If you are missing those elements, community will elude you. Empty discussion rooms lie about like ghost towns, silent testaments to how tricky it can be to build and maintain an online community. Understanding the economics of community and these seven golden rules will help you avoid a similar fate. Let's start with a concrete definition to clarify what we mean by community. You need interaction to build a support economy.
Interaction online happens through conversation, on message boards or in chat rooms.
A group that continues to interact may, over time, form relationships and bonds of trust that lead to exchanges of support. That support brings value back to its members, and to you, their host. This ongoing giving and receiving of support is the support economy that turns a group of people who share an affinity into a strong community to which its members feel they belong. Any economy, whether based on currency or support, depends on openness, freedom, honesty, trust, and tolerance. This is why business relationships are so important.