[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by dawges

To build a successful forum you must have traffic and people posting. To get there is a whole other story.

And that was the question posed by the OP.

If people want 10,000 spam accounts just sitting there in the member's list, more power to them. I have my doubts as to whether that makes people want to sign on. Much easier and more efficient though just to put in a fake number and call it good.

More to the point you were trying to make - "if you build it they will come" really does work almost no matter what, IF you have the right niche as your site's topic.

I just got finished fixing a major annoyance problem on someone else's BIG board - 200,000 members with about half that active, and 1000+ of those, actively posting while I was working. The site isn't what anyone would call "slick" by any measure - they don't use any fancy add-ons or any kind of SEO and it's a 3.8.2 for crying out loud - but its niche topic is huge - boxing!

The advice given so far here is sound for someone just starting out with a new board. But take note: If your topic is way too specialized, like crochet needles for example, prepare to languish with a perpetually slow board.

It really all does start with the board topic and goes from there.