[Gordonjcp]

Yes, I run https://rangerovers.pub which I started because the mods on the US-based Range Rover forum were overbearing and obnoxious. I was having a conversation with someone I knew from the US forum in a pub in Glasgow, and the fateful question was asked - "How Hard Can It Be...?"

Not that hard, as it turns out.

I use FlaskBB, which I picked because it uses Python and looks modernish, and appeared to be quite resistant to the usual forum exploits. I could go into painful detail about the exact stack but let's just say uwsgi, Postgres, and nginx behind Traefik for SSL termination.

I have a few well-known and trusted users who are mods, and it seems reasonably spam-free. Every so often I go through the database and remove "obvious spammers". It's been largely maintenance-free, beyond keeping exploitable libraries patched.

I did run Google Ads for not-logged-in users for a bit, but it was a pain in the arse and made a whopping 40 quid a year so I stopped. It costs very little to run anyway.

Edit: I haven't seen the number of "Guests online" that high before. Thanks for your assistance with load-testing!

[RileyJames]

What kind of monthly users do you get?

I’m part of a lot of landcruiser related groups / sites (ih8mud being the biggest).

They’re such a wealth of information, and much of which pertains to:

- where to go (travel)

- what to get (accessories)

- how to fix / do (repairs / upgrades)

I’m surprised there’s not more opportunity to monetise sites built around a reasonably expensive hobby.

[Gordonjcp]

There's a core of a couple of dozen users who post most days, a few folk who drop in and out, and some very very prolific posters including the co-founder whose post count has spiked since he retired :-D

I'm not sure really what it costs to run, a couple of hundred quid a year. It'd be nice if adverts were bringing in enough for it to wash its face but I feel that the presence of adverts diminishes the user experience more than the value they create.

I'm fortunate in that I'm running servers already for other hobby projects so the cost is already sunk. If I wanted to spin up another FlaskBB forum I'd be using literally everything that already exists and the cost would be pretty much just the domain name.