Dreamwidth Welcommittee

[ysabetwordsmith]

Once upon a time, before the Internet, fans found each other through fanzines, clubs, and other means. Among the most famous was the Star Trek Welcommittee, which helped people find ways to participate in the fandom. The National Fantasy Fan Federation, which started even earlier, still has one going. The idea spread to other fandoms and beyond. A welcommittee is basically a group of volunteers who enjoy reaching out to new people and helping them connect with a given organization or subculture.  Many organizations have them, and so do some towns.

I'd like to encourage something similar for Dreamwidth. It's a way for more experienced bloggers to participate in newcomers. We need folks who can answer questions, explain how the platform works, and help new users find things they like in hope they'll stick around. It doesn't have to be official or complicated -- just a few concepts and resources for folks to use when they meet a new user. It helps support the platform we love.


Beyond fandom, there's another area where people pay a lot of attention to outreach and integration for new members: churches. Set aside the specifically religious aspects, and they have some very useful observations about what works and why.

* Friends. Some references cite a need to make three friends, or seven friends, or whatever; but they generally agree that making new friends is vital for securing a bond with the group, and the more the better. People often join groups specifically to spend time with current friends and/or make new friends. Therefore, a welcommittee or other volunteer can help by suggesting possible friends or subgroups that suit a new person's interests.

* A meeting of needs. Churches advise watching for people in distress. With a platform like Dreamwidth, that means watching for other platforms to wobble or collapse. As they shed users, reach out to people in your circle of friends and encourage them to try Dreamwidth. Whatever they're complaining about the other platform doing badly, check if Dreamwidth does that well and point it out.

* A confluence of connections. A commonly cited set is "a friend, a feeling of belonging or nourishment, and a responsibility or task to fulfill." A new person should feel like they're getting something by joining the group, and people like to feel that they matter so getting involved with a project or activity of some sort serves that purpose.  If you see someone wishing for an activity, suggest opportunities for that.  Many communities here have signups where folks can volunteer to host something for a day, a week, or a month.


Think about how confusing a new platform can be and how hard it is to find what you want. Where are all the people? How do you make friends here? What do you do when something goes haywire? And who can you even ask these questions? Anyone who's been using Dreamwidth for at least a few months can usually help someone who just got here. It doesn't have to be fancy, just friendly.

I wound up writing the same things over and over so many times, eventually I wrote out a version that I could just copy-paste and customize as needed. Here's a current version:

newcomers has lots of resources about how to use Dreamwidth and where to find things you'll enjoy here.

The Follow Friday Master Post has lists of active communities by topic where you can look for some based on your interests, including some of the Most Useful Communities. Many bloggers use recurring posts to pin down their key interests and maintain activity, which is also a good source of inspiration if you aren't sure what you want to post yet.

Below that I typically add a recommendation for the next big event, such as snowflake_challenge in January or Three Weeks for Dreamwidth (April 25-May 15). Newcomers often mention some of their own interests, so I try to recommend active communities based on those, or other bloggers who like or do such things. If we have any overlapping interests, I'll mention where mine match theirs.  If there's a current issue with another platform, I customarily make a post about that so I can link to it and help welcome folks coming from there to here.  Feel free to use the sample above or make your own.


Resources

8 Ideas to Welcome New Members to Your Organization

Activating Communities

Converts Who Stay in a Church

How to Find Friends Online: Tips for Making Meaningful Connections

How to Hack the Snowflake Challenge

How to Make Fandom More Inclusive

How to Run a Fandom Event Through Dreamwidth

Improving Communities on Dreamwidth

Improving Community in Fandom

Living Star Trek: How Two Women Breathed New Life into the Franchise
Without social media or the internet, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah made miracles happen to bring fans closer together.

Making Friends -- how to articles from wikiHow

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth


If anyone wants to volunteer, reply in a comment and I'll list you. It's not required, but might be convenient to know who are some folks doing this.

Participants:

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Comments

[augusta_m]

Hello!
Thank you for everything you do to develop the site!
I'm new here, but not new to social media in general. I have an interest in a variety of people. So limiting myself to a group isn't the best idea for me. I don't think I'm alone. So my question is: is there an option here like a feed of all posts for the day, for example? Is there a list of users in some form (more or less active, veterans or newbies, etc.)?

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Thank you for everything you do to develop the site!<<

You're welcome.

>> I'm new here, but not new to social media in general. <<

I hope you like Dreamwidth. It is very social, but the structure differs from most of the current social media (which is why we like it).

>>I have an interest in a variety of people. So limiting myself to a group isn't the best idea for me. I don't think I'm alone.<<

You're not alone. You'll probably like the events. Running now is snowflake_challenge and later will be Three Weeks for Dreamwidth (April 25-May 15). These bring out lots of extra activity and are ideal times to make new friends or just view a slew of random content.


>>So my question is: is there an option here like a feed of all posts for the day, for example? <<

Yes! See Latest Things. It doesn't cover the whole day at once but you can refresh it to see new ones.

You may also like the Interests page, which lets you search based on what you like.

On your Profile page, under the Explore tab, look down and there is a Random Journal option. Click that and it will take you to a random individual blog.


>> Is there a list of users in some form (more or less active, veterans or newbies, etc.)? <<

Not exactly, nor is there a list of communities, but there are ways to find lists. Look on the Profile page of a community or individual blog. You will see lists based on access, subscriptions, etc. If you just want a list of blogs you can click to explore, that will do.

Newbies often appear in Latest Things with titles like "First Post" or "Hello, World" -- those are the ones I watch for. If you aren't sure, click on the userhead to visit their profile. Near the top, it tells when the account was created.

Re: Thoughts

[augusta_m]

Thank you! I've been using your advice, and my subscriptions are growing rapidly.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, that validates my vocation for the day! :D

[sario528]

Oooh, good collection of resources. This brings up the question, is there a good way of "saving" posts like this (other than simply book marking the post URL)?

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Oooh, good collection of resources. <<

I'm glad you like it.

>>This brings up the question, is there a good way of "saving" posts like this (other than simply book marking the post URL)?<<

Yes.

* Look at the bottom of the post for the heart icon. Click that and it lets you save the post to your Memories. You can use up to 5 tags on it.

* Save the post in an archive. The Wayback Machine can save DW posts, but not all can.

* Other ways to find such posts include checking relevant tag lists and the Links box. Hmm, I should add this to that.

Re: Thank you!

[sario528]

The Memories function just made me fall in love with dreamwidth even harder, thanks for pointing it out!

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

:D Well, you just validated my vocation for the day.