General What is Your Purpose of Running a Community

[Nomad]

When I launched my first public community, making money was my priority and I managed to make some money from ads. Later, I sold the community for a good price. Currently, I am, running two communities. Well, I still prioritize making money but I am focusing more on building a community where people come to learn and share.

There are a lot of good reasons about running a community, but it is not a simple job. First you have to get a lot of people to join your community, and second, you have to build content. Both of these work are very hard. Furthermore, if your community gets big, managing people (staff and users) and content can be tough too. You've got to make sure there aren’t any spam or scams going on, there aren’t any conflict going on (between staff or users), and there are not any trolling, hate speech etc.happening. You need to work hard to keep things in line and sort out any problems.

But when your community up and running, it can be really helpful. It can be a platform to share and learn. You can built your community for people to get help and also help other people, you can even use it for marketing, selling, or generating revenue

Running a community is not enough, your community also needs to keep growing. Growing means you continue to get more members and more content. Your community needs to retain old users as well as bring new users. Your community need to remain lively with fresh content and active and thriving.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

I have 3 simple reasons...

1) It's fun.
2) To help others.
3) To make friends/foster a community.

For me it's a hobby, and not a business. Maybe I will monetize it in the future. Maybe I won't. Both my forums are free of charge, and one has been operating since '06.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I run my forums strictly for fun and it's just another hobby for me. If I do eventually end up earning a little extra cash from them, that's cool but I am not going out of my way to try and monetize my forums. I just want a few places to hang out with other cool people outside of social media.

 

[Darth Cognus]

I've only ever gotten into forums for fun and knowledge and I feel financial pursuits can bleed through and damage the nature of a forum community. After all they hit off by being available at the right time and place for people who need them, by having an organic chemistry (if it's just people making threads in a vacuum and posting replies without substantive engagement, it's just a vapid board), and by adapting to community needs: providing what the forum can do best for its audience, including when those needs change along with the wider internet. The best forums I've seen have tried to cultivate these things and money is a nice consequence. There are clear tells to me when a forum is just trying to capitalize on a niche for profit and they make me weary. I assume I'm not the only one.

 

[Cedric]

I have 3 simple reasons...

1) It's fun.
2) To help others.
3) To make friends/foster a community.

For me it's a hobby, and not a business. Maybe I will monetize it in the future. Maybe I won't. Both my forums are free of charge, and one has been operating since '06.

These are my main reasons too.

 

[Nomad]

I have 3 simple reasons...

1) It's fun.
2) To help others.
3) To make friends/foster a community.

For me it's a hobby, and not a business. Maybe I will monetize it in the future. Maybe I won't. Both my forums are free of charge, and one has been operating since '06.

I agree with your 3 reasons but I would not be able to run a forum for so long without at least generating running cost.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

I agree with your 3 reasons but I would not be able to run a forum for so long without at least generating running cost.

I already have the web hosting for my real life business website. Now all my hobby sites and brainstorm ideas can easily reside on the same server. All I have to pay is for the license renewals to IPS, but one community runs somewhat on donations.

 

[Cory]

I love the atmosphere of forums and the vibe they give off. Creating a community is fun for me because it's all behind your vision of what you want it to be and that is very rewarding, especially when it becomes a success. I love to help people in subjects I'm knowledgeable in, which is the coding realm, that's why I created a resource board to cater to those in need of codes/skins and extra coding tidbits for their board. Also, it's just something that can help keep you busy and focused and that can be helpful for your wellbeing.

 

[Nomad]

I already have the web hosting for my real life business website. Now all my hobby sites and brainstorm ideas can easily reside on the same server. All I have to pay is for the license renewals to IPS, but one community runs somewhat on donations.

I also have hosting for my business and I don't pay extra to host my community, but I use open source so that I do not have to spend money on subscriptions.

 

[Tracy]

1) It's fun.
2) To help others.
3) To make friends/foster a community.

All 3 are valid from my position
But for me, the ultimate reason was it gives me somewhere to post my content in a format I am comfortable with and that I have full editorial control over my content.