Good to see Jman has made an appearance. I am coming back from my "isolation" from the Kung-Flu, so I have been living in the dark ages until just recently.
First off.. Happy New year! GTFO 2020!
I see some valid points, 1.) social media.. this is true, forums have taken a hit but they still exist.
2.) Site maintenance and upkeep. Yes and No.. I don't want to step on any toes but elb is not a particularly big site, and going by what public analytical data is out there site views have taken a hit when you look at trends. But site visits are still high enough that Ad revenue should be enough to off-set a good chunk of day to day operating costs. There are ways to tighten the proverbial belt for web site hosting, hardware costs if hosting on your own servers.. vs hosting 3rd party. Just about all of the larger web hosts offer some highly competitive pricing bundles for fully 3rd party hosted solutions.
@Jman423 re-evaluate your Google Ad-sense relationship, while they are one of the biggest in the ad revenue market, they are also one of the crappiest and are getting even crappier in 2021.
Creating a forum is incredibly simple these days, its at the point where it literally for lack of a better term is "turn-key" with a fully hosted solution you could go from zero to online within an hour or less. Customization and porting over any data is what takes the largest chunk of time. And TBH in many ways
@OSP959(R) is correct you can operate a forum with minimal investment and have it be functional.. it all depends on what direction you want to take.
And that is enough of that.. Mods keep doing that voodoo.. that you do so well.
Rob