It will all serve a purpose...


Would anyone like to volunteer an opinon--what are the basic premises that that must exist to have a solid online community? Not just in a forum like situation.

Clearly stated purpose and clearly defined goals. Not too narrow a scope, just a clear definition.

Freedom of personal conduct within the stated forum rules; and clear, evenhanded enforcement of the community rules.

Commonality of interests among the members.

Sense of ownership of the members: they can contribute in some meaningful way.

People respect other forum members, and are respected by other forum members.

Ability of the group's goals and purpose and rules to change as necessary, when the membership of the group wants them to change. Communities are made for the members, not the other way around.

Basically, much the same guidelines for setting up an "offline" community.

Lm,

Thanks for your input on keeping a community. What about getting ppl to participate? If their is a large forum of considerable membership, but nobody posts. What to do?

You've got to make them want to participate. Maybe you just happen to have a group of people who aren't comfortable being group leaders / thread starters. Try starting some discussions on various things, and just let it go from there. Start discussions that are in line with the group's stated goals, and make your initial posts open-ended. Try calling some of them specifically, by name (like "such and so, haven't you had experience with X-Y-Z? What was it like?" or something.) Other people may join the community who feel comfortable starting discussions of their own, and they eventually will.

Beyond that? I don't know. Sorry.

Sense of ownership of the members: they can contribute in some meaningful way.
Very good point - how can this best be accomplished? On the forums arena, there's always the "carrot" of user titles and/or avatars based on the number of posts etc. More ideas would be interesting...