Feedback - Updates (Archived)

[Realme]

Was it open to all, or member who satisfy certain criteria only(post count > xxx, member since x months,etc..) ?

^asking for research purpose

 

[Sushubh]

long time ago. forum was popular back then. it did not add any value to the platform. only created more maintenance headaches for me. since there is no official component, i would have to rely on third party product which would cost money and well would have to be kept updated. overall, it's better that people with similar interest just move their conversation to their own choice of private messaging platform.

 

[Realme]

only created more maintenance headaches

I thought the headache might be more of moderation/trolling/flame-wars than this.

Thanks for your inputs.

 

[Sushubh]

tbh, i just try to avoid third party add-ons as possible. xenforo add-on ecosystem is fucked up. developers disappear out of the blue. i paid 35 dollars for the imgur addon that got blacklisted and developer disappeared. there was another guy who was selling a solid seo addon for iirc 100 euros. he also disappeared (health reasons iirc).

 

[Realme]

Designing an addon-system is a behemoth engineering task, many has died on this ledge

I am curious why much of older forums related to india are mostly based on Xenforo? I have lived through era of MyBB, phpBB,vBulletings and found very few forums based on Xenforo

 

[Sushubh]

it was the hip new kid in town. vbulletin fucked itself bad. ipb was considering a premium product. plus it is more aimed at businesses rather than independent community. so most forum owners like me got duped by xenforo.

i have considered dumping xenforo and move back to ipb several times. it is just too much work tbh. and since i am just running the forum for the lulz now because there is no money to be made... it does not bother me anymore.

 

[Realme]

it does not bother me anymore.

Wait you guys were able to make money out of forums then especially one related to low ad-incentive population like India

 

[Sushubh]

forum made good money for many years before ad blocking became a norm. now most browsers have integrated ad blocking especially on mobile.

 

[Realme]

forum made good money for many years before ad blocking became a norm. now most browsers have integrated ad blocking especially on mobile.

I used to think that ad-blocking only affects very large-media outlets and not much because few users use ad-blockers.

How much 'major' decreased you face and from which year?( I suppose ad-blockers gained major traction from 2014)

Did you make good-enough to declare on income-tax application ?

 

[Sushubh]

90 percent plus drop in revenue from peak days. Of course traffic is also down significantly from those days. Do remember this is purely indirect advertisement. I have never ran direct ads for any internet service provider.