IMPORTANT: DO We need the forum?

[Leo]

Moon Hunter can tell you that even before security issues would arise I was thinking to shut down the forum.
So, do we still need it?
Do you use it?
You can always leave messages on the FB page and share more easily, and make conversations over there.

As much I can tell there are too few people who actually come here and make useful threads out of it.

Maybe, if in the future the comic gets too popular ( I wish) I may decide to reopen it, but for now it really feels really empty. Not to mention that it has come to my senses that these kind of forums have security issues that can bring potential damage to the entire site. Specially when there is NOBODY qualified 24/7 to supervise the forums and keep them up date.

So, if you still want to keep the forums opens, I'd like to read opinions from the people who actually use and tell me why I may be wrong or not. Thanks.

Leo

[Moon Hunter]

While my opinion may be unpopular it's... straightforward. I very much enjoy the site and the people here, excluding the spammers and a certain hacker , but the number of users vs the cost of keeping the site open is not fiscal. In total I believe we have about twenty users, and that's rounding up. The site itself may say One-Hundered and Thirteen Members I have not seen many people on. The only active forums are the RP, barely, and the General Howls. There are people here I would like to keep in contact with, but all and all... the site in unneeded. The comic has it's own page, separate for the forum and I would like to see that remain active, the forum is not active or... required at this time. When the site originally existed there where many more users and when it went down the first time we lost almost all of them.

Ug, I'm long winded. Point is, if the site goes down again we many not get any users on it again, but we don't have enough members to keep it open now, not worth it.

[wafflestothemax]

Yeah, there other ways for the comic fans to contact you.

I'm mean, I'm trying to balance the scale here, but I know we can't keep the forum alive much longer.
It just takes time and money to keep everything working. It was really fun to have alot of fans to chat and RP with, but since it's like a ghost town here, and there's not much loyal memebers here. I'd say remove the forum for a while

Then again, we won't have any memebers like we used to be before or after this. Someday, I know everything is going to be all-right.

[SilverWolfGal]

I'm gonna have to agree. This forum used to be really popular, and it was buzzing, but that's not the case anymore. As Moon Hunter said, there are only a few regular visitors here, and not very many threads are active anymore.

The fun lasted while it did, but all good things must come to an end sooner or later.

[Quint]

I hate to agree too, but I can't deny that we can't we can't breathe some life in this forum.

[Wan]

It's sad, but I have to agree with the other people.

I've been keeping an eye permanently on the forums, and it's sad to see that 99% of new users are spambots.
To be honest I liked the activity in the previous eras, for example with the excessively heated-up arguements with Zenislev & Co...

Now the forum isn't even remotely near to those days' activity. In my humble opinion, paying a vBulletin subscription for a few people isn't worth it =/

[wafflestothemax]

I guess all good things have to come to an end.

It was nice pestering you'all---I'm sad now....

I'm mean Moon-Hunter and Leo has inspiration for me to write and draw again.

Someday we'll meet again and I'll be spaztic as ever.

[Thee Forsaken One]

Forgive my ignorance but why does a forum for Alpha Luna required to be a paid forum? You can get plenty of free hosted ones which are probably more secure than ones hosted on your own servers (In my experience). You could use that if you wanted to place for fans of the comic to meet. You might not even need to manage it if you can find willing helps. You would just need to link to it from the main comic site.

Since you are paying for it, then I would say get rid of it. It's not worth spending money on.

[wafflestothemax]

TheeForsaken, you're a genious!


I was thinking of that, plus, I'm pretty sure you can help because I just know you manage a forum. ^^

Leo, why would just delete this forum and get a better and much more secured forums for free?

[Warlord_Mike]

How would we go about moving the stuff from the RP to the new forum? I am in agreement that this one is just...well, unused, but I still wouldn't want the RP to go bye-bye, if nothing else.

[SilverWolfGal]

I agree with Mike. The RP was about to start back up, and I'd like for that to stay active. RP's are great for forums to get running on.

[Leo]

I don't spend money on the forum anymore. I did once to buy the licence but that's it. Reasons why I'm shutting it down are:

-Lack of activity.
-None proficient to maintain and manage the forums (not just a Mod but someone capable to keep it updated, running and tweaking it).
-No new members that stay.
-Diminish of its importance due FB or other place to comment on the comic.
-And without maintenance it can bring to potential security issues as it happened.

That's about it.
Also it kinda messy as it is with half of of the "member" being spam-bots :/

*Sigh*
So yeah, it didn't meet the expectations.
But as I said, if someday it bring to my attention that I really need a forum due a surge of new fans and reader. I may consider bringing one totally new. But for now I think it's time to say good bye.

[wafflestothemax]

Well, hey it was fun and it was good times, but I still hope to see the new forum up and running again.

Well, it was good see all of you.

I wondered why should you just get another free forum?

[David]

Well, if the forum really is closing down, I just want to say it has been an honor to get to know all of you. Your friendliness and kindhearted acceptance of new arrivals has made our internet experience that much more awesome. I hope to see you all on the main domain chat box and I hope you all get Facebook's! I'm there, and I wish to see you guys there too!

[wafflestothemax]

Yeah, it was nice seeing you..*sob*

[Wan]

(Personal opinion, thinking out loud: I never got used to vBulletin and its control panel. But I wanted to help on the forum anyways)

Maybe a smaller forum would work, but Leo is right. With the current activity, it's easier (and less worrying) to use the Facebook group.

[wafflestothemax]

SWG and I already had one set up if Leo is going to get rid of this one.

[Silver Predator Wolf]

So much has happen and I only did not check for a day...

Well... it's fun while it lasted. Hope to see the rest of you on the other forum (I hope!) ><

[Moon Hunter]

If anyone wishes to stay in contact with me my E-Mail is moonhuntervigil@yahoo.com . It's my personal E-Mail, not my business, so feel free to drop by and say hello. I'll also be stay in contact with Leo for when the forum is reopened, not saying if because I hate that word.

[Silver Predator Wolf]

You still using your other e mail that I have m.h?

I'll still add this one though ^^

[David]

So wait... this forum shutdown isn't permanent?

[Moon Hunter]

It's for the foreseeable future, as far as I know.