Yes, there has been a lot of attention given to this.
This new forum has it's own code, so it's possible to apply most if not all of the Search Engine Optimizations. This will allow a much faster penetration than NSF had. The NSF situation, although NSF itself has high traffic, was a difficult Search Engine (SE) exposure project for POIS. There was no way to highlight
our input and we basically had to build the numbers and transactions,
almost as though we were a normal page. Being able to apply SE Optimization (SEO) permits a 4:1 advantage +/-.
Cross referencing will also be important. We expect first of all, that NSF will be around for some time, although that
may involve an accompaying change in focus for each.
Also our position took time to build, it also takes time to decay. Google statistics are managed as a fairly wide sliding window. This means even if it were to stop dead now, it would have a history for some time, although clearly diminishing. In the transition we would ideally send newbies found through Google at NSF to this site.
And thirdly as you mention, we would require a mini-marketing campaign to get the new site up on as many boards and media outlets as possible. There must be a marketing expert around here somewhere. [
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My estimate is that a transition should ideally take about a year. It could be shorter, but it would be better to aim for the year. With the SE enhancement, and in the event of poor results, paid advertising (really not too expensvie for our requirements), we can have the same or better exposure than we have now.
One other aspect is quite importatnt. We NEED a WWW domain and hosting. These two things will be necesary to implement coordinated union of existing resources and provide a consistent and more stable entity identification.
One year of hosting with domain name has a cost of about
$190. We need a volunteer!! I just can't right now. I hope to be able to take the cost over in the next year.
Thanks for asking!