What makes you join? What makes you stay? Let us know!

For me:
- The theme. I really can't stay active on a forum if I have no idea about the content (for example I couldn't be active at a car forum because I don't know much about cars).
- The skin/layout - You have to admit, it's always nice when the forum looks nice. It's much more appealing that way. I generally prefer lighter skins.
- The people. If everybody there is a jerk, I can't stay. The people need to be kind and welcoming.
- Active forum, for obvious reasons.

How about you?

I only go on 5 forums at the moment.

2 of them is for an online game wich i dont even play no more, but the forums i am just addicted to.

1 is a Steam forum wich has 228,442 and hundreds of posts a minute.

1 is a gaming forum, and the other is TopicTown!

I dont really look for stuff in forums, but if i like the idea, i join the forum.

For me its the People, the Owner, and the skin. If the people and owner are bad I'll leave or if I hate the skin so much.

Things that keep me on the forum is really how active it is and the people. If they're is a bunch of assholes on the forum I'm not going to stay and if its dead all the time I'm just going to forget about it.

1. The forum looks. If the forum do not have a good look I won't post;
2. The community. Friendly and helpful members always attract new members;
3. Activity, forums with no activity do not attract me;
4. Good staff members. Staff that do their job are great. Makes the forum looks more professional.

i can't be on the forum if it has a bad layout, bad skin, bad theme, bad staff, and jerk off peoples like you people (jk)

~D

For me one of the major things is the skin/theme. I HATE it when a theme is clustered up and looks like crap. If it looks nice and has some decent posts, I will join and post a bit.

The community, the benefits of staying and somewhat the layout.

I would contribute if it has over 100 Active members, and a good root admin. And also if they actually listen to what the community has to say.

Agreed. It need a good admin/owner. I saw this forum once, and it had a thread with a list of banned members, who banned them, and why they got banned.
The reason for one of them:
A loser

Exactly that. She was not a good admin at all. Nobody liked her.

For me it's all about the benefits. What am I getting?- is it the knowledge from the people in the community? Is there some sort of incentive to be gained by being an active member? Is it an elite community which restricts new members accordingly? Is the community progressing?

The first thing that i look forward to in a forum is the community. If i see i don´t feel comfortable into a forum community, then i usually don´t get active. Then, i look for the skin. A nice and appealing skin really does mean a lot to me. Finally, the owner. A forum with a easy to contact owner is really good because you feel safe and secure, and can ask him anything at anytime, with all the respect of course.

true about the owner part, i hate being a part of a community were the owner is barley ever on and is near impossible to reach him

Agreed. Thats why this site is nice too. Very active, very nice skin, very nice and active admin, and a very nice community.

Definitely knowledge and people around place is what makes me contribute. Also there needs to be active participation as well.

If I see 1-6 subjects that I like n 3 minutes in that forum, I'm in .
In this case, I like this forum because I can make a dollar a day :P

~Altin

well i wanna post. and read topics and meet other people across the world. it is really good to know more about other people. and i get to learn so many things like about new technologies. i was a noob in almost anything about computers and internet and etc before. but when i joined forums i learned them all. and i am still learning.

THE MONEY!!!

No, really its the community and meeting virtual friends.

I like joining a friendly community, one that is welcoming, and the members and staff are nice and appreciate you taking the time to join and post on their community.

I join forums which look fun and enjoying, are progressing and staff and users which are nice. I also sometimes look at what you (as a user) will get for joining.