I have gotten to know so many new people with several from out side the USA. 6 months ago I would have never dreamed that I would regularly chat with someone form Australia and Belgium!

I like to stay at home so this gives me the social interaction that I want, when I want it. :)

However, I would like redefine how you describe your approach here (which may sound odd since the community hosted on the pirillo.com domains are clearly among the most successfull on the web);

A communitys lifecycles is pretty much the same as any products lifecycles; you create it, you puts it on the market, it grows in popularity, it hits the peak in popularity, it starts to decline – *unless* you revitalize the product/community – with new options, new admins, new possibilities.

How to create a successfull community is in many ways very simply – at least in theory;
- make people aware of the community
- bring in “lighttowers”, people who attract other people – and keeep newcomers in the community

Communities can be so many different things – it could be forum based (the most common ones), it could be netvideo based (very uncommon), it could be based on visual interaction (3D worlds or flash based chat). And there exists numerous subgroups within these definitions as well (clans in Counterstrike may be considered a good example of such a subgroup).

Another thing is what kind of demographics the community is targetet towards – which can be rather difficult to control. These things tends to live their own lifes. Try creating a community centered on anime and you’ll get everyone from preteengirls to fat, forty and finnished males joining in. Of course, creating a community about NASDAC car races will *mostly* bring in the male population, but these are not really things you can control very well. It is often the community itself that decides what direction it is going to take. A community is a living organism after all.

Unlike what you write in this blog, I do not regard personal interest in the communitys focusarea matters at all. You just need to find the right kind of people to function as lighttowers.

But a couple of other point that I believe is often overlooked, are these:
- get good software to serve as the foundation for the community
- offer stability by having as little downtime as possible

Nothing kills a budding – or existing – community as having downtime. It takes a long time to build up a community, but a very short time to tear everything down again. One should at least have a backupplan based on newsletters if the core platform should go down.

A lot more could be said about communities when it comes to how to attract the right kind of people, communication in general, establishing connections with other similar or complementary communities, setting up for future mergers, turning the community into a potential source of income, establishing policies and getting people to follow these ups etc. But then it would be me writing that book, and not your new friend Lon.

I heard another guy put it very similarly: “The kingdom of God is within you”, only some say it “… is among you,” which is kind of a “plural you” version of “within you.”

Regardless of the fact that it comes from a particular religious tradition, it is true. The kingdom of God, or the community of Geeks is among you.

Actually, I sometimes say “in the amongness of you” — the Kingdom of God or the Community of Geeks is both within each member and in their interconnectedness.