"PA forum will be closing down"

[gifford]

Hope the forum continues; if contributions or subscriptions keep it open then I'm in as well. Been reading it since I saw the first several issues in a shop near Colorado Springs.

[Selfbowman]

It’s bugging me ! There was 369  visitors looking when I logged on. So how many different folks get on this site? Multiple that times $12 a year. Would that make this site profitable. I like the format for the most part. I know it has to change to survive. I not thrilled about that. Takes money to make money as they say. So I know there will be web design required. Investment required. Then  there is the moderator requirement to keep it as close as possible to the way it is now. For the smart guys? How many  paying visitors to make a reasonable profit? I hate to see it go.

[WhistlingBadger]

Something for our techy guys to look into:  I was a moderator on an aquarium forum that uses Xenforo software.   According to the admin there, "We run/manage our own servers, but Xenforo now offers a cloud version where they take care of all the hosting, and I believe they even offer services for conversions as well."

Personally I find the Xenforo software a lot more intuitive and user-friendly than SimpleMachines, and I've been on several forums that use it.  The admin I talked to says they have a great developer community, too, and it's easy to set it up so that people can become "supporting members" who contribute financially.  Might be worth looking into.  I can put you in touch with him if you have specific questions.  Here's their website with pricing and other info.

https://xenforo.com/purchase/

And here's the aquarium forum if you want to see what it looks like.
https://www.fishforums.net/

[GlisGlis]

from my undestanding the main problem  is not software at present.
We are waiting for Marie to tell us if we can proceed with backups and other rescue measures.

[JW_Halverson]

Something for our techy guys to look into:  I was a moderator on an aquarium forum that uses Xenforo software.   According to the admin there, "We run/manage our own servers, but Xenforo now offers a cloud version where they take care of all the hosting, and I believe they even offer services for conversions as well."

Personally I find the Xenforo software a lot more intuitive and user-friendly than SimpleMachines, and I've been on several forums that use it.  The admin I talked to says they have a great developer community, too, and it's easy to set it up so that people can become "supporting members" who contribute financially.  Might be worth looking into.  I can put you in touch with him if you have specific questions.  Here's their website with pricing and other info.

https://xenforo.com/purchase/

And here's the aquarium forum if you want to see what it looks like.
https://www.fishforums.net/

I was a nut for aquariums for a long time. Then I went to work for an experimental indoor tilapia farm in North Dakota. Eventually got tapped to help design a hatchery system that was built in Phillip SD in an old hydroponic greenhouse that ran off 172 degree artesian water, all the free heat you could stand! At one point I had 17 tanks running in my house including 3 of them 55 gallon rigs. Got stuck out of town during a two day blizzard and when I got home I found that my furnace had crapped out. Lost every single fish I had. Kinda broke my spirit.

[WhistlingBadger]

Something for our techy guys to look into:  I was a moderator on an aquarium forum that uses Xenforo software.   According to the admin there, "We run/manage our own servers, but Xenforo now offers a cloud version where they take care of all the hosting, and I believe they even offer services for conversions as well."

Personally I find the Xenforo software a lot more intuitive and user-friendly than SimpleMachines, and I've been on several forums that use it.  The admin I talked to says they have a great developer community, too, and it's easy to set it up so that people can become "supporting members" who contribute financially.  Might be worth looking into.  I can put you in touch with him if you have specific questions.  Here's their website with pricing and other info.

https://xenforo.com/purchase/

And here's the aquarium forum if you want to see what it looks like.
https://www.fishforums.net/

I was a nut for aquariums for a long time. Then I went to work for an experimental indoor tilapia farm in North Dakota. Eventually got tapped to help design a hatchery system that was built in Phillip SD in an old hydroponic greenhouse that ran off 172 degree artesian water, all the free heat you could stand! At one point I had 17 tanks running in my house including 3 of them 55 gallon rigs. Got stuck out of town during a two day blizzard and when I got home I found that my furnace had crapped out. Lost every single fish I had. Kinda broke my spirit.

Yeah, that would do it.  I've taken a few breaks from the hobby over the years, but like hunting, I always come back to it.  I think it's just part of what I am.

[scp]

Wow, this is unexpected. I have no idea about the business side and model of this forum, but IMHO it's time to move on to the bigger platform like Facebook/Meta. I bet this forum has been archived somewhere, as in WayBackMachine http://web.archive.org/

http://web.archive.org/web/20240910142905/http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php
Almost one million posts, almost 1/2 million posts in "Bows" section archived in 28,000 topics.

But someone must have a backup database of the whole thing somewhere.

We need to find a way to transfer the whole contents into a new platform and run it there as a business. Good luck.

[GlisGlis]

If you move to a platform like facebook/Meta you are no more free to set the rules of your forum.
If, as an example, they decide that hunting is against their policies, they can delete or block your posts, ban users and such.