Important Site Update

Update: It appears from the comments that some of you are confused between the difference of “forum” and “blog”. You are currently reading the blog. The forum aka “Community” is accessible via a link on the menu and is entirely different from the blog…different format, different software. The forum is going away, the blog is not.

After 20 years I’ve decided to semi-retire from web administration of the Ehell domain and therefore there will be downsizing the site significantly.

This decision has been coming for several years as advertising revenues have been steadily declining. While Ehell never made huge amounts of money, it did cover the expensive cost of the server and funded many of my charitable projects. The forum is and always has been the largest resource hog of the server. It costs hundreds of dollars a month to host the forum and at this point the forum is not paying its way. Revenue has now gone so low that last month it did not cover the cost of the server and the trend indicates this will be the pattern for the future.

We tried various things in the past 2 years to increase revenue but the major problem is ad blockers. The analytical data is indisputable…..lots of people read the ehell site while using ad blocking. Ehell needs those eyeballs to generate income to support itself. I cannot thwart the ad blockers. There have been a number of tech sites warning of the impending collapse of “free” sites which depend on income derived from people seeing ads but will go under due to ad blockers. Ehell is one of those sites. Ad blockers are changing the internet and nothing will be free to view in the future unless you go through advertising “front gates” or pay a subscription.

So,the plan is to downsize from a dedicated server to a shared server in a month, probably June 7th, significantly reducing costs. The forum will cease to exist at that point and the blog will remain for now.

I will not be approving new members for the forum as of today nor will I be archiving the site. Current members are welcome to head over to the blog and comment (there’s a lively community of regulars commenters there). If current members desire to find another venue to interact with each other, please do take this time to do so. The only restriction is that the name “Etiquette Hell” cannot be used in any context since it is trademarked.

I know there are members who have been active on the forum since it’s creation nearly 15 plus years ago and have witnessed the growing pains, theme changes, drama. Closing the forum is like saying good bye to old friends. I sincerely hope those members migrate to commenting on the blog.

Jeanne