What makes a community good?

[tiff]

I was curious about this since I've often heard people say that the community is one of their biggest factor in determining whether they stay on a petsite or not. 

I guess for some starters, I think a good community tends to be pretty active. I think the activity level you like in your communities probably depends on personal preference though I tend to like communities that are active enough that I feel like I can get like a response to a new forum thread within a few hours or so.  

[Shex]

Yeah, active people are one important aspect, but I also find it important that some people help newbies (with giveaways or just showing some tricks). 

In general a positive attitude towards mods, admins and the site itself is good, but it's probably not something a game owner can influence too much... just by being honest and providing regular updates. 

[Syntax]

Communities for the most part build themselves, but they can be affected by any individual member of it. A single toxic individual can cause a lot of issues, but if you have a strong and tight-knit community then toxicity is less effective. Making sure staff are seen as part of the community and not just ruling over it is a big help, but from what I've seen the biggest factor is natural community leaders. They're the members who aren't staff but creating contests, going out of their way to welcome newbies, regularly coming up with new ideas and actually implementing their ideas in the community. I was part of an avatar site for a couple years but my favorite part was the shops where users traded their art for items and in-game money. They'd set up and run shops, and it just created this whole other level to the site that was completely user built. Letting and encouraging your community to run with ideas like that imo is one of the more fantastic parts of browser-based games.