What's easier, reviving a long dead forum or starting a new one?

I'll take reviving over starting from scratch anytime. Especially when you start with a brand-new never registered before domain name, it's very hard to get traffic flowing, no matter how good your product is.

 

I have had many webpages in my job-history and - based on this - I have to say it all depends on many issues. But I think generally its better and easier to start triping AIP from scratch. Sending is out-of-issue in this situation. Also, most ISPs will not allow you to track-back their bases.

 

I created a new forum to fill the need for one who's admin sold the site to a bunch of clueless foreigners who subsequently destroyed the site but I've found sometimes the effort isn't worth it. A lot of people weren't ready to adapt to a new format, new themes, a new type of community so there was a backlash and I found myself copying what felt like entire sections of other sites just to please the members. The time I spent doing that really sucked.

 

Yup, you're right because you have to promote a lot and get active users flowing. Reviving would probably only take a few months to see an increase in activity and new members because there's already content on the community and you'd just have to reply to some of the threads, add new ones, and promote a bit. It wouldn't take too long to revive compared to building a fresh and new community.

 

I believe that either or reviving a forum depends much on the people who are going to tackle this task.

Some years ago I was able to take the revival challenge, despite it involves too much work and sometimes a lot of hassle. However it was easier to me that start from the scratch and getting old member signing up again, which might be annoying.

However with the pass of the time I found that I don't longer have the patience nor time to revive and old forum (or any other type of websites) but better start from the scratch, even if this may offer some inconvenience to previously existing members.

However who really loves your community will have not inconvenient to rejoin or follow you in your plans

 

Starting from scratch would be harder though because you'd have to attract members all over again. At least, with reviving it you have some type of content to work with and possibly some members that have stuck around. It's possibly to start over and become a huge success especially with the right marketing and good content. Also, having members that post new threads and frequently post on the community. It's a catch 22 because once you attract the members, it's usually a wrap for the building process because you're attracting and building an audience.

Good things just take time and I'd opt for either or because I'm always up for a challenge and seeing if I can increase the activity whether its a dead forum or a brand new one.

 

To be honest, I have to wonder whether a few things about a new forum might actually make it easier. Namely:

1. The initial burst of 'hype' based activity. New forums tend to draw a certain amount of interest simply because they're shiny and new, whereas a revived one has a bit of an 'old hat' feeling.

2. Big forums which have lost a lot of activity just 'look' more dead than new ones which aren't established yet. It's why a dead big board tends to look very depressing when you visit.

 

Hmm... I agree that it depends. It could be easier to start a fresh forum with a new niche (for example nowadays I think that PS4/Xbone forums are a great niche) that is popular, but if the old forum is based on a niche that won't 'expire' (if it's an offtopic forum for example) it could be easier to revive it because of it's content.

Whatever it is, it's important to invest time and will in it, otherwise it won't matter if you make 100's of forums.

 

The easy factor varies upon the niche and the states of the site. I've seen forums that have great stats but just gradually became dead. I personally would prefer to make a fresh site and brand it as a great site for what you need.

 

I think it's best if you get a new name and work with the existing content.