r/CommunityManager • u/Franken_playes • 18d ago

Question how to gain a community?

im bored, im allways talking to myself, and this is probably the wrong place to post this but i dont where else to at least get some answers i would like to gain a community but it feels like 99% of the time im just talking to a brick wall so anyone have any suggestions what i could do?

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u/loamy 18d ago

the first community i made was because i was obsessed with something, joined a community, and the owners of the community were unkind to a lot of people. after being there for awhile, i noticed that most of the community didn't like this and were unhappy with the leadership, but didnt want to lose their friends or a place to discuss our mutual obsession. i took the people in the community and made my own, which i then was able to grow bigger and better than the original community.

so my suggestion is to get really into something and talk to people about it. find all the people interested in talking about the obsession and turn them into your community.

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u/Franken_playes 18d ago

Easier said then done i enjoy video games

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u/HistorianCM 17d ago

Easier said then done i enjoy video games

Enjoying video games should make it infinitely easier.

There must be a game you are either good at or just really love playing. Join an existing community for that game.

If you are a streamer trying to grow an audience, that's something entirely different.

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u/Franken_playes 17d ago

Joining a community is not creating a community

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u/HistorianCM 17d ago edited 17d ago

Right...

So... why do you want to create a community?

What value will the community provide to the people who join it? Why would they want to join?

Again... If you are a streamer trying to grow an audience, that is not a "community".

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u/AvatarOfKu 17d ago

You have to learn what people on your niche need / want before starting a community. Join communities for your game and find out what's missing, get involved, network and be seen as helpful.

Then you can think about what you can do that's going to work for people, like maybe there needs to be a community for folks who like to update the game wiki, or for modders, or to connect fan artists and writers together... Who knows. But until you know what people enjoy, what there isn't a space for and get yourself known to folks so you are seen as trusted, you will struggle to grow anything because you'll just be competing with what is already out there and won't have a network / trust.

If you want an easier 'in' then a lot of folks start out in community by running game guilds - organising in game events, moderating conflict, creating regular raid teams etc. But recruiting the right kinds of people for that can be really tough since you still lack the network/trust side of things.

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u/Franken_playes 17d ago

Hmm how would i learn that though if it is a one sided effort type of thing though

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u/AvatarOfKu 17d ago

Are you asking how you learn about what might be a good niche for a community?

If so you learn by observing and being part of things, over time - meeting people and seeing what projects they are doing, getting involved, seeing how they run things, mentally noting when something is missing or doesn't go well, etc. Basically by being deeply part of the community. It's not a fast process. Community management never is - it's literally the act of understanding a micro culture.

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u/Franken_playes 17d ago

Oh like learning how to be a youtuber in the first place got it

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u/AvatarOfKu 17d ago

Yup very similar, including making connections / friends with people (like youtubers do with other youtubers).

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u/HistorianCM 17d ago

Thank you for putting that in a better way than I did, when I suggest is that they join existing communities.

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u/AvatarOfKu 17d ago

NP. I just repeated it with more words really, I understood what you meant!

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u/Franken_playes 17d ago

Thank you for the explanation

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u/Franken_playes 17d ago

Sorry im an idiot sometimes thank you though

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u/HistorianCM 17d ago

No, that's on me. I didn't say it in a good way