Philosophy Discussion Forums

arjand wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2021, 8:11 am
Do you want to continue the forum or would you be interested to sell it if there would be a buyer?

I can't imagine the forum would be worth much if sold.

Aside from the fact that I can't imagine anyone would be willing to pay much more than nothing to buy the forum, my biggest worry would be that the forum wouldn't run well on a small web host.

Since I have my other much more active website, OnlineBookClub.org, I am able to let this much smaller website use that website's vast resources at essentially no charge.

I pay over $800 per month for the server I have it on currently, so in theory at least the forum software should run fast and reliably. The server has a 16-core CPU and 64GB of RAM. I don't think it would run well on, for example, a $5 per month shared web host, especially considering those are generally always oversold (i.e. running over capacity). There are a lot of other concerns like the SSL certificate, the IP address, the MX records, just to name a few of the top of my head. Cheap shared hosts either don't offer these kind of features or charge extra for them. Plus, someone has to set them up and manage all that which can take quite a bit of technical knowledge. I think I put a lot more time into this website than people realize, which is itself part of the reason I don't have as much time as I would like to log in as a regular user and join in on the actual discussions, which I do enjoy very much when I can find the time.

Scott wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2021, 3:02 pm

arjand wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2021, 8:11 am
Do you want to continue the forum or would you be interested to sell it if there would be a buyer?

I can't imagine the forum would be worth much if sold.

Aside from the fact that I can't imagine anyone would be willing to pay much more than nothing to buy the forum, my biggest worry would be that the forum wouldn't run well on a small web host.

Since I have my other much more active website, OnlineBookClub.org, I am able to let this much smaller website use that website's vast resources at essentially no charge.

I pay over $800 per month for the server I have it on currently, so in theory at least the forum software should run fast and reliably. The server has a 16-core CPU and 64GB of RAM. I don't think it would run well on, for example, a $5 per month shared web host, especially considering those are generally always oversold (i.e. running over capacity). There are a lot of other concerns like the SSL certificate, the IP address, the MX records, just to name a few of the top of my head. Cheap shared hosts either don't offer these kind of features or charge extra for them. Plus, someone has to set them up and manage all that which can take quite a bit of technical knowledge. I think I put a lot more time into this website than people realize, which is itself part of the reason I don't have as much time as I would like to log in as a regular user and join in on the actual discussions, which I do enjoy very much when I can find the time.

The forum is indeed very fast and I presume that the link with OnlineBookClub.org is beneficial as well.

If you prefer to sell the forum / are unsure if you want to continue it in the future then it may be an option to discover if users are interested to acquire the forum in a community effort.

Would it be possible to share a price for which the forum can be purchased?

To the users, a preservation of the forum content may be valuable and something worth to invest in. It doesn't need to cost much when many users participate. Asking users to shop online using affiliate links can help cover the costs.

Modern cloud hosting can reduce costs significantly. At Google, a 16-core CPU and 64GB RAM server costs $255 USD per month when committed for three years. Google also provides a cluster that can automatically scale only when needed, so that more costs can be saved. In your example, it could save $7,000 USD per year in costs and Google's servers may be extra performant. Amazon AWS is an alternative that may be even cheaper.

https://cloud.google.com/

When some users pay to keep the forum online for 10, 20 or 30 years then it can be made so that everything is prefunded and worry free. A powerful server at Google would cost +/- $600 USD per year.

- $? USD purchase price
- $6,000 USD for 10 years hosting
- $100 USD for 10 years domain registration

When 40 users chip-in $5-10 USD per month for a few years, the forum is secured for decades, which can be of value for some users. Affiliate revenue can add a few decades extra. What would remain is the purchase price for which perhaps a few bigger contributors can be found.

Scott wrote:I have just logged into the Namecheap and everything appears to be fine now. The domain registration is not expiring until next year. I am sorry for the worry and hassle.

Thanks Scott. Good to know that we're going to survive.

I see the board is back online now . . . I wound up at the other board while this one was down. I'll try to keep checking both now.

Scott wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2021, 1:19 pm I have just logged into the Namecheap and everything appears to be fine now. The domain registration is not expiring until next year. I am sorry for the worry and hassle.

The domain created by owner Scott yourself is more than meaningful. It has served us well, but none except you have paid for the service, which is an unfair burden on you stretching over the years. It is time to change.

I would suggest charge be imposed on submission, at the same time as the author would be given better control, by vetting comments which he considers to be irrelevant, inappropriate, or spoiling. My experience is that I have been frustrated by some using the domain to let off steam or simply trying to change the subject to become their pet concern, like might is right.

I hope a revigorated domain would emerge more disciplined even if less populated, and more focused on fewer titles as vetted by administrators like you and Greta.

Yay, the forums' back!!! I just saw!!!

Thanks everyone for the mention.

Yes, thanks for the heads-up.
And Scott, thanks for providing this forum.