[Question] So what keeps the forum going?

[Coola Yagami]

I'm kinda confused what keeps this place running year after year, since I don't believe this is a free message board. I've seen several forums die in my day since the owner either lost interest or it wasn't worth it for them to keep paying for it month after month.

Like, we already know Shredder is long gone and Krang only appears once every third blue moon, but I mean.... are they somehow still footing the bill?

Did Krang pay some sort of 20-year or so payment in advance so the forum would continue to go even after they've all but lost interest in it?

[CyberCubed]

I'm assuming the cost to keep this place running is extremely minimal, or else it would have been shut down by now. The forums of course are far less active than they used to be since all the older fans are now 40+ year olds and moved on with their lives or lost interest in Turtles.

And besides that there isn't much to talk about right now since the current state of the franchise is in a lull. Most of the activity ended when the 2012 cartoon finale happened.

[IMJ]

These boards run on vBulletin and they charge a monthly fee. My understanding is that you can have a 25 gb plan for $19.95 a month and it goes up from there.

I have a website myself and before that have done online publishing via PDF going back to 2002, so I always have appreciation for guys that absorb the costs of fansites like this one where other people surely benefit from it's existence more than the person who created it.

And the other side of it is that forums and websites were typically set up by people who worked in computers or programming to begin with, so those guys commonly made enough money at their day job to support the monthly fees without an issue. I stumbled through the setup of my own sites myself using templates and a meager understanding of HTML without a programming background, so I have real respect for guys with those skills who clearly set this stuff up back when it was all budding and new.

[Andrew NDB]

I own and run two vBulletin boards. There is a monthly fee you can pay to run them or just a flat fee to have them forever, but your license eventually expires and you can't update (like what happened here). Beyond that you just have to pay for the domain which is around $10-20 a month depending.

[CyberCubed]

I imagine vbulletin as a whole will shut down eventually, not many people are hosting their own forums in 2023. When that happens we'll see the end of individual forums like this one. When all of fandom these days are on twitter, reddit and youtube, forums are basically a ghost town or a relic of 30-40+ year olds who visit from the early 2000's.

[Bahamut810]

I wouldn't be surprised if someone was footing the bill and this was one of multiple websites on his account...and just forgot we were still active here on the account.

[Andrew NDB]

There's still plenty of company websites that use vBulletin as a message board or "community." It's just fallen out of popular use for fandoms.

Krang hasn't forgotten about anything. I'm sure he pays for the server space which is probably about $10 a month, pays for the domain name which is like $15 a year, and has to be at least peripherally aware of the board or new users wouldn't be coming in (he's the only one who can approve).

[Monty Mole]

Idk, it could be nostalgia or just that it's easier to find out about new upcoming Turtles stuff. It's pretty cool how long this place has been around for.

[frank_one]

Maybe this place is not as crowded as it was but I keep finding new threads and new posts everyday whenever I check it. That's all I need. A ghost town? A relic? I don't think so. I've seen places way more empty than this.

[The Deadman]

The sole purpose of the forum may have died but the forum itself hasnt. Theres always something to talk about.

[CyberCubed]

Considering we now have threads asking if you believe in evolution of the human race, I think this forum has pretty much run its course.

[Andrew NDB]

I only miss the creativity. And creative fan minds. The fan art and fanfic, however weird it may have been. I wish I could just say "oh, it's moved to this other social media thing" but it really hasn't. Maybe small bits. But not like it was. It's like a hole in people years ago is now filled by... other stuff. Other proclivities. A lot of them not great ones.

[sdp]

There's more fan art than ever before, communities are thriving. The discussions, hardcore fans, projects are all shining more than ever. They just aren't using forums that's old tech only a niche few still use. Fandoms are just on Discord, Reddit and Twitter. This isn't something new, it's been discussed in other threads here at least 5 years ago, you might like an AM/FM radio but don't wonder why all the cool people are now listening to spotify.

Users that post here is out of habit and to debate politics since no one else likely wants to hear them rant for hours. It's definitely not for indepth TMNT discussion, the few users who register are usually trolls or banned accounts and the very very few new users see there's not much worthwhile and dont become new regulars. It's likely not too expensive for Krang to keep it running and he likes that he has a site that has users and has been active for 2 decades. If he cared more about the community he would've upgraded it, continued to be a part of the community. I mean he cares enough to pay the bill but not enough to invest time in it. Many forums that went offline could've kept with a very small user base like the technodrome has if the administrator had continued to pay the bill. I mean how many regular users does this forum have? Two dozen?

[Prowler]

I used to think it was because this was a tight knit community with lots of people who have been here for years. But, at this point in time, most of the veterans have given up on this place already. Even those who swore they'd be here forever.

You also gotta keep in mind that the forums increased their activity around 2012-2014 when the 2k12 series and the first Bay Turtles film came out. Rise got cancelled after what, 1 or 2 seasons? Clearly wasn't that big. What do we have left now? Wheb I joined this place in early 2009, it was kinda dead as well due to the 2k3 series nearing its end and the future of the property looking dim.

Unless something big TMNT related comes out again in the next few years, the forums won't get any new blood. Plus, forums are a dying format, sadly. People under 25 prefer places like Reddit, Twitter and Instagram nowadays.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I imagine vbulletin as a whole will shut down eventually, not many people are hosting their own forums in 2023. When that happens we'll see the end of individual forums like this one. When all of fandom these days are on twitter, reddit and youtube, forums are basically a ghost town or a relic of 30-40+ year olds who visit from the early 2000's.

It will all come around again. People will continue to migrate to social media platforms and eventually those will be gate kept or moderated through an extreme ideology (like what happened to Twitter before Musk cleaned house).

Once that happens the pendulum will swing back to privately held forums and groups and so on.

Capitalism is routinely the great equalizer - ever shifting and moving according to behavior changes and correction.

[CyberCubed]

I don't think the younger generation is ever coming back to forums. If one social media platform fails, they just move on to the next one. Tumblr was big a few years ago, now instagram is equally huge. And twitter and reddit remain popular.

[Zachatello00]

I've become more of a lurker than a poster of late, but I do visit just about everyday. I've been a member of the forum for nearly 20 years, and visiting it has always just been a part of my "internet routine." I post less these days because I have less to contribute. I don't care for much of what Nickelodeon is doing/has done with the brand since they ended their first animated show, and I feel like i've said (at least most of) what I have to say about the turtles, what they mean to me, and how 1990 still kicks everything else to the curb (IMHO).

I'm glad the forum is still going, and seems to be going strong. There are fewer and fewer places like this where I feel comfortable opening up at all without getting trolled to death. Whatever the case may be concerning whoever runs/operates/pays for all this, I'm glad that they do.

Long live Krang, and long live the Technodrome!

[MrPliggins]

Well said. My sentiments are similar. I don’t follow the new stuff and have little more than a passing interest in it. I don’t really collect anything anymore. I’m rarely inclined to post or comment. But visiting these forums has been something I’ve done steadily for almost 2 decades.

[ZariusTwo]

I rarely if ever post in many of the TMNT sections. Not because I've grown out of the franchise, I just prefer the original cartoon and have the occasional good memory of the 4Kids version. Every other TMNT thing didn't do it for me...and I'm one of a select few number who did like Out of the Shadows but that's largely in part to my FW bias.

I'm glad the IDW Saturday Morning comic is continuing and the FW 'toon will be profiled by that with new adventures going forward (even if it isn't a continuation of the red sky, which would have been bolder...maybe eventually),

I enjoy the discussions we have today on other topics, politically charged or otherwise, they're varied, raw, and wild. There's no filter, and I feel you kind of need that in the world because that shows how different and independent we all are in regards to how we live by our own code and creed. It's refreshing.

I've actually been going back and seeing how people reacted and posted over the 2000s and 2010s...I'm cringing at my past posts and behaviour. I was an a-hole...think I might still be one, but I was much, much worse back then. A 20-something body with the mind of a twelve year old. i have people blocked that I can't even remember blocking also

[Cryomancer]

Originally Posted by sdp

There's more fan art than ever before, communities are thriving. The discussions, hardcore fans, projects are all shining more than ever. They just aren't using forums that's old tech only a niche few still use. Fandoms are just on Discord, Reddit and Twitter. This isn't something new, it's been discussed in other threads here at least 5 years ago, you might like an AM/FM radio but don't wonder why all the cool people are now listening to spotify.

Users that post here is out of habit and to debate politics since no one else likely wants to hear them rant for hours. It's definitely not for indepth TMNT discussion, the few users who register are usually trolls or banned accounts and the very very few new users see there's not much worthwhile and dont become new regulars. It's likely not too expensive for Krang to keep it running and he likes that he has a site that has users and has been active for 2 decades. If he cared more about the community he would've upgraded it, continued to be a part of the community. I mean he cares enough to pay the bill but not enough to invest time in it. Many forums that went offline could've kept with a very small user base like the technodrome has if the administrator had continued to pay the bill. I mean how many regular users does this forum have? Two dozen?

agreed.

i guess i would count as part of the TMNT creative community, and i still do TMNT creative endeavors, but i stopped posting here quite awhile ago. i'll chime in as this seems like a remotely appropriate time for it. this place is pretty dire these days. i read it a few times a week a little bit, just to see how unhinged y'all are about what minor nothing subject this time. sometimes i'll click on a seemingly neutral thread just to see how many posts it takes for something racist or transphobic etc to get posted. often, it's right there in the initial post. y'all have become a bunch of facebook boomer style alt-right weirdos. everything posted here now is culture war ******** and celebrity deaths. why would anyone who's into TMNT even want to post here? have fun, i suppose, you got the place to yourselves now.

TMNT seems like a weird fandom to cause hatred of The Other to me, i dunno what's up with how y'all think anymore. perhaps consider some of the themes of TMNT, like found family and the cycle of revenge. might want to consider some introspection and rethinking of how you came to believe these things you talk about endlessly, maybe who would benefit from you thinking that way. you can still fix your hearts if you want to. do you really see a mutant turtle who has to live as an outcast as someone who would hate on others for what they are? i wouldn't.

i'm sure you will have plenty of wonderful things to say about this post. knock yourselves out.