I am also a guy who did start a thread for his own series. Looking back, that was not my best decision. The practice is not particularly harmful and does not violate forum rules, but it is a trend which does muck up the forums slightly, so we would do best to back away from it. No one should be singled out, but we could all come to a polite consensus that we would be better off if we did something else.
As for effects, it just does not work. I would know. I am one of the most prolific users in the forums, and my reader base is ridiculously low; some months it is zero. When we see other creators using these forums to advertise, we naturally assume that if they do it, it must work for them. These forums are populated almost exclusively by other creators who have little time away from creating and real world responsibilities to be consumers, and there are not that many of us here. We're fighting over pieces of an already small pie when that same time and energy could be spent on bringing new readers to the website.