Let's discuss ways to get new members from places besides reddit.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against redditors joining the site. I'm still an active redditor (though admittedly less and less). However, I think we need to start spreading our wings. Currently, we have been really only been getting new members from reddit exoduses or random mentions in /r/askreddit. I'm scared that if we keep relying on redditors looking for a new site, we won't continue to have our own unique culture, we will just have a transplant of reddit culture. So how can we encourage people to join who aren't from reddit?
8 years ago by picklefingers
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Three words: Snapzu face tattoos.
That sounds like the best way to get a bunch of angry Youtube-esque like commenters here.
...So you're telling me I just wasted $300?
Dude, $300? You got ripped off. I would have given you one for free.
I dunno, how much do you like angry Youtube comments?
Simple Word of Mouth is always a great way to do it.
Tell all your friends and family whom you believe would be interested in using the site about it.
Agreed, it's best to use those invite codes and make sure the right people are joining our community.
Another great way is to claim a tribe, and then complete the minimum requirements needed to setup it up so that it is "presentable" for anyone new visitor checking it out. Once that's done, submit it for validation and upon approval you unlock powerful sharing tools like the referral program. Once you're set, just visit your favorite communities and ask if people are looking for a new place to check out, plug in a couple of invites, and which your own tribe and the Snapzu community grow as a whole.
Building on this, it might be a good idea to transplant other people who have lost their internet hangouts that aren't Reddit. I'm not sure how well-received fandom things would be around here, but a having a few well-moderated communities placed here would really boost general activity.
I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to promoting stuff, I always get the feeling that people will get mad at me. Kind of a rejection fear thing. Any tips on how to deal with it, or at least how to promote Snapzu without causing too much aggravation ?
I'll definitely let my mom know!
Don't worry, she already knows ;)
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Existing members can send their invites to non-redditor friends and that's probably the best way to go about it right now.
I don't think there's an overwhelming risk of having just a transplant of reddit culture seeing as many of the veterans are so quick to helpfully and constructively point out the differences between the two and the new users are catching on somewhat quickly.
On that note there certainly are aspects that would be nice to see. Right now the only downside to snapzu is the lack of the utterly massive community reddit had, and for right now redditors are the largest user influx which I regard as a good thing (though I'm horribly biased in this regard). We need more users to grow some of the smaller more niche communities.
Really, the one thing I don't want to see is a bunch of people becoming inactive after the heat dies down because some of their interests were not being fed here due to the small user side.
I'm one of the migrants from reddit. I haven't left reddit entirely, but I'm getting that feeling of being on a sinking ship with all of the controversies lately.
While I've only been on Snapzu for a little while now, it's my favorite alternative that I've tried. I really like the layout and interface, and everyone here seems to be really awesome. The smaller userbase is also really encouraging to me, as well.
That said...I have definitely been missing some of the smaller communities I was a part of at reddit. Everything I've searched for so far does have a 'tribe', but most of the areas are completely blank. That's kind of concerning to me.
We'll see how things shake out, though. I definitely want to love snapzu. It looks great, so far!
Well, if a community you want is empty, that's a golden opportunity to start posting content there to get them started.
It's kind of a Catch-22. Everyone loves these smaller niche communities, but when they find them they're empty so they move on. It takes a couple of people to step in and start posting and engaging like crazy so that the next person that comes by looking for their niche sees that it's active and decides to stay and contribute.
That's exactly what I took from it, as well. I figure that in smaller communities, there's that much more of a responsibility on each person to create the kind of community that they want to be a part of. I think that's fair. It just might be the kind of challenge that is both fun and rewarding. Thanks for the thoughts.
Yep, I've never moderated anything (on reddit) before, but I've decided to pitch in some time and try to get a few of the niche communities started up. I may be posting stuff into a space no one but myself visits for a long while, but hopefully someday when someone does show up they'll stick around.
Over time the culture here will become different regardless of what it is mirrored from. The rules here will protect a lot of the bad reddit culture I think
I think it would be interesting to have a discussion of what 'bad Reddit culture' is.
The main one that comes to my mind is the improper use of down votes. But a discussion on this would be interesting. Maybe a reddit refugee tribe would be interesting
Also how serious discussion always take second place after bad puns and jokes.
I agree in theory, but reddit is already causing a glut of low-hanging fruit.
To be fair, most people are on reddit. Getting just the small fraction of them that I came in with is exposing scaling problems.
One thing that might pull some users over would be to write an article on coping with the deluge of reddit users and how the admins expanded to handle the technical challenges. It's still news at the moment and a good technical achievement.
That could then be seeded to other discussion sites without looking like too much of an advertisement.
Posting the occasional gem out to Twitter or other social media seems a reasonable way to build a little organic community.
I get your point, but I think you need to go about this as if you were a company in a volatile market where the company with the monopoly suddenly going bust. It's far better to spend one percent effort for 95 percent of the market looking for a new provider. Get the 95%... The 1% will follow anyway.
It would be cool to try and invite a celebrity (of any medium really) to come do something like an AMA over here. They usually advertise it on their social media accounts. Could really good Snapzu a boost.