Signup Post: Community Thursdays in 2025
Tuesday, December 31st, 2024 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
goals_on_dwCommunity Thursday was started in 2022 by goodbyebird.
On Thursdays I'll make an effort to engage with communities on dw in one way or another, be it by commenting, posting, reccing, and so on. Heck, even creating a community, or doing mod work for said community. I'll then talk about what I got up to in my journal, using the Community Thursdays tag.
This will not only bring light to new communities for folks, but also bring some much needed life back into them.
The goal is for bloggers to support communities and thereby keep them active. Be aware that Dreamwidth has a vast sink of dormant or dead communities, so it's vitally important to preserve the ones we love. There are various approaches to doing this challenge. See below for some ideas...
Finding and Creating Communities
* To find thematic lists of currently active communities, watchfollowfriday. You can also recommend your favorite communities there; that's what it's for. Also keep an eye on ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
dw_community_promo to find new communities or seasonally active ones starting a new round. Some other communities post periodic promos there too. Joining communities helps you find other folks who share your interests.
* Choose a set of favorite communities to support regularly. Posting once a week or once a month is great for maintaining activity so other folks want to participate.
* Go through your list of subscribed communities with the aim of interacting in each. A community may be considered low traffic rather than dormant if it has at least one post per year. Check the date on the last post. If it's within the last several months, commenting is fine. Longer than that, a new post -- even a short one -- will likely do more good.
It's a good idea to check your subscription list at least once a year. Are some of your old subscriptions dead, dormant, or no longer of interest? Unsubscribe from them so it's easier to see your current ones. Are you new or otherwise have a short list of communities? Search for communities based on your interests and add some more.
* If there is no community for your favorite topic, then create one. See the 'Creating a Dreamwidth community' Masterpost byvriddy for ideas. Recurring posts are helpful for activating a new community.
Interacting with Communities
There are lots of ways you can interact with communities on Community Thursdays.
* First, make a Community Thursdays tag and add it to your Interests. This helps people find your posts and your blog, and thereby, the communities you will be featuring.
* Next, comment below this post to commit to this challenge in 2025. This not only helps more people find your posts, it also promotes your favorite communities and builds a list of participants that interested readers can follow.
* Creating and moderating communities have the biggest impacts. Without this, we wouldn't have any to enjoy. It's a significant commitment, though, because communities need someone devoted to keeping them active or else they die out. Ideally, find at least a few friends who share your interests and are willing to help you launch a new community. Spreading out the work gives it a better chance of survival.
* Volunteering is another high-impact option. Some communities offer opportunities where you can do a thing for a day, a week, a month, or some other timeframe. For instance,snowflake_challenge in January has a host for each day's challenge. allbingo has a different fest each month, as you can see on the Community Calendar 2025. This is a great way to gain experience before trying to launch a community of your own.
* Posting keeps communities active. Without recent posts, people stop interacting, new people don't want to join, and then the community dies out. Most people consider a community active if it posts at least once a week to once a month. For seasonally active communities, it should have been active during its proper timeframe. At least one post a year is the minimum for low activity, below which people likely consider it dormant and ignore it. Check the communities you love and, if they don't have a recent post, make one. Usually it doesn't need to be long, just relevant.
* Commenting keeps post active and thereby motivates people to make more posts. It sucks to spend a lot of time making a post only to have everyone ignore it. Commenting is a fast, easy way to keep communities lively. See "How to Make Constructive Comments" or Lew's guide to leaving long and detailed comments on fic. Also, How to Hack the Snowflake Challenge touches on the art of making comments including examples of comments that everyone loves. Commenting is a great option for folks who want to keep communities alive but don't have a ton of time or energy for it.
If you want to commit to the Fannish 50 goal for next year, then you can sign up with a comment under this post using the form below:
Name:
My Community Thursdays entries will be posted at: (place your tag URL here)
Communities I moderate: (list your own communities if any)
My favorite communities: (list those you frequent or plan to support)
My theme: (mixed / single / none, and what it is if any)
My journal status: (friends only / friends only except public challenge posts / filters / open)
Other details: (main fandoms or other topics, standard content warnings, seeking friends, etc.)
Anything else you want to share:
Participants
*luvbarryfefe at Community Thursdays tag
*prisca at Community Thursdays tag
.
goodbyebird. On Thursdays I'll make an effort to engage with communities on dw in one way or another, be it by commenting, posting, reccing, and so on. Heck, even creating a community, or doing mod work for said community. I'll then talk about what I got up to in my journal, using the Community Thursdays tag.
This will not only bring light to new communities for folks, but also bring some much needed life back into them.
The goal is for bloggers to support communities and thereby keep them active. Be aware that Dreamwidth has a vast sink of dormant or dead communities, so it's vitally important to preserve the ones we love. There are various approaches to doing this challenge. See below for some ideas...
Finding and Creating Communities
* To find thematic lists of currently active communities, watch
followfriday. You can also recommend your favorite communities there; that's what it's for. Also keep an eye on dw_community_promo to find new communities or seasonally active ones starting a new round. Some other communities post periodic promos there too. Joining communities helps you find other folks who share your interests.* Choose a set of favorite communities to support regularly. Posting once a week or once a month is great for maintaining activity so other folks want to participate.
* Go through your list of subscribed communities with the aim of interacting in each. A community may be considered low traffic rather than dormant if it has at least one post per year. Check the date on the last post. If it's within the last several months, commenting is fine. Longer than that, a new post -- even a short one -- will likely do more good.
It's a good idea to check your subscription list at least once a year. Are some of your old subscriptions dead, dormant, or no longer of interest? Unsubscribe from them so it's easier to see your current ones. Are you new or otherwise have a short list of communities? Search for communities based on your interests and add some more.
* If there is no community for your favorite topic, then create one. See the 'Creating a Dreamwidth community' Masterpost by
vriddy for ideas. Recurring posts are helpful for activating a new community.Interacting with Communities
There are lots of ways you can interact with communities on Community Thursdays.
* First, make a Community Thursdays tag and add it to your Interests. This helps people find your posts and your blog, and thereby, the communities you will be featuring.
* Next, comment below this post to commit to this challenge in 2025. This not only helps more people find your posts, it also promotes your favorite communities and builds a list of participants that interested readers can follow.
* Creating and moderating communities have the biggest impacts. Without this, we wouldn't have any to enjoy. It's a significant commitment, though, because communities need someone devoted to keeping them active or else they die out. Ideally, find at least a few friends who share your interests and are willing to help you launch a new community. Spreading out the work gives it a better chance of survival.
* Volunteering is another high-impact option. Some communities offer opportunities where you can do a thing for a day, a week, a month, or some other timeframe. For instance,
snowflake_challenge in January has a host for each day's challenge. allbingo has a different fest each month, as you can see on the Community Calendar 2025. This is a great way to gain experience before trying to launch a community of your own.* Posting keeps communities active. Without recent posts, people stop interacting, new people don't want to join, and then the community dies out. Most people consider a community active if it posts at least once a week to once a month. For seasonally active communities, it should have been active during its proper timeframe. At least one post a year is the minimum for low activity, below which people likely consider it dormant and ignore it. Check the communities you love and, if they don't have a recent post, make one. Usually it doesn't need to be long, just relevant.
* Commenting keeps post active and thereby motivates people to make more posts. It sucks to spend a lot of time making a post only to have everyone ignore it. Commenting is a fast, easy way to keep communities lively. See "How to Make Constructive Comments" or Lew's guide to leaving long and detailed comments on fic. Also, How to Hack the Snowflake Challenge touches on the art of making comments including examples of comments that everyone loves. Commenting is a great option for folks who want to keep communities alive but don't have a ton of time or energy for it.
If you want to commit to the Fannish 50 goal for next year, then you can sign up with a comment under this post using the form below:
Name:
My Community Thursdays entries will be posted at: (place your tag URL here)
Communities I moderate: (list your own communities if any)
My favorite communities: (list those you frequent or plan to support)
My theme: (mixed / single / none, and what it is if any)
My journal status: (friends only / friends only except public challenge posts / filters / open)
Other details: (main fandoms or other topics, standard content warnings, seeking friends, etc.)
Anything else you want to share:
Participants
*
luvbarryfefe at Community Thursdays tag*
prisca at Community Thursdays tag.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 04:48 am (UTC)My Community Thursdays entries will be posted at: here
Communities I moderate: (both of them are very quiet at the moment TBH but that's why I am participating in this: to hopefully get them hopping lol)
*
*
My favorite communities: (These are just a few I highly recommend)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
My theme: I am not sure what this means exactly (sorry lol)
My journal status: Open at the moment.
Other details: Mainly it's fandom talk, a house for challenges I am working on, and sure, I'll always take some new friends provided we can get along lol
Anything else you want to share: Looking forward to this challenge. I really want to build up my 2 communities somehow and maybe make a more general one that isn't so niche-y in the new year.
Hello!
Date: Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 05:05 am (UTC)That's a great idea.
For Finn,
For either, consider a bingo fest over on
It looks like we have a few comms in common.
>> Theme: I am not sure what this means exactly (sorry lol) <<
It's okay. Some people decide they want to go through their communities in alphabetical order, or focus on books and reading for a set time, or some other focus that unites their posts. Others just write down whatever random community things they do every Thursday. It's all fine.
If you want to focus on reactivating your two communities, that's one possible theme should you want one.
>> Looking forward to this challenge. <<
Yay! :D
>> I really want to build up my 2 communities somehow<<
Recurring posts are good for that. Lots of fandom comms have a rec day periodically, where all you have to do is make the opening post for people to comment under.
You might think about running a "Riley Rewatch" during
>> and maybe make a more general one that isn't so niche-y in the new year.<<
We certainly need umbrella communities. A lot of what has survived are niche ones, often because one person is passionate about a thing. But we don't have so many places good for hanging out and meeting people.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 10:24 am (UTC)Name:Prisca
My Community Thursdays entries will be posted at: my journal - Tag
Communities I moderate:
My favorite communities:
My theme: mixed fandom stuff
My journal status: mostly open
Other details: Main fandoms:
LotR and everything related to Tolkien
The Faculty (my first and forever love)
Jeremiah (TV) (if you have heard about this TV show, please let me know ;)
Other stuff you want to tell us:
I will try making at least one post monthly for this comm. There might be more if I discover a new interesting community I want to share with others.
Hello!
Date: Thursday, January 2nd, 2025 10:49 am (UTC)Yay! You have such a cool collection of communities. Thanks for running some too.