Too big of a community?

[Reverie]

Do you think it is possible to have too big of a community to really be able to share and get to know each other? I have noticed on these forums with more than 1000 members, typically people just stop in, but they don't converse or participate in the community. Those beginning members stick around for a while and form most of the conversations. People visit, but I always wonder if they don't feel like they are part of the community.

Is there a way to be more inviting in a larger community? When do you think this challenge begins to occur?

 

[Cory]

A lot of people move on to bigger and better things if they don't feel right at home. There are several factors that can help users stick around to being welcoming, helpful, engaging, etc. I have left forums that I still liked but I found other forums that I liked more. I don't like to be active on a whole bunch of forums, but a small handful. The bigger the community can sometimes mean a less feeling of community spirit where not everyone knows each other well and because of that people may not engage with each other as much and just reply to the OP. Most people want a large community, but it can have some cons.

 

[Debashis]

Yes, I feel it is possible to have too big of a community for meaningful connection but it would be slightly difficult as with 1,000+ members, participation and conversation tend to decline. The challenge arises when newcomers don't feel included. To be more inviting, fostering a sense of belonging from the start and creating smaller subgroups within the larger community can help. Rewarding them for hitting certain post counts with virtual currency, providing an exclusive forum & user group for the members hitting similar post count milestones, appreciating their contribution to maintaining a positive environment within the community through a public shout-out, or hosting contests exclusively for them might be really helpful.

 

[Ravenfreak]

If you do have a large community it would be very difficult or even impossible to really get to know every member. I can imagine it might get stressful to manage a large forum at times too. I think some of us would love to own a large forum, but I think if we did have one it would lead to burnout.

 

[Debashis]

If you do have a large community it would be very difficult or even impossible to really get to know every member. I can imagine it might get stressful to manage a large forum at times too. I think some of us would love to own a large forum, but I think if we did have one it would lead to burnout.

It's almost impossible to manage such a big forum alone without getting burned out. There must be enough number of staff members to help manage it. If each staff member is given a particular section to manage, it would be easy to handle the overall forum. It requires team work and same amount of enthusiasm among the owner and the staff members.

 

[Empire]

It's never to big or too small for anything I say you now going to like everyone or get to know all people

 

[an0nym0us]

It depends on how you adapt to the forums and what are the topics you want to discuss, I have been in both large and small forums where the dynamics of the debate has always been in the small forums, but it always requires good management.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

It's almost impossible to manage such a big forum alone without getting burned out. There must be enough number of staff members to help manage it. If each staff member is given a particular section to manage, it would be easy to handle the overall forum. It requires team work and same amount of enthusiasm among the owner and the staff members.

It's even worse if there's a politics section. Gosh. Flame wars begin. Even otherwise, you get a bunch of trolls just like on social media on the larger boards, and because even if there are loads of staff, if they are not privy to all the communications, you get trolls getting legit members banned unfairly by triggering them to react. And the resentment can be difficult to manage.

 

[ClicketyKat]

I used to be an Admin on a really huge Christian forum. It had it's pluses and minuses. The good thing was you could get an answer in a few minutes on a question. The bad thing was that you couldn't keep up on some threads because they would be so hot with replies.

As staff, the good thing was that you were always busy. And that's a bad thing too. We had over 10 pages of reports to go through all the time. I hated that.

 

[Mike30]

The business advantage of smaller forums over the big boards is the pure essence of a community and friendships.
I have accounts on big forums and I barely post on those. I feel the exclusion as a new member and it feels like the old guys in the forum are unreachable because they are too busy. I have even seen in some signatures "don't contact me for support" what the heck??

I don't like big boards at all to hang around. Also they give away infractions left and right without a warning. I have never got an infraction on small forums( please, don't give me one now to break the record ). If I have made a mistake, very quickly the staff let me know. Why? because they are not overwhelmed with 10 pages of reports like mentioned by @Jackie-o-Lantern

Having a small forum has its advantages too

 

[Joeychgo]

Do you think it is possible to have too big of a community to really be able to share and get to know each other? I have noticed on these forums with more than 1000 members, typically people just stop in, but they don't converse or participate in the community. Those beginning members stick around for a while and form most of the conversations. People visit, but I always wonder if they don't feel like they are part of the community.

Is there a way to be more inviting in a larger community? When do you think this challenge begins to occur?

Well, one of my sites has 60k+ members.... We get over 1000 posts a day. Another site has 40k members and gets just under 1000 posts a day.

 

[Mike30]

Well, one of my sites has 60k+ members.... We get over 1000 posts a day. Another site has 40k members and gets just under 1000 posts a day.

I would love to know an overall how is like to manage such large sites

 

[ClicketyKat]

The business advantage of smaller forums over the big boards is the pure essence of a community and friendships.
I have accounts on big forums and I barely post on those. I feel the exclusion as a new member and it feels like the old guys in the forum are unreachable because they are too busy. I have even seen in some signatures "don't contact me for support" what the heck??

I don't like big boards at all to hang around. Also they give away infractions left and right without a warning. I have never got an infraction on small forums( please, don't give me one now to break the record ). If I have made a mistake, very quickly the staff let me know. Why? because they are not overwhelmed with 10 pages of reports like mentioned by @Jackie-o-Lantern

Having a small forum has its advantages too

I also have to admit that while on that large forum, Staff would get together on Skype and do Report parties. We'd work reports and go through the forum finding rule violations to report so we could give warnings. It was fun at the time because we thought we were helping the forum. But that's only one side of things...the members side saw us as being a police state, and we were! How awful.

 

[Joeychgo]

I would love to know an overall how is like to manage such large sites

It isn't really that difficult. There is a critical mass where the community almost runs itself in many ways. Most of the moderation necessary is really stupid things like putting stuff in the wrong forum, members who forget their password or forgot to update their email, stuff like that. You have the occasional problem member you have to deal with but they usually don't have much negative impact as they are something of a needle in a haystack.

IMO, the key is moderating with a gentle hand. See, when I came up over-moderation was a big thing on many sites. So when I came in people noticed right away that I didn't treat my members like crap and people flocked to me. Years down the road my sites are the go-to sites and have a great reputation in the community.

Running a forum involves people. So managing people is the skill you need the most. That requires patience and the ability to speak nicely to someone who just called you an asshole and be overly reasonable. When I ban someone, the rest of the members know the member pushed and pushed and pushed for it to happen and it wasn't arbitrary, because they know I am the kind of person that will give them more rope then they need to hang themselves. IMO, too many admins ban people too quickly and often for the wrong reasons.