What make a website feel successful?

I am just curious how or what makes a website feel successful? Time a site has been online? The Amount of members you have? Does the site run itself when you aren't around?

I have had my site up for about 5 years and even though i have a really good group of members and my member count (doesn't really matter) is over 2,300, i sometimes feel that my site isn't successful. I think i base that feeling on seeing other websites that continually have a bunch of activity going on at any time day or night, where my site will sometimes on have around 75 users per day.....I do know however that my site is only one of a hundered available for my hobby (mustangs) and that people tend to follow the bigger sites.

So how do you feel?

 

I think it really depends on what your goal for the forum was.

In my case, with RCTgo, it's more of a hobby than anything else, a place for people who like the games to hang out and share their creations. We might not be the most active or the most popular RCT fan site, but we are friendly and welcoming, and I'm proud to say I created such a community. The members that are active are extremely appreciative of my efforts. To me, that's a success.

 

For me it's when i visit my site after an hour or whatever, hit new posts, and there is a pagefull

 

Whoever starts a site should have goals. When those goals are achieved then you are successful. They can be dynamic goals such as getting X% members viewing or %posts per day of another forum.

It is quite possible to get a certain % of Mustang owners from a general Ford forum as members for example.

If you liked how the other 99 Mustang places were then you would not have started your forum, right? It is possible you did not like how the others were moderated, so if you have an active community that enjoys your different style of moderation then I would say you are successful.

 

i think the forum seems successful when you are having loads of posts a day, and hitting milestones fast.

i was so proud when mine reached 10000 posts

 

Valid point.

This to me is a loaded question, albeit good one.

Maybe the intent as to surpass a competitor? have you?

Maybe the intent was to keep it some manageable amount of users? speaks to admin duties and interaction

It's all really based on your own metrics to qualify the success part as I'm taking your question to be from your own personal gratification. Otherwise you could ask the question from a business-type view (i.e., income, revenue, advertising, store, etc.) which requires a sound business model.

 

It could also mean a nice active website, without going to a more expensive hosting account (vps/dedi).

 

I wrote this article a few days ago, which is fairly related to your question: http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/me...ur-communitys-strength-membership-count-4711/


In my opinion, a successful forum is one where members can easily establish relationships with one another, have fun, and learn new information frequently.

 

That is an awesome outlook.......

 

When you register and you receive a pm welcoming you to the site. This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and shows that I am appreciated. Then I realise it was merely an automated response and don't feel special anymore. At that point I normally swoon so I have to prepare myself and sit down before I open a pm if I receive it straight after registration.

 

i think ive just discovered a new one-when forum newbies feel at home from the start

i just saw a thread from one of my forums newest members, saying they love being on the forum and felt welcome and at home from their very first post. we must be doing something right

 

^ Aw that's cute BananaQueen!

For me, its logging on to see that the forum has actually been reasonably busy without my presence and the need for me to relentlessly update threads!

Total number of members and total post count is probably a huge factor for guests when they decide whether to register or not

 

awwwwwwww thanks!

yeah, i guess, with forums, size doesnt matter-i once joined a forum, 100 members and a few thousand posts, but it was empty. most of those posts and members were from a year ago, and there was only the admin and 3 other members who regularly posted now, yet i am on a forum which has only got about 20 members, but they are more active and post regularly, every day, and have the same amount of posts as the bigger forum, but the smaller one is more successful because they have more activity.

 

^ Yes, I've been in that position for.

I think all in all, I'd prefer 20-30 active members that posted regularly every day (or 2) over 100 members that posted maybe a couple of times a week