Actually, you want both. You want new lifeblood, and you want both new and existing members to return again and again.
It's a good thing to have a thriving community. For that to happen, you need to attract new people on a continuing basis. Inevitably, there is always some ongoing attrition. When Politijab began, it quickly developed into a great, thriving community (despite my initial expectations). But if I made a list of all the wonderful contributors from those early days who eventually drifted away for one reason or another, it would be lengthy. It would also make me haz a sad.
Then I kinda got sucked into running Fogbow. I won't rehash the past. I never had any real desire to be moderator or admin of a forum. I was asked to fill those roles at PJ, and I agreed to help. Then a situation developed that required some sort of solution or things were going to fall apart, and the best solution I could see was for me to create Fogbow. It's a lot of work, but I've made a commitment to it. Since the day Fogbow came online, I have worked hard to improve it. My 9 year old son said the other day, "You must be really proud of what you've built." Yes, I'm proud of my creation. I'm also humbled by the great people I get to pal around with.
We've been very lucky so far. We have constantly attracted a new stream of great contributors, and we have kept a core group. We have quite a number of members who don't post often (or at all, some of them), but who log in daily and monitor recent developments in Birtherstan.
The stats are really just a nerdy thing. I'm not even 100% sure I understand them. I think I can legitimately claim that I've had more than 1.2 million "hits" over the past three months. Beyond that, maybe Uncle Spike or somebody who really knows about web stats will interpret the charts for us. I'm just glad that things are going well. And as I mentioned in another thread, this here political junkie is just SO excited to be part of this great community with another presidential election just over the horizon.
I know! Huh?
