How Do You Feel about Owning your own forum?

[Ashley]

Okay, kind of a weird question, but how do you guys feel about owning your own forum? For me, I started up a forum back in 2008, and I personally would love to own a successful forum, but if it's only going to be an open/close case, then I'm not going to bother, and that's all it's been this last year and a half. I really am sick of opening and closing forums, disappointing you guys, letting myself down when things don't go my way (which, unfortunately, has happened a lot). To an extent, there are times when I wish there weren't any free forum hosts, then people like me wouldn't get into the habit that I've gotten into. It's a crappy habit that I wish I haven't even gotten into. I know now that if I want to own a forum so badly, I should just up and apply for an administrator job elsewhere. Not put in all that time and effort for to just have a board go to waste. So, in all honesty, I really don't care for owning a forum any longer, as I have made too many bad decisions during this last year and a half, and I really am ready to start over and just be a member of forums. It's too much work to maintain and manage a forum, and if mine would've ever gotten active, that would've been way too much for me to handle, even though I would've had co-admins and possibly a moderator. I'm sick of all the decision making, and I wish I never discovered free hosting sites to begin with. I seriously never want to own a forum again, and I need to learn to just sit back, relax, and just post on someone else's forum instead of messing with my own, only to wind up with poor results, or results I wouldn't like. Do you guys enjoy owning a forum?

 

[IcarusForde]

Yes, i love it. I don't own it as such, but i'm on the controlling board of the three people who do own it. It's been really good - 8 months in, upwards of 100k posts and it's all going well still.

 

[Nebulous]

Well I love owning this forum.. Its fun and laid back.

I enjoy it a lot more than the advertisement forum I used to own.

 

[Blake]

I love owning mine, i love the feeling when i cant do something and then it works. I just love it! SO what if it fails? Try and try again.

 

[Kingmush]

I love owning mine. I guess it's different since I view it as successful and therefore I don't have to worry too much about it so therefore it's pretty laid back.

 

[Raven]

I love it, and I have loved doing it for 6 years. Every site goes through bad patches, but you have to be dedicated and put in alot of effort to bring it from rock bottom. I wouldnt say my site is extremely successful, but I am more interested in providing a forum for others than the success of it.

 

[Ashley]

Well I love owning this forum.. Its fun and laid back.

I enjoy it a lot more than the advertisement forum I used to own.

Well, for me, it started out as fun, but in the end it just turned into a stupid open-shut cycle that never seemed to end. Actually, what my problem was was that when I first started, I started on a really crappy host: Forumotion. That's probably where 99% of my problems came in. I think if I had actually sit down and looked at different hosts before making hasty desicions like I have done, then everything would've been okay. So I know for one thing: Do your homework on forum hosting before you get an actual host! Because if I had done that, then it wouldn't have been this vicious cycle. Or even just played around with different hosting before finally deciding would've been nice too. Ther's a lot of stuff that'll have to be worked on for next time, that's for sure. If there is a next time, that is.

 

[TayneC8]

I don't like owning forums anymore, I just like coming onto a few of them and post. I used to love owning forums, but got bored of them after a while.

 

[Bawlz]

Same with Tayne and yes I hated it too Ashley, I'm just like you D;

 

[Naviero X]

I like owning one when it becomes autonomous. If I have to do a lot of work to get it there, then I might be fine with just letting it run at that point. Otherwise, I just don't like having to put in that much work. You know? It greats really tedious to put in so much effort and see so little effort. I also hate owning a forum when it dies. It's just disappointing.

 

[Ashley]

I don't like owning forums anymore, I just like coming onto a few of them and post. I used to love owning forums, but got bored of them after a while.

I hear you, Tayne. I actually only have about 3 forums that I am dedicated to as a user at this point, and really, now that I'm no longer owning a forum, I seriously feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I now have time to visit sites I love (such as this one!

) and well, it just makes me feel better.



Really, I'm personally glad that I quit when I did, because now days you hear all these stories about people's email accounts being hacked (cracked, whatever) on their boards, and I still remember vaguely when FA was hacked. If that had happened to me, my spirits for owning a forum probably would've been dampened anyway, no matter how successful it was when it got cracked (by the way, this has never happened to me. I'm explaining it from the point of view as if it had). People say that I should quit while I'm ahead, and I guess it's safe to say that's what I did, really.

 

[Hawked]

I love the communites I make.