>... as for Rinkworks, I don't know what is it with it. Perhaps it has just formed into a good community on its own.

It probably has to do with the size of the Rinkworks community and the way the message forum is structured.

There's a small feeling here at RW. I think that there's about a dozen or so people I consider regulars and about a dozen more who come and post for a while before leaving. However, when looking over the recent messages page (or the different accounts of Rinkunions), it is clear that there are several dozen of people who fit that nebulous "regular" title.

This is unlike several other online communities I've seen -- I remember when the Home Theater Forum had only 3000 registered members. Now there's almost 40,000. Usenet... I remembered when there were only a few hundred newsgroups. Ah, I'm older than you.

The other thing is how the message forum isn't split into diverse groupings. The HTF has about eight different major bulletin board divisions with at least two boards in each division. It's easy for someone to stay in just one section and never experience everything in the forum there. Here, the only division is this forum and the hints for AGL games forum. Everyone gathers in one place; everyone meets each other.

-FP