[deedub]

I think you really nailed this! I've built a couple forums, one which just hit 15 years and has around 6000 registered users. It is member funded, hosted, moderated etc. I have no part in it anymore really and it has a great culture. I've actually just launched a new forum for my current employer and our community members.

Like you said, it takes effort from the person starting it to create activity and get people coming back / building a habit of checking for new content. Then you must empower the people that are passionate about what you're doing and treat them more like an equal / admin / mod vs a simple user.

This ted talk explains how I feel about building a community really well: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_moveme...

[prox]

How do you jump from the initial tens, to hundred to thousands of users? How does the popularity scale in your experience?