by Jim Cashel

In his seven years at the Motley Fool, David Forrest has enjoyed many responsibilities, including overseeing community strategy and initiatives. Earlier this year the Fool converted the popular communities to a subscriber model. We caught up with David on that switch and other current happenings.

You granted us a terrific interview a year ago. What has happened to the Fool since then with respect to community?

2001 was a tough year for everyone, and The Motley Fool is no exception. With the steep decline in both the stock market and the advertising markets, we tightened our belt and didn't spend much time developing new features for our customers. What's amazing to me, however, is that in such a tough environment, we were able to grow our unique visitor base and the size of our community actually grew. It became apparent to us that the difficult stock market environment was causing our members to come closer together as they supported one another. There was a group catharsis of sorts, that I really think tightened up the relationships. It also kept people coming to the site every day.