March Meta Matters Challenge, Third Writing Prompt

[yourlibrarian]

Hello everyone! It's time for our last writing prompt:

What is something you miss that you'd either like to have back or just feel nostalgic about? This could be an older canon, some fandom habits that have changed, or even ways of viewing or reading works.

Writing new meta this month is optional. If you do write something though, share a link to it in a future check-in post!

Comments

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>What is something you miss that you'd either like to have back or just feel nostalgic about?<<

The Welcommittees. I believe Star Trek fandom started the custom of having a team of volunteers who reached out to new fans, helping them make new friends and find things they'd like to do. That really helped with retention and made fandom a lot more fun.

I've read articles about member retention in churches. The main things that make people stay are making friends in the group (typically cited as 3-7), finding meaning in the activities, and having a responsibility. That applies just as much to fandom. Get people involved, get them doing stuff and interacting with each other. Nowadays most places don't seem to care about newcomers and people are anxious about participating because so many places have really fussy rules. Then they just stand around for a while, and often drift away. That makes nobody happy.

Here on Dreamwidth, when I see someone saying that they're new, I try to reach out and point them to communities or other resources that'll help them make friends (the Add Me comms) or find things they'll like (the calendar comms and tools like Interests).


>>Writing new meta this month is optional. If you do write something though, share a link to it in a future check-in post!<<

My latest installment:
Meta: "Why We Need Fanifestos" Part 7a: Where to Find Fanifestos location types & communities

I'm about to start posting the huge list of fanifestos that I've found, which I'll have to break up into pieces.

Re: Yes ...

[yourlibrarian]

That's a really good comparison, yes. And it's a pity online spaces are poorly set up for a Welcommittee introduction (unless fandom itself builds such a platform).

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It would be nice to have a system better equipped for actual social connections.

However, some current ones can be made to work. Communities on DW can have a post, tag, etc. for making introductions. You can form a team of volunteers to reach out whenever someone new posts an introduction. You can also just keep an eye on the list of members to watch for new people.

Folks set up new fansites all the time. If it has audience interaction, then yes, you could build in a Welcommittee and that would be a good idea.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a a link to the squidge.org collections for previous years? I saw the AO3 collection link

[yourlibrarian]

Ah, yes there is! Thanks for asking. You can find the collection here: https://squidgeworld.org/collections/march_meta_matters_challenge