I’ve not been happy with Coffeetime on Tapatalk for many years. It’s full of adverts, tightly controlled, and I can do very little with it. It’s a get what you get, and you don’t get much. paying money for advert removal simply isn’t an option worth exploring on Tapatalk for many reasons, including their pricing plan and T&Cs. I realise there is over 6 years worth of content, but I felt the benefit was greater in moving and losing that content, rather than remaining on Tapatalk.
I found Freeflarum which is non-profit hosting for free, (they will accept donations), no adverts and a reasonably quick server. There is a soft limit on the maximum users, so I intend to be ruthless with dormant accounts and 1 post wonders. I do like the fact it’s totally free, and recent events have left me believing I need to wake up Coffeetime again from it’s sleepy home on Tapatalk.
My focus is on keeping the environment clean, fresh and Zen like, but with quite a rich functionality under the surface. this includes the administration tools, which are a zillion times better than those I have on Tapatalk. 😉 I’ve never personally monetised my activities, but recent life changes mean I do far less “free” work now, hence the lack of recent videos and reviews, especially with a detailed review taking 80-100 hours, for nothing. I and the other mods worked hard to get the other UK forum (not owned by me) in a fit state to not only attract advertisers, but benefit the community. It was a relatively toxic place before, and did not attract advertising or new members. It became so successful, the forum has been sold, rather than kept earning a steady income. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a choice, as without the income the forum would have died anyway. My belief is you may well need this forum.
I will be offering any advertisers of the other forum a place here, for free, if they want it, with dedicated forum areas for them, as those smaller businesses need all the help they can get. There won’t be any banner ads and the classifieds to sell your stuff will be free. The great thing is, I am not forming a limited company, won’t be making any money from this forum and have no vested interests. What you see is what you get.
Freeflarum will accept donations, I don’t think the forum really gets anything for donating, at least I don’t understand what the benefit is apart from removing the footer. You guys can look them up and see what you think we might get. If members want to donate to them, we can start a thread about it and see how best to do it
I hope many of my friends and others who know me, find their way here, please pass the word along.