Possible community

[dreamflower]

I have here a question and a poll.

The question is for folks who moderate communities: how hard is it? Does it take up a lot of time? I've been looking at the FAQs and it *looks* fairly simple, but I'd like to have an idea of what I'm in for if I decide to take the plunge.

And here's the idea for the community: a place to post pics of any Lord of the Rings or Tolkien related crafts you might do. This would include everything from art to costuming to wearable art to needlework to sculpture to hobbit houses to--well,to any sort of crafty thing you could imagine that would relate to LotR. So I'd like to guage the interest in it.

[Poll #730232]

Comments

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

I think it's a neat idea. I always like looking at the pics of crafty things that others are doing even if I haven't done any LOTR crafty type things myself.

[dreamflower]

Cool!

[shirebound]

I moderate two communities, but they're not very active. You might find that there's an initial explosion of interest, but then it tapers off to a small, devoted following. The hardest part of a community (for me) is making sure every post conforms to whatever rules you set up, and enforcing the rules when necessary.

[dreamflower]

That's good to know! It does look easy on the FAQs.

But if I do, it won't be before the weekend, since my internet is being very wierd, and cable can't be out to see about it before Friday.

[slightlytookish]

Sounds like a fun place! I don't do much crafy things these days but I'd love to see what other people make :)

I mod one community and co-mod another. Neither one is too difficult to manage or takes up too much time, but then neither is insanely active either. The biggest thing for me is formatting the updates to send to Middle Earth News. And one time I had to enforce a rule at one of the communities; that kind of situation can get hairy. But other than that, it hasn't been a problem :)

[dreamflower]

Who knows? Maybe seeing what others do will inspire you!

Middle Earth News--yes, that's a good idea!

If I do this it won't be before Friday, when I am sure that my internet is not going to go out on me again.

[budgielover.livejournal.com]

I'm all for it. I'll post a picture of my star ceiling, if I can get it to come out in the photograph. I imagine traveling with the Fellowship at night, if you are wondering what the tie-in is... :) I plan to do a Door of Moria one of these days. I really like seeing things like Elwen's Rivendell and when people sew Renassiance costumes or LotRs costumes.

[dreamflower]

Ooh! I'd love to see your ceiling, and your door when you do them!

I think that this weekend, I may go for it!

[gryffinjack.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely idea, Barbara!

I'm an administrator on three ezboard communities plus a couple of Yahoo communities over in the HP fandom. It is much easier to set up and run a Yahoo community, since you do not have to do as much to set up the look of your community's page. Also, unless you do not mind having random advertising appear in your community, you must pay money in order to have an ezboard community. Yahoo communities have the distinct advantage of being free and so easy that even I was able to set one up. Additionally, ezboard does occasionally experience difficulties where your community might be down for a few hours or even a couple of days.

As mentioned by others, the running of the community itself greatly depends upon how much activity your community receives. If people are constantly posting and you have a great influx of users you do not know, then you must carefully monitor what is being posted, both in words and in pictures. With larger communities, you may also have to watch disagreements that might arise between your members and have to deflate the situation before it escalates. Obviously, the smaller and more select the community, the less of a problem these concerns are.

From what I have seen so far in the LotR community and the people who post on your LJ, I do not think that internal disagreements will be a difficulty or that it would take much time to manage the community. Smaller communities practically run themselves once they have been set up.

If you're interested in it, then have at it! You've nothing to lose and lots of fun to gain!

[dreamflower]

All right! It does sound like something I can do!

Off-topic: my internet hook-up has been going out on me a lot. So if you don't hear from me for a day or so, you will know why!

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

I always like it when someone starts a LOTR related site or community. Makes me feel safer about things continuing on around here. You have so many things to post just with your projects. Sounds like a good plan.

[dreamflower]

That's great! I'm getting good response, so I may give it a shot this weekend, after cable comes out and does some mumbo-jumbo over my internet hook-up, which has been pulling all sorts of gremlin-like pranks on me for a few days.