Why Dont the Pavlina's Sell this Forum??
 

Why dont the Pavlina's sell this forum to someone who wants to keep the forum going????

I wouldnt mind buying it if the price is right

Legally we can't do that. A spammer could buy the boards and use it to spam thousands of people.

Ah okay.

Still sucks you guys are shutting it down. I wish you would reconsider :o

Legally, that is absolutely false. Forums are bought and sold every day. Anyone can spam people, whether they own a forum or not. You can get a list of emails, much cheaper then you can buy a forum. That's not a very good excuse as to why this forum can't be sold.

Morally, perhaps you can't do that. But, legally, you can. But, if we are playing with morals, then throwing out everyone into the cold, is no better then the possibility that people might be spammed.

It could be tough to find a buyer.

The commercial value of a forum lies in the number of members it has. In turn, the number of members it has depends on the size of its "critical mass" - the very active, prolific members who write enough and regularly to make the forum lively and interesting, attracting the readers to keep coming back.

This forum just lost a significant number of its own active, prolific members, through Steve's bannings. And this forum also alienated a big proportion of its remaining readers, through those same bannings.

Now, if you were a prospective buyer, wouldn't you hesitate?

I would, but there is no reason that the value of this forum, is the actual value of it.

They obviously don't care about getting rid of it, nor have they thought about selling it. Even giving it away, to someone capable of keeping it going, would still work. Hell, sell it to zen habits or something. Change the name of it. Bring people back from the dead. What ever.

Either way, it is not illegal to sell a forum, which was my point.

Firstly I don't even think that "they" is the right pronoun to use here ....

From the legal point of view, this website is probably just Steve's.

Also if you remember, at the time of their breakup, Steve wrote something about letting Erin continue to have some space on these forums. The general underlying premise was that the website is Steve's, and as a little courtesy / privilege / goodwill gesture, he was going to let Erin continue have a little space on his forums.

I know. Even the OP's question started on the wrong premise.

:D where will Acting Like Godot post now? I've enjoyed many of your posts

Steve and I are still legally married and share property and all that good stuff. So technically, legally, I own half the forums. But regardless, Steve told me like 6 months ago to start thinking about what I would do with my sub-forum if/when he shut them down. I decided not to start my own forums after I saw how time consuming it was to manage this one. So instead I'll just open my blog to comments.

I didnt know that.

How time-consuming is it exactly??

There were times when I was active as an Admin that I would spend 2 hours a day just dealing with spam deletion, reported visitor posts, arguments between members, requests to delete posts, discussion of new rules, requests for "how do I XYX..." from new members, tracking down people with multiple accounts, and dealing with all kinds of extra correspondence that had nothing to do with me personally. Steve also had to keep the software upgraded, deal with down time, technical issues, technical support, etc.

Wow, 2 hours a day!! Cant blame you for shutting it down


EDIT: Not sarcasm, I was being serious. 2 hours out of a day is a lot


.

russianrocket:
"Either way, it is not illegal to sell a forum, which was my point."

Correct! Internet forums are bought+sold all the time.

This publicly traded company is in the business of buying forums:
CrowdGather - Find it on Forums

"Site Acquisition
We understand that forums are all about community and that community takes time and care. We are forum members, owners and community managers and this gives us the unique perspective to really understand the needs of forums. We know that if you are interested in selling your forum that you want it in good hands. CrowdGather is committed to your forum thriving and becoming more than what it is today through technology enhancements, search engine optimization and most importantly through engaging content."