As I mentioned earlier, the people / company hosting the forum have given us a bit of a reprieve and are not currently charging for hosting the forums. I’m not sure if everyone (or most people that used to come here) have already left - but post your thoughts on what we should do going forward. Please respond to the poll:
If the Discourse people were willing to cover the server space fee, I wouldn’t mind leaving these up in an archival form, so that people could look through older discussions for information they might find helpful. But I do think the newer discussions are best carried on in the new forum.
I vote to shut this forum down since most active users have moved to the new forum weeks ago.
Unless all users are anonymized first so their usernames/avatars are not associated with their posts on this forum, I am not sure if users would be comfortable with their posts (associated with their usernames/avatars) remaining online in a google-searchable website/forum indefinitely
At least, I personally would not feel comfortable with that. Since I am not planning on staying on this forum as a user or as a moderator, I would want my account anonymized if the forum were left up online whether as a fully operational forum or as an archive.
My thinking is, as long as the free hosting holds out, it’s great to have the database of old posts. Plus any members taking a leave of absence can still find us at a later date on the new forum.
I guess my second choice is to agree with @Moonbeam , which is the way I voted, and to shut it down completely.
I am very confident that the majority of the members of the new forum plan to stay on the new forum.
The biggest reason being that the reliability of this forum is in question at the current time. There may be other reasons as well, but this is probably the biggest.
We just cant be sure it will remain, and we dont want to have to start again from scratch in a few months.
@SzAdmin Either way you choose to go, I think it’s worth saying that this place provided a lot of help to a lot of people over the years. You helped people so much that, when you said you weren’t able to keep things open, members of the community you built got together and organized/fundraised so they could carry on the thing you built.
I have seen lots of people start something with a dream of helping others, but they accidentally make themselves a crucial component, and the whole project dies once they stop actively working on it. Your community became so sustainable that it is ABLE to carry on whether you stay involved or not. That is a rare and impressive thing.
I voted for what I’d ideally prefer. On a more pragmatic level I think many were here because there wasn’t a good alternative. It doesn’t take much brainpower to know that a low volume of traffic will sooner rather than later be the death knell of this forum. I think most know this,but aren’t bothered about that likely outcome.
This works both ways too. Not only will the low volume of traffic be the death nell of this forum, but the death nell of this forum is a major factor in there being a low volume of traffic here.
Its kind of a snowball effect after it was first announced that this forum was going down.
I think traffic would pick up again here if the site is presumed to be staying up for years to come, although nothing is guaranteed ofcourse.
The database of information here is worth something for the future for anyone with schizoprenia seeking information as I presume it’s the largest of it’s specific nature.
But then there is the issue with moderators, as I sense the current moderators want to move on and do something else with their time, which is understandable, you guys did a great job here over the years. Anyways, getting new moderators would be necessary if the site is to keep running I guess.
I agree that it would pick up some if it was guaranteed to stay up for years. But even the language in the poll is questionable and puts the efficacy of this forum in question. “TRY to maintain the forums…..” “Try” does not exactly inspire confidence that these forums will remain open for any length of time. What it does seem to indicate is that the forums might remain open as long as the free hosting holds out. It does not inspire confidence that whatever needs to be done to keep them open is going to be done. Which is fine. Szadmin has paid his dues here and you cant expect him to carry this financial burden his entire life.
Here’s what I have heard from members on the new forum : I have yet to hear from anyone that would leave the new forum if this one were to stay up. What I have heard are some are willing to split the time between the new forum and old, but like 70%, probably more, will not be coming back. This is reflected in the poll.
So what you would likely have here are the handful of members that have not crossed over and want to remain, those that are willing to split their time between the two, and whatever new members the site is able to attract.
It will likely be significantly less people than when it was first announced that the site was shutting down because there was not enough traffic.
I’m not telling you this out of some great desire on my part to see this forum go. At this point I would just like a decision so I know what to expect. If we lose a little traffic on the new forum because it stays up, its no skin off my nose. It’s just less work for me and our mod team. I’m just telling you the facts as I see them and being a realist.
I agree. Which is why I like @Ninjastar ‘s idea of archiving and linking the best out of all options. That way it can stay here as long as the free hosting holds out and any absent members can find us.
You have said that you don’t have the time needed to grow this website. For me, everything else is moot.
I initially joined this website in February 2016. You were quite active on the website, but a few years after that you became much less active. I understand that our life circumstances change over time and our priorities change over time. That’s true for me, and maybe that’s true for you. However, being an administrator of a website requires a significant time commitment that you simply may not have.
Unlike 20 years ago, people with schizophrenia seeking online support have many more options. That’s a great thing, but it does foster an environment of innovation to stay competitive, so if we don’t have an active administrator to steer value I don’t see a future for this website.
For the reasons I stated, we should shut this forum down.
The site address is worth a lot of Money, does Szadmin own that and would he be willing to keep that and for how long? someone said it was worth a fortune and also free hosting would save members a whole lot of money (as opposed to donations on the newer site), if you can address how long you are able to keep the forum on a free tariff and if the new mods from the new forum could take over people could just log back in, also the aesthetics have changed, would the look of the forum stay like this? it seems different. & the rules on the new board seem to be a little bit less brutal. It feels like a kinder environment in that respect.
The moderators here and myself already discussed recommending this option to szadmin and decided it was a no go.
Unless there is a guarantee of free hosting indefinitely this forum would revert back to the higher costs because of the high usage of storage space here which would be that much harder for us to maintain. On the new forum we perm delete old/unused files routinely as maintenance to keep costs low. Trying to go back and do that for years worth of files here would take forever.
Szadmin seems averse to taking donations. Probably because of the difficulties involved in filing with nonprofit with outside donations.
thanks to a recent generous donation, the new forum is funded for over another year and cannot be shut down even if we wanted to.
Not really. When its split among the many members, the low cost of the hosting on the site do not make it that difficult to raise funds to keep it going. Also once we sell our condo, I am willing to contribute a significant portion myself. Right now I am just paying for the seperate website and domain yearly and the “30 cents per transaction and 2.9%” that gofundme gets. Paying this myself makes keeping track of donations easier. And most people are still there for free thanks to several people really stepping up hard.
Anyway, the mods here and I brainstormed ideas to death.
There are only 3 outcomes i can see.
My preferred : Archiving this forum and linking to new forum as @Ninjastar suggested. This was not listed in the poll, so I doubt szadmin is going to go this route.
Shutting down this forum
Having 2 forums
The new one will not be shutting down regardless. Too many members have expressed a desire for it to remain. I have told them it will stay up, and it will.