[elus2]

Merging seems to be a drastic course of action that doesn't necessarily add value to the contributors of this forum. Personally I see myself taking an interest in at most 30% of the threads in here but less than 5% of the threads in Finance. Due to the higher volume in Finance forum there'll be even more of a chance to miss out on discussions that would pique my curiosity.

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I want to see the direction of this forum shift to more interesting and valuable topics. This is the primary reason I wanted to moderate the forum. I'm interested, both personally and professionally, in the topics at hand but I don't think they're getting the sort of discussion they ought to.

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This is the way I'd like to see discussion steered towards as well. Harnessing strengths and experiences from a diverse group of posters that are willing to contribute and learn from each other. Covering all avenues of entrepreneurship and management.

With respect to the linking rule, the hand converter analogy is very apt. We're seeing a lot of guys posting their blogs and with very little thought or effort put into asking questions to help them improve their sites and it makes it seem just like a cheap way to get some backlinks. Most of us should be able to write well enough to describe specific problems and issues pertaining to online endeavors without resorting to posting links. There are a number of guys here that are willing to answer questions on information/db design, content management systems, ecommerce packages, internet marketing, etc. through the threads or in private messages.