The FastDay Forum

This was supposed to be a really happy topic on 3 years of successful maintenance using this wonderful way of life and the forum that comes with it. The maintenance is fine and I could surely retake my picture of 3 years ago in the before-after topic, proudly wearing my wedding outfit from when I was 25, now 31 years ago. For me this is still the best metaphor of what fasting has brought (back) to me. Today I feel lucky to need only 1 fast a week in order to keep away the extra weight that would otherwise come on because of fully enjoying all types of food that I like on the other days. Being a member of this forum helps a lot. Fasting has become ‘part of me’, including the weekly entering of weight in the tracker (only missed some weeks when on holiday) and the usual entrances in ‘fasting today’ and ‘maintaining this month’. In January 2014, I started my maintenance topic with a solemn pledge: ‘Je maintiendrai’, which is actually not Dutch but French for ‘I will maintain’. It’s also the motto of the founding father of the Dutch state, William of Orange and that’s why you see it as part of our royal family shield as one of my avatars. It stands for a bit more than just weight maintenance, it stands for making sure you will succeed when times are a bit rough.
And now, it seems suddenly very appropriate regarding the situation of this wonderful forum. Obviously, the ‘founding mothers’ have come in a position where it is really not feasible to ‘maintain’ the forum any longer. Reading the reactions on the topic we all are extremely thankful for what they did and we feel really sad about the idea that the forum might stop. Not too many reactions show a sense of ‘what do we have to do to prevent this from happening?’. I’m for a couple of weeks asking myself the question why this might be the case? Are we still in a kind of shock? (for me that’s somewhat the case). Do we feel we will never be able maintain something like a forum (at least for the ‘tech’ part of it)? Yes, perhaps for most of us. Or are we currently in a phase of the ‘lifecycle’ of a forum run by volunteers where it is particularly difficult to keep attention and enthusiasm: at a time where most things have been said and most things have been done. We can all see the number of entrances is not what it used to be. Perhaps, but every now and then someone picks up something new, like ‘BSD’, and suddenly a new wave of activity runs through the forum. Is weight maintenance perhaps a better metaphor for maintaining a forum than most of us are aware of? How do we cope with maintaining interest and attention after reaching targets (a fantastic forum that was way better than ever expected)? Running a fantastic project (like losing weight) successfully, gives a lot of energy, but what happens after the project? Or is it the case that we have come to use other forms of communication and media. Some mention Facebook groups that could both be a cause of lower participation on the forum as well as part of a new solution. (Personally I do not use Facebook, Google already knows more of me than I would be willing to admit and accept, I don’t need someone else to join or even outperform them).

Many questions, to which I have no clear answers. How do you feel about this? We could set up a poll, but I would be more interested in your thoughts about them. I would certainly not like the idea of letting this forum coming to an end without anyone attempting to at least investigate whether it should be continued and what could be done to at least give it a try.

Well said @P-JK and I think I'm still rather shocked by it's imminent demise.
It has been a part of my life for almost 4 years, and though folks have come and gone, and some returned, the feeling of 'family' has always been strong.

I have no idea how to continue the forum, this has happened to me before and friends made just melted back into the ether, sadly. I do hope something can be done.

[Tracieknits]

I have no experience with the tech side of these things, but I do know it has taken two people to maintain the fast day site.

Is it possible to migrate our forum to a free ProBoards site? How much does it actually cost to host the site? I would be interested in at least staying on as a moderator or maybe even co-administrator.

Honestly, I'm intimidated by the prospect of maintaining a board. I would love to see the board keep going, but I just don't know what would be involved.

Had Moogie said how much longer the board would run as-is?

I am not sure that I have much new to add.

Some (most) things of this nature do tend to have a natural life that won't continue for ever. We now have far less activity in the forum than we used to, though there do seem to be a number of members who are around but only post occasionally.

I am happy to put time into helping continue some sort of discussion forum, but I am not keen on the idea of paying, mainly because of the difficulty in ensuring that enough people pay to make it feasible, and then if they don't, people who have paid just lose that money.

It would be good if @Moogie could respond to the various questions that have been raised in the announcement topic, which were summarised very succinctly by Tracieknits in that topic and also mentioned above.

It would be a pity if the resources of this website were lost - I wonder if it would be possible for them to be archived but still accessible via the Internet (with no maintenance required, just a note that this information was current at such and such a date and will not be updated)?

A poll may be useful, tho not sure how much it could be relied upon to predict what people would actually do.

The Proboards approach does seem a way to try to keep the group together, if this website can't be continued. I would also be willing to help with that, though I have no idea what would be required.

If that doesn't work, then a Hangouts chat group, as suggested by Debs, could be the way to go. @P-JK, I am also not on Facebook and have been doing my best to avoid joining it, but at some stage I think I might have to "give in", as it is a convenient way to keep in touch with people. (My main concern with joining is that it will be one more thing on the Internet that will absorb too much of my time....!!!)

I agree with @Sassy1, Honestly the Probaords approach is pretty easy. The group I mentioned was called "XXXXX" and on Proboards called themselves "XXXXX Refugees" - the one who creates the board is "Admin" and everyone else can sign in using their original "name" with a password. Just need to email everyone to join the new group. You can create an avatar as before. You can create any threads as before, i.e. "Fasting today", "BSD Musings", Maintenance", whatever you want. The old "tracker" will be difficult to reproduce BUT, as far as most are concerned, its the conviviality and support that is MOST important - there are trackers on MPF that are similar.

Forgot to add - if you wish to grow a new forum (i.e. the "new" one on Proboards), everyone needs to mention it on every social media they are connected with - Facebook, the other 5:2 forum, the BSD forum - anything else, and OFTEN - as you are not a Google ad, but you CAN get the word out.

It is possible to be on Facebook without doing the whole Facebook thing. I have no photos and no friends and practically no personal details, certainly nothing an ID thief could use. In fact I was suspected of being a troll on a group I have been a member of and contributed to for nearly 3 years!

Forums are infinitely superior; easily searchable, basic info easily found. Facebook you get the same questions over and over and over again.

But impossible to know how long this forum can go on for without some actual info eg how much does it cost to maintain for a year, how deep in the red, etc.