its just another victim of facebook, where the income doesn't cover the hosting and admin costs
It's a shame, because forums are a more powerful platform than FB. You have all the sweet formatting options, for one thing! Facebook has the convenience factor, though. That's the tricky bit.
I'm on a local football forum that is slowly dying due to facebook and twitter.
They are always trying to raise funds to keep it going too.
FB and Twitter might be convenient, but forums have their attractions. They tend to develop their own "cultures" over time that make them unique and special places. It would be a shame if this forum died.
There has to be some way of adapting the club's online strategy, to help it maintain an autonomous online presence while reducing things like hosting costs. If we could develop an "MSC Network" centered around a downsized forum that would act as a "hub site", we could operate other projects in tandem. A Facebook group, a wiki, a subreddit, a twitter feed, an online shop. Since these things all "piggyback" off larger hosting companies (FB, wikia, Reddit, etc); it keeps costs down to a minimum.
It's basically what's happening already, but with clear direction and active management. I don't think that any of this is down to a problem with the site as it is, it's just user drop-off as a result of competing platforms. We need to be agile and willing to evolve, if we want to preserve any kind of online community presence. Otherwise we go the way of Digg, and the dinosaurs.
Wouldn't it be sensible to try and take on new staff etc, to run the club? *snip* I would be very much interested in helping..
So would I! I'm going to get myself a full membership sorted out. I reckon helping out the club could be a good way to spend my free time. It's not like I do anything other than hang around on the internet
Admins don't have any ability to intervene here. We just help manage the general forums.
Anything club related such as memberships, trading or disputes is handled solely by
@James
Thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure of how things work "behind the scenes", so I made assumptions. Sorry! You do a good job with the site, btw.
