Tips for creating a community?

[bedes]

Hello! I'm looking into possibly creating a community for a series that doesn't have a community yet. Do any community-owners have any advice for keeping a fandom community active and fun? Is there a good place to interest-check a community, or do you just throw it to the wind and cross your fingers, so to speak? Where do you recommend promoting communities?

Thank you in advance!

Comments

[frith]

Well, you're already familiar with DW_Community_Promo and you're found a fandom community too so you've got a place to start promoting. As for content, the communities I maintain only tick along if I post stuff, otherwise, nothing happens.

[vriddy]

Oooh I'm delighted to see this and wish you the best of luck with your community!! I did that a couple of years ago, I created a comm for the Boku no Hero Academia series (bnha_fans) and documented my journey and thinking (also asked for a lot of advice along the way!), from what to think about before creating it to how to maintain some level of activity to where to promote it, etc.

It's all here: 'Creating a Dreamwidth community' Masterpost

And if this is too long, I also have a TL;DR post with the 2-3 points that I think made the most difference for my comm.

I hope you find something helpful in there! Best of luck with your new community! What series is it gonna be for? :)

[bedes]

Ooh, just skimming through your masterpost, there's already stuff on topics I was wondering about! This is EXACTLY the sort of resource I needed. Thank you so so much! (And the series is Dungeon Meshi!)

[vriddy]

You're very welcome, and now I'm even more excited! :) For the early posts, if a bit of reading doesn't scare you I can't recommend enough also reading the comments as I truly had no idea what I was doing. I refined my thinking a lot as I went, based on the advice people kindly shared.

And I'm extra delighted that this is going to be for an anime series! Dungeon Meshi has been on my list of shows I want to watch for a while so I'll prioritise that and you'll have your first member >:D

Another random suggestion, totally take it or leave it as you wish: something that ended up working out well at the beginning when I started the comm is organising a rewatch party and promoting that on anime_manga. I already wanted to rewatch anyway, but it brought on a couple of people who had been curious about BNHA and just hadn't had the time. If re-reading or re-watching is something that you had in mind anyway, this could work out nicely! If that sounds like work or not particularly fun though, forget about it ;)

[bedes]

Oooooh a rewatch party is a great idea!! Thank you again for the tip and tysm for your interest as well! <3