I guess it’s always come naturally to me. I have always participated in some kind of chat room, online game or forum rather heavily.
I can see why many people get turned off from trying to contribute to communities, particularly in this space.
Twitter many people never get seen with low followers; Reddit posts get removed left right and centre because of wildly varying rules, and account requirements plus is very faceless; IndieHackers, Makerlog don’t have as broad selection of boards or functionality to really have a community feel; I’ve never seen a good Facebook or LinkedIn group in this space; and all the other classic forums are stuck in the past!
This kind of platform is not perfect (nothing ever is) but I think both the software and our approach to structure and moderation solve many of those problems.
More than anything I love being able to see a username and know about the person on a first name basis, being able to see a question know just the people to ask and of course making friends and feeling like part of a community.
We’re small enough that anyone can start posting and will get both visibility and helpful responses. This can go either way in being good or bad of course depending on the people but so
far it’s gone very well!
To echo @Gummibeer a bit, although his answers are usually far more useful. While it’s a bit like blogging I tend not to give it so much thought. If someone posts a question and I don’t know the answer I won’t be worried to offer up a best guess or just share a little direction of where they could look next. I know I appreciate any kind of feedback or direction.
For definitive proof that not every post needs to be a well-considered piece of writing you need only to have a peek in our Forum Games section. 😅
The door is always open for anybody to share, ask or just chat in line with the code or of conduct. I’ve just added an events calendar to the menu where I hope a few more regularly scheduled community events will help to keep people engaged in a positive way.
Add the PWA if you haven’t already! 😉