love

Author Topic: This Forum  (Read 32488 times)

Adam

  • Administrator
  • Elite Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4572
    • Filmspotting
This Forum
« on: December 18, 2019, 04:27:23 PM »
Hi group - It seems like our Forum action has been down a lot the past year or so and I wanted to check everyone's temperature because it's getting increasingly difficult to justify the expense, unfortunately. Hosting the Forum itself isn't too costly, but to keep all of the history - all of the old threads and posts - requires about $1,000 a year in hosting. Welcome any thoughts.
Thanks!
« Last Edit: September 09, 2020, 12:49:56 PM by pixote »
Follow Filmspotting on Twitter at http://twitter.com/filmspotting

Listen to Filmspotting at https://www.filmspotting.net/ and on Chicago Public Radio (91.5 FM)

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: This Forum
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2019, 04:37:42 PM »
This is still my #1 forum but I think we could stand to lose old threads if that would make it cheaper.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: This Forum
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2019, 05:43:32 PM »
While it might be healthier to just pull the plug on all that history, I’m not ready to walk away from my favorite hobby. While I’m willing to co-finance an extension of time, I can’t see covering that much by myself.

Is preserving the History an all or nothing situation?

Teproc

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3529
Re: This Forum
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2019, 06:16:43 PM »
I really like this community, but it has quite obviously been dwindling for a while now, to the point that this does seem like an extravagant sum of money... like 1SO, I'm curious about what other options would be.
Legend: All-Time Favorite | Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Poor  |  Bad

Letterbox'd

colonel_mexico

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1416
Re: This Forum
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2019, 07:31:29 PM »
crowdfund?  venmo 1SO?
"What do you want me to do draw you a picture?! Spell it out?! Don't ever ask me, as long as you live don't ever ask me more!"

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: This Forum
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2019, 09:58:24 PM »
My understanding is we took out much of the low-hanging fruit previously, but I imagine there is a lot more we could trim to get the size down. Keep some "essential forum history" like the filmspots, but perhaps only keep the past year of most ordinary threads. Yes, it would suck to lose the history, the ability to look up a film and see what people said about it in the past, but more important is being able to have the community still here in the moment.

Not sure how the forum backend works for this, but if we can shrink the size on one end, maybe that makes it easier for us to crowdsource the financial support on the other end.

Beavermoose

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 5006
  • Samsonite! I was way off!
Re: This Forum
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2019, 11:36:35 PM »
I would be very sad if this forum disappeared. I am all for purging old topics. Or even just the closing down and starting up the big threads again like the last purge in 2017.

Monty

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 4375
  • "There is only one ball, so you need to have it."
    • TheMontyTweets
Re: This Forum
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2019, 01:08:02 AM »
I'd hate for the forum to disappear. I haven't been on much this year, but I'm hoping to spend more time on here next year.
If it means losing some of the old threads, I'm OK with that. If the forum requires some funding to keep it active, I'd be
more than willing to make a contribution every month.


"And then it just becomes an industry of...cool."

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: This Forum
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2019, 08:33:46 AM »
If trimming older threads is what needs to happen to keep the forums viable, then so be it. I still love this community a lot and would hate to see it disappear.

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Re: This Forum
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2019, 10:43:12 AM »
I take a sabbatical for a few months and this is what happens. Fine, I’ll post more!

I monitor Who’s Online quite often, and it seems to me that probably 95% of traffic on old threads comes from bots scanning the forum. And since I assume the forum costs have more to do with bandwidth than storage, might I suggest that, rather than deleting old threads, it would be more cost-effective and user-friendly to simply limit which boards a Guest user can see — perhaps just Announcements, Comments, and Show Discussion.

pixote
« Last Edit: December 20, 2019, 12:13:19 AM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad