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People who have run events on Tildes or maintaining long running series of posts, any lessons or advices?
There's a thing or two I'm thinking of trying and I want to brace myself in case I'm biting up more than I can chew.
Edit: Personal takeaways from the attempts are also well appreciated
This is the most important step by far. Without notification pings, people who are interested in your topics WILL miss posts.
Most of the stuff I run gets anywhere from 5 to 15 people for any particular event. If you evaluate that in terms of "internet numbers" where people measure engagement and followers in the thousands and millions, it can feel disappointingly low.
On the other hand, if you look at it through the human lens of "ten people took the time and effort to participate", it feels a thousand or million times better. The events I run and participate in here have a small, cozy, intimate feeling, which I've come to love.
Not everyone will be up for every event all the time. Some people will commit but then not be able to follow through. It's simply the way of the world. Don't take it personally.
A number of events here have changed and iterated over time due to feedback, but it's good to remember that if you're running the event, then you have to be the one to make the final calls on how things go. This can be difficult if you're getting feedback that's in conflict (e.g. someone saying we should do something more often, and someone else saying we should do it less frequently).
If you're the one coordinating, then make the judgment calls and move forward, even if it doesnt necessarily please everyone. An event that actually runs is better than one that gets bogged down with meta-discussion about how it could hypothetically be better.
Try stuff out! Be creative! For every event I've had that sticks, I've also had ones that havent really worked (anyone remember Screenless Days?). It's hard to know what the community will click with, so try out whatever you're feeling and see how they respond. The worst thing that can happen is the topic just sort of falls off the front page with no discussion, so there's no harm in trying ANYTHING out and seeing how it goes.
You'll have some people who will join on in the beginning and "get" how whatever it is you're doing works, but as the event continues, you'll likely have new joiners who don't necessarily know the lay of the land. Having easily accessible onboarding info helps them jump in easily.
Giving your posts a unique tag means that people can see all of them at once. For example: here are all the CGA posts we've had. This helps keep all your posts "under one roof" so to speak. It also means that people can filter them out if they wish. When I started the Save Point topics, I knew that some people wouldn't want to see advertising-adjacent content in their feed, so the unique name and tag lets people avoid it.
I run the Backlog Burners, but they wouldn't be nearly as great as they are without @Wes who stepped in to help me out with a zany bingo card idea I had. For CGA, we have a rotating set of hosts that makes the event way better and more dynamic than if it were just me posting every month. This site is full of great people with a variety of skillsets, so don't hesitate to ask for assistance with any ideas (like you're doing right now!).
A lot of stuff is reusable from one event to the next. Timasomo is almost entirely a copy/paste job each year, for example, which makes running it go a lot more smoothly and take a lot less time.
If you're finding that your topic is getting low engagement, it could simply be the fact that it's not sitting near the top of the site. I don't recommend spamming or anything, but taking on an "emcee" role where you respond to people, ask questions, or update on your own progress helps keep the topic "alive" and more likely to be seen by others.
It might take a few tries before the event really gains traction. The first week of the original Backlog Burner had 9 comments, 3 of which were mine. Contrast that with the first week of our most recent one which had 88 comments. Also the current BB looks COMPLETELY different than the original one because we’ve changed so much since then. Building something regular can take time.
An actual attempt at starting something is better than a hypothetical one that never happens. If you’ve got cool ideas, it’s better to get them out there rather than trying to perfect them first. Don’t stall out in the planning — just go for the post and fix/build things over time.
That's all I've got for now off the top of my head, but if anything more comes to me I'll add it.
Also, feel free to ask about anything specific and I'm happy to help in whatever way I can.
As somebody who LOVES the Backlog Burner events, even as a lurker, but has only had the opportunity to fully participate a single time, please know that your (and @Wes’s) efforts are seen and truly appreciated! I know it’s far from the only thing you do on Tildes, but they are always a bright spot for me!
I do always wonder how many people we have passively participating by reading the comments rather than playing their own games. It’s hard to get a pulse on that, especially on a privacy-conscious site like Tildes, so your kind words mean a lot to me. Thank you!
Also you’re always welcome to join again as an active participant whenever you like! 😁
Hahaha Screenless Days sounds awesome. It's a good idea that is just incongruent with the medium. Who would post? They're all screenless!
I like how you added this one because it's a good reminder that not every idea works out. Everyone in their life has a few ideas that fail when theory meets practice. Even good ideas fail! Screenless Days is one of those ideas that only failed because you can't know how it'll pan out beforehand. The best part is having tried it.. though knowing when to bin an idea is a good lesson too.
Oh, I definitely have way more that didn’t pan out too!
There was a time where I tried to get people in a Steam group so we could use steamgifts.com as the platform for game key raffles. In my mind, it was perfect: everybody would join, people could add new games up for grabs as needed, and that site handles the raffle entries, selection, and distribution, all limited to the members of our Steam group. Perfect! So easy!
Except: I vastly underestimated how much people were skeeved out by linking their Steam account to a third-party site. It’s something that a normal person would raise an eyebrow at, but it’s essentially a complete non-starter for the hyper-privacy-conscious crowd that this site tends to attract.
I can attest that the site is legit. I’ve used it for years and given away literally over a thousand games there. It is genuinely an excellent way to get rid of unwanted game keys fairly.
But my attempt to get it going here went over like a lead balloon. 😂
So I stuck with the more traditional and less frightening method of on-site PMs for our game giveaways. It’s a bit more legwork for me, but it also gets a lot more participation.
I also genuinely feel bad about AlbumLove. I think there was a good idea there, and a few people seemed to REALLY love it, but I didn’t put in enough effort to give it the momentum it needed. I also thing, if I remember correctly, I was also a bit overextended at the time anyway so it felt better to let it go than try to make it work.
Woah that's a lot of detailed advices, thank you very much for writing all this down. Guess I can just have an initial check in with people at some point and see where it goes from there.
One thing that makes me hesitant to start is the time commitment. I tend to get excited about one thing early on then have it dropped off midway because another thing caught my attention. It'd be a shame if people were left hanging because OP couldn't keep a schedule haha.
I was about to ask you for another screenless day. I think I participated in the first one, and it was sort of terrifying as well as illuminating. Would totally participate if you did it again.
I’m 100% down to run it again if people are interested.
Quick poll to gauge interest: if a Screenless Day event sounds like something you’d be interested in, please vote on this comment or reply to it.
(Not intending this to be a fully formal poll by the way, just a quick temperature check on the idea)
You are the one who came into my mind instantly. We cannot thank you enough for what you do/organize for us and you are perfect example on how to do this. Thank you!
I do the Formula 1 race weekend posts. Definitely agree with what Kfwyre says. I've basically used the same template for the last 3 years, with some adjustments here and there. Makes it real easy to dump the quali/races results into the template and post it.
The one big thing I've noticed is that it's not enough to just start the post. There have been some weekends where because a race is super late at night or super early in the morning, I'll make the post, but I won't leave a comment or anything. Because I just want to sleep. And then I forget later on to go back and say something. Those are often the worst performing posts. Maybe one or two comments from others. Essentially, I have to "start the conversation."
Once comments start popping up, I'll try to respond to others, to get some discussion going. It doesn't have to be a lot of discussion. But at least it's something.
Yeah I get it, kinda like if you invite people to party you should also prepare some food and music.
How do you ensure to always have something to say? I think it's natural to feel that most of your thoughts are not that interesting to share and only wanted to comment when you feel it's "substantial" enough. This feeling likely applies to everyone but probably also makes it harder for a host to stay consistent.
Honestly? I don't always have something to say, lol. Like some races are just like, "Hmm, that was boring." But I gotta say something! In many ways, as a community builder -- and that's what I think the role is -- I gotta play the part. I am the "host," so I gotta try to be the host. If people need an "ice breaker" comment, then I'll provide one. Even if it's kinda meh.
Not everything has to be profound. I know here on Tildes it often feels like comments have to be academic and dissertation-like. I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but others have definitely pointed out that before about this site and community. And that's what prevents them from doing more than just lurking. The fear of not having something "substantial" to say. Which is unfortunate, to say the least.
The point of the community builder or host, I think, is to nudge things along. You don't have to be the heart of the party. If the topic is interesting, and people are conserving, that will usually get others talking. But someone has to start it, and that's usually the host. Also, the topic doesn't have to be long-lasting. If people are done with it after a day, so be it.
I run the B5 rewatch in ~tv, that is mostly dependent on a YouTube channel, I have a time frame when it comes up and make a new topic out of it with the tracking data cut off from the YouTube URL. I copy the title format from the previous entry as well as the list of tags from thread to thread since a lot of it still applies.