Jakob Nielsen in Stories From 1997 Revisited points out

….even though social software has become more important, community sites still face many of the same problems as in 1997. Most average websites can't run a "community" because of participation inequality, flaming, and many other downsides of multi-user systems.

Which actually confirms the selection for my master's thesis on improving communitiy member motivation and activities … it's a human thing.. not a tech thing… now it's out officially… I'm going to dig deeper into social science, psychology and sorts of similar stuff over the next year…

any support from you out there will be much appreciate….

If you are

running an online community

and are keen to know more about your users, why not let them participate in my research? For example one of my online surveys that I'll conduct about their habits, like's and dis-like's will help you in running your business as well…

At least that's what Jakob Nielsen says:

You're better off researching your own customers and designing to satisfy their needs than spending your time reading in-depth profiles of atypical websites and trying to emulate their atypical success.

please let me know,
christoph