Nadi HQ
Why members leave, and what keeps them: six findings, with sources
Every community loses members. The question is why, and what can be done. This is what we found in published research, with sources.
One reply to a first post changes everything. A study of 2,777 newcomers: those who got a reply to their first post posted again 56% of the time; those who did not, 44%. Strikingly, the quality of the reply made no difference. What mattered was that one arrived. Joyce & Kraut, JCMC, 2006.
Life begins at twenty members. Across hundreds of thousands of communities on seven platforms: below twenty, activity is sporadic, about two posts per member. At around twenty