How do you determine forum success?

[Rex]

Some people will say by post count or member count and others will start talking about revenue and what not. But how do YOU determine forum success, and have you reached it yet?

[_Fatal]

When I have people comming back daily, posting daily, and are enjoying everything in the forums.

[LeeD]

I think having a steady 500+ posts a day is a definite sign of success and a strong community.

When a forum accomplishes its goals, it's successful. My site is tiny. One or two members a week. Not much activity. It's highly successful.

Why? Because the goal of the forum is to demonstrate to potential clients my expertise in my field, and to cultivate a network of willing sub-contractors and partners.

[cpvr]

Originally Posted by LeeD

I think having a steady 500+ posts a day is a definite sign of success and a strong community.

I agree, and not just posts, but new topics as well.

[Norman]

It needs professionality from part of the staff, preparation, some users, an... lucky!

:paranoid:

Your forum is succesfull when you like it how things are running Even with 30 users it can be very succesfull. Like tgreer says: It depends on what your goals are.

[cyberman]

I think based on the number of people online !!!

[bairy]

I have a vB board mainly so I can hack it // learn php from it.

To me:
Having a hack actually do what I want it to without destroying the database is a success!
Having people use anything I hack and telling me it was a good idea is a success.

I've got 20-30 returning members daily, 50-60 guests daily (excl. search bots) - 2 or 3 of which register and 1 of which becomes a new poster. The board is 7 months old and had a good start, slow middle and is now picking right up again. That's a success.

[Rex]

I guess it would depend on your goals. But what do you think the average goals of an admin are?