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It costs a lot of money to manage and run a forum. Apart from domain and hosting, you also need to pay for software subscriptions, addons and themes. How important do you think is it to generate revenue on your forum so that you can maintain the running cost?
If you are not making money from your site, I do not think you will be able to build it into a thriving community as you will need to invest heavily to build your forum into a thriving community
I thi k the answer depends on what you want to do with your website, do you want it to be your income source, do you want to run entirely as a philanthropic project, you want to run for a long term, is it your short term project, what else?
As someone who has closed/sold forums before, because I couldn't put in the time anymore (money wasn't such an issue, as I am an SEO and supposed to ear a bit of a buck) .. IT MATTERS a lot. When you have a busy life (becoming a mother was the clicker for me) and your time is crazy limited, you will naturally gravitate towards actions that bring in revenue. And, if the forum is just 'for fun', it has to go
Why not? Money is required to run any project you are planning on especially if you have a big plan. If it is possible to generate revenue from your project, it should be welcome so that the burden of bearing the whole expenses from your pocket will be reduced.