Meet Joe. He’s an amateur web developer who’s just starting to receive a good feedback, a steady stream of traffic, and maybe even some revenue from his website. So Joe decides to kick it up a notch and add a forum. After all, everyone else is doing it—how hard can it be? So Joe downloads some bulletin board software and fancy skins to make his forums sexy, creates 20 topical sub-forums, and starts posting. All he needs to do now is sit back and watch the membership grow.

Unfortunately, the members Joe expects never arrive. He talks a few friends into signing up and posting here and there, but his friends don’t share his enthusiasm for the website, so they don’t stick around. Joe’s prepared for a party…and nobody showed up. What happened?