The platform's purpose identifies the members’ needs and identifies the owner’s goals. Elements of evaluation for the platforms are the clarity, visibility and idealism of its purpose.

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The platform needs monitoring by moderators and other users to keep the platform a pleasant working environment. Regulation will help to make the expected behaviour clear and can be referred to when violated.

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What would a platform be without its members? Members should be able to build up an identity on the platform using a profile. For long lasting communities, the platform should recruit and trigger new members to contribute and stimulate the current members’ involvement.

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The platform should offer mechanisms that support members to find common ground. Members should be able to subdivide from the community to form intimate subgroups in order to accommodate growth and prevent becoming too diverse.

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Stimulating members to contribute to the platform, can be one of the toughest tasks of the platform [29]. The platform should show what other members have contributed, make a certain appeal to the members by targeted requests and have a clear description of the request. It is important that the threshold before contribution is adequate and that there are enough intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for the members to contribute.

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The platform should present itself to its members with a unique position compared to competitors, having a visual professional appearance, a trustworthy reputation and motive. The platform should offer tools that help fulfil its purpose. The members can create certain rituals over time and their actions should be visible, giving a feeling of a populated space.

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