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Hi, everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the draft! It was fun seeing Detroit so well-represented throughout the weekend and it was great to live through it on the Forum. Thanks to Whitley and everyone else who contributed and participated this weekend!
There is no easy way to break this news and I'm honestly dreading hitting the "Post" button here. I waited till the draft was over as that is the last big event going on until we see Training Camp start up late this summer and we're about to hit a pretty quiet time at the Forum.
I've decided I can no longer put in the time and money needed to keep this Forum going.
This is not a decision I've come to easily. The Forum has never been self-sustaining, but typically we would get enough Amazon commissions and occasional donations to cover a good portion of the costs. The rest would come out of my pocket and I just chalked it up as the cost of my Lions habit, haha.
But in recent years, as the Internet has evolved and how we seek out information (and share our opinions on it) has changed, the Forum's active membership has declined along with the commissions and donations. Additionally, some of our core members have passed away in recent years, which has taken a toll on a lot of us emotionally and has impacted Forum activity a great deal.
So far this year, the Forum has earned only about $40 dollars in Amazon commissions and about $45 in donations. Together, that is only enough to cover one month of hosting fees.
In addition to the concerns I described, the server that hosts our Forum software is running on an old operating system that reaches its end of support in a couple of months. We must move to a new server, which will have a higher cost and will require a LOT of work for me to perform. I simply don't see the reason to go through all that effort for something that is no longer sustainable.
Please understand: I am not sharing all of this information to make anyone feel badly. I never wanted anyone to feel obligated to donate money to the Forum and only hoped that earning a commission on something you were already going to buy at Amazon would cover our costs.
I am proud that this iteration of the Forum has lasted twenty years! That's quite an accomplishment. And now we're finally seeing a Lions team that has some real promise. It's an exciting time to be a Lions fan!
June 1st is likely when the lights will go off around here. I am willing to explore transferring the Forum over to someone else who would be willing to take on the expense and maintenance. Please speak up if this is something you might find of interest.
Thanks for your support and participation over the years!
Deborah
There is no easy way to break this news and I'm honestly dreading hitting the "Post" button here. I waited till the draft was over as that is the last big event going on until we see Training Camp start up late this summer and we're about to hit a pretty quiet time at the Forum.
I've decided I can no longer put in the time and money needed to keep this Forum going.
This is not a decision I've come to easily. The Forum has never been self-sustaining, but typically we would get enough Amazon commissions and occasional donations to cover a good portion of the costs. The rest would come out of my pocket and I just chalked it up as the cost of my Lions habit, haha.
But in recent years, as the Internet has evolved and how we seek out information (and share our opinions on it) has changed, the Forum's active membership has declined along with the commissions and donations. Additionally, some of our core members have passed away in recent years, which has taken a toll on a lot of us emotionally and has impacted Forum activity a great deal.
So far this year, the Forum has earned only about $40 dollars in Amazon commissions and about $45 in donations. Together, that is only enough to cover one month of hosting fees.
In addition to the concerns I described, the server that hosts our Forum software is running on an old operating system that reaches its end of support in a couple of months. We must move to a new server, which will have a higher cost and will require a LOT of work for me to perform. I simply don't see the reason to go through all that effort for something that is no longer sustainable.
Please understand: I am not sharing all of this information to make anyone feel badly. I never wanted anyone to feel obligated to donate money to the Forum and only hoped that earning a commission on something you were already going to buy at Amazon would cover our costs.
I am proud that this iteration of the Forum has lasted twenty years! That's quite an accomplishment. And now we're finally seeing a Lions team that has some real promise. It's an exciting time to be a Lions fan!
June 1st is likely when the lights will go off around here. I am willing to explore transferring the Forum over to someone else who would be willing to take on the expense and maintenance. Please speak up if this is something you might find of interest.
Thanks for your support and participation over the years!
Deborah
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