So far, responses to setting up this instance have me feeling very positive about this having a real chance to take of and become a thing. But having browsed other rpg instances on the network, it seems to be pretty tough getting established and most places are looking pretty dead. To make DIYRPG work, we are going to have to gain momentum and also keep it going.

The first thing is that we are going to need people coming here in the first place and having them know this place exists in the first place. Posting the opening of DIYRPG on Mastodon got a lot of favorites, and most importantly boosts. And they keep coming. So I am confident that there really is an audience for an instance with communities like this. But as you can see, that has not translated in much activity here yet.

I think the most effective thing that we can do to make DIYRPG a name that people have heard of and recognize is to be quite liberal in mentioning and sharing interesting things that are being talked about here on places like Mastodon or on your own RPG sites if you have one.

But what really makes or breaks spaces like these is that there has to be things to read for people who come to check if there’s anything new. If there’s only one new post or nothing when you come checking the site, you’re probably forget about checking it again in the future after a few days. That means you don’t write anything, and so everyone else has nothing to respond to either. And the whole thing putters out very quickly. So at least for the time being, I very much encourage everyone to just post stuff, even when you think it might actually be really banal and trivial, it’s barely thought through and you don’t really have much to show yet, and nobody might have anything meaningful to reply to it. And similarly, comment on what people are sharing here, even when you think saying only “that’s cool” feels a bit like pointless spam and doesn’t really help with answering the questions that are being asked. To gain momentum and keep it, volume will be even more important than quality for now. Not to say that you should artificially put meaningless comments on everything. But if you think something is interesting and thought it was worth your time reading it, just leave a comment. And when you have a vague idea but no clue how to turn it into something meaningful, you can also share it here.

When you come across articles, posts, and videos related to DIYRPG design, feel free to make a post with a link just to share them. Doesn’t have to be anything ground breaking or outstanding. Simply things that make you think that perhaps someone might be interested in it who hasn’t already come across the link in other places. The people who posted and uploaded that stuff will be more than happy with any additional exposure they will get, and I don’t think other places that aggregate material of that kind will be too much hurt that we are poaching their links.

And in any case, if you see any post or comment that you like, click the arrow to upvote it. Even when there aren’t any comments on a post, having two digit (or even three digit?!) numbers of upvotes on them shows people who are coming here that they aren’t the only ones who stumbled in by accident and that anything they might post won’t be seen by anyone anyway.