Thanks for your honest feedback, Joey.
Under the hood, the forum is actually structured as a single forum with a consolidated feed, but I set up a custom landing page to make it look more like Facebook groups. My thinking was that this would help people find topics that interest them more easily. Your perspective is valuable, though, and maybe I misjudged how people prefer to engage.
Regarding images, I completely understand the frustration. The forum originally allowed direct uploads, but every image impacts my hosting plan and costs. Since this site is a side project alongside my day job, I had to find a balance, which is why I switched to embedded images. I know it’s not ideal, and I’m open to looking for ways to make it easier without significantly increasing costs. The same goes for hike detail pages—I’d love to allow automatic user photo uploads, but storage limitations make that tricky.
As for ads, they’re managed by Mediavine. While I can tweak the ad volume, placement isn’t something I can fully control. That said, I’ll see if there’s any flexibility in reducing ads specifically within the forum.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Forums are a tough space these days with so much discussion happening elsewhere, but I still believe in having a dedicated place for hikers to connect. If you (or anyone else) have ideas on how to improve engagement despite these constraints, I’d love to hear them.
