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I think communities should focus on both niche and off topic content. You want to have a balance as off topic posts is where members form a bond and the niche areas is what your forum is all about. The niche areas will strive just like the off topic areas as long as you focus on both areas. There isn’t anything wrong with having an active off topic area and I believe community owners should embrace them more. Especially if your goal is to attract more members onto your community. It doesn’t dilute your forum unless you allow it to. Such as, if there’s more off topic forums than your niche areas.

There are many hosting providers that are available online today, but are there any particular ones that you won’t use no matter what? Personally, I wouldn’t use any providers that are under the umbrella of EIG, which includes Hostgator, Bluehost and a few others as their customer service usually lacks. I’ve also had a server from hostgator in the past and their service really sucked. What about you? What hosting providers do you refuse to use? For those that aren’t aware of EIG: https://hostscore.net/learn/eig-hosting/

Original source: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/reddit-ai-translations-google/ But should rankings in Google be surging for that AI translated content? In my post I explain the Reddit surge across countries, the translated content that’s ranking well, what Google’s stance has been about machine translating content, and more. The March 2025 core updatecompleted this morning and I’ve been sharing about the surges and drops I’m seeing across verticals. There have been some big swings with this update across sites, verticals, and countries. I will be sharing more about the update in the coming weeks after the dust settles. Well, yesterday Lily Ray shared about forums dropping overall and I have also seen that trend. And that’s big news considering how many forums surged with the “Hidden gems” update in the fall of 2023. Not all forums are dropping, but a number of them are tanking with this update. And that led me to call this the “Hiding Gems” update versus “Hidden Gems” update. And when talking about user-generated content (UGC), it’s to hard overlook the biggest and most visible of them all – Reddit. Yep, it looks like Reddit is surging again with the March core update. I know that’s hard to believe since it has skyrocketed in visibility since the fall of 2023, but I am seeing more surges across countries. And when taking a closer look at the increase, I’m seeing more of a surge in certain countries for Reddit, which led me to check the content that is surging in rankings. Based on checking that content, I saw many of Reddit’s AI translations in the mix. And it’s millions of translated urls ranking in Google for certain countries. For example in France: And here is the translated content with the tl=fr parameter, which links back to the original content. From what Reddit has explained, this is machine-translated content. As a reminder, Reddit explained last year that it would start using AI translation (machine translation) to translate content into several other languages. They started with French but now have expanded to a number of other languages. Actually, in their Q3 2024 quarterly earnings, Reddit explained they are spending millions of dollars per quarter on machine translation. Here is more from the article: In addition, they said the impact has been dramatic and even mention the benefit of that content getting indexed by Google. Note, Google has always said that auto-translating content using machine translation is not ok. Humans should be involved with the translation to make sure the content is not low quality. So translated content is fine, but auto-translated content is not fine (SEO-wise). You can see Google’s scaled content abuse spam policy below where it mentions auto-translating content. Can Reddit Do What Others Can’t Do? When the French translations began last year, I shared on X that other sites have gotten manual actions for pumping tons of auto-translations on their sites (if those auto-translations are indexable). I’ve had companies reach out in the past after receiving manual actions… In addition, some have gotten hit by spam updates, which are algorithmic. Regardless, most sites cannot get away with mass-translating content via AI (or machine translation tools) without getting hammered by Google. But Reddit is surging, and across countries and languages. Here is my tweet from last May when I read about Reddit’s auto-translations. In addition, and before you run and check this, remember that Reddit provides a robots.txt for Google and other search engines specifically, so you can’t see the directives without using a tool like the rich results test. You will see a blanket disallow instead (which again, isn’t really what Google sees). When using the rich results test, you can see that they are explicitly allowing crawling of those translated urls via Allow directives in their robots.txt file. Below, you can see the increases in visibility across several countries. I’ll just provide a few countries, but you can check the rest on your own. I have also provided a sample url below each country’s graph so you can see what that content looks like. I filtered the reporting by urls with the tl= parameter which is set for each language. Check out the increases below… Here is a sample url: Sample url: Sample url: Sample url: I’ll keep an eye on this to see how that translated content ends up performing over time. Note, the March core update officially completed this morning (3/27) so that content did well based on the update. I’ll update this post if there is anything new to add. GG

Generative AI is built on three key resources: people, compute and data. While companies invest heavily in the first two, they often use unlicensed creative work as training data without permission or payment — a practice that pits AI against the very creators it relies on. AI expert Ed Newton-Rex has a solution: licensing. He unpacks the dark side of today's AI models and outlines a plan to ensure that both AI companies and creators can thrive together. (Recorded at TEDAI San Francisco on October 22, 2024)

I’m currently listening to add it up by icewear vezzo. [MEDIA=spotify]track:3q8qKQnBAy5JobqeDjwoOy[/MEDIA]

What have been some of your biggest community wins? These can include days with new records for daily logins, a high number of new threads/posts, or days with significant traffic. However, these wins can be anything you’d consider a success for your community. What have been some of your community’s biggest wins lately?

You can scale your forum by bringing on more staff members and upgrading your server when it’s needed.

You can’t attract younger and older members just like that. You have to build your communities’ foundation and just focus on building it. Forums are for everyone. It’s not necessarily a good idea to focus on age groups as you should aim to attract everyone.

I find quora and Reddit(askreddit) to be a good avenue to find new topic ideas when I’m lacking new content ideas. There’s a lot of content that’s available on both platforms that can be spun and turned into your own threads. Some of them are even great for discussions. I also keep notes where I have a lot of topics that I save for a rainy day when I’m experiencing a writer’s block of some sort.

VBulletin was one of my favorite forum softwares back in the day, however, it went downhill fast after Kier left & formed Xenforo. VBulletin 1, 2, and 3 was awesome.

AI can be used to help with keyword research and semantic seo. It’s great to use it for this. It’ll also help you find the proper keywords that’ll maximize your seo results as well.

Who exactly will see themselves out of business if they’re not utilizing AI? Graphic designers, content creators, business owners? Absolutely not. If people are resisting the use of it, it’s because they see value in utilizing their own skills that they’ve developed over the years. AI makes it easier to do things, however, it’s not a fundamentally replacement to those that were able to be successful without it.

Musk's xAI acquires X in $45 billion all-stock deal Combined company valued at $80 billion, Musk announces xAI raised $6 billion at $40 billion valuation, sources say March 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Friday that his xAI has acquired X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction for $45 billion, including debt. "xAI and X's futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent," Musk said in a post on X, adding that the combined company would be valued at $80 billion. The billionaire's AI startup, which was launched in 2023, recently raised $6 billion from investors at a valuation of $40 billion, sources have told Reuters. Source: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/musks-xai-buys-social-media-platform-x-45-billion-2025-03-28/

If one was interested in obtaining a social media certification, where can they go to obtain one?😉

namecheap is good when you’re using beginner hosting, but I wouldn’t rely on them if I had a site with high traffic. They’re cheap for a reason.

No, I wouldn’t pay someone to do my laundry. I’d rather do my own and save money.

Okay, this might sound a little confusing to non-Reddit users. Reddit has announced that it’s making a change to its messaging options, by integrating its DM inbox into its Reddit Chat element. Yes, Reddit has two separate messaging-aligned functions. Reddit’s “Chat” tab, which it added back in 2023, is where you’ll find group discussions, and real-time chats about topics of interest, which anybody can join. It then has its messaging “Inbox” on a separate tab, where you can find notifications about your Reddit activity, as well as DMs. But now, all of these are going to be rolled into one single tab. Seemingly, but then again, these sample screens still have both a “Chat” and an “Inbox” tab, so… As explained by Reddit: “Reddit Chat is replacing user PMs. This transition consolidates messaging on Reddit and introduces features like pinned chats for better organization, an unread filter, a new spam folder, more sender context when accepting invites, an allowlist, and a faster experience.” So your inbox is seemingly going to be transitioned over, but I’m not sure what that means for the “Inbox” tab, though Reddit does also note that existing PMs will remain archived as read-only for reference. Maybe they’ll live in that tab (Reddit also notes that it won’t be disabling DMs till users have had a chance to access them in archive mode, so maybe the tab will disappear at a later stage). Reddit says that change is designed to help to streamline its systems: “This consolidation helps us focus on improving one system instead of maintaining multiple. Plus, Reddit Chat’s infrastructure is built for the future, unlike the PM system which is about as old as Reddit itself.” Though many Redditors claim that Reddit has only been slowed down by its increasing ad load, not by functional elements. Yet, even so, Reddit needs to make money, so one way or another, this will improve the app’s performance. Reddit says that the updated chat UI will begin rolling out soon, with the changes set to be phased in over the next three months. It’ll be a shift in focus for Reddit users, but essentially, the aim is to bring all of its connective notifications into a single stream, while also adding more filters to better manage your messages in the app. Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/reddit-consolidates-dms-pms-messaging-chats/743151/[ATTACH type=full]1441[/ATTACH]

Google will remain the #1 search engine forever. No other company will ever take its crown. With the rise of AI-powered search systems, Google has already adapted by integrating AI overviews alongside its traditional search engine. Google overtook Ask Jeeves and Yahoo back in the day through innovation and uniqueness, and if another company were capable of surpassing Google, it would have happened already. Bing essentially reverse-engineers Google's system. DuckDuckGo sources its results from Bing and Yandex, along with its own crawler and analysis. Bing also powers Yahoo's search engine. Google currently controls 89-90% of the search engine market share as well. Which goes to show you, it takes multiple companies just to try and "compete" against the powerhouse that Google has become.

Should also post it on the /Redditalternatives section. There’s a lot of traction in that subreddit. There’s always users seeking alternatives.😂

The march core update is done rolling out. Have you seen any shifts in your search traffic this month? Google's March 2025 core update is now done rolling out, it took 14 days, starting on March 13, 2025 at around 12:23 pm ET and ending on March 27, 2025 at around 8:34 am ET. Google postedsaying, "The rollout was complete as of March 27, 2025." [HEADING=1]Google March 2025 Core Update Quick Facts:[/HEADING] Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form: Name: Google March 2025 Broad Core Update Launched: March 13, 2025 at around 12:30 pm ET Completed: March 27, 2025 at around 8:34 am ET Targets: It looks at all types of content Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages. Impact: The normal core update - updating some of the "core systems". Google said this March update is a "regular update." Maybe content creators will see better results but not sure on that. Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more. Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's core update advice. Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. Maybe this is what we saw the past couple of weeks or all those unconfirmed Google updates. [HEADING=1][/HEADING]

Facebook pages can also be monetized and make you money if you prefer to use them as such. I’m pretty sure the same applies for facebook groups as well. Those that follow your facebook page are able to send you stars and you’re also able to earn via views depending on big the page gets.

AI generated content also leads to the search engines laying the smack down on sites, especially if they're full of AI-generated content and not human-written content. Human written content is the way to go for better or for worst. Using AI tools to help you write and come up with ideas isn't a bad idea as long as it's used in your own tone & written by you, however, it becomes a major problem when you're making a site that's full of AI-content. Human content will out rank AI-generated content all day and everyday. More personal and emotional based content will always lead to better results, no matter how anyone spins it.

I'm currently listening to Bosses by yo gotti.

According to details surfacing online, ad management firm Mediavine is terminating publishers’ accounts for overusing AI. Mediavine is a leading ad management company providing products and services to help website publishers monetize their content. The company holds elite status as a Google Certified Publishing Partner, which indicates that it meets Google’s highest standards and requirements for ad networks and exchanges. [HEADING=1]AI Content Triggers Account Terminations[/HEADING] The terminations came to light in a post on the Reddit forum r/Blogging, where a user shared an email they received from Mediavine citing “overuse of artificially created content.” Trista Jensen, Mediavine’s Director of Ad Operations & Market Quality, states in the email: Jensen stated that due to the overuse of AI content, “our top partners will stop spending on your sites, which will negatively affect future monetization efforts.” Consequently, Mediavine terminated the publisher’s account “effective immediately.” [HEADING=1]The Risks Of Low-Quality AI Content[/HEADING] This strict enforcement aligns with Mediavine’s publicly stated policy prohibiting websites from using “low-quality, mass-produced, unedited or undisclosed AI content that is scraped from other websites.” In a March 7 blog posttitled “AI and Our Commitment to a Creator-First Future,” the company declared opposition to low-value AI content that could “devalue the contributions of legitimate content creators.” Mediavine warned in the post: The company says it’s using its platform to “advocate for publishers” and uphold quality standards in the face of AI’s disruptive potential. Mediavine states: [HEADING=1]Targeting ‘AI Clickbait Kingpin’ Tactics[/HEADING] While the Reddit user’s identity wasn’t disclosed, the incident has drawn connections to the tactics of Nebojša Vujinović Vujo, who was dubbed an “AI Clickbait Kingpin” in a recent Wired exposé. According to Wired, Vujo acquired over 2,000 dormant domains and populated them with AI-generated, search-optimized content designed purely to capture ad revenue. His strategies represent the low-quality, artificial content Mediavine has vowed to prohibit. [HEADING=1]Potential Implications[/HEADING] [HEADING=2]Lost Revenue[/HEADING] Mediavine’s terminations highlight potential implications for publishers that rely on artificial intelligence to generate website content at scale. Perhaps the most immediate and tangible implication is the risk of losing ad revenue. For publishers that depend heavily on programmatic advertising or sponsored content deals as key revenue drivers, being blocked from major ad networks could devastate their business models. [HEADING=2]Devalued Domains[/HEADING] Another potential impact is the devaluation of domains and websites built primarily on AI-generated content. If this pattern of AI content overuse triggers account terminations from companies like Mediavine, it could drastically diminish the value proposition of scooping up these domains. Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/mediavine-bans-publisher-for-overuse-of-ai-generated-content/526343/ Latest discussions regarding Mediavine’s bans, 500 publishers have now been dropped from the network: https://www.reddit.com/r/Blogging/s/GgfeQXYYpx

Taking a deep dive into what made larger communities thrive could be valuable. Studying their early days, their growth strategies, and how their discussions evolved over time can provide useful insights for building your own community. Smaller communities have a unique charm, but there comes a point where growth is inevitable. The real question is: do you try to maintain a small, tight-knit space, or do you embrace growth while preserving what made the community special? Keeping the core foundation intact is key,this ensures that even as the community expands, it still feels like home. As long as you stay true to what made the community great in the first place, it will continue to do just fine.