This board is dying

[simonov]

Traffic is WAY down on this board in the last six months or so.

I just noticed many of the most active posters from days gone by are now more active over on the San Jacinto board.

What gives?

[HikeUp]

Could be that most of the San Gabriel Mountains are closed.

[simonov]

Could be that most of the San Gabriel Mountains are closed.

Most?

The parts of the San Gabriel Mountains that are closed are actually - I'm not kidding - areas I have never visited.

[Ze Hiker]

I don't think there's much transfer, just less here. It's not just that the parts that are closed - but also that the backcountry ACH is a bigger pain to get to. There's just less people hiking in fewer places I imagine. Baldy / Icehouse Canyon / Chantry Flats or bust for most, I imagine. Many trails still, but probably not "popular".

[HikeUp]

The following are things that deter me from hiking as much as I used to (this is true for me, maybe not for others).

- the parts that are open are more crowded.

- the parts that are open (San Gorgonio and San jacinto areas included) are longer drives.

- the parts that are closed used to offer a large number of nearby and less crowded trails that I used quite often.

- frankly I'm getting bored with the nearby options that are left

This may not be why the overall traffic on this board is down, but it is a reason I post less TR's.

Also, I blame Taco for everything. Just because.

[mve]

Or maybe it's because we are nowhere to be found when looking for Mt Baldy Forum:

http://www.google.com/search?q=mt%20baldy%20forum

At the time I came to this forum I was primarily interested in information about Mt Baldy. I suspect (judging by the traffic on Ski Hut Trail lately) there are other potential forum member out there who are also looking for such a forum but haven't found it.

I realize that this forum is trying to capture a larger audience thus it's name "San Gabriel Mountains" but sometimes in order to do so it's best to first be more specific, targeting a precise group of people, then expand from there.

And being on a subdomain of myfreeforum.org doesn't help matters either (SEO rank wise).

[Taco]

The URL sucks.

[simonov]

Taco and Vitaly hit the nail on the head. This forum is virtually invisible as far as the search engines are concerned, and so there is very little infusion of new blood.

If we want to keep it going and thriving, maybe it's time to seriously consider a dedicated domain and forum.

Only thing getting in the way of that is how to transfer the old database?

This thread suggests MyFreeForum does not make it easy for people to move their forums to dedicated sites.

There might be more information about doing this here, though I haven't spent any time there sniffing around.

BTW, Taco, since I don't use bookmarks the URL I use to get to this site is http://www.eispiraten.com , which does not suck.

[obie]

Cyclical?

It also seems that hiking/biking in the San Gabs is for the fit and adventurous....beyond what the 'Bottle of Wine and Chantry Flats' crowd can handle.

Closing ACH and the gnarly look to the Big Tujunga area after the fire have taken a lot of cyclists out of this area. It's just too much of a hassle to drive all the way up to Sunland, carpool to Chilao and then ride ACH.

ACH opens and I think this board will see more traffic.

[AlanK]

I agree that the closures have taken a toll, especially the closure of ACH. But the search engine problem is strikes me as the larger one.

[simonov]

I blame Travis for setting this up on MyFreeForum to begin with.

[Ze Hiker]

so hardest part about changing it over is the archives?

[mve]

In regards to getting data out of myfreeforum:

Almost a year ago I signed up for myfreeforum.org account just to see how their infrastructure is setup. And it looks like it's doable to get the data out -- they charge a small fee for a data export and they'll run the export as many times as needed and will also redirect the old site to the new one once it's done:

http://www.myfineforum.org/index.php?op ... &Itemid=25
http://forum.myfreeforum.org/about17090 ... ght=export

If doing such migration I would also recommend moving to a newer version of PHPBB3 right before running the export.

All you need is a linux host, domain-name and the time to run the test/rehearsal, then do production-migration with minimal downtime.

[simonov]

Okay, I should read the links you posted, but I'm at work. Does it have to be phpBB? Any chance this could be run on FluxBB or PunBB?

Otherwise, you make it sound doable. Small fee is no big deal, a few contributions would take care of that.

Unless y'all think Eispiraten.com absolutely sucks, there's already a domain available. I recommend Liquid Web for hosting, seems like a good reliable webhost. Vitaly might have more experience with webhosts.

If Taco were to give the green light for a move, I'd suggest a very small committee be set up for detailed off-line discussion and planning.

[Taco]

Green light has been given.

I like the eispiraten URL. I do not know what our new/future/official URL should be.

We don't really need to limit ourselves to the SG's. I was thinking of socalmountains.com or socalpeaks.com, but both of those are taken. I want something along those lines. Southerncaliforniamountains.com is apparently expired, so it might be good to go.

I was throwing around the name "SoCAlpine" for awhile. That might work.

I literally have absolutely no monetary wealth of any sort, period, so I cannot contribute any money. However, I can help with organization and all that. I'm pretty good at basic site design and organization (NOT coding, HMTL, etc). I have a lot of ideas of what the site should be, having run this one for the past couple of years.

[mve]

Okay, I should read the links you posted, but I'm at work. Does it have to be phpBB? Any chance this could be run on FluxBB or PunBB?

This forum and myfreeforum is on phpBB. My guess is that the export they will provide is going to be a phpBB's mysql "dump file" and any migration to a different forum software is going to be outside of the scope of myfreeforum.

[Ze Hiker]

I would just have a name like this one, San Gabriel Mountains Forum, or something. You could try a more generic one, but there is already something for the San Jacintos (San Gorgonio one does suck).

Socal Mountains Forum? w/ sub forums for each range / season?

[mve]

Vitaly might have more experience with webhosts.

I personally run everything on Amazon Web Services using their EC2 instances. No long term contracts to sign, fast deployments, ease of backup/recovery, reliability (it's the same infrastructure that amazon.com runs on).

For what I get it's worth every penny -- a virtual server with 1.6GB RAM, 160GB local disk space + 36GB of high-availability/redundant disk storage (for the database files) cost ~ $86/month.

Best part with AWS EC2 is that when I don't need an instance, I can save it off to an S3 bucket, take it offline and stop paying for it immediately (S3 storage is dirt cheap). Then when I need it back up -- I can bring it online in few minutes.

[HikeUp]

I like the simple url idea that Ze had...

San Gabriel Mountains Forum

Before going to a pay site ($86/month !?), who is willing/going to commit to pay for that long term? Set up a paypal contribution button? Buy beer with the excess?

[simonov]

I think it will be a long time before we need a virtual private server.

What I like about Liquid Web is they offer tiered shared plans with a migration path to a VPS, should that be required.

http://www.liquidweb.com/cart/content/shared/

But this is a discussion topic for the Migration Committee.

[mve]

if the only issue here is URL, you can apparently change that even while staying on myfreeforum:

http://forum.myfreeforum.org/owndomains.html

[Taco]

No bueno at the moment. Stand by...

[mattmaxon]

Traffic is WAY down on this board in the last six months or so...
What gives?

I for one have rejoined the ranks of the employed. My last job was 30hrs 3days leaving me lots of time to hike and explore.

Stealth is the modis operandi for most of my travels, hence the lack of TR.

My new job I have little access to PC and personal use is frowned on when I do have access.

[PackerGreg]

Hey, what about another one of those famous "stimulus packages" to pay for hosting? That'll do the trick!

The initial observation was that those who were once involved heavily are no longer. So, the url is not the problem; if there is one. I got here, as did they. I don't think this forum has anything wrong with it at all. Maybe it's just an ebb.

Just like strict adherence to a free market economy, times will recover

[Taco]

I don't see a difference in traffic, up or down, as being negative. It is what it is. I don't see a lack of traffic as being a problem. As long as people don't leave the forum because there is a problem within the forum (ex: abusive members, of which I don't see any), etc.

I don't see how we would want to attract people who otherwise would have no interest in data involving this mountain range. If someone can find this forum on Google, for example, by looking for info on Mount Wilson or Chantry Flats, then it's a success.

Sorry if I'm getting the wrong vibe.

[cougarmagic]

I don't see any problem. I always prefer a few good, detailed TRs from cool people (what the forum has now), instead of lots of nonsense from random strangers.

[Ze Hiker]

If someone can find this forum on Google, for example, by looking for info on Mount Wilson or Chantry Flats, then it's a success.

pretty sure they can't

[HikeUp]

Initial enthusiasm has worn off a bit no doubt. New blood is needed to keep traffic up to previous levels - new url/google hits will probably bring in new blood. The number of insufferable maroons will increase, but in my opinion will be dispensed of rather quickly - this board doesn't suffer fools gladly.

[PackerGreg]

It came up #17 for me!?...

[Ze Hiker]

people will learn shit when they come to this forum, I know I did. don't be elitist. hell only way I found this forum was from Taco spamming