After two decades of building the biggest English-speaking community about Poland on the Internet (about 1 million messsages hosted thus far, 41+K confirmed members), we decided to take a well-deserved rest and put the website up for sale :)
What does the sale include?
* 2 websites (polishforums.com, polanda.com) + 3 domains (polishforums.com, polishforum.com, polanda.com)
* 6 months of free hosting (the server is located in the US) after the sale
Why do you sell the site?
Having worked on different online projects for a few decades, it has taken a toll on our physical and mental well-being, so we plan to spend more time on offline and non-professional activities. Priorities in life, resulted from personal experiences, change too.
Do you sell the site due to legal issues?
No. The site has never had a single legal inquiry and has not been involved in any legal matters concerning forum's content or posters.
Is the site free of debt, commitments, and liabilities?
Yes. The site has no debt, no liabilities, no commitments, no litigation, and no agreements with any third parties (other than a web hosting service which can be terminated at any time).
Why don't you let the site running as it is?
That would mean we'd have to continue spending a lot of time online and share (a temporary) vision of a moderator. The site requires a captain who is involved in the long term operation.
What is the price?
The price is not established; we welcome reasonable offers. Keep in mind it has taken 20 years to develop and maintain the site, so we won't be able to give it away for pennies.
What programming language is the site built on?
The site has just been upgraded to be fully compatible with the newest version of PHP 8 and MySQL. It's been designed to only use the native functions for easy maintenance and upgrades. It doesn't require any special hardware and can run smoothly on a VPS server with 4-8GB RAM.
Will you help with website transition?
Yes. We can explain how things work from an admin / moderator's viewpoints and other steps, if needed.
Does it take a lot of time to administrate the site?
The site has been successfully run for years by a single moderator/administrator (with an extra help offered by a couple of volunteer moderators). If necessary, it's now also possible to install a smart "pre-moderation" addon to help with content moderation.
What about possible future upgrades or customization?
We've just run our archiving script to complete a new archive, which should allow to passively run the site for the next few years. Besides routine maintenance and forum moderating, the site doesn't require any special operations.
However, if you wish to add any new features, upgrades, customization, or need general help, we can refer you to an expert programmer whose team has built and customized the site and is actively working on similar projects.
What is the expected time frame for the sale?
We plan to complete the transition by the end of the year (Dec 31, 2024).
What if the offer you may receive is not satisfactory to you?
If the offer is below our expectations, we'll most likely keep the sites online, but in 'read-only' mode.
Is there anything that can reverse your decision?
We don't want to ask users for raising money, but if we by any chance receive a certain amount through sponsorship, patronage, or advertising that would cover the professional administrating and moderating cost for another year or more, we'll be able to assign a trusted person to the role and continue the site as is.
How to contact you?
Please email us at info@polishforums.com or use the general contact form on the site.
We'd like to thank all forum members for being a part of this great and censorship-free community and wish you all the best!