Originally Posted by Ziemas
I'm sure toward the end in was turning a profit, but in the days before the massive onslaught of ads I assume that the profit was slim, if none.
There was a noticeable change in the forums when it was turned into a money maker. I posted about it when I noticed it. The mods were cracking down on little things and the ads were becoming much more prevalent. It was clear an investment was being protected.
This is a bit like the blind men and the elephant. You're making assumptions based on your perceptions. Instead of assuming that the profit was slim to none, assume that Joe was out of pocket many months prior to running the banner and text ads.
As far as moderation becoming prevalent, keep in mind that the forum membership doubled from 30k to 60k with no appreciative increase in moderators about 12-18 months ago. It got to be way too much for the few mods that we had just to keep on top of the spam. By the time 2007 rolled around, we had a bigger moderation team, and a new plugin that eliminated 90% of spam. This meant that moderators could actually do their jobs.