Earlier this month, I compared building a new community to building a camp fire. You’ve picked out a site, determined how big your fire needs to be initially, and you’ve chosen a spot to build it. Now what do you do?
Flick your bic.
I lit my own fire last week. I’m going to start switching back and forth between community building ideas and my own actions in developing the Gearbox Community. In this way, I can share ideas, but also how they’re implemented, results, and thoughts.
Planning to plan.
Planning only goes so far. Eventually, you have to step out into the real world and make things happen. My idea is to create a brand-specific community with a sort of magazine feel to it. By inviting enthusiasts to share stories across model lines, the hope is that people will find things in common, interact, and grow.
Think of this like being in beta.
When something is said to be in beta, we tend to think it’s not quite done yet. That might be a turn off for some people who feel it’s a sign of poor preparation or something, but I see it as a target.
Allow me to put it this way. “In beta” might mean “not done yet,” but is community development ever, really done? Beta means staying focused on the user experience, on functionality, on scope, design, cause and effect. Beta is all about due diligence. Are you seriously thinking about investing all this time and energy into building a new community, only to dust off your hands and call it a day? Sorry. It doesn’t work that way.
Changing direction.
I can envision this project going one way, but it might end up that the most active members of the community lead it in another direction. That’s fine by me. My role, as a community developer, is to propose the focus, provide the environment, and encourage participation by sharing my own perspectives and ideas. We do this together.
I’m not just a creator, I’m a member.
The goal of Gearbox Magazine is to connect people and ideas, changing perspectives and providing members with not only news they’re not likely to find anywhere else on the web, but to share stories of real people with whom they can immediately identify. If I’m not an active member of my own community, I lose sight of our mutual values and culture and it’s a recipe for disconnect and failure.
The point?
(I know. I tend to be wordy.) The point is, planning and preparation can only take you so far. Those are activities which go on in something of a vacuum. You can point a gun at changing targets all day long, but you’ll never hit the bullseye if you don’t pull the trigger.
Staying in beta means never considering the job done. It means consistently participating in your community and making sure that the whole shebang is dynamic and flexible enough to adapt to changes that have to take place (because there will be changes to make in short order). Share your thoughts and be open to the thoughts of others. Not that you can’t hold your ground when it comes to core principles, but you get the point.
Gearbox Magazine is now live. You can check it out here.
