@Shaggy @ACooper I faintly remember getting an email about you trying to revive this forum but for whatever reason I didn't respond at the time. Busy with COVID-19 maybe?
I had to use one of my secure virtual machines because I'm getting malicious advertisements that you can accidentally click on when not using an ad blocker. They are advertisements for fake web browser updates. The advertisements are large and annoying as well.
I still do love web forums. Facebook is a behemoth now, especially with Facebook groups. You need something unique to compete with a site that now has over 2 billion users across the planet. I imagine there could always be a niche for web forums, heck some people might used them out of nostalgia in the years ahead.
Web forums enable long interesting discussions that can last years which just doesn't happen on Facebook.
I used to like the dog forums out there that had an off topic section that was invisible to search engines. One could carry out semi-private discussions with the threads and it did create a sense of community within the forum.
One perk I have seen some existing forums provide is an *option* for sign in with Facebook, sign with google, etc. Personally, I'd prefer to sign in without third parties but it is an option that would make it more convenient for some people to regularly visit Chazhound.
