What do you think is the best way to integrate without losing your integrity yet still helping your SEO?

I mean what do I need to make sure I do not do? Also, why would anyone use a NoFollow forum? There aren’t any SEO benefits to a NoFollow that I know of, am I wrong?

There are white hat SEO and there are black hat SEO. White hat SEO is all about integrity and staying within Google webmaster guideline. Search engines do want us to promote our sites, as long as we stay within guidelines.