Once you build up a certain traffic on your website ( I'm talking generally ) , it is understandable that you will try to make some money of it.Especially if you have to look after / moderate site ( spams, censoring from very bad inputs, updating for security protection.....etc. )
If your original business behind it doesn't perform as you think it could / should, then naturally you will go harder on marketing. Most of the tea forums I know are set by tea vendors or those people eventually become a tea-vendor , just because great opportunity is there ( if you have a huge tea drinking audience on you door step already ).
Some groups on FB are also set ( admin ) by tea vendor or very close friend of some tea vendor , which reflects also certain behavior when others try to post something not suitable to their marketing environment.
There is even website which is set as an independent tea review / blog where you can register your shop and post some comments to their blog / articles. They offer opportunity to review your samples which you can send and I was nearly about to do it. But I've have found out that the owner also sells the tea from HK under different business name.
What I'm trying to say here is that Tea business...is the Business ...and can be cheeky as any other business.
Successful tea vendor doesn't need to create fake accounts on forums, doesn't need to pay google adds to be on top page , doesn't need to spam links every where..and so on.
Some big vendors need to pay salaries to their staffs or rent of the shop in some expensive area, so they are under pressure. You would be surprised that even most famous vendors have this pressure last few years. More competition around , especially form China where many small tea vendors trying to sell on IG, FB or other platforms.
In next few years , those vendors will have to either go more aggressive on marketing or reduce the costs ( staffs, products ).
The dying teachat forum ,same as steepster , have apart of the their own reasons ( teachat - commercial , steepster - spammed and abandoned by owner ) also the problem with FB.
It is very conformable for everyone who has a FB account , since they are scrolling trough their wall , no problem to join some tea group and chat there ( more convenient )
People generally don't want to jump from one app / website to another . Keep checking few different accounts everyday if something new has showed up.
If I wasn't vendor, I would be off the FB long time ago. First year in China I was out , many of my mates thought I died
, and was incredible experience. Felt like back in 90's.
Oh, btw, successful vendor is busy and have no time to troll on forums..yep , I'm not busy right now ;-DDD
I must say, from all tea forums I'm in, I enjoy this one the most , although the community is small. Just have a 3 wishes :
1. community gets bigger here
2. more innovations like tea tasting DB linked to tea vendors list , maybe an phone app , or other functions I cant recall right now
2. forum never goes commercial the way T-chat has
I understand that some money should be made by running this show here, so I wouldn't blame the owner putting some side banner with google or private tea business adds for that.
I believe that tea community need some ultimate and independent tea forum . I know, might sound not realistic for the reason I have mentioned at the beginning, but I hope.