What is your definition of growth in the area of community building and management. What are the criteria that tells you that your community is growing? Is it activities, user base, traffic, revenue? Is it combination of all?

A combination of it all. Growth is the common denominator that helps your forum flourish! Without growth, your forum would slowly wither away.

A combination of all these factors determines the growth of a forum, especially activity and traffic gains.

 

 

 

For me, activity and traffic define the growth of a forum.

 

 

However, slow progress is better than no progress at all!

 

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I remember those early days when we first launched the forum and saw an amazing 300-500 posts daily. Before long, we even reached over a thousand posts a day or more. Admittedly, the quality of the posts back then wasn’t what it is now, but there was a unique excitement and energy that made those times memorable.

 

While achieving that level of activity is still possible - though definitely more challenging, especially in certain niches - the landscape has changed significantly. These days, it's clear that quality over quantity has become the priority. A smaller number of thoughtful, engaging posts can do more to strengthen a community than sheer volume ever could.

 

So yes, growth isn’t just about high numbers of posts or members. Real progress is seen in the quality of activity and meaningful member engagement.

Growth is self explanatory to me, but seeing more members online, and regular activity in the community is a growing/striving forum.

Growth to me is logging in every day and seeing new posts from other members.

 

That's what matters.

 

Well, that and the relationships being made.

 

A community isn't really a community without relationship development.

Forum growth to me would be the process of increasing both the size of the and engagement of a forum community. This would include attracting new members, encouraging active participation, and fostering a supportive, interactive environment where people feel motivated to contribute regularly.

I define growth by member counts, posts, and daily activity. I like to set post, and member goals I like to achieve to keep myself motivated to grow my community.