We were part of a forum that started 486 days before we sailed. Over that time almost 2,500 posts were made with over 30,000 page views.
A great deal of information was shared, questions asked and answered.
Our group grew to 150+ people that we met finally at the Meet & Mingle the Royal Caribbean puts on for free on a sailing day outbound. Beyond the M&M we organized other actives aboard ship with those that read the forum and wanted to participate.