The life cycle of an internet forum.

[Vermifuge]

I have read this in a news group years ago but I believe it applies to forums too. Tell me if this rings true for you.

All forums have a sort of life cycle:

1) in the beginning a forum may never get enough knowledgeable contributing members to ever achieve any value. They say the average is 1 person in 250 will take the time to register and contribute to a forum. Take a guess how many become ‘valuable’ members.

2) As a forum matures and gained enough momentum if they (perhaps 150 active members) who read and post a forum can become can be quite valuable. By this time there’s is a sizeable interest and a relatively large repository of relation information and intelligent discussions

3) Forums begin experiencing growing pains. As the active user base reached 1000 members a divide forms There are now two distinct groups of people 'newbies' and 'veterans.' The vets begin creating FAQs and keep instruct newbies to RTFM and read the FAQ.

4) Ultimately, the vets quit reading and posting. The forum is composed of lots of ‘newbies’ who don't know much about the subject of the forum. The vets who know have dropped out. Soon there are no authorities and the forum grows silent and useless.

Simply put most things that begin good become victims of their own success

 

[Matt Deckard]

Could be true... though The Internet has only been around for a few decades so studies need to be done.

 

[Sefton]

I was going to stop reading and quit posting,but I just hate to leave such a lovely life cycle as this.

 

[RedPop4]

I have read this in a news group years ago but I believe it applies to forums too. Tell me if this rings true for you.

All forums have a sort of life cycle:

1) in the beginning a forum may never get enough knowledgeable contributing members to ever achieve any value. They say the average is 1 person in 250 will take the time to register and contribute to a forum. Take a guess how many become ‘valuable’ members.

2) As a forum matures and gained enough momentum if they (perhaps 150 active members) who read and post a forum can become can be quite valuable. By this time there’s is a sizeable interest and a relatively large repository of relation information and intelligent discussions

3) Forums begin experiencing growing pains. As the active user base reached 1000 members a divide forms There are now two distinct groups of people 'newbies' and 'veterans.' The vets begin creating FAQs and keep instruct newbies to RTFM and read the FAQ.

4) Ultimately, the vets quit reading and posting. The forum is composed of lots of ‘newbies’ who don't know much about the subject of the forum. The vets who know have dropped out. Soon there are no authorities and the forum grows silent and useless.

Simply put most things that begin good become victims of their own success

It rings quite true.
I hate to keep bringing up another forum, which is my internet home. We've worked VERY hard to keep some of the old-timers, and we still have a fair number of guys. For a forum that has been in existence since 2000, we have a large number, I'd say about a hundred or so, who have dates from 2003 or earlier. We even still have a few Charter Members. The founder has gone on when it got too difficult to run the forums and the magazine side all alone.

We've worked hard to keep the old-timers who gave the board its shape, its atmosphere.

 

[GOK]

You forgot to add in anything about arguments, flouncing and cliques! lol

 

[Vermifuge]

Could be true... though The Internet has only been around for a few decades so studies need to be done.

Very true though I have seen similar patterns since my Prodigy and CompuServe days. Take Delphi for example. It is a great example of a community that was a victim of its own success. People from my neck of the woods may remember when BMUG (The Bay Area Mac User Group) was king of communities.

True there are many very successful and quite large communities out there. But very few make it to the 1 million club.

 

[Vermifuge]

I was going to stop reading and quit posting,but I just hate to leave such a lovely life cycle as this.

Maybe it will serve as a reminder to those leaving that they aren’t just leaving the FL to its own devices. And are infect aiding in its possible failure. I hate to see knowledgeable and helpful members leave any community. Especially when they are instrumental in its sucess

 

[Jay]

This makes a lot sense. Imagine this place without its "core" members. It'd be a lot less helpful without all the wealth of knowledge here. A whole bunch of questions with only old threads for answers.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Nice thing about the Lounge is that not only are we getting more and more new members, the new members have more and more information.

Unlike some forums, there are always new hats and new suits and new shoes and new fashions and new dresses to talk about.

Though who knows... perhaps it's dead already.

 

[RedPop4]

You forgot to add in anything about arguments, flouncing and cliques! lol

There are cliques, but where I am, people visit, much like you all do, different areas of the nation, and many times this helps weaken the cliques.

You're not going to lose them, as we tend to gather with those we know from our own geographic proximity. On the internet, we tend to "clique" with those who have a similar perspective and/or share a particular common experience or expertise.

 

[Lady Day]

Thats the whimsy and disposable lifestyle of the internet. Its groups of gathered are as organic as life. The same can be said for clubs, or the neighborhood pub (pun intended).

People change, grow close or apart. The good thing is, as life lives them, if they choose, can come back and offer a fresh insight on things, or that newbie can champion a great offering to the community.

Its a grab bag. What else could it be?

LD

 

[Vanessa]

Very true though I have seen similar patterns since my Prodigy and CompuServe days.

Ahh, Prodigy. . .*memories*

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

You forgot to add in anything about arguments, flouncing and cliques! lol

I've never "flounced" in my life! lol

 

[Vermifuge]

Ahh, Prodigy. . .*memories*

feels like a lifetime ago for me too Prodigy paved the way for my career. I miss it a lot but i know there is no going back.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Oh yeah, good ol' DOS-based Prodigy. I met my ex there. lol

 

[GOK]

I've never "flounced" in my life! lol

Neither have I but I might if it means I get to wear a horrid flouncing frock! lol

RedPop, my tongue was a little bit in my cheek back there. I have been around enough fora to see all of those things happen with alarming regularity and I always say the same thing; people will be people. Of course you get cliques - we can't be chummy with everyone and it is only natural that people will find other likeminded souls to get close to. I know I have.

Lady D - as usual, your words are wise ones.

 

[scotrace]

I so want to find a flouncy frock to offer up...

 

[griffer]

It reminds me of the biology behind the 'fairy ring'.

The ring starts as a robust mushroom colony, buts as it spreads in size, the original founding mushrooms in the center have already gotten all the nutrients in the center and are choked out by the new growth.

The center withers and dies, all that is left are the new 'shrooms at the edges.

Hence, the faery ring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring

I am ones of those new mushrooms, but I'm not to choke the old mushrooms like Deckard.

Nice to be here,

-Griffer

/hasn't set up his profile yet, will get to it
//swears

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe." -Roy Batty

 

[MK]

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Just watch.

 

[Pilgrim]

I think the key is for those partipating to perceive ongoing value.

I belong to a Datsun Z-car listserv that I've been following for about 12 years. The reason is that there is information there I can't get anywhere else, although I am the "authority" on a few topics myself.

Provided that the forum continues to provide new info and/or more details that appeal to established members, or if it builds a respectable and useful repository of information, I believe it can have a long lifetime.