No its not down. Sorry if you think its spam, just trying to find members - i'm sure you can appreciate how difficult it is when you are just starting out.
It wasnt the forum that was spam, it was the post. If you want to find members offer them things they cant get elsewhere: A unique vibe A unique selling point Quality content and news Design your users like Show people that you & your site are an authority on the topic and plenty will follow. Useful tools Prizes Rankings If you can, make your forum essential, whenever Im not on dp I end up needing it for something, falling back to it, clicking a link to it, finding a serp from it, using a tool from it etc etc.. Yeah its difficult when you start (especially forums), but the current approach hasnt got you very far.