Hi all,
I work in permitting as a government regulator and thought it would be worthwhile to create an online forum where people can go to discuss permitting issues. The site is permittingforum.com and is supported using xenForo Cloud. I'm not a programmer and generally don't know what I'm doing...I modified/customized the site using code, help, etc., found throughout the xenForo community.
Would anyone mind taking a look and providing feedback?
I know this sounds ridiculous but I don't have any users so I attempted to seed content using ChatGPT. I asked ChatGPT to give me lists of questions that theoretical users of a permitting forum might ask and then used AI chatbots (explicitly identified) to ask and answer the questions on the forum. I used
@021's AI Bots add-on to generate responses to the AI-generated questions. Overall, I've produced lots and lots of content but, in the absence of a userbase, this whole site is really still just something I'm playing around with at this point. I also tout a feature whereby users can ask questions of my AI chatbots and get automated answers...I was thinking this might be good so that new users can be assured some kind of response if they decide to try out my site.
As a way of cultivating a userbase, I've started occasionally posting on reddit in discussions on permitting issues. Not self-promoting - just being part of these other communities - but with my reddit handle ("permittingforum") and profile description clearly pointing to my site for anyone that might be interested.
In addition to feedback on the style/substance of the site, I'd be interested in generally hearing how people have succeeded in generating a userbase. Are there any suggestions out there for measures I might take to actually get traffic on my site?
TIA!