Can I charge people to view the content of forum?

[garfy]

my forum is like 20 years old....people do not want to post anymore.....1 month without post now...i want to just shut it down....but it has like 400 user per day and lots of articles.... can I charge people to view the content of forum?
For example 3 pages would be free and after that they need to make a payment like 5 USD per month or something

[thecoalman]

Moved this to phpBB discussion. There is two hurdles for this.

Firstly you need to accommodate bots. Google and other search engines have specific policies for content behind a paywall.

Secondly you need a way to manege subscriptions, there is one here but it is no longer maintained. I don't know if there is another one.

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/extension/groupsub/

[Mick]

can I charge people to view the content of forum

The short answer is yes, you can do as you like.

[KevC]

Your other problem is that the info is probably out there with a quick google. Once they hit the pay wall they'll just go somewhere else.

Forums die, it's a natural thing.

[danieltj]

Yes you can charge people to view the content. However will anyone actually pay to view it? Most likely not.

If people have stopped posting, it means the forum has lost its relevancy and therefore putting up a pay wall is probably going to drive the remaining readers away.

Do what you like, but it’s a bad idea.