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It's definitely not essential to the database, but neither are news updates, set reviews, blog posts, comments or Amazon links. I think the goal for all of the 'add-ons' is to increase page views and/or fund the database.
However - I will echo @SumoLego the adds as they stand now when you're not logged in are beyond obtrusive to the point of basically rendering the forum unusable.
And, so much for the idea of posting home page articles in the forum, https://forum.brickset.com/categories/brickset-com-articles, to promote discussion here: they've attracted a grand total of 0 comments between them so far!
I haven't got much to say one way or the other, ultimately, I don't frequent here as often due to my habits. I collect LEGO infrequently most of the year, so am rarely visiting Brickset or the Forum until the big Holiday deals at the end of the year drive my purchases back up again.
I don't use the affiliate links, or if I have it was very rare that I did because I usually just use my favorites to hit up Amazon or TLS. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.
As with most users, I suspect I attribute very little to the conversations I do participate in. I'm just not ON as often as most lovers of LEGO.
Honestly, I'd be sad to see it go, but can understand why it went. As with everything in life, the longer it exists the pricier it becomes to the point where the benefits are outweighed by the costs.
If it must go, I will bid it a fond farewell. I never really thought much about the costs of running such sites before, they are often ignored by the general public who prefer to just use a service and not have to think about it. I am saddened to think that such a wonderful community might be forced to die simply because it could not evolve enough to survive the shifting sands of the internet... ok I'm no good with coming up with allegories on the fly, especially this early in the morning.
To summarize. Love the place, but am guilty of not using it very often year round, so, sorry folks. But I've got so many other hobbies which compete with LEGO that discussing LEGO every day 365 days a year just isn't in my wheelhouse. And I am unfortunately probably not the only one.
I struggle to understand how it can cost north of £3k/year for a forum that only 80 registered users bother with. I help run a football forum where we regularly have 50+ users online at any one time during the day, with peaks of 400+, and a bog standard VPS and the Invision forum software deals with it easily. Forum software is a few quid every 6 months, and hosting is about £50/month. Even a dedicated server shouldn't cost much more than double that.
I won't pretend that our needs are the same as Brickset's because every forum-based community is completely different, our forum peaks around matchdays and breaking news for example, but your costs still sound incredibly expensive to me. I mentioned this the last time the forum was an issue for you: send some usage logs to a few hosting companies and ask what they can do for you. As you have an established large community you may even be able to get a special rate in exchange for a text link to the host in the footer, as it may help their SEO.
Nonetheless, I agree that Vanilla seems disproportionately expensive and perhaps some shopping around would prolong its existence.
In any case, the football forum I'm on about. It's 6.55am and there are 199 users online (of which 2 are logged in). Brickset currently has 7 users online (again, of which 2 are logged in). For this we're being charged £50/month, and BrickSet is paying £260+. It just doesn't sound right.
Anyway, this is where I would post a meme of LEGO Stormtroopers with baseball bats posed around a prone LEGO horse.
Thanks so much for putting that song in my head for the rest of the day! (example of friendly sarcasm?)
To show there are no hard feelings I made this up for you just now- feel free to use as needed...
(I was considering posting the lyrics to 'Toxic', but they're really weird and intellectually insulting.)
Of course you can have some people being a little terse or rude sometimes (this is still the Internet) but they’re absolutely in the minority I’d say. And yes, there’s some sarcasm, but that appears to be mainly between people who are already acquainted. So to label the forum as ‘toxic’ is being very unfair not only to Huw who provides us with this wonderful platform, but also to the friendly and generous people who frequent it.
Besides; this forum is like me...A CLASSIC!!!
I noticed the new articles don't sort to the top when sorting by recent posts unless somebody posts a comment in the forum. I may be in the minority, but I almost always sort by most recent, so I would not have spotted them if others had not already posted comments.
The article is posted automatically from the main site article RSS feed so doesn't exist until after that has been posted, and I'm certainly not doing them all manually!