ok, if a person has no one coming to thier forum, and whenever the rare chance that they do, nobody registers because they see nothing being posted so they leave....how do you propose to end this cycle?
I am glad to hear that you have made it with so many members without using paid posters, but I think that paying for someone to post is not much different then holding a contest stating that if you register you qualify to enter a drawing to win this or the person with the most post wins that.
I really do not think there is anything wrong with it. I think of it as paying a entertainer to come into my city and perform a concert...works the same way...to attract people.
People come to a forum for information and other benefits and paid posters normally can provide a forum with attractive posts which is helpful for a person who is just starting out.
Makes no sense to advertise a forum with no posts or threads. Only thing a person will do is visit then leave without registering to never return. A endless cycle.
By the way, i speak from advice from 2 forums...
one has Threads: 27,863, Posts: 248,971, Members: 36,157 and always has at least 200+ users or guest
the other one Members: 16,073
Threads: 66,033
Posts: 574,119
and at the time I am posting this, they have close to 1000 guest and users on site.
of course, now they do not use paid posting cuase they do not need them but they did at one time and thier forum exploded.
The paid posters know what to do to bring traffic to your website. They are trained in this.