I’ve read a few comments about the MGTOW forum’s recent problems, but I don’t really know what’s going on there. This makes me think I should have paid a bit more attention to it, but I pretty much gave us on forums a while ago.
Perhaps I should explain why:
I started a forum here a few years ago, and while it was quite popular and resulted in lots of registrations, it was technically cumbersome and a real pain to moderate. It soon spun out of my control, as forums are wont to do, and I found my ability to do what I like to do – write content – seriously compromised. So I had to shut it down. Forums are very time-consuming and there’s little reward for the effort one puts into them.
However, I had thought about contacting a friendly forum for some sort of cooperation. Being unwilling to get back into the business of moderating a forum myself, I thought some mod might want to handle a forum for The Spearhead’s posts on his own board, which would bring him a lot of visitors and relieve me of moderation duties, but I never got around to it. It seemed like a possibly complicated job (depending on the software), and I wasn’t sure how it would work out in everyone’s favor.
In any event, forums are valuable resources, but given the amount of work they require they have to be subsidized somehow. Dealing with people flaming each other (or you) is not a pleasant task, and I think people deserve compensation for it. As I’ve put more and more effort into this site over the years, I’ve started to question whether it’s appropriate to ask people for what amounts to free labor, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the practice is too often abused in the MRM. While it’s OK for stopgap measures and enhancing a site from time to time, I think you cross the line when you start to rely on free labor, whether your own or others’, to keep your enterprise afloat.
So while I hope there is still a strong community of people out there willing to run an independent forum, I would also warn the admins not to overextend themselves and risk flaming out. I’d also remind the users that the admin is performing a valuable service, and should be rewarded for it.
