The goal of these posts is to identify community gaps that people want filled, but not to arbitrarily create communities to “fill those gaps”. Instead put together teams that can/will work together to sustain their communities (many hands make light work).

To that end, I’m looking for anyone’s input about potential communities (not necessarily to be created anytime soon). Some ideas about potential input (don’t need to answer any or all the questions):

  • Is there an inactive community you would like to subscribe and/or post to? (No pressure to try and revive it)
  • Do you have an idea for a new community? (It would be helpful if you provide some detail about what the community would be focused on and what sort of posts it would contain)
  • Do you have a suggested community name? (Not required, but if you have an idea, feel free to share)
  • Do you have a suggested community instance/server? (Some servers have significantly different views on different topics)
  • Are you willing to be a community mod? (Not to pressure you, just to provide support, if indicated)

Discussion of a community building guide to be added to the sidebar has been suggested. Here is the current version. Let us know if you have any suggestions/additions/changes?

Started Communities:

Suggested Communities - Potential subscribers or active users:

  • Mahjong
    • missingno @fedia.io
  • Deer (images)
    • Auster @thebrainbin.org
  • Rooftops (pictures of rooftops, rooftop gardens, cozy rooftop spaces)
    • Potential subscribers: squirrel @cake.kobel.fyi, vicinus @piefed.zip
    • Potential cross-posting: !topview@lemmy.world
  • CottageIndustry (users can offer items they make for sale)
    • This idea probably needs some additional considerations (spam, payment, fraud, etc.) before actualizing. Some initial commentary here.
    • billionsandbillions @piefed.social
  • Theater (English language community)
    • 1517m4a @lemmy.pt

Suggested Feeds:

  • Hand&Eye (showcase anything made with your hands (only physical, nothing digital))
    • Examples: Woodworking, leathercraft, pottery, soap, candles, baskets, clothes, bookbinding, stained glass, glass blowing, bags etc.
    • billionsandbillions @piefed.social

Struggling Communities (if you can, throw a post/comment their way):

Also, let us know if you have any suggestions about this community or post.

Edit: added potential cross-posting option for potential “Rooftops” community. Thanks Auster :)

Edit 2: missed the announcement of !space_astronomy@piefed.social in a previous post, added it to the post body.
Changed community building section and added link to current Community Building Wiki.
Some formatting.

Edit 3: Added “Theater” to Suggested Communities

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
    4·
    2 days ago

    There seems to be a gap in theater communities: https://lemmy.pt/post/18098257

    Like I mentioned in my comments there, I could only find a Dutch community, an Italian one, and (just found) a Japanese one, all for anything audio-visual, not specifically theater. Also found one specifically for musical theater, not theater in general.

    • Vicinus@piefed.zipOPMEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I think there could be definite overlap between the too, but my recollection of the conversation with squirrel, I suspect “rooftops” community would have a significant difference in type posts (mostly personal camera POVs).

      Still good idea and I’ll add it to the post body for cross-post potential. Thanks :)

    • Vicinus@piefed.zipOPMEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Thank you for those posts

      No problem :)

      This seems to be unlucky, as slrpnk.net is also down at the moment.

      Haha. First, mander.xyz, now slrpnk.net. Between those we tried to move it to piefed.zip, and piefed.zip just had a cryptomining attack stopped. So, obvious conclusion: the Ecospheres community is cursed…

        • Vicinus@piefed.zipOPMEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          The Catodon search is pretty cool. Thanks for the link :)

          Yeah, the Lemmy.ml and reddthat.com seem abandoned for the last 3 years (probably unified onto meander.xyz before it died).

          I’m the mod of the piefed.zip one. We (die4ever @retrolemmy.com and I) made it in an attempt to save the mander.xyz posts, but it didn’t back fill for new subscribers. So, we decided if the community needed to start over, might as well start it over on a more appropriate instance (slrpnk.net).

          Unfortunately, slrpnk.net went down and will be down for a couple months. Given the mander.xyz community was not a very active one, I think just waiting for slrpnk.net to return is fine.

          I don’t see a need to keep around an empty/locked community that just links to the alive community. I think it just adds to confusion. So, once the slrpnk.net community is back up and die4ever has cross-posted all the remaining mander.xyz posts, I plan to asks the piefed.zip admins to delete the community.

          Thanks for looking out though :)

  • CombatWombat@feddit.onlineEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    I was looking for an “offbeat” community this, for like weird or strange news stories, and couldn’t find one so maybe that’s a gap?

    • Vicinus@piefed.zipOPMEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      I think the posts target two different aspects (starting and maintaining communities). So, both have value in my eyes, but ultimately you’re the one posting them and supervising them. If you’re seeing value in them, I’d say keep going. If not, maybe have them go on hiatus for a while.

      If you keep them going, it might be worth adding more ‘hooks’ to the post body. Example: asking about any user milestones (subscribers, contributors, posts, etc.), if they had any ‘challenges’ this week (could be posting issues, mod action issues, scheduling, etc.), or things along those lines.

      • Blaze@piefed.zipEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        Sounds good, I’ll keep them for now. Good point about the hooks. I’ll try to rework them when I have a bit of time.