When is a community dead?

We all have our own ways of measuring success with forums, but what about death? At what point do you deem a community to be dead?

 

When the admin doesn't even bother to log on xD No users, no admin, no community.

 

I was going to say "when you log on after a day or two but the only new posts are from you", but FMB's definition is more accurate.

 

I dont think any community can be dead as they can all be revived somehow, maybe dormant is a better word instead of dead lol

 

If you don't get a new post at least once a week and most users haven't logged on in two weeks. That is dead in my opinion.

 

When the owner gives up and walks away.

As long as the forum has one active member, it is not dead. And that should be the owner. When he/she says "thats it", then the forum is dead.

 

In other words, it's not dead until it's dead and buried.

 

I've seen this done quite often - administrators and/or community managers simply "taking off" due to a lack of interest (or some other unknown factor).

 

That was what happened to Pisoga's first owner.

 

When even the admin gives up.

 

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He or she giving up can also kill a forum.

 

How discouraging is that? Seeing an administrator who was once dedicated and passionate (or not...) take off without warning or notice - it's a shame to see such a thing occur.

 

I agree chris and am quite guilty of this with my own site vbimageworks. Cannot be bothered with it any more. Sometimes all you can do is walk away. I'll log on maybe once a week and help anyone with support (which is usually vmood related).

The biggest mistake I made with vbimageworks was to provide to much and spoon feed the community and gave them everything from free resources to support and sometimes installation services all free. I won't be making that mistake again.

I would class my site as being dead as I have no interest in it anymore,

 

I think it's "healthy" to experience such an event/occurrence at least once in your career as an administrator - whether it be in the beginning, middle, or end. Would you say that it's a learning experience, Shelley?

 

Not really. In life, the more you give, the more people want. That is the way the world works and the internet is no different neither is running a forum. I knew what to expect, and expected it from the day I opened my forum.

Take my old forum for example. 45,000 members over 300-400 registrations a day 300 people online at any giving time. had enough one day and shut it down. I expect that is what will happened when i truly have enough of my site or any other site I run.

The thing with me is I can walk away from anything at a moments notice.

 

Whoa, that's a little harsh on the community.. what was the site and why did you shut it down? I could've at least rode that out for the money or to sell.

Maybe you could sell the forum that you have to one of the groups that creates paid templates or something. PM me if you have a price in mind.

 

I would say when the administrator stops logging in is when a forum is dead - and I understand what Shelly is saying I signed up on vbimageworks and it was a fantastic site and I did ask for support on something (difference being I was prepared to pay for the image made) but realised that apart from others asking for support there were no new posts so gave up haha.

 

I would have posted a message saying "I can no longer give support or make free smileys due to time constraints, but if you're willing to hire me I'll consider it"