languajix

I'm thinking hard about what a TMNT community on Dreamwidth could look like. I've found a really helpful masterpost here that I've been reading through which has given me a lot to consider. Some of my main takeaways at the moment are that fostering an active community takes work, and requires frequent posts of a couple of certain varieties to grow engagement.

My biggest concern for a TMNT comm right now is that I don't have a guarantee of many, or any, people coming out of the woodwork to join - although it's absolutely possible, I can't bank on it. I don't want to flood a small number of people's reading pages with tons of posts that no one is replying to and that aren't relevant to their specific interests within the wider TMNT media sphere. Despite that, I do want to be clear that I understand that in the process of building momentum in a community, there may be periods where no one has time or interest in conversing and I might be talking to myself, and I'm *totally* okay with that - I won't take it personally and I don't want anyone to feel pressured to respond to everything.

I'm thinking of starting slow and building up steam over time. Here are some ideas I've had for potential regular, somewhat scheduled posts:

One time post:

Introduction Post/Friending Meme (members who want to can track that post so they get notifications indefinitely of new potential people to friend)

Twice a week:

Starting in the summer, single episode discussion posts for the Mutant Mayhem sequel show, Tales of the TMNT, coming out soon. I expect this to be released all at once on Paramount+, so I'll have a spoilery full series discussion post up right away for anyone who binge watches, and then twice a week release a discussion post for a single episode, working through the series, possibly?

Once or twice a month depending on how many members are active in the comm:

Fanwork recommendation post: A place to encourage people to recommend and discuss their favorite fan-made things in the comments. Fan comics, fan art, fanfic, fanvids, filks... Self recs welcome! Positive feedback on the original source website highly encouraged - it won't help the creator if all the praise happens on a site they don't use.

Social post: a place to chat about things - while the goal would be TMNT related discussion, going on tangents relating to general life stuff or other things would be fine. Or maybe splitting it off and have a general TMNT themed social post once a month, and an off-topic social post once a month?

A summary in the middle or the end of the month, collecting links to currently active posts in the comm, for anyone who might have missed a post they wanted to participate in or forgotten to come back to a discussion. (I kind of like the idea of the middle, because end of month on Dreamwidth for me is a flood in my reading page of challenges ending and beginning, and the point of a summary like this would be to stick around as a reminder, not get washed away.)
It would have links to and little blurbs about: the intro post/friending meme, the current version of the monthly and quarterly posts, any active events, posts by members from the past month, etc.

Once a month:

Character Spotlight:
Picking a major character at random to feature, posing some questions:
-Who is your favorite version of this character? Why?
-Do you have any episodes or story arcs with them that you recommend people check out?
-What do you like or dislike about this character? (Being critical is fine, but please remember that every character is someone's favorite and be respectful of that.)
-Do you have any fics, videos, etc. that center on or feature this character that you'd like to rec?
-Maybe posing a casual challenge to create and share something about the character during the month?

Some sort of news post maybe? Either one post with two sections, or two separate posts staggered:
Official Link Roundup: Links to articles about the new Tales of the TMNT series, interviews with creators or cast members from any TMNT series that seem relevant, comics news, toy releases. (I'd be happy to hand this one in particular off to someone else at some point)
Fan Link Roundup: Links to TMNT things going on around the internet. Fanzines, fan projects, etc. (Again, I'd love to hand this one off if anyone ever joins who would be interested, but I don't mind doing it for a while to start)

Sneak Peek Saturday: Tease the community with your current projects - art, writing, crocheting, whatever. Show off snippets, ask for help or advice, seek collaborators.

Once a quarter:

A spotlight on a particular movie/show/comic, chosen randomly.

Questions Thread: A place for people to ask questions - new to TMNT and don't know where to start? Wondering what TMNT version to try next, or if a particular media is worth it? Writing a fanfic and need consensus, suggestions, or clarification on something?

Beyond that, I have some ideas for potential one-off or yearly events given enough membership and interest, and an idea of what sort of posts I'd really like to prompt and encourage members to post, as a start.

Starting list of potential events if enough people are interested:

-Movie nights/weekends where we pick a movie and plan a weekend to watch and chat about it. We've got eight-ish to pick from, plus some documentaries and such.

-2k3 Watch Along (it's available on the Internet Archive and Youtube, this would be easy)

-Watch alongs of any other show (1987 cartoon, 2012, Rise. Probably not Next Mutation, haha.)

-Comic book read along (harder to pull off I think)

-Small prompt meme/bingo/challenge/little bang events if there are any active writers/artists.

-Craft challenge of sorts - vague thoughts on having an event encouraging people to make and post tmnt-themed physical crafts (crochet, sewing, beads, tie dye, cricut, etc.), including a list of supplies and any patterns and/or process instructions under a cut. (in place of a physical exchange, which would be tricky logistics and possibly put people in an uncomfortable place re: giving out their addresses, a 'here's how to do it yourself' instead). Maybe near Halloween, so anyone into cosplay/costumes could share costume tutorials as a part of this?

-Video game multiplayer nights (I haven't played Shredder's Revenge, for example, but I know there's a multiplayer/co-op mode in there somewhere and it might be fun and a good excuse to check it out, especially if it goes on sale.)

(It would be awesome if any members wanted to run/help run any of these.)

And types of posts I'd love to encourage members to make in the community:

Graphics posts: icon sets, headers, phone backgrounds, etc.

Merch posts: showing off official toys/DVDs, fan merch hauls, fanzines that arrived, etc.

Personal achievement posts: showing off ninja turtle related artwork or crafts, declare victory over a fic finished writing or a bingo card just completed, cheering about conquering a TMNT video game, sharing (under a cut tag) thoughts on the show/comic run they just finished bingeing Like A Boss...

Community: sharing themed rec lists, promoting activities or events inside or outside of DW they may be a part of or have heard of, posting public/free craft patterns, organizing zines or other projects or events, gauging interest in said projects. Requests for recommendations of fanworks based on character X or series Y or plot point Z.

Questions: Questions would be welcome in the quarterly questions thread, but if someone wants to post them on their own, that's cool too.

Discussions: meta posts such as character arc or scene analysis, different version comparisons - especially for things like parallel story arcs or characters; being critical would be fine (I'm not looking to make a positive echo chamber where people are afraid to voice their opinions), but just a reminder to be respectful about it.

I've been staring at this list for days now, so I'm putting it out in the world. I'd love to hear if I'm heading anywhere near the right direction towards making something engaging and fun or if I should change direction, or if there's anything I'm missing, or if I need to scale it all down...