@redshift I ran a community website in England and what
@poweredbyme says is the key to a successful community website (or any website)
To beat Facebook you need to provide a better solution than Facebook. But it's also an option to integrate Facebook rather than challenge it and use it to your advantage since a large proportion of visitors will now use Facebook some or all of the time. I recommend using the .org extension or .org.uk if you are in the U.K. or .org.xx in other countries. Sections to add are 1. News 2. Business Directory 3. Jobs 4. Events 5. Traffic & Weather 6. Accommodation 7. Restaurants 8. Attractions. Beyond 8 menu tabs find somewhere else like a menu dropdown or the sidebar or footer. It doesn't take much time to update but it's very important to keep the main pages fresh with new content. Building the site will take the most time. Expect seasonal peaks and dips in traffic and linked to that seasonal peaks and troughs in ad revenue. The one thing that will make or break your site is how often you update it. That's why so many people either don't start or quit.