THETOPOZICEV

These sit at the bottom of most value rankings, and the ranking is broadly right for ranking purposes. Forum and social backlinks are almost universally nofollowed, trivially self-created, and therefore heavily discounted as authority signals. They still earn a place in the mix for two other reasons: profiles built entirely on high-authority editorial placements look manufactured, and a well-answered thread on a niche forum can send qualified traffic for years without ranking for anything.