What are your future plans for DaniWeb?
I'm not quite sure. I've been dealing with a lot of health issues ever since 2020, and then in 2023 I was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I've spent all of 2020, part of 2021, all of 2023, and the majority of 2024 completely bed-bound and unable to spend time on the computer.
As a result of that, combined with being hacked in 2015 that landed our database and entire mailing list on the black market, and a poor feature launch that made no one able to log in for about a month and a half in 2016, DaniWeb has really, really, really suffered.
We barely get any traffic or posts anymore, and, as of 2022, can't even afford to pay our hosting bills. It's a mess! That's what brought me to Forum Promotion, actually. I've been feeling better this past week or two (I really hope this trend continues!) and want to do everything I can to try to revive DaniWeb. I know it's an uphill battle, because it's like starting from fresh. As you guys know, it's much harder to start a forum in 2025 than it was in 2002! I'm not sure if DaniWeb has a future if I can't figure something out quick.
What's the secret of DaniWeb lasting for so long?
And do you see it go on for another ten years?
I know this is cliche, but it was being at the right place and the right time.
When I started DaniWeb in 2002, it's because, as an innovative college student, I wanted to do something that none of the other big players in the industry (CNET, Ziff Davis, etc.) were doing. They were all treating their online publications as the digital equivalent of their bread-and-butter print publications (PC Magazine, etc.) that put them on the map, essentially creating a different website for each of their print publications, all under the umbrella of a digital conglomerate, and I felt a different approach was necessary.
Basically DaniWeb was founded out of my frustration that there were sooo many niche forums out at the time, and I felt like just to put a website together, I had to use JustLinux.com to learn about the OS, WebHostingTalk.com to learn how to host it, PHPFreaks.com to learn about the php side, DBForums.com for the database side, SitePointForums.com and WebmasterWorld.com for the marketing and SEO. Every community has its own set of rules and nuances, and I wanted to create one unified place where you can learn about all of the technologies you use together in a consistent environment with the same community culture and familiar faces.
The result was that DaniWeb became one of the 100 most popular sites on the web, and no one has heard of CNET anymore.
That strategy paid off for quite awhile. However, when Stack Overflow came onto the scene, everything changed. We no longer had a truly unique offering. Yes, Stack Overflow is strictly Q&A and we are discussion based, but there's always Reddit. We haven't really kept up with the changing times, especially in the last handful of years where my health has really struggled.
I'm not sure I see DaniWeb going for another 10 years. At least, not with a lot of innovation and revamping. We can't ride on the coattails of 20 year old innovation forever.
