What makes you decide to join a XenForo community?

[Floris]

What does a community mean to you, when do you really join and visit regularly, and become an active participant? And not just sign up with a user/pass.

Of how many communities are you a regular member? Why those, and not others?

If you have been a regular and involved member of a community and left, why did you leave?

Is it the topic itself, or the members that are becoming friends?
Does the board software help you decide to become a regular?
Have you left a community because one or more moderators are ruining the mood or abusing their power, despite that you really like the members on the site?

I am a member of a lot of sites, but there are only a few that I dedicate myself to. And I then do have a postcount that goes through the roof - but more importantly is the connection with friends and the topic.

 

[CurveGotti]

Usually the board software plays no factor in deciding to join a forum, though I must admit if they use a really horrible interface at times I will leave.

Usually I tend to join communities that discuss or relate to topics I am interested in that have decent content, or that have members who I am familiar with from other sites. I usually stay if the have other like minded members and/or continue to provide valuable content relating to the topic.

 

[Onimua]

Depends on what I'm looking for.

If I'm searching for stuff in a particular topic I find myself working with often, and the same site comes up, I usually hang around to get a feel for it. If it turns out that the experience is nice each time and I find what I need quickly, I usually join and end up staying.

 

[Stormraven]

A community to me means the opportunity to make friends and discuss topics which interest me (obviously lol) I enjoy joining and running forums, it gives me satisfaction to run them to create a place for people to go, and I enjoy contributing to forums because I like to help others out.

Making friends online is a big thing to me, as I'm a very self conscious person and don't have many real life friends lol. But yeah, I enjoy making friends online and the forum software aspect doesn't bother me, it all depends on the topic

I hope I didn't ramble on too much in this message lol.

 

[Beverly Johnson]

I join a community first and try it out. And, if i feel some kind of connection to anyone on the board, i'll usually stick around to talk to that person. I'm VERY social in many ways. I am constantly typing and when i'm not doing that, i'm on Voice chat talking with friends. So forums are just an extension of that socialization.

So i guess it would be the socializing element.

Even more so than the stimulating conversations. Though it does help that there are really good things to discuss on a forum, that are relevant to me on some level or in my particular interests.

But yeah, as you said it's more about making friends. At least for me. That will hold me to a forum much longer than anything else.

And, i try to bring that friendship element to my own forum.

 

[TayneC8]

I am a member of hundreds of community's, but visit very little of them. I've been members of many active community's, and left due to the decisions to the admins, unfair bans etc. I won't stay on a community if I don't like the members, or if the board is inactive. The forum software, and the design is also counts a lot to me. If I don't like the software, or I don't like the style I won't stay active for long.