https://forums.catholic.com/A message from the President of Catholic Answers
Dear Members and Patrons of the Catholic Answers Forums
On Thursday December 31 at 5pm PT, Catholic Answers will close the Catholic Answers Forums (CAF). I have made the decision to close the CAF after lengthy consultation with the Catholic Answers executive committee and board of trustees.
Because Catholic Answers has limited resources, we are always evaluating our programs to determine if they provide a good return on investment. I understand that the word "good" is interpreted subjectively. Opinions about the merits of the CAF range more widely than those concerning any of our other works. Some find them helpful, others contentious, others find them addictive, and still others find some of the content not suited to an apologetics apostolate and some of the content better suited to private spiritual direction and sacramental confession.
When we add to the inconclusive value of the forums, the significant cost in financial resources and personnel time to host, operate, and to what degree we can, govern them, Catholic Answers can no longer justify the effort. Our attempt to draw even a tenth of what they cost to operate through patronage was not successful. Some regular users of the Forums welcomed user fees. The vast majority wished to make use of the Forums for free. For our part, we need to make the best use we can of the gifts that donors to Catholic Answers give us to spread the Catholic Faith.
Recurring Patron donations will be discontinued on December 31. If you would like to continue supporting the work of Catholic Answers, you can donate here.
Thank you all for your support over the years and God bless.
Christopher Check
President, Catholic Answers
P.S. Please visit www.catholic.com to search the largest database of Catholic answers.
I participated on that site for years. I became friends with a few, some offered to pray for me, and one became a family friend. Now mind you, the site was larger than this forum. Last I checked, I remember seeing 100,000+ members, but I'm not sure how many were active. I'm sorta learning this myself as I've started my own site and with little knowledge about site development while also having a small budget. I overspent on development and have little left for advertisement but hopefully that will change soon. This all just goes to show how complex and costly running a forum site can be.