Moving the forum

[RetireJapan]

In 2025 I am planning to move the RetireJapan courses to a new platform (either Circle or Skool, or something similar).

Both of those platforms are focused on community and discussion building, so it might make sense to move the forum over as well.

The upside would be a more functional platform, and no need for technical troubleshooting.
Easier to join and use for new people.

The downside would be not being able to migrate past content, and the fact that I wouldn't own the forum in the same way as hosting it on my own site.

Any thoughts?

This is in no way a plan or proposal, just some thinking out loud.

[adamu]

I think that as soon as you use a proprietary tech platform, you are stuck when they do things you don't like, like get acquired by EvilCorp and slowly degrade everything that was good about it.

Look at all the communities on Reddit who had their mods ousted when they didn't agree with new policy. Or Twixxer/YouTube removing the ability to see a chronological timeline, ads and suggestions in notifications, using the data to train AI and no realistic opt out (although that has already happened here, but at least you have the right to have a private forum too where you truly own the data).

In the simplest case, they could raise the prices to a level that means you can't sustain it.

[Gareth]

If I had to give any personal info beyond an email address, I wouldn’t sign up on a new platform

[Deep Blue]

It’s a bit of a different story, but Tokyo Expat Network had 40k members on Facebook and was a long established community with thousands of active members.

The founder decided to move to Circle despite 99% of the feedback telling her not to.

Six months later the Circle community is stillborn and the TEN members just moved on to another Facebook group.

I don’t know anything about Circle but inertia is a powerful force and it’s tough to migrate a userbase. Unless there is a compelling reason to do so I’d be pretty wary of trying.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

In 2025 I am planning to move the RetireJapan courses to a new platform (either Circle or Skool, or something similar).

Both of those platforms are focused on community and discussion building, so it might make sense to move the forum over as well.

The upside would be a more functional platform, and no need for technical troubleshooting.
Easier to join and use for new people.

The downside would be not being able to migrate past content, and the fact that I wouldn't own the forum in the same way as hosting it on my own site.

Any thoughts?

This is in no way a plan or proposal, just some thinking out loud.

As this is just a proposal, I'll be a bit too honest:

You cannot transplant a community. Nor are existing members likely to answer the constant barrage of newbie questions that Adam's wiki, or previous threads, clearly covered.

Noone wants to join a propriety platform.

...

You'll either need to try to grow something new there, or make a space for them here.

[beanhead]

If I were you I think keeping control over the content would be important. There is a lot of value in many of the posts from the past.

[Tony]

I'm also on the "keep it here" bandwagon. Enshitification has happened with just about all platforms, no matter how awesome they start off.

[RetireJapan]

Great points about platform degradation. That's why I'm planning to move the courses off Teachable!

[KyushuWoozy]

inertia is a powerful force

Yes, if it requires anything more than a click, you'll likely lose a significant number of current members.

[Chizakura]

Definitely don't do that. I'm here precisely *because* this is a self-hosted forum where the owner is a cool guy and has full control.

If you look for more features or ease of use, check out WoltLab Suite or vBulletin. Then you get lots of goodies for not too much money. You can even run it on the cloud if you prefer.