I'm sure many of us have went through several forums in our lifetime.

 

For me, I'll start... (including dates and forum software used)

• X Community (August 2004, InvisionFree): My first ever forum, but never took off... really because I was an immature noob then and had only like four members (although one of them was a good friend of mine from school, who had experience with forums herself)
  
• EXE Community (September 2004, InvisionFree): Pretty much the same as the last one, only that I had 11 members, but that was a flop too
  
• DX Community (March 2005, InvisionFree): A forum where I had some success with, and lasted a good couple of months... until I abandoned it in July that year
  
• RX Community (April 2008, ZetaBoards): Was my most successful forum ever, where I had it for four years and during that time had amassed over 500 members, though a good portion of them were from my YouTube channel at the time. Too bad it had to close following petty drama that broke out...
  
• Ocular Perception (September 2013, ZetaBoards): The first forum I made that was on a specific genre, in that case of multimedia. It didn't take off well and after two members I closed it
  
• The Hideout (January 2015, ZetaBoards): A forum that was made for former members of RXComm, and was invite-only (therefore I did not make its link public, until I later did). Was closed in July 2015 and I can't remember why...
  
• The Lightweb (September 2017, ZetaBoards): A forum that was initially made for the people I befriended at the RKC Petz Forum but it wasn't that popular amongst them... but became a runaway success within the ZetaBoards community for some reason. While it did live up to the greatness of RXComm in some ways, I didn't want to continue it on a new platform following the Tapatalk crisis
  
• mindsConnected (June 2018, Jcink): A tech forum that served as the spiritual successor to TLW, to which I had closed in April 2019 following a sudden slump in activity, lack of motivation coupled with frustration with Jcink in general and that I suddenly lost a trusted Developer. Even though it had closed then, it was continued as a Discord server until I passed the baton in October that year (but the server is now gone as of February 2020, so that's when the community really dissipated). As everyone would know, it reopened its doors in September, after a long five years.
  
• The Knowledge Hub (August 2024, Forumotion): A social science/general knowledge forum that didn't last long, plus the fact that I didn't like Forumotion all that much. Its uncertain fate and eventual closure had led to me reopening the above forum.
  

 

So... what about you? :)

Let me think about it... I'm old now... LOL From 2000 to present:

 

First forum was a goth forum. Don't laugh. I used to be goth as a teen LOL. It used PhpBB1 and I then restarted it with PhpBB2. It didn't last long. I was on dialup back then!

 

When ProBoards first started, I made a forum there about WebTV, LOL.

 

I had a general forum using PhpBB2 plugged into Php-Nuke. Anyone remember that? It was awesome!

 

I've had many weather-related forums: WeatherBB, Skywarn Forum, Storm Chaser Forum - used MyBB, vBulletiin, and XenForo for those.

 

I started AAF 1.0 on SMF and eventually went to IPB and then XF.

 

I had my Skywarn Forum on vBulletin 3.X series.

 

Now I have 4 and working on 5th.

 

1. Another Admin Forum (2.0)

2. Bike Southern Illinois

3. Blogging Collective

4. The Hiking Forum

 

WIP-5: Off Topic Forum which is going to be on vBulletin 6 because I want to try it out LOL

Oh man, too many to count really. Literally hundreds.

 

Most notable from the IF/ZB era were:

 

Traffic Prelation (2004)

Sleekly Put Styles (Somewhere 2006)

Revision Reviews (2007-2008 and 2014)

Factotum

Alpha.Lite

And countless others I forgot.

I've had two Yu-Gi-Oh forums, one of which was a flop, and about three coding/resource forums. I may have had more forums back in the day of InvisionFree/ZetaBoards, but I don't recall them. InvisionFree/ZetaBoards, ProBoards, and Jcink are the software all the communities were on. I've never used self-hosted forum software. Out of those five, two resource forums were the primary success.

I’ve had about 2-3 other forums in the past, including:

 

• An off-topic/general chat forum (2015-2017)

• An admin/webmaster forum (The Admin Effect) (2015-2017).

Just going back and researching, there was a lot that I didn't mention above LOL.

Let me think about it... I'm old now... LOL From 2000 to present:

 

First forum was a goth forum. Don't laugh. I used to be goth as a teen LOL. It used PhpBB1 and I then restarted it with PhpBB2. It didn't last long. I was on dialup back then!

 

When ProBoards first started, I made a forum there about WebTV, LOL.

 

I had a general forum using PhpBB2 plugged into Php-Nuke. Anyone remember that? It was awesome!

 

I've had many weather-related forums: WeatherBB, Skywarn Forum, Storm Chaser Forum - used MyBB, vBulletiin, and XenForo for those.

 

I started AAF 1.0 on SMF and eventually went to IPB and then XF.

 

I had my Skywarn Forum on vBulletin 3.X series.

 

Now I have 4 and working on 5th.

 

1. Another Admin Forum (2.0)

2. Bike Southern Illinois

3. Blogging Collective

4. The Hiking Forum

 

WIP-5: Off Topic Forum which is going to be on vBulletin 6 because I want to try it out LOL

Wow you are really fond of running forums (I mean this in a good way!).

 

I've tried the vBulletin 6 demo and it's actually not too bad. It has a very old school feel to it (which I prefer).

I have created half a dozen forums. My two forums were a part of my blogging sites and when I sold the blogging sites, I also gave away forums. The most successful forums that I ever had was built on wordpress and I sold it a couple of years ago. I have shut down one forum but thinking to bring it back, and how I have tow forums and one of them is making me money.

I have shut down one forum but thinking to bring it back

Mind I ask how long it had been shut for?

devioustyrant.com - first on phpbb and then vBulletin 3.6. This would have been around 2004 or so.

rockpapernuke.com - vBulletin 3.7 (maybe?) 2005 ish.

supremecommanderforums.com - vBulletin 2007

alienscolonialmarines.net (i think that was the address)

left4deadforums.com - did really well. Sold it when the game launched for $3500

dead-island.com - did really well. Sold it for $3000 when the game launched

strategygaming.net (or strategygamingnetwork.net, I can't remember). My first xenForo, I think. Closed when my kids were born.

humankindforum.com (or similar). The game sucked. The forum sucked more.

shatteredsunrts.com - xenForo - still going.

esgr.io - closed after a year.

rtshq.net/hub - my latest baby. Just started a couple of months ago.

 

There are probably a few more that I have forgotten due to it being over the last twenty years.

 

Oh ya, xgengamers,com - there is actually a Steam group still! and evilgamersonline.com - when I was heavy into Resident Evil types games.

I've only had one and have always used MyBB. I did retire it for about a decade and recently brought it back last year. I don't find forums as popular as they once were.

I've only had one and have always used MyBB. I did retire it for about a decade and recently brought it back last year. I don't find forums as popular as they once were.

How’s the revival coming along? Are your old members slowly returning?

Not had very many personal forums. Always been to busy building the software rather than the communities.

How’s the revival coming along? Are your old members slowly returning?

None of them have returned. :( But it's serving a purpose of giving me a place to put free reads and advertise services.

Mind I ask how long it had been shut for?

It has been shut down for almost a year. I was trying to sell the forum but the buyer was not interested in the forum, he was just interested in domain. After I sold the domain, I shut down the forum. I have the database. The forum is on mental health niche.

My first forum was a webmaster forum. I started a lot of forums over the years, mostly related either building sites, or poker. I currently only have one forum, which is a poker forum. I don't plan to start any others.

None of them have returned. :( But it's serving a purpose of giving me a place to put free reads and advertise services.

Have you thought about sending out a mass email to your members? This could possibly help bring them back if you haven’t done so.

Lets see:

 

extreme-vb.net - Visual Basic programming site - started on a hacked ASP guestbook script in 1997

visualbasicforum.com - popular Visual Basic forum -started in 1999 on wwwthreads. Imported all the posts from the original Extreme VB site.

dotnetforum.net - the evolution of the visual basic forum when Microsoft EOL it. Opened in 2002.

whatpissesyouoff.com - an offshoot from a hidden forum on the visual basic site - opened in 2004

extremetechsupport.com - and computer support forum - opened in 2004 after I sold visual basic forum

 

There are others. Those were the most popular. All were big boards and popular during there time.

whatpissesyouoff.com

Brilliant! I'm sure that had good SEO rankings when people were pissed off. :ROFLMAO:

 

In addition to my OP, I think my second forum wasn't even a "community", it was just an index of codes and skins found on the official InvisionFree Support board. Later on, the indexes were combined into "Big Boards," my largest resource board to date.

All together I've had 3 forums. 2 were general forums and this new one is about AIChatGPT and other AI services.

There is a typo in your topic title

[HEADING=2](and what where they)[/HEADING]

Let me think about it... I'm old now... LOL From 2000 to present:

 

First forum was a goth forum. Don't laugh. I used to be goth as a teen LOL. It used PhpBB1 and I then restarted it with PhpBB2. It didn't last long. I was on dialup back then!

 

When ProBoards first started, I made a forum there about WebTV, LOL.

 

I had a general forum using PhpBB2 plugged into Php-Nuke. Anyone remember that? It was awesome!

 

I've had many weather-related forums: WeatherBB, Skywarn Forum, Storm Chaser Forum - used MyBB, vBulletiin, and XenForo for those.

 

I started AAF 1.0 on SMF and eventually went to IPB and then XF.

 

I had my Skywarn Forum on vBulletin 3.X series.

 

Now I have 4 and working on 5th.

 

1. Another Admin Forum (2.0)

2. Bike Southern Illinois

3. Blogging Collective

4. The Hiking Forum

 

WIP-5: Off Topic Forum which is going to be on vBulletin 6 because I want to try it out LOL

I've done some digging and used the heck out of the way back machine. :D

 

I've had a few admin forums over the years. ForumSeed.com in 2007. AdminQuest.com in 2008. I wonder if I merged those two. I really can't remember. Is that a sign of old age?!?!?

 

I had a website called Kruzzen once. I tried to make it like MSN or Yahoo with a network of websites like a dating site (using osDate by TuFat - anyone remember that one) and others. I had a general forum on it called All Topics. I think it was very short-lived.

 

I've had so many forums that I can't remember what all I've had.

I've had quite a few throughout the past decade. Most were related to video games, specific franchises. I've had a couple Pokemon related forums, a Sonic related one, a Mega Man one, a webmaster one, a paranormal one, and a few general discussion forums. I currently own an inclusive one, a general discussion forum, one based on a gaming franchise, and a promotional one that I need to work on more.

In all the years of being around and working on forums. I've had one forum and it lived for like 6 months. The next one I start will be running custom software and may, at some point become installable software but that is at least a year out. Its been started, but I have found something I am more interested in building for the moment.

In all the years of being around and working on forums. I've had one forum and it lived for like 6 months. The next one I start will be running custom software and may, at some point become installable software but that is at least a year out. Its been started, but I have found something I am more interested in building for the moment.

Just curious to what kind of forum you’d actually make. Would it be a programming one?

It will serve to "dogfood" the components I am building as well as provide support.