I see, I dont really know about this lol. How active was MA when it was first founded though? I saw it had like about 20 new registration on its first day in public.
Well MA is indeed a quite user-friendly adoptables site building tool. Mys is not really the same as MA though, we are more of a public script/software, while MA is like a hosting service. To increase Mys' popularity, we need not only to add more features, but also increase its user-friendliness, especially easy admin control. If you ever wondered, Vbulletin has the most powerful admin system among forum softwares, which makes it way better than IPB, Mybb, Phpbb and any others. Sounds complicated, doesnt it? The idea of 'network externality' also explains why MA gets this popular. The more people use it, the more useful it becomes of.
Incase you were wondering, MA's community was formed on its own. It is quite amazing how this turns out to be. BMR did all these advertising work to get more people into using MA's hosting service, but MA forum staff were those who made an active community out of every MA user. To some extent, MA community's success cannot be cloned, it is a rather complicated story. I try my best though, and I appreciate whoever offer ideas and suggestions.