Follow Friday 3-18-22

[ysabetwordsmith]

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die". Just introduce us to some new things to read.

Comments

Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

My post this week recommends communities about books and movies.

Re: Done!

[vriddy]

So many cool comm concepts! I joined a couple.

Re: Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yay! I love hearing that.

There are so many cool communities, active and dormant. Lots of people want communities for their favorite topics. All we need to do is put the two together.

[vexed_wench]

Oh the spn_bigpretzel com moved to DW.If you're looking for a happy no-man pain Supernatural com you should check this one out.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Thanks for the notice. I hope folks will keep an eye out for communities or individual blogs migrating from LJ to DW. It tends to happen in waves, and with Russia being a bottom-ten butthead, that's likely to happen again.

Re: Done!

[vriddy]

Yes!! There's a conversation happening on my journal about how people are finding communities intimidating to post in. More of a jumble of thoughts after reading someone else's post but perhaps you'll find it interesting as well! The comments have given me a lot to think about.

Re: Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have noticed a related problem, or more likely, a cause of that problem.

A lot of communities seem to be just plain hostile to newcomers. Repeatedly I have made a post only to have people bitch about it. This happens even though:
* I read the profile and any posts I can find about how to structure posts for that community.
* I look at other posts and mimic their style.
* I am a professional writer and quite good at matching style.
* The community has low or no other traffic.

Now, I'm social Teflon, I don't care a lot about what other people think. I just delete that community and stop recommending it, because I don't want to point people to what is likely to be a negative experience.

But what is this doing to people who are new to Dreamwidth and/or blogging? Who aren't professional writers, and maybe not confident about their writing? The ones who have anxiety, imposter syndrome, or some other issue that makes socializing risky and difficult, disapproval downright devastating? I'm not liking those odds. And I think they explain a lot about why people on Dreamwidth say they want community, but so many of the communities are dead. >_<

I have found that it's more effective to put my energy into hosting communities. I make a point of designing them to be easygoing and inclusive. They have descriptions of what they're about and guide posts that talk about how to participate. They actively encourage folks to join the fun.

One of the things I did after the Snowflake Challenge was adopt a couple of communities to revitalize. I'm delighted to see Follow Friday perking up with multiple folks participating. :D I'm also working on three_weeks_for_dw, which has its active event April 25-May 15. There were others whose topics I liked, but whose atmosphere I did not. *shrug* I have plenty of other places to put my time and energy.

So I would say, look for a few friendly communities to participate in, and if you can't find what you want, then start your own and make it as welcoming and flexible as possible. Don't "should" on people. Invite them to have fun, and you'll attract more that way. Network with other community organizers to promote events, attract new members, and boost activity.