Re: Could a subscription-based forum actually work??
Part 2: GHOSTING to help build a forum (or manipulate one so you'll look busier)
For those that don't know, I use to run a different forum and we built it from scratch. And during the forum building process, I deemed it necessary to create ghosts to help create activity early on.
Some see it as evil or dishonest, but fact is, PEOPLE DO NOT SIGN UP AND POST ON DEAD FORUMS, no matter how much money you give away, how many contests you run, or how good in quality the posts and threads are.
If you only build it, THEY WILL NOT COME
Now, when you get into an established forum like RX, EOG or SBR, why would a MOD or owner ghost??? Well, it may be necessary to go in and ghost on rare occasions if you want something bumped that may have slipped through the cracks, or to take a shot at someone you wouldn't want to with YOUR USERNAME associated with it.
Now, THIS IS HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GHOST EFFECTIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY (to get the most posts in the less time, without having to sign in and out)
Now, you have to be organized to do this, or you will mess up and possibly get caught
You open up 3 browsers: Let's say Firefox, IE and Netscape. You go to your forum and log in with a different username on each browser. Before you hit the reply button after posting something, MAKE SURE you are on the RIGHT USERNAME
You do this, you now have 3 separate posters, BUT ONLY 1 UNIQUE IP!!!!!!!!
At that my friends, is a big reason why these stats for SBR look so strange and the "visits" simply DOES NOT match up with the "uniques" and "rankings"
<table id="dataTable" class="data" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><th>Date: 03/2008</th> <th id="metric">People
</th> <th>Month Δ
</th> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
Sports Betting at Eye On Gambling - Discuss Online Sportsbooks; Handicapping; and Free Picks</td> <td id="d1v">48,514</td> <td id="d1m">38.1%
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
sbrforum.com</td> <td id="d2v">32,603</td> <td id="d2m">18.2%
</td> </tr></tbody> </table>
<table id="dataTable" class="data" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><th>Date: 03/2008</th> <th id="metric">Visits</th> <th> Month Δ
</th> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
Sports Betting at Eye On Gambling - Discuss Online Sportsbooks; Handicapping; and Free Picks</td> <td id="d1v">56,478</td> <td id="d1m"> 16.2%
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
sbrforum.com</td> <td id="d2v">104,781</td> <td id="d2m"> 13.1%
</td> </tr></tbody> </table> <table id="dataTable" class="data" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><th>Date: 03/2008</th> <th id="metric">Rank</th> <th> Month Δ
</th> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
Sports Betting at Eye On Gambling - Discuss Online Sportsbooks; Handicapping; and Free Picks</td> <td id="d1v">37,143</td> <td id="d1m"> 10,750
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="domain">
sbrforum.com</td> <td id="d2v">52,964</td> <td id="d2m"> 6,204
</td></tr></tbody></table>