Defining online communities, for Sherlock Fandom and TPP

[fffinnagain]

 The Three Patch Podcast community here was set up in reaction to the tumblr purge, as we try to develop our presence in alternative social media platforms to help connect and support fans of BBC Sherlock and beyond. But a big question here is what should we be doing here? What can we do as a Dreamwidth Community?

At present, this community is open, which means anyone can be a member and any member can post for all others to see. So now we should figure out what kind of material suits this space. For now, I hope anyone feels free to post any fannish thoughts (general or BBC Sherlock specific) and share BBC Sherlock fanworks with our members. 

But more urgently, it would be great to hear from experienced dreamwidth users (or new explorers) what they suggest we do here, and get recommendations for our members on accounts and communities that may help us make a new fannish social media home.

So, like always, please share your recs and insight!

Comments

[tei]

I think I'd just really like this to be a place where people can send in responses and thoughts about the stuff discussed on the podcast! Sometimes I remember to tweet at you guys if I have something to say about it, but I mostly hate twitter, and since you can just make a new post for each episode and collect all the comments on it in one place, it seems like the ideal way to stuff the body bag :D

[fffinnagain]

Oh yes, this seems like a great place for comments and follow ups!

[guanin]

I second this. My Twitter account mostly collects dust.

[sarahthecoat]

yes! I miss the forums on the web site, maybe here in an already well established community there will be more action. I am behind on listening to the podcast, it's been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks, but dreamwidth has been like a lifeboat/safe haven to me.

[prettyarbitrary]

I've always found DW to be an excellent place for challenges and contests, because it's relatively easy to keep track of responses to things in the comments of a single post.

So hm, you could do calls for recs about particular topics, or writing challenges--I'm not sure how this might pertain to TPP, exactly, but the potential for prompts/short-to-middling responses is vast. Meta, maybe?...

Anyway, weekly discussion topics are a popular activity for a DW comm, and pretty natural to a comm built around a topical serial podcast. Another nice move is periodically running an introduction post/friending meme, maybe once or twice a year if you're getting a lot of new folks in, which can be a help in encouraging shy folks to mingle. I once co-modded a comm where we did a chapter-by-chapter group readthrough/discussion of a book series, which could be a great activity here, too. A reread of the Holmes canon, or a rewatch of the episodes...

Oh, also here's a useful trick: It's possible to 'sticky' a post by forward-dating it: changing the date to Nov 2, 2024, for example, will preserve it as the first post on your page when someone visits, which can allow you highlight things for extended periods--the latest episode, or some contest you're running, or a community announcement you want to keep visible.

[sarahthecoat]

nice ideas! I might try that forward-dating idea.

[fffinnagain]

Oo we are always interested in more rec sources. And maybe we should try forecasting episodes. Lots of people have interesting experiences related to the topic of our next theme, Activism and Fandom.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[anarfea]

I know nothing about Dreamwwith and am a rank n00b but I mostly would like the three patch com to be a place to make friends and chat about the podcast episodes.