Deleting a dead forum, is it worth it?

Even if my forum ever did die out, I don't think I could bring myself to delete it.

You have to ask yourself, can you REALLY throw away all the money you put in. All the time you put in. All the effort you made?

I can only speak for myself here, but that would be DIFFICULT like hell for me to do. I'd rather just find new ways to revive it instead.

 

Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself. Personally, I think if a forum dies out, its for a reason, and then when you're ready to bring things back to active mode - you need to brainstorm, and see what you could do to make the forum active again. There's so many factors involved, but you are the only one that can truly revive the forum because its yours.

 

I would never delete a database, you can always shut a site down and try it again later but there is no reason to just delete all the data.

 

Exactly, and plus people's feelings change all the time, and if you keep the database, you can always sell it, or allow someone to run it, while you sit in the background, its possibly though.

 

I have deleted a database before, it was a vbulletin 4 version of a MW2 forum called MW2Boards.

I didn't delete the MW2Forums database, which was moved into MW3Boards. No success. Now I'm thinking of merging that into CODForums, but I don't have a pathway to do so.

 

It really depends. I'm part of a community where there is hardly anyone but my friends and I continue to go there regardless. I think it's better to find a way to revamp a site rather than delete because everything is always changing and people look for something to update continuously.

 

When you delete a forum, you are not just throwing away your time, effort, and the money that you've spent. You are also throwing away the memories that you had with the members during your forum's glory days. All those late night talks, those endless bashing and trolling, basically you are going to throw the bad memories and good memories that somehow affected not only your life but your former forumers lives as well. I know its hard to keep a dead forum running but listen, you will only experience failure when you quit. I suggest to keep playing the game because in the end, you'll be glad that you didn't pull the plug from A-T.

 

It's your fault if you let your forum die, but I wouldn't delete my forum even if it did. I could always revive it, and having plenty of posts helps a ton if you're reviving a forum.

 

We should maybe lock this thread considering it was from a year ago and makes it sound like the current admin is wanting to delete this very site currently. If we want to talk about deleting forums, then it should probably be in a new thread so it doesn't concern people who don't bother to check the dates.

 

We don't need to lock this thread, if you don't want to contribute to a thread, then don't respond to it.

In fact, deleting a forum is like you're giving up on your life because you put a lot of blood, sweat and time into running an online community. Not to mention, it saddens a lot of users. Is there ever a good reason to delete a forum instead of selling it and/or giving it away?

 

I've edited the OP to make it clear we are not going to delete Admin Talk
@Kaiser sold the site a year ago, I have no plans to sell or close down this forum.

 

My forum is struggling but it has only been active for a month now. I wouldn't dream of closing it as I have coded the entire thing by myself. I will just keep advertising and having friends post to keep it active until it takes off.

 

I have deleted several dead forums, then even years later after I lost a computer, or something I realized then that the thing I needed, rather it'd be a picture I made and wanted to keep that was posted on the site, or wanted to contact a member, ect. I can not as the forum has been deleted, and you loose everything. So no, I'd keep the forum.