what would make you shut down?

like the title says, what would happen that would make you shut down your forum/website?

 

hmm, if I get less than 10 members after three months opening and no one interested at the forum at all. ^^"

 

Probably my host shutting down.. or something like that.. but then I'd likely just move to another host.

 

Well, I've only shut down one of my forums - and it was an general chat/off topic community. I didn't have time for it, so I merged it with one of my communities. I believe the #1 reason someone shuts down a community is because of money. Or it could also be lack of time, effort.

 

When my VPS went down and I lost all of my data ( database, tutorials I've written, the good stuff... ) . Happened once to a forum which I loved,
The web hosting company vanished after the day, I had no backups because my desktop can't access control panels due to ports and I got no warnings from the owner,

 

Ouch, that really sucks. I've experienced the same thing years ago when one of the people managing my server deleted everything off of the hard-drive. I, of course, wasn't around, but when I got back. I brought my community back up - starting from scratch. It sucks, but hey, the things we do when we love our sites

 

I run multiple forums. I will get an idea, register a .com for it, take about 2 days to get it prepared and then launch it

I give all my forums 1 full year as I only register the domain name for a year. If they don't make it, I let them domain expire and delete the forum.

 

Simply if no one joins and the forum dies quickly. If I lose interest in the forum I'll just give it to one of the loyal staff and have them carry out Ownership.

 

That is a good thing that you attempt to give it to someone else on the forum that would want to continue it At least you are trying to allow your creation to continue living and growing!

 

That's a real nice idea, or, you can pass it on and still claim ownership - just peeking it every so often and be there when the staff members needs you for something and such.

 

I started my two forums but I realized they were taking too much time, and that is why I shut them down. I don't think I will start one again unless I get someone dedicated to help me, and someone I actually know in real life and not just online.

 

What type of forums were you running? How many posts did they have?

 

That is the thing people should ask themself before they make a forum... Will I have the time to be dedicated to this community? Because once you start ignoring it, it will slowly start to fall

 

I would shut down my forum if lack of time and don't get any cooperation from staff. I hate to get inactive staff even they claimed to be as active as they can at the first time they apply to be a staff.

 

I've shut down 1 of my forums in the past, because I lost interest in the niche. It is important to be interested in your niche when creating the forum, so you can create new topics and posts for your forum, and enjoy doing it.

 

I think you've hit it on the head. Too often people are starting sites on niches they aren't really passionate about. I always tell folks if you're going to start a site, make sure it's something you were already involved in for fun. Because you're less likely to give up if you don't see results right away. A website is pretty much a business and that can take a year or two to be profitable. So you need to be patient and put in the work to make it successful.

 

Lack of money or if everyone just stopped coming to it and it became a complete ghost town. If it's the money issue, I wouldn't shut it down, I'd just move it to a free forum host. Yes that would require us to start over but it'd still be better then just completely forgetting about the forum. Especially if there was still a userbase/community.

 

Very long periods with no members and no interest. It's good to stick with it but eventually, retool or start over.

 

That tends to happen a lot. An owner is very excited in the beginning, then just like a child, they need a new toy to play with.

 

I have shut down forums before and here are the reasons:
1. very inactive - if the community didn't seem 'salvageable', I'd close it down. I am not as patient as I was before, that on one hand, and I'm also more determined to make stuff work faster, so, if a community doesn't improve in some months, I close it down.
2. too much spam - not having this problem anymore, but years ago I closed down a forum because it was impossible to run it anymore
3. lack of time - I had some months when I couldn't do anything. We do travel a lot and I have a web business to take care of. A forum you don't manage dies and sometimes you do have to choose.