Small community or big community?

[Luigi1632]

Which do you prefer?

A big community with tons of members or a small community with a few dedicated members?

In my opinion, I like small communities, since it's also a bit easier to take care of, amongst a few other advantages.

Although I know with big communities, if you are the admin, you'll almost always get replies to your topics..

 

[Darthmaul]

I would say large, as you'll have more members replying to topics and such. However, on a smaller forum(like the one I own) I love to death our dedicated members, so it's a difficult decision :great:

 

[Eternal]

I like both, large and small communities, for different reasons.

 

[VirusZero]

Speaking from an admin perspective, bigger communities are great in that you have more people to start topics, converse with and help out on essentially. Plus given that they're larger you don't have to worry quite so much about advertising because having a large site means it's fairly easy to find and there are plenty of active members already so it helps advertise itself in a way.
But being larger they also have a lot more trouble with members keeping in line, spammers and people looking to mess with them just because they're there.

Smaller forums are great for getting to know members really well and interacting with a closer knit group, but are a lot more work in the advertising and content generation departments to try to keep fresh members joining and preventing the site from stagnating too much. Though smaller sites can also very easily get cliquish and hard for new members to integrate into which is a problem... Since a lot of times the admins don't mean for the site to be that way, it's just how members grouped themselves.


Member-perspective, having a lot more people to talk with is great you get a varied range of people. But this also means you're more likely to find members that you just do not get along with at all. Plus some people are intimidated by larger communities or hate the fact/feeling like they're being swallowed up and absorbed into the mass rather than actually being a standout member.
Meanwhile smaller communities can be devastating if you end up with a group you don't get along with. Or if they are particularly cliquish. Since then you're pretty much out on your own without anything you can really do.

Personally, I don't care whether I'm on a large or small community. I'm not intimidated by numbers nor do I ever feel like I'm being swallowed up as it were (and even if I were just another number in the site, I don't think that's a bad thing. I find it a bit more troubling that people would absolutely have to be so special and stand out all the time. Sounds like attention seeking behaviour to me, something that's none to healthy for a forum or other members.)

 

[SpeakWhatsReal]

Go big or go home.

 

[Migi]

As an administrator without a doubt you wish your forum will someday grow big with so many members, but at other times I prefer to have a small or medium-sized forums, with around 100 members or such, but with many active members to talk to at the forum. Same goes when I'm putting myself as a member. I'm adapting easier and faster in small forums, but I've been gone to big places as well (like Forum Promotion and MangaHelpers) and managed to adapt well there too. I could adapt well thanks to the friendly community and easy navigation.

Size doesn't matter to me, generally speaking. The community is what matters. Ten active members are way better than a thousand non-active ones, so it returns to each one's preference.

 

[mav3n]

As Darth said, I think having a small community is good because you get the chance to connect with your members more and gain that connection. However, as your community grows larger, I think that connection will still be there. I am sitting on the fence about this.

 

[Varlot]

Small, but not too small. Small communities is easier to handle, plus the community knows one another better.

 

[Samalan]

As and administrator, I would prefer a big community of course because it makes your forum active and you usually get a reply really quickly, along with loads of donations usually which go towards your forum.

As a user, I prefer small ones because on big forums - you barely get noticed and your that new guy who nobody knows of but at least with small ones, everyone knows each other and they are usually very friendly and welcoming.

 

[toetapping]

I had a bit one in numbers but no one posted. I cut it back to around 100 and like it better. Quality is better and quantity.

 

[Democrat]

Bigger is always better in my opinion. If you have a big community, you will always have members online and this is a plus in my book. Having just a some dedicated members isn't good enough.

Always think big.

/Democrat

 

[Ashley]

I like medium size communities as both a staff and a member, which is why I chose free hosting VS going back to envesko, for example. Medium size communities and free hosting is easier for me to manage and doesn't demand so much time and attention. I'm not very tech savvy, so having someone do background work while I handle the Frontline makes things much easier

 

[Felly]

From an admin perspective, small communities. They're easier to manage, and you get to know your members better compared to a bigger community, where you may not get the opportunity to get to know everyone quite as well. The downside is if you don't have the right people in place to help you, it can be a big struggle, and the community can die out (or people can just get burnt out quicker).

From a member perspective, I'm okay with either larger or small communities. In both, as I've participated on different forums over the years, I've found I've been able to find my groups of people that I can interact with and bond with as I participate on the forum itself. I feel like this has been especially true in larger communities, where I may not be able to get to know everyone, but I at least have a core group of friends that share at least one of my interests based on the areas of the site I'm posting on.

 

[Yoda]

Each have their pros and cons, for me the community needs to be big enough that conversation can happen, but not so big that threads/posts are lost almost straight away. Once a community gets too big you can lose that sense of 'community' about it.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Which do you prefer?

A big community with tons of members or a small community with a few dedicated members?

In my opinion, I like small communities, since it's also a bit easier to take care of, amongst a few other advantages.

Although I know with big communities, if you are the admin, you'll almost always get replies to your topics..

Small for me.

I'd much rather join a small forum than a big one. I love helping out small communities if their topics is something I enjoy.

Big forums are usually full of cliques, entitlement, and people who don't easily take into newbies. Smaller forums are easier for anyone to be a part of the community within them.

I welcome my forums to get big but for now, I'm going to cherish the smaller moments.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think it can be overwhelming to manage a large community, though it is fun. My largest, most active forum was Mighty No. 9 and at times I would get overwhelmed. But I also loved how active and lively it was too. Though I would much rather like to have a smaller community these days, and if I'm being honest most of us probably should expect newer forums, depending on the niche to be a bit smaller these days. Even when this thread was created, forums were sadly on the decline with Facebook groups taking most of the activity.

 

[Shortie_]

It wouldn't matter to me whether big or small as long as my community was active and had quality content posts and organic traffic.

It takes a while to build a forum up, so any kind of activity would be a bonus for me.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think it can be overwhelming to manage a large community, though it is fun.

Yes, and yes.

I have a Facebook group with just about 60,000 members on it today. We get 10K-20K (average) views a day and about 100-500 posts a day (new posts and replies).

It's a busy group and we keep it fun, negative and drama-free, and active.

Yes, it can be really overwhelming. You need a good staff team.

Yes though, it's a lot of fun.

I know it's Facebook and not a forum, but a community is a community!

 

[Nebulous]

I prefer a decent sized forum with a small forum feel. Very small communities are fragile in the sense that if one or two key members become inactive then the whole forum suffers because of it. You need to have enough people chatting to fill in the gaps if some other people disappear.

 

[Page]

I don't mind, then again, it depends. If you need help and straight-up answers to things regards whatever it is, then having to be on a largeforumm you know that you're going to have people replying, as in smaller forums, you end up waiting for one reply or nothing.