>> 4. Advice - I've been thinking recently about prompt/kink memes, like the type that used to be popular in LJ and kind of died when LJ collapsed and DW failed to get the same level of traction. <<
DW has activity, but it's not necessarily in the same styles. Many people miss the older ones, though. You just need to look for those people. Put that in the description when you advertise your event on fandomcalendar and other bulletin board comms: "Do you remember when...? Do you miss...?" And plan a vigorous advertising campaign for your event.
>> One thing I've noticed about prompt memes is that you kind of need to see other people's prompts in order to get inspiration for more prompts, which is a bit of a bootstrapping problem.<<
Options include:
* Ask a few friends for seed prompts.
* Recycle some prompts from LiveJournal. Some of the old comms are still sitting there with dust on them, you can reread their prompt memes.
* Look for prompts around Dreamwidth. I posted a whole string for Snowflake because someone asked for plotbunnies. And I can do that for a wide range of fandoms. Plus there's a bunch of us who do prompt calls, and crowdfunding that hosts a Creative Jam monthly.
* Feel free to use anything from the many lists stored in the Bingo Card Generator. There are kink, romantic, and other sex/gender lists among others.
* Use the "X and Y in Z" format. "John Watson and Sherlock Holmes in Antarctica" or "Miraculous Ladybug and an umbrella in the zoo." You can random-generate that with a list of characters, tropes, and settings.
>>I have an older prompt meme I'd like to revive, and part of that is that I would like to encourage people to leave more prompts so that there's more of a pool for people to work with. I was thinking about having like a prompt-leaving event where I encourage people to leave a bunch of prompts.<<
That's a great idea.
>> I was thinking of having some prompts for prompts to get people's ideas flowing (e.g. leave a prompt for a ship that doesn't exist on AO3 yet, leave a prompt for your favorite kink, leave a gen prompt, leave a prompt involving a minor character, leave a prompt matching a fic/work you have already written/created or plan to write/create, etc. etc.), <<
If you make a list, it's easy to go down the list and do one of each. That's exactly what I did with the plotbunnies, I made prompts for all the things I liked, and threw in a couple from the "nobody else knows these canons" set.
>> plus some kind of incentive for people to leave a lot of prompts like making the prompts worth different points and goals point thresholds to hit or a bingo card or something to ensure people try to leave as many prompts as they can think of -- like achievements but for prompting.<<
Worth a try, but honestly some of us think it's fun just to leave prompts.
>> But the problem is that I don't want the prompts people leave to be TOO identifying, you know what I mean? I don't want any one person leaving a bunch of prompts to be super identifiable (because that might discourage them from leaving a bunch of prompts at once), nor do I want it to be obvious from the prompting pattern whether it's just one person leaving all the prompts or multiple people leaving some prompts -- it should be underdetermined from the set of prompts left how many people are playing.<<
That's going to be hard. Some of us have a distinctive writing style. I mean, to make so my fans couldn't clock me, I'd pretty much have to resort to things you could get off any bingo list. However...
1) You could have people send prompts to YOU at first, then mix them up yourself and post them as a starting batch. If you have at least 3 people giving you at least 3 prompts each, or working from a similar list of prompts-for-prompts, that should work.
2) You could stage the prompting with a different theme each day for a week or so, which would encourage different people to participate. This is less good for getting big lists though.
>> I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to run this event. In order to make it anonymous, for example, things like scoreboards would be out -- it'd have to be more of an honor system how many prompts someone left.<<
Making the prompts anonymous is harder, unless you have people send them to you, or you make them hidden -- there's a way to screen comments. Do you NEED the prompts to be anonymous? Or are you just copying that out of habit because it was common before? If you don't see a problem solved by anonymity, then just let people prompt openly.
>> I would probably also want to announce the event and the prompt prompts/achievements in advance, and then maybe have like a really short period for leaving the prompts (e.g. a 48-hour period) so that it's slightly more likely that people will time their prompts in a way that mixes with other people's prompts?<<
That could work.
>> Anyway, I'd love some thoughts/feedback/suggestions on how to run this and whether you think it would work, or things I need to think about if I want this to succeed.<<
It's a lot easier to run an event with a group then alone. Are any of your friends interested? Do you know folks who miss the old prompt memes? I've seen several people posting on Snowflake about stuff they miss from the good old days. If you can rustle up at least 3 people who will commit to giving you prompts, and at least 3 (not necessarily the same) who will commit to making fanworks from said prompts, then you've got enough to get the ball rolling.
What fandom(s) do you wish to feature? Anything goes can cause choice paralysis, so think about what targets would help your goals. To maximize the pool of participants, I recommend including one or more of the biggest fandoms. Include some that handle crossovers well, like Stargate, and that'll hook folks who like fusion fanworks. You might throw in a few things from the last year or two, like Nimona, to entice folks who chase the newer fandoms sequentially. Featuring a high-diversity canon like Dragon Prince will broaden appeal too.
I hope this helps. I want to encourage activity on DW.
Thoughts
DW has activity, but it's not necessarily in the same styles. Many people miss the older ones, though. You just need to look for those people. Put that in the description when you advertise your event on
For general advice, see:
How to Run a Fandom Event Through Dreamwidth
>> One thing I've noticed about prompt memes is that you kind of need to see other people's prompts in order to get inspiration for more prompts, which is a bit of a bootstrapping problem.<<
Options include:
* Ask a few friends for seed prompts.
* Recycle some prompts from LiveJournal. Some of the old comms are still sitting there with dust on them, you can reread their prompt memes.
* Look for prompts around Dreamwidth. I posted a whole string for Snowflake because someone asked for plotbunnies. And I can do that for a wide range of fandoms. Plus there's a bunch of us who do prompt calls, and
* Feel free to use anything from the many lists stored in the Bingo Card Generator. There are kink, romantic, and other sex/gender lists among others.
* I made a batch of bingo-type prompts, episode hooks, and promising crossovers for Wednesday which you are also free to use.
* Use the "X and Y in Z" format. "John Watson and Sherlock Holmes in Antarctica" or "Miraculous Ladybug and an umbrella in the zoo." You can random-generate that with a list of characters, tropes, and settings.
>>I have an older prompt meme I'd like to revive, and part of that is that I would like to encourage people to leave more prompts so that there's more of a pool for people to work with. I was thinking about having like a prompt-leaving event where I encourage people to leave a bunch of prompts.<<
That's a great idea.
>> I was thinking of having some prompts for prompts to get people's ideas flowing (e.g. leave a prompt for a ship that doesn't exist on AO3 yet, leave a prompt for your favorite kink, leave a gen prompt, leave a prompt involving a minor character, leave a prompt matching a fic/work you have already written/created or plan to write/create, etc. etc.), <<
If you make a list, it's easy to go down the list and do one of each. That's exactly what I did with the plotbunnies, I made prompts for all the things I liked, and threw in a couple from the "nobody else knows these canons" set.
>> plus some kind of incentive for people to leave a lot of prompts like making the prompts worth different points and goals point thresholds to hit or a bingo card or something to ensure people try to leave as many prompts as they can think of -- like achievements but for prompting.<<
Worth a try, but honestly some of us think it's fun just to leave prompts.
>> But the problem is that I don't want the prompts people leave to be TOO identifying, you know what I mean? I don't want any one person leaving a bunch of prompts to be super identifiable (because that might discourage them from leaving a bunch of prompts at once), nor do I want it to be obvious from the prompting pattern whether it's just one person leaving all the prompts or multiple people leaving some prompts -- it should be underdetermined from the set of prompts left how many people are playing.<<
That's going to be hard. Some of us have a distinctive writing style. I mean, to make so my fans couldn't clock me, I'd pretty much have to resort to things you could get off any bingo list. However...
1) You could have people send prompts to YOU at first, then mix them up yourself and post them as a starting batch. If you have at least 3 people giving you at least 3 prompts each, or working from a similar list of prompts-for-prompts, that should work.
2) You could stage the prompting with a different theme each day for a week or so, which would encourage different people to participate. This is less good for getting big lists though.
>> I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to run this event. In order to make it anonymous, for example, things like scoreboards would be out -- it'd have to be more of an honor system how many prompts someone left.<<
Making the prompts anonymous is harder, unless you have people send them to you, or you make them hidden -- there's a way to screen comments. Do you NEED the prompts to be anonymous? Or are you just copying that out of habit because it was common before? If you don't see a problem solved by anonymity, then just let people prompt openly.
>> I would probably also want to announce the event and the prompt prompts/achievements in advance, and then maybe have like a really short period for leaving the prompts (e.g. a 48-hour period) so that it's slightly more likely that people will time their prompts in a way that mixes with other people's prompts?<<
That could work.
>> Anyway, I'd love some thoughts/feedback/suggestions on how to run this and whether you think it would work, or things I need to think about if I want this to succeed.<<
It's a lot easier to run an event with a group then alone. Are any of your friends interested? Do you know folks who miss the old prompt memes? I've seen several people posting on Snowflake about stuff they miss from the good old days. If you can rustle up at least 3 people who will commit to giving you prompts, and at least 3 (not necessarily the same) who will commit to making fanworks from said prompts, then you've got enough to get the ball rolling.
What fandom(s) do you wish to feature? Anything goes can cause choice paralysis, so think about what targets would help your goals. To maximize the pool of participants, I recommend including one or more of the biggest fandoms. Include some that handle crossovers well, like Stargate, and that'll hook folks who like fusion fanworks. You might throw in a few things from the last year or two, like Nimona, to entice folks who chase the newer fandoms sequentially. Featuring a high-diversity canon like Dragon Prince will broaden appeal too.
I hope this helps. I want to encourage activity on DW.