What’s the hardest part of running a website in 2025 compared to 5–10 years ago?

[Shortie's iconShortie]

I have been running websites and forums for over 21 years now, and when I look back to how things used to be when I was running them back around 5 - 10 years ago, sometimes even longer, I am often shocked and how much things have changed.

What do you feel is the hardest part of running a website in 2025 compared to 5 - 10 years ago?

 

[Angela]

I think the biggest issue is constantly competing with social media. Hopefully forums will make a comeback. They're seem less toxic.

 

[Shortie's iconShortie]

I think the biggest issue is constantly competing with social media. Hopefully forums will make a comeback. They're seem less toxic.

I agree with this. As forum owners today, we have a lot of our work cut out competing with social media, which is difficult being since social media is so popular and many do not want to switch from something they are used to, such as social media, to forums that they may not have any clue about.

I do hope that forums make a comeback again, it would be great to see them as popular as they were 20 years ago

 

[Cedric]

The biggest issue is often your own mindset - your expectations. It’s clear that things aren’t like they were 15 years ago. What worked back then doesn’t necessarily work now. As a new community owner, you need to keep your expectations realistic. Expecting explosive growth right away will only lead to disappointment and, eventually, loss of interest.

 

[Mike30]

Definitely social media giants winning over small independent communities.. That wasn't a fair fight.

Forums had been and always will be popular, today's date what we call "Groups" are simply forums, they just change how it's called for branding purposes.

One of the most popular things and engaging things that FB has, it's the forums " the Groups". So forums have never died.
Independent forums in general are the ones who were eliminated for lacking resources to compete.

To fight back, there is no other way around other than becoming a giant too.
A giant body that push forward independent communities. (and we already started that body with MicroLikes. MicroLikes will compete head to head with Facebook Groups.)

 

[uptrendfinancialsignal]

If you don't know, I'll tell you for free that, everything has really changed. Back then, SEO used to be simple but now you need to try all your best to beat AI content, Google updates, and short attention span. I just discovered that a lot of people are not interested in reading long posts again. It’s like you’re competing with the speed at which TikTok is moving. To be honest, the hardest part now is keeping people engaged long enough.