just started another forum from scratch.. would like to get the post #'s up - then start advertising, paying for posts etc.. is there a free version of this somewhere? possibly to get content from yahoo answers?
You're wanting to scrap, other peoples content, because you can't make some of your own? Shame on you!
Op, I did a quick search on digitalpoint and found this, you might consider it useful. The guy has some wonderful reviews. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1197368
Vbulletin has a built in RSS posting bot. You just enter the RSS feed from a site like yahoo, set the number of post to grab and how often. You could very quickly fill up a forum in a matter or days or weeks.
The trouble with 'created content' rather then actual content is that when someone comes in looking for answers they A) Find it or B) Ask more questions within no one around to answer them. In the case of A then it's all good and swell, but chances are they are not going to create an account for themselves, and on the off chance they do it's likely because they have something else to ask, which leads me to B. If it's B, and no one is there to answer the questions then chances are they are not going to stick around. Created content may pull in some fair traffic, but it's not pulling in actual members, and when it does, most of those members will quickly realize that they got their content from some automated system and no more answers will show up. The same applies to RSS content, yeah, it can get your members to start talking about what was said, but honestly, in my experience my content from bots is generally looked over and left to get buried. So in the end, don't go for filler or bulk content, shoot for the stars and try your darnedest to get POSTING members...and again, automated content is NOT the best method.