Get to know your Webmaster forums...
Every forum serves it's purpose. Whether people like one or hate the other, it's part of the webmaster resource eco-system, and without one, it may disrupt the overall balance of choice that webmasters have when finding and contributing information to the community.
WebmasterWorld (WMW) - is good for people with no sense of humor and for people who like to write long posts about things they THINK they know more about than their peers. It used to be packed with some really great information, but that changed when lots of their good mods left, and about the time when Brett started those conferences. Too many long winded posts about nothing special. But hey, it's still got some good info deep inside if you have the time to check it out.
SitePoint (SP or SPF) - Used to be a really great place to hang out, even though they didn't allow swearing. Met a lot of great people from it, but around the time that they changed their layout and added more sections to break up the ever so popular affiliate and traffic sections, that's when the trouble really started to become public. I think a lot of the disgust also started to stem when their "mentors" became more or less like the SS, and started to ban and delete posts that made their site look bad or when people didn't agree with them. Charging for the marketplace was smart of them in my opinion, but I would have kept it free and just beefed up the ad placement. The news mentions in Business 2.0 as the internet marketplace definitely helped them gain more of a foothold in the webmaster resource world, but overall, their books are shit, their articles are usually written by total fools, and when they kicked off Chris (aspen) that in itself was dumb, and set off the end of a lot of their really good information contributors.
Digital Point (DP or DPF) - Good forum, always has been. Run by a guy who knows his shit better than most people in the industry. Very similar to WickedFire, but they are also more established with a ton of active users, and lots of close knit cliques. Good source for information, although I've never really actively took part in the forum and it's discussions, I have lurked for a while there. Lots of influential personalities and contests and ideas that have helped develop some really cool ideas across the webmaster spectrum. A really great alternative to those who cannot stand the annoying mentors on SPF and who aren't as serious as WMW posters. Has a cool vibe too, and their marketplace for domains is nice as well. Be wary though, that a lot of the newer guys on there are very into email spam and adult, but that's okay in my book as long as they keep it legal.
WickedFire (WF) - Not sure if I'm the right person to write this being that I own it, but we are still too new in my opinion to be dubbed as anything but the original goal and statement. We've had lots of blog and industry media mentions for being a really laid back and cool place for webmasters to let their hair down and just chill out. Just from the names of the forum categories you can see censorship is non-existant here. While the shoot the shit forum category is the most popular, the affiliate, traffic and content sections hold some really great information for people to learn a hell of a lot about the industry in general, and lots of good information from those practicing the dark arts. WF is definitely a good place to make friends and joke around with your peers, but it also acts as a good outlet for the dark arts guys to come out of their hiding places and share ideas about just about anything. You can post affiliate links in your posts and sigs, images in posts and sigs, and as long as you aren't blatantly harassing anyone too much or spamming, everything else goes. Again, too early to compare it to the big ones, but the word is, is that after Jan 2007, this place should become a staple in most webmasters arsenal of forums and resources.
EarnersForum (EF) - Owned by the ever so famous Lee Dodd, but originally the idea came from someone else I heard, even so, Lee put his magic of dominating forums and making bank from it, into EF. Making it a melting pot of people who are serious about earning cash from the internet. Although it's also just as new as WF, so it may be too early to guage whether or not it will go up against the big three or not, I can see that since it's a niche site like WF, it will definitely start to challenge the big boys in the years to come. Lee has tons of good ideas he has in the works, and although they do practice censorship, as far as language, no dark arts discussions, no adult or gaming either, and things of that nature, it's still a cool place to visit. They have a really cool and unique feature that posts the user's earning status by color, so you can see who the big and small players are. I personally use it as a resource tool to see what people in other industries are discussing. I think they need to focus more on traffic generation and content too, but hey, they are less than 3 months old like WF, so I'm sure they will grow and add more good stuff to the industry as time goes by.
AffiliateTip (AT) - Owned and operated by master and commander of the affiliate managers world, Shawn Collins. I have been lurking there for a while, and I gotta say, it's a great idea for a forum. A place where affiliate managers can get together and discuss trends in campaign management, ways to attract bigger and more profitable and even more serious affiliates into their programs, and just ways on how to better their programs. I think Shawn is doing great things by continually educating those sometimes naive affiliate managers to better understand their affiliates. Also, a pretty new forum, but definitely the first of it's kind. If an affiliate ever needs to contact a manager, well, now you know where they are hanging out at.
v7 Forums (v7) - I never actually posted there, just lurked for a few hours every few months, but they are just too friendly and cheery for me to look at. Although they definitely do have by far the best active users to overall members ratio than any other forum around, a lot of their posters are from DP and SPF. They also have a large concentration on hosting resellers and domainers, something that I'm not particularly big on, but those that are may want to check them out to learn the game and ask questions to get answers from people who really know their shit.
Every forum serves it's purpose. Whether people like one or hate the other, it's part of the webmaster resource eco-system, and without one, it may disrupt the overall balance of choice that webmasters have when finding and contributing information to the community.
WebmasterWorld (WMW) - is good for people with no sense of humor and for people who like to write long posts about things they THINK they know more about than their peers. It used to be packed with some really great information, but that changed when lots of their good mods left, and about the time when Brett started those conferences. Too many long winded posts about nothing special. But hey, it's still got some good info deep inside if you have the time to check it out.
SitePoint (SP or SPF) - Used to be a really great place to hang out, even though they didn't allow swearing. Met a lot of great people from it, but around the time that they changed their layout and added more sections to break up the ever so popular affiliate and traffic sections, that's when the trouble really started to become public. I think a lot of the disgust also started to stem when their "mentors" became more or less like the SS, and started to ban and delete posts that made their site look bad or when people didn't agree with them. Charging for the marketplace was smart of them in my opinion, but I would have kept it free and just beefed up the ad placement. The news mentions in Business 2.0 as the internet marketplace definitely helped them gain more of a foothold in the webmaster resource world, but overall, their books are shit, their articles are usually written by total fools, and when they kicked off Chris (aspen) that in itself was dumb, and set off the end of a lot of their really good information contributors.
Digital Point (DP or DPF) - Good forum, always has been. Run by a guy who knows his shit better than most people in the industry. Very similar to WickedFire, but they are also more established with a ton of active users, and lots of close knit cliques. Good source for information, although I've never really actively took part in the forum and it's discussions, I have lurked for a while there. Lots of influential personalities and contests and ideas that have helped develop some really cool ideas across the webmaster spectrum. A really great alternative to those who cannot stand the annoying mentors on SPF and who aren't as serious as WMW posters. Has a cool vibe too, and their marketplace for domains is nice as well. Be wary though, that a lot of the newer guys on there are very into email spam and adult, but that's okay in my book as long as they keep it legal.
WickedFire (WF) - Not sure if I'm the right person to write this being that I own it, but we are still too new in my opinion to be dubbed as anything but the original goal and statement. We've had lots of blog and industry media mentions for being a really laid back and cool place for webmasters to let their hair down and just chill out. Just from the names of the forum categories you can see censorship is non-existant here. While the shoot the shit forum category is the most popular, the affiliate, traffic and content sections hold some really great information for people to learn a hell of a lot about the industry in general, and lots of good information from those practicing the dark arts. WF is definitely a good place to make friends and joke around with your peers, but it also acts as a good outlet for the dark arts guys to come out of their hiding places and share ideas about just about anything. You can post affiliate links in your posts and sigs, images in posts and sigs, and as long as you aren't blatantly harassing anyone too much or spamming, everything else goes. Again, too early to compare it to the big ones, but the word is, is that after Jan 2007, this place should become a staple in most webmasters arsenal of forums and resources.
EarnersForum (EF) - Owned by the ever so famous Lee Dodd, but originally the idea came from someone else I heard, even so, Lee put his magic of dominating forums and making bank from it, into EF. Making it a melting pot of people who are serious about earning cash from the internet. Although it's also just as new as WF, so it may be too early to guage whether or not it will go up against the big three or not, I can see that since it's a niche site like WF, it will definitely start to challenge the big boys in the years to come. Lee has tons of good ideas he has in the works, and although they do practice censorship, as far as language, no dark arts discussions, no adult or gaming either, and things of that nature, it's still a cool place to visit. They have a really cool and unique feature that posts the user's earning status by color, so you can see who the big and small players are. I personally use it as a resource tool to see what people in other industries are discussing. I think they need to focus more on traffic generation and content too, but hey, they are less than 3 months old like WF, so I'm sure they will grow and add more good stuff to the industry as time goes by.
AffiliateTip (AT) - Owned and operated by master and commander of the affiliate managers world, Shawn Collins. I have been lurking there for a while, and I gotta say, it's a great idea for a forum. A place where affiliate managers can get together and discuss trends in campaign management, ways to attract bigger and more profitable and even more serious affiliates into their programs, and just ways on how to better their programs. I think Shawn is doing great things by continually educating those sometimes naive affiliate managers to better understand their affiliates. Also, a pretty new forum, but definitely the first of it's kind. If an affiliate ever needs to contact a manager, well, now you know where they are hanging out at.
v7 Forums (v7) - I never actually posted there, just lurked for a few hours every few months, but they are just too friendly and cheery for me to look at. Although they definitely do have by far the best active users to overall members ratio than any other forum around, a lot of their posters are from DP and SPF. They also have a large concentration on hosting resellers and domainers, something that I'm not particularly big on, but those that are may want to check them out to learn the game and ask questions to get answers from people who really know their shit.
