Community Life Cycle
社区生命周期

The lessons offered by Usenet are relearned by just about every online forum, usually in the most painful manner possible. This sequence of events, repeated often enough to be called an archetype, runs as follows:

The Beginning, when there were only a few people, and everyone cared and things didn't quite work the way they were supposed to and the inner workings of the software was clear and comprehensible. The unwritten rules and meta-rules make their first appearance, often mirroring the attitudes and personalities of the founders.

开始，当这里只有少数的一些人的时候，每个人关心的、每件事情都是如何更好宣传社区，更好在程序上改进社区。一些未成文的规章制度慢慢的确定下来，而且这些规章制度往往都是社区建设者的美好的初衷，并反映着社区管理者的喜好、性格，很有人性化。

The Golden Age, when you could always count on interesting interchanges, most of the personalities are familiar but there are enough new faces for things to be interesting. During this phase the software achieves a relatively stable form, the unwritten rules are written down so that they need not be explained and reexplained, it's a period of growth and discovery.

黄金时代，当你希望获得新的有趣的信息的时候，总是会出现不同性格的人，他们有着不同的人格魅力，导致这个社区百家争鸣，欣欣向荣。而且这个时候的社区功能程序上经过前期的调整已经相对来说比较稳定，指定了相当完善的规章制度，使得管理员不必要一遍又一遍的解释着规则。这个时候是社区告诉创新和发展的时期。

The Decline, the formation of cliques and factions, incidents of abuse, of intellectual violence and namecalling. The software becomes encrusted with patches and extensions, the unwritten rules are flouted regularly and the meta-rules all but forgotten. It is a time of either shrinking membership, or overwhelming growth.

成熟期，分帮分派，管理混乱，滥用非常规的手段，无聊的争执，空洞的思想。社区功能程序像绣花枕头一样，虽然增加了很多功能，但是都是没有实质上进步的不中看不中用。有人，渐渐的多起来的人开始打破保持的很平衡的默契规章制度。这个时候，社区情况表现为在线人数的下降，会员的萎缩，社区发展的停滞不前。

The Fall, an incident, whether social or technical that makes everybody realize that things aren't like they used to be. It usually leads to a revision or addition to the software as this is the easiest thing to fix.

没落阶段，社区的许多情况，无论人的问题还是程序的问题，都让人意思到社区已经不是原来的社区了。这个时候社区管理者最容易的补救方式是对社区的升级或者大规模的增加社区功能。

The Diaspora (suggested by PeterMerel) Is the process of people moving on to found new CommUnities or join others, often spreading mannerisms and ideas from one forum to the broader set that is the InterNet.