When is it time to call it a day?

[N9ne]

When is it time to close your forums for good? How do you know when you shouldn't be running the forums anymore? Is it when you lose faith in it? Or do you keep it going for all the members of the community?

I know the obvious reasons like an inactive community, a dying community, just a load of spam, etc. but I have a somewhat successful community with 2000 members who've posted at least once and over 50 who have over 1000 posts.

I know that many of my members would be shattered if my forum was to close as they spend a good half of their day on the forum, every day.

I don't know, I've just lost faith, it seems to routine now to me, I find myself visiting other, I'm not sure, more mature? forums these days, rather than going to my own forums. I don't feel like creating discussion on my forums anymore, and my posting has slowed down significantly.

I also know that if I leave the forum, considering I do all the financing of the forum/server/sites/domains the whole thing would fall apart, including about 5 very very popular websites in their category.

Would I be doing the right thing by closing it down or do I owe it to the community and website viewers and regulars to keep it open? It's not causing me harm as such, but I just don't 'feel like it' so to speak. I don't think this is a short spell i'm going through where I don't want a part of my forums either, I think this is very serious thinking.

When would you say you'd close your forum? At what stage? I'm just really confused right now =/

[phenom]

what is your site about?

[N9ne]

what is your site about?

I have several sites. Mostly wrestling/gaming oriented (mainly teenagers visit the sites - me being one)

WWERaw2.com - Covers the game WWE Raw 2 for XboX.
SD5Gaming.com - Covers the game Smackdown! 5 Here Comes the Pain for PS2.
XFlareNetwork.com - The main site of the network - no design at the moment, being re-designed.
MindCompression.com - The Best real time editor for the game Championship Manager 4.
RageWorldWrestling.com - An E-Federation.
XFlareNetwork.com/forum - The forums that all these sites use.

We're looking at about 200,000 unique hits a month on all these sites put to gether.

[Beth]

I'm feeling the same way as you. i cant answer your questions though as I've still got my forums open.

I'm pretty fed up of it all - both the huge site and moderate forums, always on the go and always working on it for what ... most of the members give out when something isnt done a particular way!

[Andrew111888]

I would just hire someone else to run it now until you decide, *if* you do, to return it.

[bahawolf]

I don't know, I've just lost faith, it seems to routine now to me, I find myself visiting other, I'm not sure, more mature? forums these days, rather than going to my own forums. I don't feel like creating discussion on my forums anymore, and my posting has slowed down significantly.

I have the same feeling at times, but I try to keep my forums up for GCN.

[N9ne]

I would just hire someone else to run it now until you decide, *if* you do, to return it.

Well if I do give it to someone else to run for a while, I couldn't. I'm not looking to just take a break really, I'm looking to just give it up completely. That would mean me giving up the hosting, etc. But I need a powerful dedicated server..but the person I'd give it to cannot fund that...so that's a no-go.

[Andrew111888]

I meant still funding it to see if your interest will spark again after awhile of being away from it.

[N9ne]

I meant still funding it to see if your interest will spark again after awhile of being away from it.

Well I thought of that but then I thought i'd be funding it for no reason at all if I've lost faith in it. Deep down right now it feels like I don't want any fresh interest in my forum/sites to spark, I don't know why, kinda odd huh..

[Craigr]

I had the exact same problem with my old forums. I lost interest in the subject.

I was eventually getting members complaining about each other, then complaining about the moderators, then the moderators were complaining to me about other moderators. It was beginning to annoy me, so i put a message on the forums that they were closing. I think i put this about 1 month in advance of me pulling it offline.

I also gave the site over to another person to take over and improve it, maybe you could do this. Offer it to someone on your forums.

Craig

[Michael2]

If you don't feel anyone on your site is capable of paying for or taking care of the forums then what about selling it to someone else? I see sites bought and sold all the time on Sitepoint.

Sorry to hear you feel that way. It's a bummer that's for sure. I've started to feel that way a little. Ironically it's because our forums have been growing so fast. It used to be I read every post and felt like I knew every member. Now I look at who's online and I feel like I don't know anyone.

[poolking]

I felt the same last year when my board was destroyed and I lost faith earlier this year and closed my forum down for a couple of days.

But now I'm back up and my forum did spurt up a little but has died back a bit again now.

[stanmxl]

Happened to me.

I wish I had just left it running on the server and forgotten about it and just come back two months later and see it was still growing.

Turned out all I really needed was a break.

Believe me, your members will go nuts. Some will try to kill themselves, others will post hate stuff about you online.

[qxh]

Happened to me.

I wish I had just left it running on the server and forgotten about it and just come back two months later and see it was still growing.

Turned out all I really needed was a break.

Believe me, your members will go nuts. Some will try to kill themselves, others will post hate stuff about you online.

Trying to kill yourself about a forum going down is just a little extreme.

[poolking]

Trying to kill yourself about a forum going down is just a little extreme.

Unfortunately there are some people out there like that, for them the only reality is forums, take that away and they have nothing.