Don't shutdown the forum!

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Thank you for your kind words, Scott.

My plans are keep the complete contents of THE FORUM available forever as a DVD and/or as an online archive, but I'm moving on to other forms of public activism.

In the past few years I've been politicking up a storm on Facebook and doing presentations on Ayn Rand to Tea Party and Republican groups. But my most important project has been writing a book: The WHYS Way to Success and Happiness (link).

It's just about finished and I hope to have it up on Amazon before year's end. Then I'm planning to do a lecture tour based on the ideas in my book. When I'm in your part of the country we'll have a chance to meet and spend some time enjoying common values and each other's company. I'm looking forward to it.

[executor 0]

Given what executor is doing, I'm not sure if THE FORUM is shutting down or not. However, I was sad to read earlier in this thread that the plan has been to shut it down.

Obviously I haven't been an active contributor in some time, but not because I'm particularly active on Facebook. Nor is it because I haven't had any responses to subjects that arise, and I have certainly thought of a variety of topics to bring up. However, the practicality of my life for a good while has left me whipped at the end of a day and catching up on more immediate issues on weekends.

My hope was that THE FORUM would continue as it has in the past and would be here when I could come back more regularly. However, I see that places like this exist and thrive only when members post, and I should have made time to do more of it.

Betsy, should THE FORUM ultimately close down, let me thank you, Stephen, and all of those who have helped you run such an excellent, thought-provoking, and classy place for discussing Objectivism. And here's to hoping my path crosses again, either here or in other parts of cyberspace, with so many of the great members of THE FORUM.

If i do set THE FORUM up in a fully operational way. I most likely will not be using ipb do to the high costs. Ill most likely use mybb or phpbb with a skin modeled after ipb.

[JASKN 0]

Is shutting down this forum a done deal? How visible and Google-searchable will the mirrored site be?

I'm an admin at ObjectivismOnline.com. While our traffic has also dwindled, we're still active, and we also get hits from search engines. I know there is a lot of quality content on this forum, and I think it should stay online and searchable by Google. I wonder if there would be some way to copy the content into a separate area of OO.com...? Would that be something you'd consider doing, Betsy?

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Is shutting down this forum a done deal?

My decision has been made.

How visible and Google-searchable will the mirrored site be?

That's being worked out.

I'm an admin at ObjectivismOnline.com. While our traffic has also dwindled, we're still active, and we also get hits from search engines. I know there is a lot of quality content on this forum, and I think it should stay online and searchable by Google.

That's my goal as well.

I wonder if there would be some way to copy the content into a separate area of OO.com...? Would that be something you'd consider doing, Betsy?

I would rather have THE FORUM's content available in a form I could control rather than on OO.net.