Blog vs. Board vs. Both question.....

Dear Kiddies,

I am going to be bringing FormerlyFat back to life in the not-too-distant future, and I need some advice.

My original plan was to have a bulletin board like this one. I kept it going for several months, and I just **hated** every minute of it.

If you think this board gets crapola, you should have seen that one!! The problem wasn't only spam. There were bzillions of posts about gyms, diet aids, and miracle plans. And there were another bzillion from ugly-spirited freaks of nature who delighted in belittling fat people.

FormerlyFat isn't about fad diets or any such thing. It's about "baby steps" and tiny losses over time. It also isn't about belittling people (well duh); it's about supporting them.

Before I go on...

I know there is a huge glut of diet sites and diet plans out there, both on and off the net, but FormerlyFat is different (they all say that, right?). It's easy, and it rewards the **tiniest** losses without any goal-setting, concern about "bad days," etc. That's why it was SO important to me to keep all the "traditional diet" stuff off the board: it totally sabotages the system.

I can delete as well as the next person, but aside from the very few regulars who weren't nuts, it brought angry people out of the woodwork.

The regulars could be offering great advice when I was busy with other things, but the "angry" crowd sent vile and disgusting emails about how I had abandoned them. And when I deleted posts about nutritional supplements and gyms and fad diets, I got emails you wouldn't believe about how I secretly wanted these nut cases to stay fat forever, etc.

It became hopelessly time-consuming because I never felt I could just delete an email without reading at least enough to see if it contained legitimate questions, booklet requests, etc. And deleting messages from the board was guaranteed to gripe somebody's gut and cause another onslaught.

Summary: I got so sick if it that I pulled my booklet "off the shelf" and inactivated the board. I decided I would bring it back somewhere down the road, when getting my other FFAT products done was within reach and it would be worth my time.

Okey dokey....

Now I would like advice on starting up again.

I plan do to a Blog. I've never done one, and I've never read any blogs more than a couple of times (they bore me silly).

I'm doing the Blog for two reasons: (1) I need the "accountability" to get myself back on track and stay there (like any plan, it only works if you use it, and I abandoned it in favor of eating everything in site a long time ago); and (2) I think seeing the plan in action will be helpful to a lot of fatties (sorry, I meant FormerFatties).

Obviously I want to sell my stuff, and that's where I need your advice in the form of answers to some specific questions and any random thoughts you may have:

Can a Blog alone create the kind of "following" I have here?

Knowing the kind of people who visited before, do you think I should allow "comments" on my blog? (After skipping around the net and reading comments on various and sundry blogs, I would have to say, "We are not amused.")

Can one use a blog to indirectly peddle their products (the way I peddle Corey's products here)?

Will an interesting, well-written, comical blog with lots of practical advice (in the form of what I'm doing for myself) keep them coming back, or do I need a board too?

I'm looking for a way to offer a *support* system for people, and I feel that has to involve some degree of give-and-take -- do you agree? ("I made it through Thanksgiving without gaining!!" etc.) I don't see how a blog can do that, even with comments.

I've thought about inviting people to put up "personal pages" to introduce themselves, but I'm afraid life might get in the way again and I won't be able to maintain that. Also, if they can't add to them, where's the "support"?

What about a Yahoo email loop? (I belong to some homeschool ones and I hate them, so I'm hoping you say no.) (I also don't like the idea of taking people *off* the site to interact.)

Any other ideas?

What about a moderated board, where posts have to go through me first? That would totally eliminate the problem of ticking people off by deleting the majority of posts. (That's the way I'm leaning right now. Does anyone know a good script? Maybe I can make WebBBS do that, but I don't think so; I think it's "allow" or "not allow" posting.)

I'm not looking to create a big site -- of which there are eighty-three bzillion already.

I'm looking to create a tight-knit place like FIB. Right now I just have a single booklet for sale, but I will be adding more, plus a newsletter, after I finish up CCHELL and get FIB squared away.

Any and all ideas will be gratefully mulled over.

Luv,