@anonymousDev one thing you should reflect on about 'business' (especially in the western society) is those who can, pay for convivence. It's really as simple as that my friend.
Just to give you an idea, I enjoy ordering take outs, in fact, I spend on average £4k a year on it. I have a Mcdonalds 5 mins away from me and yet, I simply place an order online because it's more convenient. 😄
It saves me having to change out of my torn, comfy pyjamas, waiting in the queue, going out in bad weather and driving there, finding parking etc.
Large forums focus on growing their visitor numbers. The faster they grow, the more ad-revenue they get, the less they're worried about paying Bloomy. So to them it makes business sense. They don't want technical issues holding them back and that's Bloomys target audience.
I know large forum owners who have told me just that. They pay big bucks for convivence.
Sure it's possible to make it "affordable" for the common peasant 😆 and no-doubt, someone WILL eventually achieve this but the man-power, time, investment required will burnt them out.
I know a sever technician who did exactly this with another platform, and he was simply not able to keep up with customer support ticket queries. For this type of business plan to succeed, you would need highly motivated team, solely focused on creating this. Junior developers costs like 40k+ a year (and those aren't even the talented ones at senior positions). How many forums would you need to host before the business brakes even? 😄
