Do I keep AHRDF going ?

[VK4ADC]

year-The very first post under this topic:

15th June 2023
Each year at this time I receive the domain renewal notice for AHRDF.NET and I think "Do I keep AHRDF going ?".  

Throughout the year the activity with the new posts is like a seesaw. There have been periods recently where there have not been any new posts - or responses - for 2 weeks or so and then there is a bit of a flurry of activity.  Consistent - it is not.   The problem arises when you consider that most returning/recurring visitors are expecting to see something new on the Forum, and when there isn't then they are likely to go away at some point - and stay away.

Sure, there are often visitors searching for info of some kind and a search engine has pointed to the Forum as a possible match against key words and some of the visitors probably find something of use.  Then again maybe not.  It exists, but to what end. This activity is not quantifiable in any worthwhile way.

Let's face it, it does cost to  keep the domain name going year after year plus there are some hosting costs attributable, and that comes out of my pocket. 
And so the annual question arises yet again : Do I keep it going - or not ??  
Doug, admin

So, nearly a year on and I have been assessing the activity on the forum - yet again.  There has been one new topic/post in nearly 3 weeks, that is ONE only, and it has me wondering about the value of MY efforts in keeping the forum available. And, yes, the domain renewal is again drawing near so a payment will be required before too long to retain the domain name.

I raised a question with a few WIA board members while at the recent WIA AGM in Bundaberg : why doesn't the WIA run a discussion forum for Australian amateurs ( - in lieu of me ) ??   The response was along the lines of "we would need volunteers to run it if we did". (none above is exact wording)  So while they aren't seeming against the idea, they weren't totally for it either. That leaves the AHRDF in play, for now.

Running the forum is a burden needing a fair amount of time to do properly. Every post has to be read, some are edited, approved if moderated, manually check new user/member requests for validity and then approve, and this can swallow up hunks of time when the forum gets busy.  Even if it isn't busy you still have to visit multiple times a day to see if there are new posts ! The last few months has seen a surge in hack attempts, and that requires time to deal with.  So it is not all fun, but needs to be done, and done properly.

My current thinking is that I will support it until the mid-2025's domain renewal draws close (so a year or so away) and if it isn't being used enough then it will just disappear one day. Poof ! No warning, just poof..  It would take me about 30 seconds to do just that, and sometimes it is oh-so-tempting..

Doug, admin