Jeremy Liew over at Lightspeed Ventures had an interesting post today titled, “Top Social Networks For Engagement” where he proceeds to list out of the top social networks in rank of engagement. I was glad to see some lesser known communities like VampireFreaks, which I have covered before, on the list. Jeremy defines engagement by average pages per visitor per month, and average visits per user per month. I think Jeremy did a good job on the post, and he definitely includes a lot of valuable information. But the question that becomes most apparent to me is, is this the best way...

I think a lot of people don’t understand that when it comes to building an amazing online community, it is less about the features, and more about the environment that you create. Many have a hard time grasping this concept because a community’s environment is an intangible item. You can’t explain it in numbers, or paragraphs of text. Its just there. And if you partake in the community, you know when a kick ass environment exists, and when it doesn’t. Do features, design and UI help create the environment? Absolutely. But...