It was just a few pages on the Auction section to see what they are at least for the year 2022, but upon looking at the last threads, they're mostly gambling ads.
It looks to be the same for previous years too. There are some services that cannot be verified directly through the usernames that made the bid, but at least 1 in 5 was a non casino related service, which is far less than what we see with signature campaigns today (in the absence of mixers).
What we can assure with that data is that there is no altcoin project there IIRC. That's probably what it was then, more casinos, more campaigns.
Even if the forum loses popularity, it is still great for SEO purposes because of the notoriety of being the forum that Satoshi and many other notable people were members of.
Signature campaigns are great for creating a space for yourself and building reputation but not for SEO purposes.
- Jay -
It's also a plus that they get the target market that they want to advertise their service/product. Most of them are related to crypto so as their viewers and potential customers from the forum.