More names or more responses?

[Katrina]

When I log into a new forum I like to scroll through to see first off what type of sub-forums there are and different conversations therein. I also look to see if there are different usernames associated with the first and last posts in the threads (since those are generally what is available at first glance). I find that I like it more when there are a wide variety of names being shown and that's what leads me to my question to you all...

Do you like to see more names being active within the forum even though activity might be low and not very often....

or

Do you like to see that there are responses to posts in that the active members and staff show their interest?

 

[Deleted member 50656]

I think a healthy balance of the two is ideal: I like to see both active members posting plentifully and often around the forum, and new faces cropping up in conversation 🙂

 

[Deleted member 29780]

I agree with @Cumulus; I'd like to see a mix of both. But the one thing you may have to consider is the type of niche, for example. Code Forum is a coding community which means people tend to come to post their questions receive answers then go until they need help again.

Edit:
If I had to pick one, it would definitely be responses, it shows that there is activity which makes it look better.

 

[Katrina]

I think a healthy balance of the two is ideal: I like to see both active members posting plentifully and often around the forum, and new faces cropping up in conversation 🙂

I think we all like to see both...but if you had to choose one over the other, which would stand out more as being a better first impression in your opinion?

 

[Deleted member 50656]

I think we all like to see both...but if you had to choose one over the other, which would stand out more as being a better first impression in your opinion?

More activity & engagement on the site over the amount of faces seen - If a webmaster can engage and build a community with a select few, that's more promising to me than a few threads here and there by different folk

 

[Deleted member 7467]

Names of there’s consistent activity (think replies in all major forums or most each day). Names should also not be all staff colored. Huge turn off if I see more staff than people. Forums need to really watch their moderator to non-moderator rations as well as special groups. If I see an established forum with 80 vips and 1 regular user, I nope out of there real fast because I get elitist vibes.

Responses if the above is not true.

 

[Deleted member 49125]

I would prefer to have a variety of different names. But on the flipside, I also like to see that those members were not one-timers (I posted something similar in Post Exchanges). I like seeing active members. If members are active, that shows me that the forum is a good one to come back TO!

 

[Xyphien]

When it comes to a forum I always suggest more active and current content than members. You can have 10 people making hundreds of content versus 100 people making 10 posts of content. If you see that there's more content than people it tends to drive away people as it's seen as a dead site.