Christian Forums

We have had no new members in a long time~WHY? Does something need to be repaired so folks can join? If so, then we need to get hold of the owner of this forum and get him to address this major problem, or else this forum will soon die.

Someone was saying a few months ago that the software was broke that allowed people to join.  Serious problem.

Quote from: DaveW on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 04:51:57
Someone was saying a few months ago that the software was broke that allowed people to join.  Serious problem.

How much does the software cost, let's get this taken care of ASAP. Let us pass the plate and get it done

Quote from: RB on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 04:55:55
How much does the software cost, let's get this taken care of ASAP. Let us pass the plate and get it done

Quite pricey.  In the thousands of $$. 

It was my understanding that there was some server issues as well.

Quote from: DaveW on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 06:09:23
Quite pricey.  In the thousands of $$.

How much? A close ballpark price.

Nowadays, with so much freely discussed without censorship on these boards, could be something more sinister involved.  If no others can contribute, not likely they will have interest in the site. Are we sure others can even view these pages? If not, not much true Christian purpose to the boards, by way of evangelism in any case. Which itself is increasingly becoming unpopular. I have admittedly not paid much attention to monetary contributions, but would certainly be willing to add my monetary two cents in any case to help with this problem. Boards like these are no doubt in trouble these days, from many different avenues.

Quote from: RB on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 07:29:43
How much? A close ballpark price.

I personally have no idea.  I just know that other forums have said upwards of $3k.

You will have to ask @admin to find out what our set up costs.

No new members because the email verification function is broken.

@RB,  6 years ago it was mentioned that the site had a market value of 40k, but the owner was willing to accept 25k.


No idea what server hosting costs would be to run this forum as a solo operation, or if the owner would even consider that option. With our current activity, it shouldn't be much.

Quote from: Alan on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 11:40:25
6 years ago it was mentioned that the site had a market value of 40k,

6 years ago this place was a lot more busy.  Forums like this were all the rage. Not so much these days.

Quote from: DaveW on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 12:08:43
6 years ago this place was a lot more busy.  Forums like this were all the rage. Not so much these days.

So true.

I think part of the reason is people are being trained to have their online experiences come at them fast and furious. Quick. Short. To the point. TikTok, twitter, etc - are quick snippets - read a sentence or two, or watch 10 seconds, and quickly move on to the next one. Excessive use of digital media has left most of us with a shorter attention span. Not many people care to concentrate on anything more than a quick snippet. Forums were designed for lengthy posts and longer convos. For the most part - people aren't into that anymore - especially younger people. Most people only read the headlines on news articles - so why would they hang out at online forums to make lengthy posts about those topics when they can tweet a sentence about it and move on?

I also think a lot of people who went to topic limited forums have now gone to Facebook groups. I used to be in a very large homeschool forum that has disbanded (even though homeschooling is increasing) because members went to Facebook groups for that. Most health issue related forums have disbanded and now are on Facebook groups. Even though people can make somewhat longer posts on Facebook groups, posts are still shorter than the old forum style.

Facebook will die a fiery death in the not so distant future.  That is why they are doing this META thing.  Younger kids don't use facebook or twitter.  It's Snapchat or Whatsapp or TikTok.

For my social media use, I typically only use Telegram.  And that is where a chat group for my family resides.

Quote from: Texas Conservative on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 12:46:45
Facebook will die a fiery death in the not so distant future.  That is why they are doing this META thing.  Younger kids don't use facebook or twitter.  It's Snapchat or Whatsapp or TikTok.

For my social media use, I typically only use Telegram.  And that is where a chat group for my family resides.

When Facebook is gone, where will those topic specific groups go? They used to be on traditional forums, like this one, but now they're at Facebook groups. I'm in a large Facebook group for iron deficient anemia where people brainstorm, share their tips, etc, on dealing with this health condition. For whatever health concern you have, there's a large Facebook group for that - or several large Facebook groups for it. Something will have to take the place of Facebook groups for these groups.

Just this weekend, I was saying how much I miss Periscope. The younger people here tried to tell me snapchat is like Periscope. Not really.

Younger people keep a step ahead. So now older people are heading to tiktok. That means younger people will move on - just like they did with Facebook. I get tickled at older people complaining their grandkids don't post enough on Facebook - that's because they moved on years ago when the parents and grandparents showed up on the scene. 

I prefer Reddit to other social media platforms, it's much more taylorable.

Quote from: DaveW on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 12:08:43
6 years ago this place was a lot more busy.  Forums like this were all the rage. Not so much these days.

I don't think the forum was ever responsible for the perceived value, it's the site itself. SMF forums (and similar) have been declining in popularity for the last 10 years.

Quote from: Alan on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 11:40:25
No new members because the email verification function is broken.

@RB,  6 years ago it was mentioned that the site had a market value of 40k, but the owner was willing to accept 25k.


No idea what server hosting costs would be to run this forum as a solo operation, or if the owner would even consider that option. With our current activity, it shouldn't be much.

I'm interested in knowing.

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 13:03:00

Younger people keep a step ahead. So now older people are heading to tiktok. That means younger people will move on - just like they did with Facebook. I get tickled at older people complaining their grandkids don't post enough on Facebook - that's because they moved on years ago when the parents and grandparents showed up on the scene. 

The young kids have never liked FB, back when we first joined FB our kids were all heavily into MySpace, when that site dissolved most of them found and built up WhatsApp and Snapchat, and the more mature folk went to Instagram.

Notice where Twitter is on the following chart, their user base has declined considerably.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

Quote from: RB on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 13:16:33
I'm interested in knowing.

Send him an email

Quote from: Texas Conservative on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 12:46:45
Facebook will die a fiery death in the not so distant future.  That is why they are doing this META thing.  Younger kids don't use facebook or twitter.  It's Snapchat or Whatsapp or TikTok.

It's been that way for a long time though, and FB has stayed at the top. I don't think the kids necessarily dictate website traffic, FB is attractive to a much wider demographic.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Next-door app. 

On one hand, it has some very valuable info that neighbors can share - like a few weeks ago when we had a rash of car break-ins (including ours) Neighbors were sharing security videos of the suspects, etc. It's also a great app for reuniting lost dogs with owners. The city also posts announcements about current or upcoming situations that we need to know. Just last week a neighbor posted info about her missing daughter that ended ok.

On the other hand, it sad and a bit scary finding out how nutty your neighbors are. Within the past few weeks, there was a neighbor claiming F-16s were buzzing her house all hours of the night and were flying below 100 ft. When neighbors tried to tell her that was impossible, she flipped out even more. There was another neighbor opening gates around town to let dogs out of their yard to "run free." All kinds of weird behavior out there in the neighborhood, and some of this stuff I'd rather not know.

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 12:42:49
I also think a lot of people who went to topic limited forums have now gone to Facebook groups.

Originally I was on a very large forum which was actually an amalgam of Christianity.com, Crosswalk.com, SalemCommunications.com and CrownFinancial.com.  Then the whole 12000 member board became a Facebook group.  There was a thousand people on line at some points.

Since I was not on FB at that time I found this forum.

Quote from: Alan on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 13:20:52
It's been that way for a long time though, and FB has stayed at the top. I don't think the kids necessarily dictate website traffic, FB is attractive to a much wider demographic.

It has recently dropped.  Valuation went down because of a first time loss in users.

Quote from: DaveW on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 13:42:34
Originally I was on a very large forum which was actually an amalgam of Christianity.com, Crosswalk.com, SalemCommunications.com and CrownFinancial.com.  Then the whole 12000 member board became a Facebook group.  There was a thousand people on line at some points.

Since I was not on FB at that time I found this forum.

I'm in a keto fb group that has over 300k members. My anemia support fb group has nearly 40k, and I've picked up more helpful info there than from my doctor. When my grandson went to boot camp, they had a group for families of Marine recruits where they posted daily updates. There was no other source for that info.
If Facebook crashes and burns, these groups will have to find another home online.
The only thing I use fb for is messenger, and a few groups. I cleared off my wall a few years ago and haven't posted on it since. No posts, no pics, nothing.

I moved off Facebook messenger because there were signs it was being moderated.  We moved our family over to Telegram.

The elephant in the room-

Are people, in general, growing disinterested in discussing religious matters? Probably so. Church membership is declining. In fact, I saw a recent poll that states only 36 percent of millennials say they are a member of a church/synagogue/mosque. If there's a lack of interest in going to church - there's probably a lack of interest in discussing religious matters on forums.

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 14:12:38
I'm in a keto fb group that has over 300k members. My anemia support fb group has nearly 40k, and I've picked up more helpful info there than from my doctor. When my grandson went to boot camp, they had a group for families of Marine recruits where they posted daily updates. There was no other source for that info.
If Facebook crashes and burns, these groups will have to find another home online.
The only thing I use fb for is messenger, and a few groups. I cleared off my wall a few years ago and haven't posted on it since. No posts, no pics, nothing.

That's why Reddit is good, you can create a sub-Reddit that is tailored specifically to your purposes, and you moderate it yourself. There are currently in the area of 150,000 active subs and you can find subs that are about almost anything that interests you. I try to stay out of politics, but I like football, baseball, and photography amongst many others. The r/NFL sub has 2.4 million members.
Reddit isn't for everyone though, I find it somewhat left leaning, hence my reasoning for avoiding political and geographical subs. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 14:37:00
The elephant in the room-

Are people, in general, growing disinterested in discussing religious matters? Probably so. Church membership is declining. In fact, I saw a recent poll that states only 36 percent of millennials say they are a member of a church/synagogue/mosque. If there's a lack of interest in going to church - there's probably a lack of interest in discussing religious matters on forums.

Could be but a short while ago when you were signed out and could not get back on... didn't you try a new account and never got the acceptance email?

I have heard that from others.

As to religious forum end... That is why GC is so good cause there are discussions about everything.

FB will not let me back on. So that is a non starter for me.

I'm looking into the registration/email problem.

Quote from: admin on Mon Mar 07, 2022 - 13:02:54
I'm looking into the registration/email problem.

Lee, THANK YOU very much!

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Feb 07, 2022 - 14:12:38
If Facebook crashes and burns, these groups will have to find another home online.

Back about 20 years ago I was on a group (before Christianity.com/crosswalk) that was on something called OneList.  That folded into E-groups; which was in turn bought out by Yahoo groups.  There they kept getting hacked and shut down so they eventually went to their own website:  themarriagebed.com. 

Looks like the registration issue has been resolved, thanks Lee!!!

Quote from: Alan on Mon Mar 07, 2022 - 17:28:53
Looks like the registration issue has been resolved, thanks Lee!!!

YAY!!!!!

Not that I don't just love our little group to pieces, but it would be nice to get a newbie from time to time.

I just banned 3 spammers and deleted their posts.   

It's nice to get back to proper moderation.

Lee, THANK YOU very kindly. I'm tired of beating up on 4WD, I need someone else.

Quote from: mommydi on Mon Mar 07, 2022 - 17:50:27
Not that I don't just love our little group to pieces, but it would be nice to get a newbie from time to time.

Indeed!

Thank you Lee!!!!