Reply To: LINKEDMUSICIANS FORUM WILL SOON CLOSE AND TRANSITION TO OUR SUBREDDIT

[LinkedMusicians]

On Vst0nE said

Peter, my thought, that will be the end as no one really goes to reddit for deals, that interface is not really suitable for it, back to kvr, rekkerd or cakewalk then i guess, shame it did not survive. just my couple of cents.

I respect that. Despite our beta group coming from the Cakewalk Deals subforum, I never intended for deals to be the primary driver here. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a fellow deals addict!—but my desire has always been to make this a place where we can move beyond just buying stuff and encourage one another to grow as creators in a healthier, non-toxic environment. I realize that shift isn’t a fit for everyone.

I do plan on changing things up in the new environment to help cut through the noise. I want to focus on the ‘killer deals’ instead of getting lost in a sea of irrelevant posts just to be prolific, which is the reality of all of the deals forums in this space, they’re mostly filler.

Regarding the move to Reddit: my profession is digital marketing and strategy, and from that perspective, it’s clear the tide has shifted. Old-school forums have been in significant decline for at least 15 years (that’s why building the one here was so expensive, the days of developers giving away tools free or making cheap scripts/plugins for forums has largely passed, the small group that still focus on forums are charging a lot more than they did a decade ago); they often struggle to attract new users, with recent data showing that roughly 70% of forum-style engagement from creators under 50 has moved to more integrated platforms.

Conversely, Reddit is well-established as a powerhouse for deal groups. There are over 3 million people currently in dedicated ‘deals’ subreddits for tech, media, and retail. They use it specifically because the voting system acts as a real-time ‘quality filter’ that traditional forums just can’t replicate. It helps us find the best deals without the noise.

Just to give you some perspective on how popular Reddit is for deals groups (keep in mind that Reddit gets 126 million daily active users, to say it plainly — forums gave way to subreddits a long time ago; right now we just have the big survivors that built up communities during better times and then there are the small developer forums like Cakewalk Discuss that probably sees less than 50,000 unique visitors per month according to the more trustworthy third-party estimates):

r/buildapcsales (PC Tech): 1.1 Million+ members
r/Freebies (Free Products): 850,000+ members
r/Deals (General Retail): 220,000+ members
r/DigitalCodeSELL (Media): 120,000+ members

I understand it’s a big change, and I’m not trying to sell, just sharing knowledge. But for a community-driven approach in 2026, I really believe this is the optimal home on a number of levels.

Thanks for being part of LinkedMusicians from the beginning. I sincerely appreciate it and I wish you all the best. wherever you land. And if you someday you have a change of heart that leads you back to LinkedMusicians, know that you’re always welcome to join us at the subreddit. We don’t require exclusivity! 🙂

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