What makes a community?

[pandaa]

You've probably all seen forums that may or may not have been active, but in one way or another, something was missing. In my experience, a lot of forums feel empty because they're missing a sense of community. What makes up a feeling of community on a forum, and how can you help build or rebuild that?

 

[Thomasss]

Respect makes a community, (well and members..) but the respect part really brings together a family atmosphere, which I personally think is critical for a community to really feel like a community. You can join any kind of forum but that family andthe "I'm wanted" kind of feeling is what keeps me coming back. It's just a sign of respect that other members have for eachother, even if they truly do hate each other in secret. 😛

 

[RH-Calvin]

Community can be best described with a group of active members engaged in daily discussions. This ensures more data on your community or forum and helps promote topics in search engines. Attracting more visitors to your forum and converting them to clients is the best way that you can build a good community.

 

[Sharon]

I think on some level members need to be able to relate to each other and know each other on a more personal level. This sort of friendship can only be established when there is daily interaction. Each member must genuinely want to learn more about the other members in order to create that "community feel" in my opinion.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I definitely agree that in order to have a community, you need members that are willing to be respectful, and love to be around each other on that forum. Else, why be on a forum, if no one wants to respect you?

 

[Vocal.]

I think a community involves active members participating in meaningful discussions. Also, on service forums it could be that they are helping one another by providing support, etc.

 

[Geoffrey]

For me, it's a group that is together regularly, actually chats with each other, etc. It's not a bunch of members that just reply to topics instead of interacting. 😛

 

[LadyAnna]

Like many of you say, a community would be considered a group of people interacting with each others, eventually getting to know one another to some extent.

 

[John]

I see it requiring respect, dedication, as well as like-mindedness. You need your members to respect each other, you need your members to be dedicated to your forum and keep coming back day after day, and finally you need them to be like-minded enough to relate to each other in conversations on a daily basis. At some point you'll probably miss one or the other, but in a sense, that's what I've seen that makes a community.