The 50% closure rate

[Katrina]

Ever since I joined FP 4 years ago, I have been tracking a trend that shows that 50% of new forums don't make it past the first year or so. I eagerly signed up on every new forum that arrived here on FP in hopes of helping out the owners. Then weeks or months later, I would go back to find the forum closed. Now it seems that instead of closing all together, they just lie dormant.

How do you avoid that 50% closure rate? Are you seeing this trend as well? Do you join new forums in hopes of helping them? Or do you not join because you feel it could be a waste of your time?

 

[zappaDPJ]

How do you avoid that 50% closure rate? Are you seeing this trend as well?

I'm actually a little surprised by that figure, I would have thought it to be higher (in terms of closures).

It sounds a little flippant but I avoid adding to the closure rate by not starting a new forum unless I'm sure it has a purpose and I actually can't remember when I started up my last forum it was so long ago.

I do have a project I've been working on for years but it would benefit from a domain name that hasn't been released yet. It's tied to an annual event, a music festival I've had some involvement with for the last 50+ years and I have gigabytes of historical material I've collected over the years. I feel that's the level of commitment you need these days to ensure a new project gains traction.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've been seeing this trend ever since I first joined FP back in 2012. I'm not going to lie, I'm guilty of closing forums after a x amount of time. I will say I'm working on this and have been keeping my communities alive as much as possible. I understand that some people may not have the time as much as they did when they first opened their websites. They might not have the funds to keep things afloat as well, there's a few factors that go into communities dying or closing.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

I feel like it is due to a few reasons.

1. Some people tend to think Forums just magically build themselves. They do not seem to understand what it takes to actually get a community built up.

2. This day and age forums are simply not as popular as they once were. Combine that with the fact that there is most likely already a forum for x niche made and/or a Reddit Community/Facebook Group.. and well not to many people are gonna be looking for a brand new forum made recently.

3. Financials, this is the least likely reason but it does happen. It does cost money to keep up a forum. Stuff in life happens and sometimes one can not afford to keep things up anymore.

I know I have fallen into each one of those reasons once upon a time in my life.

 

[Shortie_]

It is a shame that we are seeing the 50% closure rate and I feel it is because forums are struggling with social media being so dominant now.

I myself tend to make an effort to join new forums and try and help out with activity and being an active member but I will admit, if the owner is one who tends to open and close forums a lot, that will be when I start to move away from any forum they open as I do feel that a waste of my time, especially when they do not give a forum they have opened a chance to get going before they close and reopen another.

 

[Demon_skeith]

Sounds about right, most don't get how hard it really is. It's like taking on a pet, you got to tend to it every day and see to its growth. It's very hard.

 

[Page]

Seen this all the time, not just in terms of FP members here with the sites but even in the lines of other related communities that I'm based doing. Like I have Seen so many GTA sites/forums that close their doors, even a site with over 200K members ;(

Worse part that my site is dead, trying to build it up and it's seven years running now LOL