29,000+ Members - How?

[AWS]

As you can see from the site stats we have just over 1000 posts. We have over 29,000 members.

 

How did that happen?

 

I originally put this site online after I sold Admin Addict in 2010. It got a good start. Unfortunatley wheile getting my yearly checkup the doc found a tumor in my bladder. It turned out to be benigh so I dodged a bullet. Because this happened I decided websites had to go on the backburner while I tened better to my health. Drinking a partying had to go.

 

I lost the original domain right before I cut my online presence down. It sat as a subdomain on Admin Addict and then Admin Zone.

 

After this thread https://anotheradminforum.com/threads/entering-a-saturated-forum-niche.98/ I found that this site was still online and decided to open it.

 

So to answer the question as to how we have 29,000+ members. The site was online and forgotten about for 14 years. Registration has always been on with no email validation so the spammers registered like crazy. When I upgraded it and went into the admin there was almost 50,000 spam posts in the spam queue.

 

So you see Google will find your site even if it is unmaintained.

[Shawn]

Me and you are a lot alike!

 

When I left forums for a while it was because I was in pain, a drunk, and extremely depressed. It took a long, hard, and dark road to get me out of all that. The outdoors is what saved me.

 

But I find it funny that people kept joining while the forum just waited around for you to come back -- if only it was a bunch of active members who policed themselves and you came back to a self-created big board. All of a sudden, they're like, who's this AWS guy LOL.