[Exiled]

Why is it that few communities are so active, while many aren't? Online communities are difficult to build. Everybody wants one, but very few succeed in creating one. Instead of asking what’s the trick (of a successful community), lets ask a very fundamental question – why do people contribute to online communities? What drives them?

[Spam]

Why is it that few communities are so active, while many aren't? Online communities are difficult to build. Everybody wants one, but very few succeed in creating one. Instead of asking what’s the trick (of a successful community), lets ask a very fundamental question – why do people contribute to online communities? What drives them?

All about the community. If the community is awesome, why should it go down?

[Guardian]

All about the community. If the community is awesome, why should it go down?

This. It has to be fun to be at and participate in. It also should benefit the user in some way, even if its through simple enjoyment of the community.

Getting to that point though is the hard part. :l

[Sly]

If you look at the fact that communication makes gaming more enjoyable, then the question is answered easily. Why do you think Online Gaming is such a success? It's mainly because people have the opportunity to interact with other people. A gaming community does just that, but in a different form. It gives people the opportunity to interact with others via posts and other features.

To give a short answer to the first question of why some communities are more active than others is the same reason why some people at school are more popular than others. Many of the large forums owners are popular among their peers and were one of the first people to provide a medium where other people could interact with them. Once again you see interaction playing a big part in success. Now to how the person got popular in the first place is a whole different story where almost every explanation is different.

Now lastly the drive behind a successful community is one, interaction, which I've already covered and two, entertainment. When you are bored what do you find fun to do? For me a look at my xbox or my computer, well an easy way to combine those two is via a gaming community. Both of these things provide entertainment for myself and many others.

P.S I do know I mainly wrote about gaming communities, but that's only because there the easiest to explain the reason of success. One thing that doesn't vary between communities is the two reasons behind success; entertainment and interaction.

TL;DR popularity and entertainment drive online communities.

[Harvey]

Initially, I do it to help pilot the forum. If there are other people with me, then I'll stick with it (e.g. here). Nothing like being an OG of a major forum.