This is what i believe

1: Content - If a site have bad content then no one will want to come to that site

2: Interactivity - What i mean by this is that, i would like to have site visitors be able to comment and rate the site content. *It took me a long time for this to happen. Thankfully site users can now comment and rate EVERYTHING on my site.

3: Organization - Even thou you may have a great site, with tons of content and interactivity. If your site is not organized then visitors may not want to spend the time navigating your site to reach the content they want to see

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Neocrisis.com - Your gaming and anime source

4: Less Advertisements - Don't flood your pages with lots of advertisements. Pop-ups and pop-unders are really annoying and can drive away your visitors (and potential customers, if you run an eCommerce site). Limit your number of advertisement units to one or two banners / half-banners per page.

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Webmaster Forum

5) Regularly Updated: Its ridicule to see a website not updated for so long and soon the existing visitors start to leave and believe me thats true hehe

I think you guys have just about got it all about right so far to be honest.
Agree with everything so far; but additionally and particularly with forums - Moderation, and the way in which staff deal with users is very important to a site and its success.

well my forum is not that active so its not a big issue rite now
and i talk to some of the forum users on MSN

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Neocrisis.com - Your gaming and anime source

content is king (especially the sticky and viral stuff)
then I agree the organization and great modding is important.

Also I think it need's to be visually appealing (this touches on the less is more approach to ads)

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