agreed

the forum will nearly always grow from year to year despite its dwindling content quality as word gets around and more people find it etc.

....and it's a 'link' on many sites too now.

The hope initially for the internet was that it would allow varied opinions to be communicated by ordinary people free from censorship. The initial belief also was that an internet site was located in cyberspace, and so not bound by government rules and regulations.

These have proven to be pipedreams.

Government has got involved and legislated and continues to legislate.

The result is that "freedom of expression" on internet forums is now legally just as restrictive as anywhere else. Those who allow "anything goes" as used to happen open themselves up to major legal actions costing vast amounts of money.

Posters have also come onto the forum, some with good content, but with the aim of using this forum as a vehicle to promote for free their own internet businesses. The Forum Terms of Use prohibit this. These posters have been and will continue to be removed.

This aspect of the internet is still at the "cowboy stage", but just as the law has got involved with internet "freedom of expression" with regard to defamatory content and the like, so it is also only a matter of time before the law will deem using another company's internet site to promote your internet business for free, without permission, as being legally wrong, with the perpetrators liable for prosecution under the law.

Having a commercial internet site that cannot be found by others is like opening a business in the middle of the desert. This is a commercial internet site and not a hobby site.

But there are posters who do not understand this nor the commercial nature of the internet and internet forums.

The only ways that an internet site can be found are by:

1. High search engine rankings, like this site. But that takes professional skill, and if paid for costs large amounts of money.

2. Media advertising - again costly.

3. By being mentioned on other internet sites via links, forums and advertising promotions. Many posters do not understand when competitors of an internet site are mentioned on their forum that it is effectively a free ad. for them. In addition if the site has high search engine rankings, like us, the competitor business will also most likely be given further promotion via the search engines.