What is a niche site?

So, basically, every website is a niche site?

A niche site for niche people would be nice.
I like to be surrounded by niche people.
They give me countless hours of entertainment.

In all honesty, yep - most likely.
I can see where a general Linux site wouldn't be considered a "niche" but a CentOS one would. But then of course the Linux OS is a niche because their are other OS's also.
What I'd consider a niche site is a something like a pipe smokers forum.

That would imply that 1) there are not many pipe smokers forums yet and 2) the number of possible pipe smokers is much below 50 percent of (your number here).

There are a few out - but not a "lot" of them. Most of them are fairly small also.
And pipe smokers are a small percentage (at least in the US) compared to cigar and cigarette - and there are quite a few cigar sites around. They throw a category in for pipes, but it's typically like the bastard step-child.

Virtually all of Katy's forums are niche forum but for the wrong reason.
They all share the same signature trend, the owner is always busy with everything but foruming.

Really?

The Linux site is more an info site for me and where others can post questions if they want. Could it be done by a blog (as far as a reference site) - yes, but not for others to post questions that are easily searchable.

Been working on the MC site and looking at making it more a long distance riding site for the iron butt/touring crowd. In fact, ldriding.com is already registered for it.

The recumbent site - it's been WAY to hot to be riding bikes recently - unless you wanted to be out at 3am doing it (and probably getting jacked).
Been in talks with a couple of local (well, within 120 miles local) about some "outreach" to their clientelle.

The pipe site.. well, it's just started and it may be used later to sell pipes that a few people I know that are wanted to get into some simple woodworking hobbies.

I guess I could tell folks to simply fuck off that post questions in reference to linux server/desktop on sites like this when they inquire for my input and refer 'em to my site.... but I don't.

Except for general discussion forums...

There are no successful general discussion forums.

Katy Perry wrote:

I guess I could tell folks to simply fuck off that post questions in reference to linux server/desktop on sites like this when they inquire for my input and refer 'em to my site.... but I don't.

Well, actually, I never got any answer here at all.
I was actually inspired by your comment (forgot where) about doing everything manually so it's kinda disheartening to read you recommending centminmod.
I thought since you and BBCode are here I can get better and faster answers, turns out that's not the case though.
I didn't asked those questions only in here but also elsewhere and I've received varying luck with responses.

Katy Perry wrote:

The Linux site is more an info site for me and where others can post questions if they want. Could it be done by a blog (as far as a reference site) - yes, but not for others to post questions that are easily searchable.

My questions certainly aren't searchable because I did Google them first before I ask. Problem is, I get that uneasy feeling when visiting your linux forum. Is this the correct place to ask a question? What kind of questions are entertained here (beginner, intermediate, advance)? Can't find any active/recent/periodic content. Bla bla bla, basically very discouraging for people to actually register and I get that feeling even though I am familiar with you. Think about other guests that has never interact with you at all. At the end of the line, you need to understand this; a forum attracts people to register and discuss, a blog attracts people to just read. What are your sites geared towards?

It's just much easier to use a package script that works successfully and integrates everything well. Think of it as a CLI version of cPanel.
Doing it manual is the best learning experience for anyone, but it seemed that you were getting frustrated and wanting to get a site up and running pretty quickly. I always recommend learning on a test bed environment, not your production. For your production, run it on something that is stable.


Honestly, I only visit other sites once in a blue moon now. I've been rather busy in my personal life with various chores so when I do have some relaxation time I would rather be lighting up a cigar/pipe on the back porch and watching the sun set and read some on my Kindle.
The only reason I had checked back here was I saw a mention on Bash about "Katy" and figured you had some problems.



Fairly self-explanatory that even newbie questions are welcome, otherwise why have a topic specific for that?

As are these



And then you can get into the various OS specific flavors.
You just need to know what you are asking for/about and if not sure (since a beginner) it can always be moved into the appropriate area.


It's a chicken/egg analogy. If people have questions that they desire answers to or stuff they want to discuss, then they will need to register and post said question. If they want to just learn how to do stuff without asking specific questions, then they will have to use Google and search and/or hope it's something I've covered in an article (which is where most of my how-to's end up instead of a discussion thread).



There are a few more I need to compile - like how to use PostFix/PostGrey/mySQL to do virtual email hosting - but that one I keep forgetting to screenshot the various steps to include as when I'm working on it I'm more interested it getting it done for the person I'm doing it for.

The Articles are what I primarily use as my reference stuff (in addition to some rough notes I have on my computer), and the forum was just an ability for others looking for help to post for such help.
Could it be serviced by a blog? Yep, most definitely, but part of the joy I get out of life is maintaining the sites - not necessarily posting on them. Whether others join or not is not a primary concern to me. It's a place for people I know to come ask for help if they need it. By having it in a forum format, it will probably help others at some time. The bad thing is I have a VERY bad habit of doing the assistance on other sites - which honestly DOES rob mine of content.

I've got enough spare hardware around the house, I can generally duplicate an environment if I have the time and see if it's a problem specific to the user or to the OS, etc.
Again, due to time constraints I frequently can't do it immediately due to other obligations but I eventually do get around to it.

OK, I'm a bit confuse about Debian, does it has third point releases (x.x.X)?

@Katy Perry
@BBCode

Would be happy to spend a little time going over this.. but thanks to a new version of Sequel Pro, two of my site DB's got merged into the linux one - with some tables joining together. Didn't catch it until after all my backup processes had replaced the older good files. Oh well - nothing like redoing one site and working on a new one at the same time.

I don't know how you define 'successful', but I know a few that are quite active. If you mean making the admin rich from ad revenue, then perhaps you're right. But there are several general discussion forums that have a lot of daily posts.

Most "general discussion" forums I know are either focused on specific subjects (with a large off-topic area) or long-time closed.