I've stayed out of this thread for a while on purpose, but I do want to clarify some of these questions.
To just be a place for people to post. It will be wrestling centered, but includes other forums as well.
Unlike WZ, we are not putting a forum on the Internet to make money. I have paid for everything myself and I am hosting it free of charge to users. I have not included ads and there will never be advertisements on the forum as long as I'm hosting it.
This is not a money making attempt, just a place for people to relax and chat.
I've been running my work's website for nearly 10 years. I've had my own webpage for half a decade. Thanks for the advice.
That's actually not even close.
There was no "bitch fight". There was actually no communication at all from Crave to me before or after. A user saw an interaction between a mod and a different regular user and came to me and "protest(ed) strongly" and basically asked I punish the moderator because of a particular word the moderator used. I politely and professional explained to him the moderator did not break any rules and that I treat moderators the same as regular posters. This particular user didn't like that answer and because the user did not get their way, decided to complain to the higher ups. The higher ups, based on whatever the user told them (and I've never once seen it, so I cannot tell you what was in it), basically decided, without getting any information from me or having any idea of how things actually happened on the forum, demoted both myself and the moderator, never once communicating before or after the fact.
Of course, that is their right, it is their forum, but it was unprofessional. However, that wasn't all. After the fact, I got in touch with Mr. Nick Hausman, whose decision it was to demote me, and sent a professional e-mail, explaining all the work I've done for the forums over the years, including putting my own money into the forum, and I basically said if you give me rules you want enforced I will do so. I also asked for an explanation on the decision.
Mr. Hausman's response essentially amounted to a "screw you". After I sent a multi-paragraph professional e-mail to Mr. Hausman, Mr. Hausman could not be bothered to reply with more than one or two sentences and then told people he wasn't going to reply to me ever again. It was one of the most unprofessional things I've seen in business and several other people who have been party to the issue agreed.
There has been talk for a while about how Crave has never cared about this place, never upgrades it, never bothers with it. I have had to fix several issues on the forum and I once had to be the one to detect the malware that basically made the forum hang and caused the forum to be nearly unusable. Crave/WZ clearly does not care about this forum, so discussions have taken place for a while about a backup in case one day the forum just disappears.
With Mr. Hausman's completely unprofessional actions towards me, that was enough to convince me (and some others) that this place could be gone very soon. If Crave/WZ is willing to let just some random person completely alter the landscape of the forum, removing someone who has put in their time and money to help the forums run, then clearly they do not care at all about the forums (as evidenced by the fact the software powering this forum is a decade old).
As such, I decided it was time to go ahead and complete the discussion which had been taking place for months before I was demoted. That's what happened. There was no bitch fight and I'm not trying to stick to to WZ. I've been a member of WZ for a very long time, I'm not trying to ruin it. But, the fact is, the WZ Forums are not taken care of and the first time they don't just run themselves, the first time someone messes something up, then it seems more than likely Crave will just remove the forum.
So, with the SC Forums, there is a place where the owners actually care, the forum is updated, and a forum which will be around for a long time and not a forum that is trying to use you to make money.
The goals are to have a place where people can post about wrestling and anything else they want. And they can do it on a forum that will be taken care of.
As far as getting new users, we have a few different ways to achieve that which we are/will be utilizing, but ultimately, since there's no money to be made, it's just about providing the best place possible for current users.
I'm not trying to split a community, I'm trying to provide the community with some peace of mind.
If you want to come and post, that's great. You don't have to leave WZ. I mean, I own the relatively expensive vbulletin software powering SC Forums, I pay for the hosting and domain name for SC Forums, I'm an administrator at SC Forums and I'm still posting on WZ. It's not about taking you away from WZ, it's about making sure the community which has grown up on WZ doesn't die because some random unprofessional person who clearly doesn't care about the forums just suddenly makes a rash decision without considering those who his/her decision will affect.
If you want to post on SCF, great. If you don't, great too. No pressure at all.