What are the main reasons people leave online communities?
I think different users leave for different reasons and in order to answer more or less correctly we need to talk about fresh users and old timers separately.
Let’s start with people who’ve just joined a community and made their first contribution on the site. To stay on the platform these people need to form some kind of attachment to the group either through the topic of the community and the platform itself, or through relationships with other users. Until a person forms the attachment, any negative experience can drive them away from the community. Literally, anything.
Old time users, on the other hand, are more resistant to negative experience and negativity towards them. Because they already have “their people” on the site or identify themselves via participation in the community. Of course, everyone has their red line, but by and large, the biggest danger for such users comes from the community itself. Its name is drama. Drama separates people, damages relationships and destroys trust. Serious conflicts in the community, if not handled correctly, can kill the whole community.