Building something up if you are admin, if member meeting new people or like me learning English on a forum. My English sucked big time before I joined my first forum.
Short answer: I want people to be interacting, and I want them to care about the discussions.
Longer answer: In regard to the former, I want people who are interested in the community more than they are interested in promoting another community or obtaining something such as downloads. Also, I would want to see people who are interested in using the several means provided by the forum software to interact, since people interested in others in the community are more prone to use them.
When it comes to the latter, on the other hand, I like to see people putting effort into their posts, rather than submitting a lot of forgettable posts in forgettable topics that add nothing to the understanding or care of the other members reading them.
That said, what I like best about forums is the prevalence of intimate (as opposed to cursory) interaction and in-depth discussion.
netsavy006 said:
Being able to ask questions and give help to people who need it.