I still have my websites running, and among many stories, one of those sites had it's own forum (I also created other forums for the company I was working for, and one became a community) but due to space I will only focus on my dead forum. Yeah, forums can require a lot of work, specially if the place relates to your website and it's an authority site. Chances are, if you create your own content, you are also an authority and thus, you are the one usually posting the most relevant content, that's a lot of work.
But, on the bright side, the many questions posted there meant for me a constant river of fresh ideas for new engaging content for the website. Due to lack of time, and sadly... people asking services (paid ones) that I was not interested on exploring, I closed the forum and archived the content. In this specific scenario, the challenge was lack of helpers, lack of people with the same knowledge helping to solve the threads and correct the direction of the conversations. Moderation sometimes it's not enough, as the moderation can even kill a thread, in such cases the fresh proper knowledge is what keeps the forum alive. Even today, more than 10 years after closing the forum, I seem to be one of the few knowing diverse topics, meaning "it's lonely out here", and creating another forum will likely lead to the same place.
What forums did you visit, and why do you think those forum died?
Taking the thread as a possible place for case-discussion, probably the names of the forums will be relevant, perhaps the links. I'm not sure given the circumstances this will be allowed (remember "no links"), but being a website about websites, the web, and content, don't you think this could become an exception?
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"X" (I'll post the name/link later, probably, if I get feedback on this being allowed), Well, "X", was I think the first forum I joined. It features information of places around the world around rock climbing, and it was fun. Suddenly I became the most active forum member of my area (and contributor), posting routes, directions, help, tips, etc. Soon I became familiar with some recurring nicknames, some were authority figures of knowledge, both for climbing, sports in general, and life. Some people posting there were famous and appeared on TV, magazines, interviews, of diff kind, etc., some were legends whose achievements remain till this day. You could post a question and receive jokes (good ones), information, feedback, advice, etc. It was literally a learning place. Due to the circumstances, people from all over the world asked me questions about my country, and many of them came here to climb with me (with us, along with friends).
But then... negativity and toxicity contaminated the forum. Suddenly trolls took over, then you rarely got answers, why? trolls were faster than the moderators, and sometimes the threads would die before actually taking off. Some discussions took place online, some were very heated discussions, sometimes the super mods had to draw boundaries over and over.
Then, it happened: you opened a thread... and right away 1 or 2 hours later you regretted your actions. Things would be taken in the wrong direction, out of context, useless criticism, jokes, and challenges. Some people stood up, but you get tired of this eventually. Traffic went down, but then there was some cleaning, people got banned, penalized, etc., and peace returned, but only for a while as traffic was going down. Then, besides the trolls, we had interesting people (professionals in math, science, etc.) who were literal jerks, they would behave in ways that nobody liked, while also contributing, it was a clear case of toxicity, you couldn't have the best of them without seeing their worst.
A few years later I left the club because of an injury, and I saw the forum die. You could still see traffic, dying traffic, but still movement. Yet, none of the nicknames meant anything to me, many topics were irrelevant, and most times nobody replied, it became a collection of dead or dying threads, no longer than 5 posts, perhaps 1 page if lucky, and that doesn't mean all the posts were relevant.
It was fun while it lasted, mostly because the forum needed interventions of the coders who were collaborators volunteering, and this was contagious, the level of commitment I mean.
That forum is entirely dead now, I think toxicity killed it. Feel free to share similar stories where we can all learn from.
