One of Australia’s best known on-line property forums, Somersoft, is set to close.

Established 16 years ago, the Somersoft forum has gathered a strong and commiteed following of property investors, but rising hosting costs mean it will become inactive after June 30.

In a post last week titled End of an Era, Somersoft founders Jan & Ian Somers explained the costs of maintaining and operating the forum side of somersoft.com.au had become prohibitive.

“Until now, the costs to us to host and administer the site have been relatively modest,” the Somers said.

“However, it has now reached a point where the costs of hosting such a busy forum, including the costs of administration and community management, have become unsustainable without some form of commercialisation.”

Rather than seek to sell the forum or commercialise it any other manner, the Somers decided to de-activate and preserve the forum, believing it still has a role to play for investors.

“The current Somersoft forum will be preserved as an independent educational resource for the property investing community, providing insight and understanding to new generations of property investors who

come seeking knowledge,” they said.

“To facilitate this, we will shortly be archiving the Somersoft forum, making it read-only in that no more threads or posts can be made - but allowing the content to be freely searched and accessed into the future.”

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