it's on your own server or on a free forum host.

Check http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/ for example, using a free forum host, the forum is 13 years old and very successful.
 
Beverly said:
Most of us think of free hosted forums as a starting place, something we use for the first few months. But, what if you start a forum and never bother upgrading to paid hosting? Could a free hosted forum such as one started on Forumotion or Proboards ever last for more than a year?

The downside might be how you can't usually add any advertisements. Also, there could be a lot of requirements you have to abide by. And, a free forum is more likely to go out of business if the free forum host shuts down.

On the upside, you never have to worry about spending money to keep a forum going, so there is never money out of pocket. That could be especially good, if you are passionate about the forum niche but have no realistic way to monetize it. After all, some of us just love a subject but can't really make money from it. And, you still get the same thrill of forum ownership with a free hosted forum as you do with one that you paid for.

What's your point of view about this? Is it ever realistic to leave a forum on free hosting? Is this a viable long term solution?
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I know for a fact that a forum that is hosted for free can last for at least 8 years. I'm a member of a forum that has been hosted for free by Proboards for at least that long. They still get a good bit of traffic, new years and posts as well. I guess it solely depends on what the forum is about, how the forum is run, and how dedicated both the staff an members are to that forum. Just my opinion though.
 
I don't know about the others but a problem with ProBoards is that they won't give you access to the database, so you won't be able to move it to another hosting software whenever you do want to do so. It would be a shame to spend years on something only to have to lose it and start over.
 
It also depends if you want to monetize your forum.

If you want to monetize your forum, I don't recommend using free forum software.
 
All of that depends on the reliability of the free host that you're on. I've been to Web sites that have been hosted for free on the same domain since almost twenty years ago.
 
jank858 said:
It also depends if you want to monetize your forum.

If you want to monetize your forum, I don't recommend using free forum software.
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^^ This. Most (maybe all?) free forum hosts don't allow you to put your own ads on your boards. Some used to allow it, not anymore.
 
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