Jim,
I believe that the success of the ICC forum; wasn't that it had 14,000 people sign in; but, that it was a wealth of knowledge and code information. When we lost the forum I had many people; who had signed in and read our posts but, never posted; contact me (I put my e-mail address on several of my last posts); and asked where we went. Many said they enjoyed the banter and especially reading how the codes were applied in other jurisdictions.
In reality, out of the 14,000; there were only a couple of hundered that posted regularly; and some came and went. But, it was always "the to go place" for code questions and code related problems that occur in all jurisdictions.
You could look up just about anything you had a question on; and get a variety of ways many problems were handled all across the States. Instead of a "hire hand"; you could get code questions answered by people who worked in the real world with the codes.
The ease of use; and the fact that the ICC site was used by virtually all people who used the internet to obtain information about the codes and code related products; made it popular; especially the ease of use.
The archives held a wealth of information; including how different jurisdictions solved problems.
There were also some very informed members who kept you on your toes and made sure that the answers were well thought out. I believe this inspired others to read the codes and become better informed; especially before they entered the fray. The passion of the these members is what made the forum "The Great Place" to go for real information.
Each stood by their statements and backed them up with real code quotes; and many explained the whys and history of the codes; much better than the ICC "experts?" could. You could see how the codes were applied and the reasoning behind the decisions.
When we government code employees were stumped or stepped out, into an area that we were incompetent in; some very knowledgeable Builders, Contractors, Engineers and Architects; were there to straighten us out.
Being on the ICCs website put the forum in plan view and location; of course; is everything.
Location, a variety of experts, experienced professionals, their passion for their view, and ease of use; were the main reasons for it's success.
We have approximately 291 people who have logged on to this site (according to Jeff's count) as of April 27, 2010; and about 60 to 70 who post at least once a month (according to my going through the post for the last month and counting).
Kool, it only failed to post 2 times before finally posting. If you type a long post; you might want to save it in case you get the "your not logged in" page instead of it being posted.
Uncle Bob