My Spam Forums
A good deal of time ago, I bought the domain “Gisld.com” from my good friend Josh Buckley. The domain was PR4, had a history of belonging to an ISP and I got it for $35. Not bad, right? I was excited about the PR as I had never experienced my own update before I bought it, and I had some good plans for “Gisld”. Pronounce that how ever you may think. I don’t know how it should be pronounced either 
Apparently, it was called Galaxy Internet Services (the L and D… don’t ask me) but they managed to get it to PR4 and I have had the domain for some time. I just kind of sound the name out, (gizz - l’d) so it’s basically “gizzled”, if that makes any sense.
Anyways, my idea for the site was to write some nice Photoshop tutorials, get a ton of traffic (these would be quality tutorials, see), make some good AdSense money and then sell it in like two months or so. Using phpBB as the CMS I started work. I figured the less time I spent writing the system, the more time I could write before it’s release.
Well, you can see by visiting Gisld that I never really got there. You’ll notice that I got the tutorial system pretty much done. The categories, listings and viewing single tutorials all work (there’s avatars too, the images just don’t exist) but when it came to finishing off the final things in the system and starting on the Admin GUI, I kind of just put it off.
Next, enter the forums. I have about 275 registered users and 115 posts. 2 of those users are real, and only a couple of the posts (mine) are real. The rest are just spam bots. You name it, if it’s spam, then it has been “posted” on my “forums”.
I have the site integrated with phpBB throughout, and the user system is running off that. The tutorial system is a separate, custom module but it doesn’t interfere. I don’t know what I would do with this, but if anyone happened to offer say, $40 USD for the system, domain and current design, I’d be happy to let you have it. I just have no plans whatsoever to work on this site, and they went out the window a while ago.
Moral of the story? If you leave it, they (spam bots) will come. Even with email confirmation enabled! I get like 5 emails a day saying the confirmation couldn’t be sent. Well, obviously… I should turn that off now and just let the spam grow 
Leave a comment
Josh Buckley
May 17th, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Hehe, shame to see you’re selling the site, it had potential. It’s definitely a steal if somebody chooses to buy it however.
Adnan
May 17th, 2007 at 1:11 PM
Welcome to the crappy world of phpBB. I’ve almost got exactly the same story with ChipandChat.com - a golf forum which has a custom skin and all.
It’s a pity these sites just sit there and accrue - in retrospect I would have flipped it much earlier.
Marky
May 18th, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Is this still for sale… If so I would take it for $40… its quite a deal x]
Connor Wilson
May 18th, 2007 at 4:08 PM
It is. I’ve had some emails from a guy, but he didn’t understand what he was trying to buy. The site very little traffic. Fill it up with content that is good, and you’ll be at 200 visits a day in no time. Tutorial sites are good like that.
You get the PR4 domain, design, and the 75% finished PHP CMS. If you’re still interested, email me at (connor at connorwilson dot com)
Goob
May 19th, 2007 at 5:26 PM
It makes me wish I knew how to code the rest of the 25% of PHP CMS
Connor Wilson
May 19th, 2007 at 7:11 PM
I could finish it for you of course, but the price goes from $40 to $200
Still have it, people! Two people have shown interest but nothing else!
Marky
May 31st, 2007 at 3:36 PM
I bought it now
Im completly recoding it however so it doesnt use phpbb. Getting about 75 unique hits a day during the recoding O.o. 
AltaGid
August 7th, 2007 at 11:00 PM
Hello! Help solve the problem.
Very often try to enter the forum, but says that the password is not correct.
Regrettably use of remembering. Give like to be?
Thank you!
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