Who owns a website?

[Abizaga]

I agree. The archived forum came at just the right time, recruited to just the right people were brought in. I only wish I could go back to those days. During the days of AVGN GeezeZone (my present forum) probably could have become huge. Maybe even bigger than Q-Army (the archived forum) was. Sadly now I will never know.

 

[PGen98]

Before social media, they had a much bigger shot at being money-makers, I think.

You're not wrong there, I was the community administrator for GameWinners.com (180,000 members, over 8million posts [we purged the DB at times, so it never exceeded 2 mil at a time]), and pre-social media that site was an absolute beast, posts flowing in 24/7 and members galore; however, once social media took hold and cheat codes fell away from gaming, the site did a nosedive and eventually shut down.

 

[Abizaga]

You're not wrong there, I was the community administrator for GameWinners.com (180,000 members, over 8million posts [we purged the DB at times, so it never exceeded 2 mil at a time]), and pre-social media that site was an absolute beast, posts flowing in 24/7 and members galore; however, once social media took hold and cheat codes fell away from gaming, the site did a nosedive and eventually shut down.

I remember gamewinners! I used that site for my cheats all the time! I really miss the early days, but with enough work, even today a forum can make steps to become something. GeezeZone topped my second biggest forum ever (3,557 posts) and is on the verge of outposting my SECOND biggest ever (4,482 posts) so if nothing else I get the feeling there is still hope.

 

[PGen98]

I remember gamewinners! I used that site for my cheats all the time! I really miss the early days, but with enough work, even today a forum can make steps to become something. GeezeZone topped my second biggest forum ever (3,557 posts) and is on the verge of outposting my SECOND biggest ever (4,482 posts) so if nothing else I get the feeling there is still hope.

Yeah, GameWinners was such a great resource for so many people over the years, and really still could be for retro gamers, but the guy that owned the site didn't want to keep it going, so it shut down.

It's absolutely possible to make a forum a success today, it just needs the right niche and the right mix of users to get it started in the early days and then spread the word. It's that early mix that makes all the difference, because without a good core to build around, there's very little motivation for members to return and keep posting.

 

[Abizaga]

Yeah, GameWinners was such a great resource for so many people over the years, and really still could be for retro gamers, but the guy that owned the site didn't want to keep it going, so it shut down.

It's absolutely possible to make a forum a success today, it just needs the right niche and the right mix of users to get it started in the early days and then spread the word. It's that early mix that makes all the difference, because without a good core to build around, there's very little motivation for members to return and keep posting.

Thats a real shame. With the history and memories of that site it could easily have kept going.

The thing is really having to brainstorm an idea that could work conaistantly that fits and is unique enough, too.

 

[PGen98]

Thats a real shame. With the history and memories of that site it could easily have kept going.

Yep, we tried our best to keep it alive and pushing it forward, but the owner just gave up and that was it, the site just died a slow and painful death rather than putting the effort back in. Shame.

The thing is really having to brainstorm an idea that could work conaistantly that fits and is unique enough, too.

Very true, just gotta' find that niche and work with it.

 

[Abizaga]

Yep, we tried our best to keep it alive and pushing it forward, but the owner just gave up and that was it, the site just died a slow and painful death rather than putting the effort back in. Shame.

So the owner just kind of upped and gave up? I'm confused As to why a guy running a successful website would just get tired of it...

Very true, just gotta' find that niche and work with it.

Yeah which is hard as the popular ones like General Chat, Anime, Gaming etc tend to be oversaturated.

 

[2020s]

I own a few forums, news portals, and web portals.

 

[PGen98]

So the owner just kind of upped and gave up? I'm confused As to why a guy running a successful website would just get tired of it...

Essentially, yeah, he saw the traffic starting to trail down as cheat codes became more and more a thing of the past, and with mostly retro gamers making up his core market, he started winding down the main site. That left us with just the community for a couple of years, and we did try to rebuild the cheat index, but with almost no help from him it was near impossible...so...we lost the community, too about two years later. Now we're reduced a single Facebook group and a subreddit...ah well.

Yeah which is hard as the popular ones like General Chat, Anime, Gaming etc tend to be oversaturated.

Oh absolutely, it needs to really hit an untapped or underserved market in a unique way to make that impact these days, but it's still possible!

 

[Abizaga]

Essentially, yeah, he saw the traffic starting to trail down as cheat codes became more and more a thing of the past, and with mostly retro gamers making up his core market, he started winding down the main site. That left us with just the community for a couple of years, and we did try to rebuild the cheat index, but with almost no help from him it was near impossible...so...we lost the community, too about two years later. Now we're reduced a single Facebook group and a subreddit...ah well.

Damn... what a sad way for a community to go... Hopefully it's well archived.

Oh absolutely, it needs to really hit an untapped or underserved market in a unique way to make that impact these days, but it's still possible!

I'm glad to have somebody sharing my optomism that the forum isn't dead yet.