Our poker forum has been going 4 years now and enjoys over 11k members (I tossed all the spammers) and a very active member ratio.
One thing we did was use a points modification to add poker “chips” to peoples posts they could trade for books, dvd’s, our shirts and caps and this proved very successful. We also made a point of not being anonymous to our members!
A few tried to rort the system but loyal members soon alerted us to points posters!
We also made a posting and point requirement to both of our poker leagues and this minimised the freeloaders ensuring a high level of play and a very competetive atmosphere.
Our members are fiercely loyal and use our aff links far more than I ever expected and have formed some very strong friendships over the years.
We employ 5 members to help us but as others have said it takes a lot of time!
We formed strong relationships with the poker aff programs and offered members dispute resolution if it occured…in 4 years mabye 4 disputes lolol.