[Mike AI]

Originally posted by Hell Puppy@Dec 1 2004, 06:47 PM
I also posted this on that other board...

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You missed maybe the most important part of running a board. A successful board is a community of users. More specifically they'll be users who have a common interest and are like minded. The size and strength of that community is what ultimately dictates success or failure.

If you have a strong active community of users, everything else will take care of itself. Advertisers who desire to do business with the demographic of that community will come. And the community will take care of itself, the board is merely a piece of software and a URL....it is no more significant than a meeting room where a real world club might choose to meet. If the room is no longer desirable or the management fucks up, the club moves. The same happens with boards on the web, not just in adult but other similar "user groups" as well. This is not adult specific.

Sure, you can build up traffic to a board and lure advertisers with sheer numbers with pay per posts, stuffing the board with employees, sig-ho's, etc. Money can be made that way, but the vast majority of the people are there due to monetary motivations. This is the difference between employees and friends/family.

A true online community is more like friends and family. People are there because they enjoy each others company and want to hear what each other has to say. Often life long friendships are built that extend beyond the realm of whatever the common interest of the board was whether it be adult entertainment or fly fishing.

You might wonder why an entire board full of people might pile on when one of their own is perceived as being attacked. Again the answer is simple, they're friends that extend beyond business relationships....it's more like family. You can buy business relationships, you cant buy friends.

earl: