About the Indie Boards - I was active for about 3 years before I self-published. I read a lot of people having some really spectacular results. Unfortunately, I didn't publish fast, I refined my manuscripts and missed the window. After a certain point, there were too many manuscripts for 99 cents and it was too hard to get noticed. It's even harder now.
I was lucky to get one good run. Then Authonomy melted down, just like Wattpad forums, and it got closed. These sites have a shelf-life, once the trolls descend in mass (en mass?) things melt down quickly. We'll see if they shift from the forums to attacking the books.