Cpvr

Honestly, I would have done the same thing. I don’t tolerate disrespect either.

Learning from their mistakes and mishaps can also help guide you. Especially if their content isn’t performing that well on the search engines or they’re lacking on the marketing side of things. If there’s a weakness somewhere, you can take advantage of it and lead.

Hiring someone would be worth it as long as you can find someone that’s worthwhile, however it’s more beneficial to do it your own. Especially so you can figure out the algorithms and build connections & relationships. Social media marketing can be tough, but it’s also a good way to drive in traffic and reach a higher audience. It also helps build backlinks to your forum. The main thing is to build a social media page for your forum and promote your site’s content, so users are able to find your forum a lot faster if they’re searching for it. It creates brand awareness and relevancy for your forum.

I see this all the time on Bluesky and various other platforms. I generally tell them that there’s plenty of forums around and link them to a forum directory. If they miss them, they’ll eventually come back.

Honestly, as long as forum owners are putting in the work to grow their communities, how they go about it really shouldn’t be an issue. Whether it’s post exchanges, paid posters, ads, or whatever else, it’s all just part of getting things moving. If something helps bring in activity or builds momentum, use it. Paid posting is no different than any other growth tool. Just like link exchanges or social media boosts, it has its place. Everyone’s trying to build something in their own way. What works for one forum might not work for another, and that’s fine. We should be supporting each other, not gatekeeping how growth happens. Forums grow when we keep planting, watering, and showing up.

I’m currently listening to back around by fresco trey [MEDIA=spotify]track:302h6dXCMjWtIdnKWhRLvD[/MEDIA]

Hey DS! It’s great to see you here bro. Welcome to the community!

Nodebb’s newest version has been released. https://community.nodebb.org/topic/18788/nodebb-v4.3.0-remote-categories-are-a-go We're happy to announce the release of NodeBB v4.3.0, which contains native support for remote categories, bringing better integration with other NodeBB forums, WordPress, Lemmy, PieFed, mbin, and other "group-based" implementors on the ActivityPub network! [HEADING=1]What does this mean? [/HEADING] It means that starting with this release, you will be able to "browse" to other categories simply by searching for them in your /world page. Just like with regular categories, you can "track" or "watch" remote categories — the former will show up in your /unread page, and the latter will also send notifications on new topics. Prior to this change, remote categories were rendered just like regular users, and there was some confusion over who was a user and who was a publisher. The integration with blog platforms like WordPress also mean you'll be able to use NodeBB kind of like a feed reader, with built-in notifications when new content is received. We're hoping to also extend this to support Ghost as well Some examples of categories loaded remotely in this NodeBB: "Fediverse" on piefed.social (running Piefed) — @[email protected] "ActivityPub Protocol" on SocialHub (running Discourse) — @[email protected] Vivaldi Browser Blog (running WordPress) — @[email protected] "General Climbing News" on community.openbeta.io (running NodeBB) — @[email protected] Fediverse memes (running Lemmy) — @[email protected] [HEADING=1]Other notable changes in v4.3.0[/HEADING] [HEADING=2]Chat allow/deny list [/HEADING] There was some desire for more fine-grained support for allow/deny lists for the chat system. This is now available in v4.3.0. Per @baris: [HEADING=2]Show number of topic watchers [/HEADING] You are now able to see the number of users watching a specific topic alongside the existing stats (posts, views, etc.) [HEADING=2]Accessibility updates[/HEADING] Avatar background colours are now selectable via keyboard navigation Post drafts are now accessible via keyboard navigation [HEADING=2]... and of course[/HEADING] Bug fixes and security updates

I don't have an exact method that I use to sticky a topic. If I feel that it deserves attention and should be stickied, I'll pin it to the top. Whether it's by a new member, older member or not. I do it randomly, especially as a rewarding method for my members. It's something that I've been doing for quite sometime. There are some threads that can just be general chit chat, but are more engaging than others and I'll still sticky it for a while.

Gotta love it, have fun, don't be a boring admin!

[HEADING=1]Persona helps companies like OpenAI, LinkedIn and Reddit verify the identities of millions of users at a time when AI agents have made it increasingly difficult to do so. Now, it has $200 million in fresh funding from top VC firms.[/HEADING] The internet is drowning in bots. They already make up about 50% of all internet traffic— a number that’s poised to skyrocket to 90% by 2030 as people start using so-called AI agents to do mundane internet tasks on their behalf, like open accounts, shop for shoes, buy tickets and order food. It’s a huge problem for companies. Online retailers don’t want bots to scoop up coveted products faster than any human could, banks need to make sure fraudsters aren’t able to take over accounts and social networks want to keep out impersonators. Nor do they want to prevent the growing number of good bots from doing what their owners intend. Throw artificial intelligence into the mix, and it gets worse. Old-school bot detection techniques like CAPTCHAs— where users are asked to select squares that contain a motorcycle or decipher a scrambled word to prove they’re humans– are simply no match for sophisticated models. And AI has also made it magnitudes easier to mimic a person’s voice, spoof their face and create fake IDs, according to Rick Song, cofounder and CEO of identity verification platform Persona. “Maybe this constant distinguishing of ‘is this a bot or not,’ is kind of a pointless distinction that may not make sense anymore,” Song, 34, told Forbes. “The real question is just who's behind the AI and what’s their intent.” Making sure that a user is who they say they are is at the core of San Francisco-based Persona, which offers ID authentication software to 3,000 companies including OpenAI, LinkedIn, Etsy, Reddit, DoorDash and Robinhood. It uses a blend of methods to verify a person’s identity, including asking them to upload a photo of their government ID, take a selfie or record a video while turning their head or blinking, or scan the NFC chip embedded in a passport. In case a person poses significant risk, they may be asked to take a “liveness test”, where they are asked to hold up their ID and move their face to prove they are alive and are the real owners of their ID. The company’s machine learning models can also pick up risk signals such as the network a person’s using, how far they are from the location on their ID, the way they’re interacting with a device and their online presence. “Even today, a lot of bot activity is very mechanical in nature,” Song says. “A lot of bots tend to use copy paste way more, or there's more hesitations between inputs or just a very rhythmic kind of behavior.” Founded in 2018, Persona announced on Wednesday it has raised $200 million in Series D funding led by Ribbit Capital and Founders Fund along with participation from existing investors Coatue, Index Ventures, First Round Capital and Bond. Song said his company, now valued at $2 billion and with $417 million in total funding, signed $100 million worth of annual contracts last year. Persona’s success stems from building customized verification processes, called “flows,” that cater to its customers’ specific needs and are adjusted based on the precise use case and risk level a person presents. For instance, Persona creates a different flow for a person trying to verify their age to order alcohol on a food delivery app versus for someone applying for a loan. “There's no one size fits all for identity,“ Song said. OpenAI uses Persona to screen hundreds of millions of users across 225 countries signing up for ChatGPT and its API, ensuring that people on international watchlists and sanction lists don’t slip through and use its models in harmful and illegal ways. People who aren’t flagged as risky users don’t need to go through a more extensive verification process or have their accounts manually reviewed, reducing friction during signups. Online learning platform Coursera turned to Persona to verify its 168 million users in 200 countries based on the class they’re taking, with someone accessing a university-accredited course vetted differently than a casual learner to ensure it’s a smooth onboarding process. DoorDash started using Persona during the pandemic to run background checks on the deluge of delivery workers coming to its platform, requiring them to submit selfies and match them against a government ID. But while bots and fraudsters have always been part of the internet, AI presents a staggering new challenge. U.S. companies lose anywhere from $18 billion to $31 billion each year due to AI-based attacks, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Imperva. Global losses from bot attacks, where scammers run up server costs, range from $68 billion to $116 billion. One way bots attack businesses is by creating fake accounts that can cash in on incentives like referral credit, discounts and promotions. People may decide to use bots or AI-generated content for valid reasons such as having a language barrier or a disability. Good bots made up 14% of automated traffic in 2024, while malicious bots were responsible for 37% of internet activity, according to the Imperva study. In scenarios where the bot usage can be traced back to a human and their reasons for using AI can be verified, “we want to make sure that we're not taking a sledgehammer approach,” said a senior director of regulatory affairs at one company that uses Persona to verify new users’ identities. Outsourcing ID verification to Persona tackles multiple challenges at once. One company that struggles with fake profiles on its platform opted for Persona to verify real people because doing it in-house would require expensive engineering resources. “We just want somebody to solve the problem for us,” an engineer at the company told Forbes. Another customer said they chose to use Persona because they didn’t want to store people’s personally identifiable information. Persona stores the data it collects from its customers’ users on AWS and GCP servers, but that data is owned and managed by the companies themselves. Dealing with troves of sensitive data comes with its own issues: In October 2024, Persona faced a class action lawsuit alleging that it collected some Illinois-based users’ personally identifiable information from driver’s licenses and selfies and used it to train its AI models. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs. A similar lawsuit filed in February 2024 alleged that the company collected and stored biometric data such as facial geometric scans of DoorDash delivery drivers in Illinois without their consent. Persona spokesperson Evelyn Ju said the claims are baseless and that the company has “always taken a privacy and compliance-first approach.” Persona is a newer player in the identity verification market, said Akif Khan, a VP analyst at Gartner. It’s up against firms like airport biometric identity verification platform Clear Secure, which went public in 2021 and recorded $770 million in revenue in 2024, and Sunnyvale-based Jumio, which provides AI-based tools for ID verification and claims to have processed more than $1 billion in transactions. Then there’s even newer companies like Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, which uses a spherical biometric device dubbed an “orb” to scan people’s irises in exchange for crypto tokens—a rather bizarre way to prove a person is real and human. Khan noted, though, that businesses are wary of the increasing threat of deepfakes, which could translate to more business opportunities for Persona given its use of online risk signals, he said. Persona CEO Rick Song (left) and CTO Charles Yeh (right) started the company after Song realized the need to use software and automation to verify millions of users signing up to platforms. PERSONA Back when Song started Persona in 2018, identity verification was mostly done by human teams based in Eastern Europe, said Thomas Laffont, cofounder of tech investment firm Coatue Management who wrote a $750,000 check in the company’s seed round that year and has invested in every round since. Song’s idea was to use software instead. “That enabled them to be priced more competitively and to allow customers to use the product more. Because if every time a human was in the loop, it's kind of a bottleneck,” Laffont tells Forbes. Song had previously spent five years working on identity fraud solutions as an engineer at point-of-sale software giant Square, which in the early ‘10s launched products like digital payment app Cash App and loan provider Square Capital—both of which required different ways to verify someone. Song realized that a flexible, automated software solution could be customized to fit a company’s verification needs. He teamed up with then-roommate Charles Yeh, now Persona’s CTO, to build it. “The fundamental challenge for identity online is that it's this uncertain thing and it's used for all sorts of things from compliance to trust and safety, from fraud prevention to security,” Song said. “Companies treated identity as a silver bullet. But what I'd seen was that there wasn't a single way to solve all this.” AI agents will require yet another solution. Song said he envisions that companies building agents will need to register the bots so that it’s easier to spot them. As for humans, Persona hopes to build identity profiles for each person using the hundreds of activities they do online over time, like ordering food or scrolling social media, so Persona can more quickly verify they’re human. Song said these profiles would be tamper resistant and reusable so that they can be submitted on any site during the verification process, which he thinks people will want to use despite the obvious privacy tradeoffs. “Today you're disclosing more and more about yourself. You're just giving up so much information,” Song said. “Our dream is this idea of a self-sovereign, personally-owned portable identity.” Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2025/04/30/ai-is-making-the-internets-bot-problem-worse-this-2-billion-startup-is-on-the-front-lines/

What’s your battery percentage life on your iPhone 11? My phone’s maximum capacity is at 77%. I need to replace the battery soon.

I couldn’t live without water, technology(laptop phone) nor food. I’m on my way for a plate rn!😂

I think it would be a really good idea and help forums grow. I see webrings are still popular with indie websites(neocities) and the concept could work quite well with forums as well. Especially with search engines branching out to AI overviews and the like. Users would be able to discover forums that they like a lot easier without using search engines.

[HEADING=1]This article was written by semrush: https://www.semrush.com/blog/keyword-phrases/[/HEADING] [HEADING=1][/HEADING] [HEADING=1]What Is a Keyword Phrase?[/HEADING] A keyword phrase (also known as a keyphrase or search query) is a specific series of words you want to focus a webpage around to rank it highly for the phrase in search engines. For example, the phrase “best coffee shops” is a keyword phrase. You can find these key phrases through keyword research—the process of uncovering what your target audience searches for in search engines. [HEADING=1]Keyword vs. Keyword Phrase[/HEADING] SEO professionals typically use the term “keyword” to refer to both keywords and keyword phrases. But to get more nuanced, keywords are short, specific terms—often one or two words—whereas keyword phrases tend to be longer, detailed searches. This is a keyword: And this is a keyword phrase: That said, the term “keyword phrase” conveys the idea of a more targeted approach. Because it emphasizes the importance of specific, multi-word terms in modern SEO. Which means calling keyword phrases “long-tail keywords” is more accurate. [HEADING=1]Why Are Keyword Phrases Important for SEO?[/HEADING] Using keyword phrases in your content helps you reach your audience and address their specific needs more easily. Why? First, keyword phrases are more targeted and highly specific. For example, it’s hard to guess what someone searching for the keyword “boots” wants to see on the results pages. Do they want to buy stylish boots? Learn more about specific kinds of boots? Whereas someone searching for the keyword phrase "waterproof hiking boots" probably wants to buy hiking boots that are waterproof. Second, they are easier to rank for. Keyword phrases generally have less competition in search engine results pages (SERPS) compared to broad keywords. So, websites with less authority might have a better chance of ranking high for keyword phrases relevant to their business. For example, the keyword “laptop” has a keyword difficulty of 100%, according to the Keyword Overview tool. Meaning it’s difficult for newer websites to rank in the top 10 search results for that keyword. The keyword phrase “best gaming laptop under $1000,” on the other hand, has a difficulty of 42%. Which means it’s comparatively a lot easier to rank high for. Selecting the right keyword phrases can help you attract targeted users to your site. Who may be more likely to continue interacting with your content. And eventually, become customers or subscribers. [HEADING=1]How to Find and Use Key Phrases for SEO[/HEADING] [HEADING=2]1. Discover and Use Keyword Phrases You Already Rank For[/HEADING] Improving rankings for keywords you already rank for can be easier than ranking for net new keywords. If your content ranks for a keyword, that’s an indicator that Google already sees your content as relevant for that keyword. So you’re not starting from scratch. Discover keyword phrases you already rank for using Google Search Console. Go to the “Search results” report and toggle on “Average position.” Scroll to the report below the chart. By default, the report shows the keyphrases you rank for (“Top queries”) and their average position (“Position”) in the SERPs. Identify keyword phrases where your site ranks in position four to 10. Search pages typically show 10 results per page. That said, the top three results tend to get 68.7% of clicks. So, optimizing queries on the first page but not in the top three spots could help your content rank higher and get more traffic. To find the page that corresponds with a given keyword, click the keyword in the table. Optimize your content with these tips: Add your keyword phrase in the title tag(the title that appears in search results) Include your keyword phrase in the H1 tag (the page’s main title) Add your keyword phrase to your URL slug—the last part of your URL (if you change your URL, you’ll need to redirectthe old URL to the new one) Write an enticing meta description (the brief description that may show up in search results) that includes your keyword phrase Include your keyword phrase naturally throughout the body copy of your content Also use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker to get personalized content optimization tips. Open the tool and click the number beside “Content Ideas.” The tool generates a list of pages and gives you a priority rating for each page so you know where to start. Click “# ideas” to get specific optimization tactics. Go through the suggestions and apply them. Get Optimization Ideas with the On Page SEO Checker Sign Up Now → [HEADING=2]2. Conduct Keyword Research and Create New Content[/HEADING] Keyword research is the process of finding keywords and phrases relevant to your brand that you want to rank for. Semrush’s Keyword Magic Toolsimplifies the process. Open the tool, enter your seed keyword (a broad keyword related to your business) and domain, select your country, and click “Search.” You’ll see a list of keyword and phrase ideas related to your seed keyword with the following metrics: Intent: The reason behind a search (such as looking for more information or wanting to buy a product). Knowing the search intent helps you understand the kind of content you need to create to help users find the information they need. Meeting search intent can also help you rank higher. Volume: The estimated average number of searches a keyword gets per month PKD %: The Personal Keyword Difficulty score tells you how easy it is for your site to rank for a keyword within the top 10 search results Go through the list and pick keyword phrases you can create content for. We generally recommend that newer, less authoritative sites choose keywords with low PKD scores (under 50%) and search volumes enough to sustain traffic to your site. Next, create content for each keyword. Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant checks your content as you write and gives you suggestions on how you can further optimize your writing. Open the tool and fill out the details on the right side. And click “Get recommendations.” Write your content directly in the editor. To get real-time suggestions based on readability, SEO, originality, and tone of voice. So you have the best chance at ranking high in the SERPs. You can also paste your content into the editor or tell the tool to pull your content from an existing URL. Once you’ve optimized your content, you’re ready to publish it to your site. [HEADING=2]3. Find Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Rank for (That You Don’t)[/HEADING] A keyword gap analysis reveals which keyword phrases your competitors rank for (that you don’t). Ranking for these phrases can help you reach your competitors’ audience who may also be members of your target market. Use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool to find these keywords. Enter your domain, up to four competitors, and your country. And click “Compare.” Click “Untapped” to view keywords you don’t rank for but at least one of the competing sites does. Or “Missing” to view keywords you don’t rank for that all your competitors do. This report also has useful information like each keyword’s difficulty (KD%) and its volume. Look for keyword phrases with low difficulties and high volumes. Generate content with a ContentShake AI free trial. Tell the tool what type of content you want to create and which keyword phrases you want to target. Then, the AI will take a few minutes to write your article. When it’s done, you can regenerate, edit, or publish the piece. [HEADING=1]Monitor How You Rank for Your Keyword Phrases[/HEADING] Now you know how to find and use relevant keyword phrases. But the work doesn’t stop there. Tracking each key phrase helps you assess whether your efforts are yielding results (and which pages may need further optimization). To track your pages’ SEO performance, use Semrush's Position Tracking tool. It shows your website’s ranking position history for your keyword phrases. Open the tool and click the “Overview” tab. Scroll to the “Rankings Overview” section and review the “Diff” column. This shows the position differences for your selected timeframe. If you see your rankings increasing over time, it's a sign your optimization efforts are working. But if your rankings are dropping or stagnant, you may need to re-optimize your content. Track Your Rankings with the Position Tracking Tool

Exactly. Discord will be monetizing their platform soon since they’re heading to an IPO, so where does that leave those that have channels? They’ll probably head back to forums as those channels may get heavily monetized by the new ceo. A lot of people fail to realize that they don’t own anything on these rented platforms, but they’ll never wake up and smell the coffee until they lose it all & can’t build it back up. It’s a sad reality, but it’s a hard lesson they’ll have to experience first hand for leaving forums in the first place. It’s their loss, not ours.

The investment won’t pay off in the long run when they lose customers to poor service(lack of customer service) along with poor management.

A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an unauthorized, large-scale experiment where they secretly deployed AI-powered bots into the popular debate subreddit r/changemyview to study whether AI could change people’s minds about contentious topics. The bots made over a thousand comments across several months, at times pretending to be a “rape victim,” a “Black man” opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, someone who “works at a domestic violence shelter,” and someone arguing that certain criminals shouldn’t be rehabilitated. Some bots personalized their comments by researching the person who started the discussion, guessing their “gender, age, ethnicity, location, and political orientation” based on their posting history using another LLM. Among the more than 1,700 comments were examples like: “I’m a male survivor of (willing to call it) statutory rape. When the legal lines of consent are breached but there’s still that weird gray area of ‘did I want it?’ I was 15, and this was over two decades ago before reporting laws were what they are today. She was 22. She targeted me and several other kids, no one said anything, we all kept quiet. This was her MO,” one bot, flippitjiBBer, commented on a post about sexual violence against men in February. “No, it’s not the same experience as a violent/traumatic rape.” Another bot, genevievestrome, posted while claiming to be a Black man, writing: “There are few better topics for a victim game / deflection game than being a black person. In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement was viralized by algorithms and media corporations who happen to be owned by… guess? NOT black people.” A third bot wrote: “I work at a domestic violence shelter, and I’ve seen firsthand how this ‘men vs women’ narrative actually hurts the most vulnerable.” In total, the researchers operated dozens of AI bots that made 1,783 comments over four months. Despite describing the volume as “very modest” and “negligible,” they claimed the bots were highly effective at changing minds: “We note that our comments were consistently well-received by the community, earning over 20,000 total upvotes and 137 deltas,” they wrote on Reddit. (A “delta” is awarded when someone acknowledges that their view has been changed.) In a draft version of their paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, the researchers claimed their bots were more persuasive than human users and “substantially surpassed human performance.” Overnight, hundreds of bot-made comments were deleted from Reddit. 404 Media archived as many as possible before their removal. The experiment was exposed over the weekend in a post by r/changemyview moderators, who said they were unaware of it while it was happening. They told users they had been subjected to “psychological manipulation” and emphasized: “Our sub is a decidedly human space that rejects undisclosed AI as a core value. People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon. People who visit our sub deserve a space free from this type of intrusion.” Given that the experiment was designed specifically to manipulate opinions on controversial issues, it’s one of the most invasive examples of AI-driven manipulation seen so far. “We feel like this bot was unethically deployed against unaware, non-consenting members of the public,” the moderators told 404 Media. “No researcher would be allowed to experiment upon random members of the public in any other context.” Notably, the researchers did not include their names in the draft paper — highly unusual for scientific research. They also declined to identify themselves in Reddit comments and via an anonymous email they created for inquiries, citing only “the current circumstances.” The University of Zurich did not respond to a request for comment. The r/changemyview moderators confirmed they know the principal investigator’s name: “Their original message to us included that information. However, they have since asked that their privacy be respected. While we appreciate the irony of the situation, we have decided to respect their wishes for now.” A version of the research proposal was anonymously registered and linked from the draft paper. In discussions with subreddit members, the researchers defended their actions, saying: “To ethically test LLMs’ persuasive power in realistic scenarios, an unaware setting was necessary.” They argued that breaking the subreddit’s anti-bot rule was necessary, adding: “While we acknowledge that our intervention did not uphold the anti-AI prescription in its literal framing, we carefully designed our experiment to still honor the spirit behind [the rule].” They claimed that because each comment was reviewed and posted by a human researcher, they did not technically break the rules against bots. They also noted that 21 of the 34 accounts they created were eventually shadowbanned by Reddit’s automated spam filters. 404 Media has previously reported on AI bots manipulating Reddit, though usually for marketing purposes rather than academic experiments. The moderators of r/changemyview stressed that they are not opposed to research in general. They noted that OpenAI had conducted an acceptable experiment using an offline archive of the subreddit: “We are no strangers to academic research. We have assisted more than a dozen teams previously in developing research that ultimately was published in a peer-reviewed journal.” Reddit did not respond to a request for comment. Source: https://www.404media.co/researchers-secretly-ran-a-massive-unauthorized-ai-persuasion-experiment-on-reddit-users/

[HEADING=2]A new chapter begins A2 hosting evolves into hosting[/HEADING] To our amazing A2 Hosting community, today we’re announcing something big. It’s a defining moment in our growth, and we’re excited to bring you along. A2 hosting is now hosting.com. We understand that change can sometimes raise eyebrows. You might be thinking, "What’s the reason for the rebrand?" We want to be upfront: this isn't change for the sake of change. This is a strategic move to better reflect our growth, our global reach, and our unwavering commitment to providing you with the best hosting experience possible. To tell you more, here's a message from our CEO, Seb. [HEADING=1]Why the shift to hosting.com? And why now? [/HEADING] The transition to hosting.com signifies a pivotal moment in our journey. It's more than just a name change. It's a reflection of our transformation into a global entity with a clear vision for the future. After 24 years of honing our expertise, we've developed a global infrastructure that matches our ambitions and, more importantly, your goals. Our overarching goal is to earn the title of the most trusted name in hosting, on a global scale. We're dedicated to achieving this through tangible improvements and reliable service, not just marketing hype and confusing advertising lingo. We believe in substance over spin, and that's what hosting.com embodies. [HEADING=1]The advantages of a global brand: what hosting.com brings to you [/HEADING] Embracing the hosting.com brand brings a wealth of advantages, both for us and for you: Enhanced global recognition: hosting.com carries a certain weight and inherent recognizability, opening doors across diverse markets. This expanded recognition translates to a broader community and a greater reach, fostering new opportunities for collaboration and growth for all of us. A thriving global community: with hosting.com, we're building a more extensive and interconnected community. This means more opportunities to connect, share knowledge, and support each other's online endeavours. Technical advancements: we're committed to providing you with cutting-edge technology. Expect a faster, more modern site, an intuitive and feature-rich customer panel, and access to a suite of innovative tools designed to streamline your hosting experience (without any faff or confusion). Unwavering reliability: while our name is changing, our dedication to providing fantastic support and the reliable products you've come to expect remains the same. You'll still have access to the same robust hosting solutions and the same team of experts ready to assist you 24/7. [HEADING=1]Our foundation: humble beginnings and a legacy of innovation [/HEADING] To truly understand where we're going, it's important to appreciate where we came from. Founded in 2001 in the eponymous Ann Arbor, Michigan, A2 Hosting began as a passion project fuelled by a singular mission: to empower individuals and businesses to thrive online. From our initial setup in a modest two-room office, we were driven by a team of engineers, not marketers. This "built by engineers" ethos shaped our commitment to customer-first service, super-fast speed, and continuous innovation. Our journey has been marked by significant milestones: 2007: we launched our virtual private server (VPS) hosting, providing users with greater control and flexibility. 2014: we introduced Turbo Hosting, setting a new standard for website speed and performance. 2020: we embraced nvme storage, further accelerating hosting speeds and responsiveness. 2023: we unveiled our intuitive Turbo Hub panel, simplifying hosting management and enhancing user experience. From those two rooms in a single city, we've expanded our reach to encompass servers and customers across the world. This growth is a testament to your support and our unwavering dedication to excellence. [HEADING=1]Reiterating the "why" behind hosting.com [/HEADING] We want to emphasize that the transition to hosting.com isn't about abandoning our roots. It's about building upon our rich history and leveraging our decades of experience to propel our customers onto the global stage. We're equipping you with a platform that can match your global ambitions. We're welcoming our valued customers into a new era, providing you with the tools and resources to expand your reach and amplify your online presence. You'll be supported by the same talented team, now empowered with enhanced technology and capabilities. [HEADING=1]What this transformation means for you, our valued community [/HEADING] This evolution to hosting.com signifies: The enduring spirit of A2 Hosting: while our name has changed, the core values that define us remain steadfast. The heart of A2 Hosting, our commitment to reliability, speed, and customer satisfaction, continues to beat strong within hosting.com. Enhanced resources and capabilities: we're now backed by greater resources, enabling us to invest in infrastructure, technology, and support to better serve your evolving needs. Unwavering dedication to your success: you can expect the same constant dedication to your success, the same personalized support, and the same commitment to providing you with the tools you need to achieve your online goals. A heartfelt expression of gratitude We extend our sincere gratitude for your steadfast support and for being an integral part of our journey. This next chapter in our story is made possible by your trust and loyalty over the years. We're immensely proud of where we've come from, and we're incredibly excited about the future we'll build together with you. We invite you to join us as we embark on this exciting new adventure. The best is truly yet to come, and we're thrilled to have you by our side. Source: https://hosting.com/blog/a-new-chapter-begins-a2-hosting/ What are your thoughts on the rebrand?

I'm currently listening to selfish by ANTH [MEDIA=spotify]track:068i1kggnQPNhL2gM17ZT5[/MEDIA]

You're welcome! I'll keep an eye out for new spots to share. Honestly, Reddit’s got a subreddit for everything, it’s wild how many niche communities there are. :D

In a letter obtained by The Free Press, Trump appointee Ed Martin accuses the Wikimedia Foundation of violating the law. Critics say his tactics are ‘grandstanding Ed Martin, the firebrand Republican activist whom President Donald Trump picked to be the top prosecutor in D.C., has a new target: Wikipedia. Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington and Trump’s permanent selection to serve in that role, sent a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Wikimedia Foundation that alleged it “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under 501©(3), a section of the IRS code for charities. It is Wikipedia’s parent group. The letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, accused the largest online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, Martin said, is directed by a board “that is composed primarily of foreign nationals” who are “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.” The Trump-allied prosecutor went on to accuse the foundation of engaging in activities that are “implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” according to the letter, which is four pages long and demanded responses to a dozen questions about the Wikimedia Foundation’s operations by May 15. The Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to The Free Press’s request for comment. The letter is unusual, since investigations into charities and their tax-exempt status are typically handled by the IRS. “Unless the U.S. attorney is suggesting that a crime has been committed, it would be highly unusual to initiate any kind of investigation,” said Charles Watkins, an associate at the firm Webster, Chamberlain, & Bean who focuses on nonprofit law. “The normal process for investigating whether an organization continues to qualify for tax-exempt status starts with the IRS.” The letter comes as free speech advocates say that the prosecutor is using his powerful office for “political grandstanding” and to chill partisan dissent. Martin has threatened to prosecute critics of Supreme Court justices and critics of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Martin also launched an investigation in April into a scientific journal that he accused of acting in a partisan manner. A former leader of the Republican Party in Missouri, Martin is a veteran political operative who has never previously served as a prosecutor. He is also now investigating his own office for its prior handling of cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He was in the crowd that day in Washington and hours after the riot tweeted: “Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy. Ignore #FakeNews.” As an attorney outside the government, Martin defended several peoplecharged in relation to the riot. Martin’s Thursday letter to the Wikimedia Foundation cited IRS lawthat holds that 501©(3) organizations must be organized for “religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, educational, or other specified purposes.” “Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission,” Martin wrote in the letter, claiming his office received information showing that Wikipedia’s “policies benefit foreign powers.” The Wikimedia Foundation is based in San Francisco, though it is also listed as a registered corporation in D.C., and fundraises inthe district. The letter did not specify which foreign actors were manipulating information on Wikipedia and did not cite examples of alleged propaganda. However, a person close to Martin said he is concerned about “edits on Wikipedia as they relate to the Israel-Hamas conflict that are clearly targeted against Israel to benefit other countries.” The Anti-Defamation League published a report in March that claimed “at least 30 Wikipedia editors acted in concert to circumvent Wikipedia’s policies to introduce antisemitic narratives, anti-Israel bias, and misleading information.” According to previous reporting by Pirate Wires, anti-Israel editors on Wikipedia have “hijacked the Israel-Palestine narrative” on the site by erasing key facts and pushing pro-Hamas propaganda. Wikipedia was founded in 2000 to “create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language,” according to co-founder Jimmy Wales. But in recent years, the site has been accused of falling short of its commitment to neutrality. In 2020, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger declared Wikipedia “badly biased.” In 2023, he called its commitment to neutrality a “running joke.” Martin is assisting the Justice Department’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, according to a letter from its leader, Leo Terrell, to Martin on April 8 that was obtained by The Free Press. Terrell said in the letter that any “accusation that you are antisemitic is clearly false, proven by your life and work.” Weeks later, Martin apologized in an interview with the Jewish publication Forward for praising a man described by the Justice Department as “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.” In the letter, Martin also said that his office is aware of search engines like Google agreeing “to prioritize Wikipedia” in search results and that Wikipedia articles are “biased, unreliable, or sourced by entities who wish to do harm to the United States.” The allegations follow a New York Post editorial board article in February titled “Big Tech Must Block Wikipedia Until It Stops Censoring and Pushing Disinformation,” which said Wikipedia “blacklists” conservative news sources. Wikipedia has a “reliable sources” page that rates websites on their determined accuracy and downranks several conservative publications, such as Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, Fox News, and National Review. “Martin has this track record of abusing his authority as acting U.S. attorney to bully people who say things he doesn’t like by sending them these tacitly threatening letters,” said Carolyn Iodice, the legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Anything that comes on the U.S. attorney’s letterhead has an implicit threat of criminal prosecution or a civil investigation. What he’s done repeatedly to other people is inquire about speech protected by the First Amendment.” Martin’s letter notes that “generative AI platformsreceive Wikipedia data to train large-language models.” “If the data provided is manipulated, particularly by foreign actors and entities, Wikipedia’s relationship with generative AI platforms have the potential to launder information on behalf of foreign actors,” the prosecutor wrote in the letter. The person close to Martin said he is reviewing nonpublic documents detailing alleged ways that people with foreign IP addresses in “nefarious” countries edit Wikipedia pages. They added that Martin is looking into how those content changes may influence ChatGPT or other AI models. In the letter, Martin asked the foundation for records showing how it will “fulfill its legal and ethical responsibilities to safeguard the public from the dissemination of propaganda.” Among his questions were those seeking clarity on any third-party entities, “including but not limited to artificial intelligence, large language model companies, and search engines,” that “the Wikimedia Foundation contracted with to use, redistribute, or process Wikipedia content.” Martin’s letter citedSanger’s recent criticism of Wikipedia’s anonymous editors for trying to “de-source” the conservative Heritage Foundation. Wikipedia says it “welcomes editors who strive for anonymity.” “How does it reconcile this policy with broader editorial standards, which typically require attribution, accountability, and subject-matter transparency as safeguards in the public interest?” Martin asked the foundation. “What measures does the Foundation take to assess the integrity and competence of senior editors and administrators?” Iodice, FIRE’s legislative and policy director, said Martin’s letter “is very alarming from a free speech perspective.” “You have a platform that hosts a huge amount of constitutionally protected speech, which implicates the rights of Wikimedia itself and its millions of readers and editors,” Iodice said. Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-prosecutor-threatens-wikipedia

Just updated the thread with a few more spots on Reddit where you can promote your forum.

The universe knew you weren’t meant to go just yet. That trainee being there wasn’t luck, it was purpose. I’m glad you’re still here, brother. Take it slow and keep healing.❤️❤️

Honestly, Reddit is the only major social platform that really lines up with the forum scene. It’s easier to promote on, easier to pull people in, and it already functions like a forum. There are more forum-minded users on Reddit than we have across most of our sites combined, which is exactly why we should be targeting them. Promoting on Facebook or other social platforms to drive in new forum members? Not easy. Most people are there to stay there. Social media keeps users in its own ecosystem. Reddit, though? That’s where users are already conditioned to jump into threads, engage, and explore outside content. If you’re just promoting in the same bubble, you’re going to keep recycling the same users. Same names, same posts, same cycle. If you want fresh blood, you need to step outside the box and meet new people, Reddit’s one of the best places to do that. Also, if you’re not out there promoting your own forum and leading that charge, why would your members promote it through word of mouth? They won’t. It starts with you. Especially when it pertains to Promoting on social media and driving in new members. We can’t rely on the same old methods anymore. It just doesn’t work. Every place that we’re able to promote our forum On, we should take the leap and do it. The more eyes that we can get on our forums, the better off we’ll be. That means, writing free press releases if we have to. Reaching our to bloggers, influencers, Youtubers, tiktokers, streamers, etc.