When's a community successful?

We did AMA with Carter Gibson who is a Program Lead for Internal Community Management at Google. Highlight!

Mo: When's a community successful?

Carter: First off, I like that this question is phrased as, "When is.." as opposed to, "What makes..." Two totally different questions and the, "What makes..." question has been answered a million times.

I'm not sure that there's ever one exact moment when you know a community is successful. Even the thriving communities I've managed in the past have left me wondering, "Did we create something horrible?" at the end of the day. Communities ebb and flow from great successes to major disappointments - and that's normal! But there are moments that make me go, "Yes. That's it." Some of them are...

1. Someone who's normally hard on the community team stands up for it in the middle of a crisis and can articulate your / the community's intentions.
2. You can leave the community for a week without stress.
3. Self-moderation happens more often than CMs doing it.
4. There's a steady flow of quality content being shared and frequent visits from members are rewarding.

What do you think about this? When do you think a community is successful? Would love to hear your thoughts.

If you want to take a look at full AMA you can check out here.