I find it interesting to compare this forum with another one I spend time on, a frequent flyer website. It is not large (60k members) with about 600 on line now (like here, mainly bots). Most posts are very on topic, but they have community and general sections. That forum is far more active than this. Why, when it operates only in a small market (Australia) in a very niche area?
Largely, because members get value. The forum runs a website with very informative articles and runs a podcast. It advertises on airline websites. It has three paid membership levels which among other things gives access to webinars which shows how to get best value for points (far more elaborate than many would imagine). It has at least one paid staff. It also has moderators who don’t actively participate.
So small informative forums catering to niche markets can survive. Why can’t this?
