What makes a good community?

Using jargon in blogs is a perfect way to attract search engines because people do search jargon keywords every day. The video game industry is RICH in this aspect. Thus making it easy to just air your expertise in that field without looking like... uh I dunno... Too eh... much. Too jargon-y.

 

What really makes a good community is time and effort.

The more/ longer you're willing to sit there and banter back and forth with your community, the better and faster it will grow.

Others will eventually see it and join in. And it might get to the point you won't have to be there as much

 

Time, nice and friendly users and staff, dedicated staff, good content. All of this make a good community. There's no other way around it. The skin doesn't really matter, what matters is how friendly the users and staff are and how active and dedicated they are.

 

You're right. Users always notice when a great effort is being made to create the community and keep it running. That's dedication right there especially if you've been at it for months and only see slow growth, but its all a process.

Well said. I couldn't have said it better myself. And plus, good content sometimes promotes itself via word of mouth - and other users linking to the content.

 

Not just that. But once all is said and done, nothing will beat the sense of accomplishment you'll get for all your hard work put in. It's a great accomplishment to be able to say "I created this ecosystem"

 

The members, of course. Along with content, and staff, the members are what makes or breaks a forum in my opinion.

 

It's probably safe to say the answer to this question is "all of the above" mentioned in this thread.

 

A community means members who are contributing together. You need GOOD members, excellent content and a real leader to make it all happen. If you don't have either, you won't have a good community. Excellent content posted by members who are not led well won't matter if there's constant fighting in the forums, an admin who's posting alone is again no community and a great membership posting junk will just make for an active forum.

 

Members who post and are nice to each other.

 

Of course, if a community is friendly, and the members are helpful, then the community will grow based around how friendly it is, and how people can make friends, and can receive up from other users.

I really enjoy that aspect of communities, especially if the owners/staff members are also pretty cool.

 

There's a lot of factors involved, but yes, you are right. The ecosystem is usually created by building a good foundation, and a good place for users to get together, chat and have fun.