With social media taking people away from forums and the whole niche just seeming a bit less upbeat as it was I was just wondering what kind of things would actually encourage you to join a new community? For me, it would have to be the content of that community, it could be a subject I'm interested in but if the content isn't there for me to either learn something or share something I know, I probably won't invest my time in posting there.
The community itself. What kind of things they talk about and how they treat each other can pull me really easy or turn me off the community no matter how many bells and whistles they got.
How easy it is to post using my mobile can also help to make it more likely to see me around.
I prefer smaller communities because I feel like they're a lot more intimate and it's easier to meet people around. The forum itself also plays a huge part for me, I prefer more modern looking, sleek forums than the grungy jcink forums and the like, and the organization of the forum also plays into whether or not I stay.
I have to agree with both @kaynil and @darya - a large part of the attraction to a forum for me is the community itself. How the members interact with each other, and whether they seem like a "group" that I'd like to make an effort of getting to know and becoming a part of.
Sometimes larger forums can be a little intimidating, but equally so can smaller forums. Especially if it appears that the members all know each other outside of the forum itself.. Hence I try to make a conscious effort to communicate with all of my members.
Nerdface
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
That's a fair point- a community that is so small that it seems almost cliquey isn't fun. Another thing I forgot is the staff. I've left many forums just because the the staff to member ratio was so skewed, or because the staff members were remarkably arrogant and didn't interact with the other members.