Num7

PPC is Pay Per Click, right? It's basically ads and banners. On the other hand, SEO is all about search results and organic links. Like you said in your post, it depends on what you're looking for. Instant, short term results. Or long term organic traffic. Or perhaps both.

Here we go! https://paranormalis.com/ Paranormalis Forum is a unique online community for enthusiasts of the paranormal, time travel, and conspiracy theories. The forum offers in-depth discussions on topics like time machines, alternate realities, and encounters with extraterrestrial beings. Members explore theories on ghosts, UFOs, and supernatural occurrences, sharing their personal experiences and the latest findings in these fields. The community is supportive, encouraging open-minded discussions while allowing skepticism to challenge mainstream beliefs.

In situations like this, focus is super important. And it's hard to stay focused. Building/creating the right writing (or creative) environment is important. Take a good look at what apps you're using and for what, and visualize what kind of workflow you're using to write and create. Distraction-free writing apps are an obvious suggestion. But make sure it's an app that feels good to you. I recently went through the process of organizing my writing workflow because it was all over the place. I was able to redefine what I do, where I do it, and how I do it. It makes it easier for me to find the right angle when I start a project. For example, my drafts and WIP projects live in Dropbox Paper, as do my notes of all kinds. Then, if something eventually develops into a long-form writing project (like a book of poems, or a short novel, or an episodic story), I migrate that project to Google Docs, as it's much better suited for serious, world-class writing. I hope this makes sense.

Absolutely not. Religion is a super sensitive and edgy topic; I have a religion/spirituality section on my forum, and (along with politics) it's by far the topic that requires the most moderation. In my experience, people can't help but get close and personal about it. It often ends in flame wars and temporary bans. I couldn't imagine having an entire forum dedicated to religion. It would be a moderator's nightmare, no doubt.

Ads delivered via push notifications? Sounds like a terrible idea and a great way to annoy your visitors. I hope people are asked for their permission first.

This, 100%. Couldn't say it better. It's all rented space, you're at the mercy of the services you're on. Discord, Reddit, Facebook, etc. It's all cool until it's not.

Webrings were popular and useful before the rise of search engines and Google. Old search engines weren't as good as Google, so your chances of finding the good stuff were much lower. With web rings, it was possible to find similar forums and sites to the ones you enjoyed. Your favorite forum is part of a web ring? Why not check out the other sites? Web rings gave way to other platforms such as link directories, which eventually devolved into huge, cheap lists of websites and the like... Not as useful IMO. The point is that it gave forums a level of visibility and reach that search engines couldn't possibly provide at the time. Even by today's standards, I don't think there's any harm in bringing back such rings. Especially at a time when many forums are on the brink of extinction.

I used PostLoop back then. In 2009 or 2010 I think. I think they were up and running for a couple of years. Their end-to-end integration using forum software add-ons, plus their dashboard made things smooth and seamless. I got a few good posters who stuck around even after the post exchange. Same for me, I remember discovering a couple of cool communities that I posted on for credits, and then stuck around.

Using Reddit to promote your community is fine. It might work, so it's worth a try. But actually starting a subreddit for your community doesn't make sense. It would be like starting a second forum about your forum. I think you run the risk of ending up in the same situation some people find themselves in when the Discord server they've created takes up too much space and becomes a replacement for their forum instead of a complement.

This is 100% true, you can't go wrong with this one. Portal or no portal? Site or no site? Good question. Here's my personal experience. My forum is 100% a forum. No website, blog or portal attached to it. Why not? Because it never worked. I tried many times to "add a site" to my forum and it didn't get any views. No traffic, no traction, no nothing. People, old and new, members, anonymous visitors, would just hang out in the forum. No matter how well the portal was integrated, it didn't resonate. So I figured it wasn't worth it and stopped trying. Whenever I need a content format that's more static, I use Xenforo's static pages, or their "article" type threads. It usually does the trick. That said, it depends on what kind of forum you're running. As Cpvr said, the ultimate goal is to add value and motivate people to participate in the discussion. If within your niche, a site/portal/blog drives people to participate in your forum, then yes, it's absolutely worth it! :)

I paid for 2 themes over the past 15 years. Both were worth it, served us well and were much better than a lot of the free themes available at the time. Most free themes look good, but lack features here and there, as others have suggested. Nowadays, I tend to stick to the default XenForo theme with a couple of tweaks. Mostly colors, icons and little details to keep my site's identity. It's way easier to maintain and ensure compatibility over the years, instead of relying on the theme developers to update their themes following a XF update.

It happens. Some people leave and want to say goodbye. That's fine. Some others are hoping to cause a bit of a stir when they leave. I usually reply with something short and honest like "Sorry to see you go, take care" and keep it simple. It's their choice, after all. As Cory said, if it turns into flaming, the topic will be either locked or removed.

A support forum is a good example of a proper AI bot. Or a bot labeled as such, that's there to imitate someone. Cheap example here, but think of an Elvis bot on your Elvis forum that you can interact with for fun. That would work and it wouldn't bother me at all. But other than that, I'm seeing many issues. Imagine that you allow your members to create a second account that is their AI account. In this case, the human is the AI's transmission belt, allowing the AI to interact with the forum. Now consider this... You and I on the other end, we're going to be posting on the forum, interacting with this "member", maybe not even knowing if it's a human or an AI. That's a big deal breaker for me. Forums are a communication tool to connect with other people. Having an AI behind the accounts that participate in the discussion somehow breaks that promise. Ever heard of the Dead Internet Theory? Allowing bots to act as members is a (big) step in that direction. Diminishing the quality and authenticity of your content. I certainly don't want my forum to become an echo chamber of bots exchanging tasteless rhetoric and empty discourse.

MSN Messenger, for sure. What a time it was. All those weird usernames and status messages. It was pretty unique, right? Haven't seen it anywhere else since then. I miss the rush of discovering cool shit on the Internet back in 1999 and the early 2000's. At that time, the internet was pretty small and limited. No Google, no socials. You were much more by yourself. You had to be smart to a certain extent in order to find the good shit.

Back in 2008 or 2009, I installed a MediaWiki instance on our Linux server at work. We then proceeded to move all our IT documentation to it, taking full profit of all the linking features, tags, and knowledge management tools. It was a great intranet Wiki back then. It was awesome and we were quite a bit ahead of the curve. Folks were impressed that we had "our own Wikipedia for our IT stuff!" LOL Later, probably in 2012, we moved it to Confluence, which was way more user-friendly in general at that time. Still MediaWiki is a very good platform that's relatively barebone, but very versatile. I left this place in 2021. During the year prior to me leaving, I moved all our IT documentation to Dropbox Paper. The reason? Confluence was getting more complicated over time. And Dropbox Paper is so easy to edit and move documents around. You get what you need in a split second, and you can update it if needed, in another split second.