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crowdfundingToday I received a note from LiveJournal announcing that they intend to feature ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
crowdfunding in the LJ Spotlight. This is exciting news! I want to start making plans now so that this exposure will be as useful to us, and attractive to visitors, as possible. Please pitch in to share your ideas and content.
View the schedule of planned activities so far.
Here is the original message that LJ sent to me, so you'll know what's going on.
Congratulations!We would love to place your community, crowdfunding, in the LJ Spotlight,
beginning July 18th, 2011.Spotlights generally last for seven days and result in increased activity,
posts, and comments. They can also bring anywhere from hundreds to
thousands of new members. If you don't already moderate posts in your
community, you might want to do so during the spotlight period. Everything
will calm down after it's over, but it's a good idea to keep an extra eye
on things while you're in the spotlight.If you don't want your community to be in the spotlight, please let us
know by replying to this email and we'll shine our light elsewhere.If you have any problems or questions during the spotlight period, please
contact our Support team here:
http://www.livejournal.com/support/submit.bmlEnjoy the spotlight!
Truly,
Yori
I have some ideas for things I would like to do in advance of this activity, as well as during the Spotlight week July 18-24. These are just starting points; more suggestions are welcome, especially if you can volunteer to take some of the load.
1) Have at least one post per day on this community between now and July 18. There are 5 days between now and then, and there's one predated post for the 13th, so that leaves 4 days to cover. Posts by diverse people during this time are welcome; it doesn't matter what you say as long as it's related to cyberfunded creativity somehow.
2) Arrange supervision for the Spotlight. Currently we have three maintainers: myself, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
haikujaguar, and talkstowolves. We could use help keeping an eye on the massive influx of traffic that is likely. If you're frequently active on this community and would like to be a maintainer, please contact me.
If you don't want to be a maintainer, but are willing to help answer visitors' questions, quash any flames, etc. then that's also welcome. Ideally, mention which Spotlight day(s) you expect to be available for that. It'll help spread out the load if people volunteer to cover different days.
Membership is currently set to "open" and anyone any member can post. I'd prefer to leave it that way because it's less work and we're going to be busy. However, if trolls or other troubles appear, we may need to switch to Moderated status for a while, and/or make other adjustments.
3) Update community materials. This includes the Profile page and the Links sidebar. I will try to find time to do these things between now and July 18. If you have a current crowdfunding project that is not on our Links list, and you'd like it added, please speak up. It needs to have a landing page and/or its own blog/website, so that the link will point to somewhere obviously connected with that project.
4) Spread the word. The Spotlight week will be a good time to visit this community for people who aren't already members, as there will be lots of activity for the occasion. Please consider making a post to your blog that will encourage readers to drop by.
5) Make a "Welcome, Visitors!" post on Monday, July 18. This should include a summary of what our community is, who it's for, and what we do here (briefer than the Profile page). It should also list some resources for crowdfunding in general and suggestions for what to explore. I plan to do this.
6) Present a featured format every day of the Spotlight. I'm going to contact some folks backchannel and try to arrange for a different person to make a post each day. Currently I'm thinking of these features: shared world, webserial, fishbowl, one-card draw, free icon day, webcomic, nonfiction; plus an extra for patronage on Monday. These will ideally become good anchor posts that can go in our "Memories" file.
7) Offer a variety of project posts. These come in two flavors: A) posts consisting of or pointing to a live crowdfunding activity that day (such as a one-card draw), and B) posts describing a particular crowdfunding project that isn't doing anything particular that day (but may be ongoing). For everyone who runs a project, this is your chance to wave it in front of a LOT more eyeballs than usual. Make it count. If you do a sporadical project that goes live for a day here and there, scheduling one during Spotlight week is a good idea. For patrons and fans, feel free to blow the horn for your favorite project(s) and tell people why they should go take a look at it. It helps if you list the day(s) you plan to make your post(s). Remember, you'll probably get more attention if you have fewer projects competing with yours on that day, so try to spread out instead of piling up.
8) Start some discussion posts. These will just be brief posts aimed at encouraging conversation about cyberfunded creativity in general. They might consist of a paragraph or two of background followed by one or more open questions. I could theoretically lay out a batch of these myself, but as you can see, I have a ton of other stuff to juggle (plus my ordinary workload). It would be very helpful if folks would suggest topics/questions for this activity, and/or volunteer to make a post and keep an eye on its comments. If you don't have time to manage a discussion, you can still help by making suggestions and/or comments. I'd like to get one per day. If we wind up with extras, we can use some of them for later days.
Closely related, certain discussions might work well in poll form. For instance, it would be cool to have a poll like, "What types of crowdfunded project have you produced? Viewed? Sponsored?" If anyone wants to post that, or another poll, please volunteer.
9) Mention the Rose & Bay Awards for excellence in cyberfunded creativity. This is one of our community's big projects, and we should share it with newcomers. It could go on any day. Monday and Tuesday are the highest-traffic days, and Monday already has a bunch of stuff going on, so I'm leaning toward Tuesday, July 19. Is anyone willing to make a post describing the Rose & Bay Awards?
10) Include some followup. If the LJ Spotlight does its usual trick, we'll pick up a bunch of new members. We don't want to disappoint them by putting on a great display during the Spotlight week ... then rolling over and playing dead immediately after. If you have ideas for some other posting activity, or if the project and discussion lists get crowded for Spotlight week, please consider doing something in the later part of July. This will help us retain new members, and may encourage more people to sign up if they decided to take a few quick peeks before actually joining.
For tracking purposes, as of today we have:
1,148 journal entries
55 tags
26 memories
44 interests
208 members
With a little luck and some careful planning, most of those numbers should go up shortly.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 03:09 am (UTC)If you're comfortable putting me in as a temporary maintainer, I'd also be willing to screen comments for "senior maintainer" review.
Oh! Suggestion -- I think you can set things so anonymous comments are screened, or non-friends comments are screened.
Thank you!
Date: 2011-07-13 03:20 am (UTC)This is helpful, thanks.
>>If you're comfortable putting me in as a temporary maintainer, I'd also be willing to screen comments for "senior maintainer" review.<<
I'm fine with that, but "maintainer" is an official responsibility (even if temporary) in my book. Are you sure? If so, please confirm and I'll add you. I can (I think) take you off again after the Spotlight concludes (say, Monday, July 25).
>>Suggestion -- I think you can set things so anonymous comments are screened, or non-friends comments are screened.<<
Good idea. I checked, and the community is currently set to:
"Any user can post to this community once they've joined it."
That should rule out anonymous posts.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2011-07-13 03:40 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2011-07-13 03:49 am (UTC)That works for me, thanks.
Nobody is expected to be here all the time. I'm specifically trying to spread out the load so that isn't necessary, and we can not only sleep but be fairly confident that we won't wake up to find a community in meltdown.
I checked the membership list for this community, however, and it's not listing you for some reason. Please check to see if you're enrolled as a member, so that I can add you ... there are actually checkboxes for "Maintainer" and "Moderator" so I'll tick both.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 03:46 am (UTC)Would it be at all helpful for me to post weekly or monthly lists of new artwork?
For the discussion posts, I know things like advertising/promotion and encouraging audience participation and donations have been discussed in the past, but they would probably be good things to highlight for new members.
Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 04:12 am (UTC)I added your homepage link as "Mikaspace Story Sketches" to get both titles in there; I hope that's okay.
>> Would it be at all helpful for me to post weekly or monthly lists of new artwork? <<
Yes, that would be lovely! Also post your prompt calls whenever you do a new round of that. Base your posts here on your current production speed. I usually recommend a weekly post for projects that update on a daily or several-times-weekly basis; and monthly for those updating on a weekly or several-times-monthly basis. If you're doing weekly updates for your art stuff, you can also do a monthly wrapup where you add the stuff that happens once per month (like the icon draw and the linkbacks perk), and just include links to the weekly posts for the art.
>> For the discussion posts, I know things like advertising/promotion and encouraging audience participation and donations have been discussed in the past, but they would probably be good things to highlight for new members. <<
Noted and logged, thanks. Would you like to lead one or more discussions on those topics? There's at least one "Memories" post relevant to each (promotion, audience participation, donations).
Also, might you be willing to post about the Story Sketches project during the Spotlight? I'm trying to get someone to write about "free icon day" type projects on Friday, July 22; but having another type of art project described on that day would also be cool. Ideally this would be a wider view than just an update post -- an introduction to your concept of crowdfunded illustration, how and why it works, why you like crowdfunding, etc. I've been meaning to ask you about this for a couple hours, but I'm not to the end of my feature-posts contact list yet. (Some lady uploaded this awesome sketch of my poem tonight... *wink*)
Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 04:21 am (UTC)Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 04:33 am (UTC)Okay, prompted art works as a Friday theme.
>> I can probably put together a post about my project by that time, <<
I've put you down for a post about "Story Sketches" on Friday, July 22. Thank you!
>> and maybe you can invite Ellen to say something about SketchFest, in addition to the post about free icon days? <<
I already asked her to do a Monday post on shared-world projects. However, if she's up to doing two posts, I'd happily take one on the Sketch Fest. I was going to mention it on Wednesday when I post about the fishbowl concept.
Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 04:33 am (UTC)Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 04:55 am (UTC)2) If possible, keep an eye on the comments and discussion.
* Answer questions, respond to intelligent remarks, etc.
* Watch for spam -- you should be able to delete spam comments under you own post.
* Should people start acting rude, gently remind them that this community is for polite and rational conversation. If necessary, contact one of the maintainer/moderator folks.
#1 is the key part. #2 is optional but would really help make the discussion better and lighten the load on the maintainer/moderator folks who will be tending the whole community.
Clear enough? Ask if you need more.
Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 05:13 am (UTC)Re: Okay...
Date: 2011-07-13 05:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 01:39 pm (UTC)Hm; I'm currently chasing the Muse around the room to finish the next vignette of "Hiraeth (http://robling-t.livejournal.com/tag/fiction%3Ahiraeth)" (which should maybe be on the sidebar here as well as @DW?) , and I was going to link it here just at whenever-old-time it goes up -- would it be better for me to hold off on that mention until a specific time during the spotlight week? (IE, if we're PLUGGING ALL THE WEBSERIALS! on Tuesday, I could come up with something more than just a "next bit's up" blurb to say about mine to post with that day's posts -- or not, if y'all-our-mods have a grander plan in mind? ;) )
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-13 06:14 pm (UTC)I would like to be on the links list: wrenstarling.dreamwidth.org/profile
If none of the other one-card draw folks steps up, I'll go ahead and handle that post. I may have only just done my first actual one card draw, but I've been watching and learning for a while, so feel I can handle it in a pinch.
Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-13 06:33 pm (UTC)Some problems are nice to have. ;)
>>I would like to be on the links list: wrenstarling.dreamwidth.org/profile <<
Done! I added that as "Wrenstarling, Auspex."
>>If none of the other one-card draw folks steps up, I'll go ahead and handle that post. I may have only just done my first actual one card draw, but I've been watching and learning for a while, so feel I can handle it in a pinch.<<
Thanks for offering to help! Actually, I have a better idea: I asked experienced folks to write about stuff, but I didn't think to ask anyone to write about starting a crowdfunded project. Would you like to do that? I'm sure you'll have a different perspective that people would appreciate.
This can go on the same day as the other one-card draw posts I have lined up (Thursday, July 21) or some other time; let me know when to slate it. Maybe talk about how you got started, what kind of advance prep you did, why you chose the one-card-draw format for your crowdfunded project, how close the reality came to your expectations, etc.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-13 07:13 pm (UTC)Thanks! It should be Wren Starling...that's my working name, first and last. I just blended the two for the URL. :)
Sure! I can do that. :) Thursday works for me! I plan to be around then anyway to participate in the one-card-draw stuff. :)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-13 07:46 pm (UTC)Space added.
>>Sure! I can do that. :) Thursday works for me!<<
Thank you so much. I've put you down in the schedule:
http://crowdfunding.livejournal.com/296750.html
>>I plan to be around then anyway to participate in the one-card-draw stuff.<<
It will really help if people who are active in each type of project do participate and comment on each other's posts, watch for visitor questions about the topic, etc.
Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-13 06:53 pm (UTC)Added to Links.
>> and I was going to link it here just at whenever-old-time it goes up -- would it be better for me to hold off on that mention until a specific time during the spotlight week? (IE, if we're PLUGGING ALL THE WEBSERIALS! on Tuesday, I could come up with something more than just a "next bit's up" blurb to say about mine to post with that day's posts -- or not, if y'all-our-mods have a grander plan in mind? <<
Yes, Tuesday is Webserials day. That's a good time to talk about this type of cyberfunded creativity, especially if you're willing to write more about your project than just a regular update.
*ponder* Come to think of it, you did Diary of a Necromancer a while back, too. I have
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-14 08:23 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-14 06:08 pm (UTC)*bow, flourish* Happy to be of service.
>>And oo, that's a good point about the role of Tin Man as a concluded serialization -- I'll see what I can come up with by Tuesday<<
Okay, I've penciled you in for that on the schedule. Write what you can, it doesn't have to be huge.
>>(And I'm wondering here if you might also want to see if copperbadge might be interested in contributing something on the subject of posting novel-length original fiction in installments -- his approach is somewhat more crowdsourcing than crowdfunding, per se, but he's done a couple of projects now and his insights into the overall process are always interesting to read...)<<
People are welcome to post whatever they wish related to crowdfunding. The main requirements: 1) It has to involve some kind of creator/audience interaction. 2) It has to involve some way of making money. I'm not familiar with this particular creator; let me know if those points are present, and I'll go take a look.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-15 04:21 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-15 05:03 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-15 09:09 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-15 06:04 pm (UTC)