Flip Clock Fans Forum to Close

[Mackey]

Unfortunately, I must announce that Flip Clock Forums will be closing permanently effective 5/30/2024.

There are many reasons for this but the primary reason is that this enterprise is too expensive to maintain.
The costs of creating and maintaining a web forum has gotten increasingly more expensive - and unless the forum is generating some sort of income, the burden essentially falls on the administrator - that is me.
These costs include the web hosting and domain name (approximately $300 per year), the cost of a pending forum software upgrade (about 200).

This came to a head for me when I realized that the current forum software will be outdated soon (the makers essentially force an upgrade as the prior software will no longer be supported). The new software will require a higher level of server software (at the hosting company). If I were to make that change the monthly cost of hosting the forum would go up.
I thought about getting this forum converted to a different forum software, but again, this would cost money since I don't have the expertise to make this change (an estimated $300, plus the cost of the license for the new forum software). Again, even if I did make the change, I'll still be paying somewhere around $300 dollars a year to maintain this forum.

I appreciate all the support this forum has received in the past and wish you all the best.

[flipoclock]

That's 100% understandable but it is a shame. I suspect it will not change anything but asking for a donation from users or perhaps a gofundme would that change the situation? I would be happy to make a yearly donation of let's say US$ 20 or 30, but that's just me and 20 or 30 dollars would certainly not suffice of course

[VintageEcollector]

What a shame it's so expensive to maintain this forum. I'm wondering if Reddit or a site similar would work for the awesome community established for this hobby. We sure appreciate you keeping it running for as long as you have, Mackey!

[Don Sturdy]

I wonder if you could accept donations, as someone else said, or could find an advertiser?

[chusmi]

Hello Mackey,
Long story short, I was websurfing about clocks, and found your site. I love those clocks but did not know what the technical name was until today. I am an engineer, and as you're probably aware, we love this stuff. Engineers walk among us. . I was sad to see your plan to shut down the site.

Anyway, I am willing to help out with some dollars to help keep your website online. If others help, I'm sure the site can be fully funded with just a little help from your readers.

[I have a domain, www.foof.com that I also had to take offline because it was too expensive, so I understand].

Anyway, if you'd like, I can contribute $100 toward this effort, given two days notice. Please email me with what I can do to help.

Regards and good luck,

Phil Smith
pokey@clarityconnect.com

[circlet]

I just joined because I had a niche question, and would also be willing to help a little financially because I feel that these types of forums are one of the best things about the internet and a treasure trove of information. Let me know.
Thanks,
Everett

[chusmi]

Hi Everett,
Good to see someone else wants to help keep his site up!

I just joined the site, so I don't know Mackey or whether he is even monitoring this site anymore.
If you have a way to get a hold of him, please let him know you and I (and probably others) would like to help however we can.
Please feel free to message me at the email in my previous post if you'd like.

If nothing else, worst case, I'd like to help pay for keeping his domain name registered, so he doesn't loose it.

Again, glad to see another person could help in any way you can!

Regards,
Phil

[Johan de Jong]

Hi Mackey,

I would regret to see this forum disappear, but can fully understand it. I was not aware of the cost involved. I'm also willing to donate say 20 to 30 dollars a year to keep it going.

Looking into alternatives I did a brief search on 'free forum hosting' and found several online offerings like for example https://www.proboards.com or https://www.forumotion.com. Now there is no such thing as a free lunch, so I suspect there is a catch in there. Loosing the current content is likely one of them as neither seems to offer any possibility to migrate from another forum platform. Did you or anyone look into this?

Btw FlipClockFans was backed up a number of times on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine but only the early versions until 2015 (later backups were attempted but failed). Update: later versions were backed up as well, but with an error. Just wait for the redirect and you are taken to (a somewhat crippled) version of the site back in time.

Regards, Johan

[flipoclock]

I suspect, having been around here for quite awhile now, that it is not just the cost and that it is a culmination of facts that made the cost factor the final straw. Mackey has been doing this for almost 10 years now, on his own and besides doing this, he has a family and a day job so yeah, I can imagine that you need a 'break' and do not want to fork out hundreds of dollars and spend days figuring out how everything works, making back ups, etcetera. This is all just a guess of course, but I suspect I am not far off from the truth.

[Mackey]

Thanks all. flipoclock is definitely close to the truth about this. Still. The money is a definite concern. Accepting donations puts me in a whole different category that I’m not sure I’m ready for. If a site is bringing in money there are tax consequences and considerations. Additionally, I’d have to register as a LLC to avoid personal liability if a donor decided to sue me.

I don’t want to hold out any false hope but I’ll look around a bit for some possible answers.