any ideas to promote this comm more and encourage reccing?

[ratcreature]

I'd love for this comm to become a bit livelier in this new year, and to broaden the reccer base.

While it is absolutely great that a handful of people rec so regularly, making sure the comm isn't (near-)dead, and there are also some new reccers every now and then, just reccing for a month, there often aren't enough reccers to average a rec per day, so fanart_recs definitely could be more active.

One way would be to make this comm more widely known and grow in numbers, some of whom then might rec eventually. I think for that having a banner to offer people prettier linking with some embedding code would be nice, but I suck at making attractive banners myself. So if anyone felt like making some we could offer, that would be great. Maybe if we had such pretties and a pre-made promotion they could just c&p more would spread the word than now. I could also use something like that to advertise again on dw_community_promo which I haven't done in a while.

The second way would be to encourage more current members and subscribers to make the jump to reccing, but I'm not sure what the barriers to that are there now. Is there anything that could be made easier and would make you consider reccing? Like, for example the comm could do occasional open posting periods outside the regular structure, allowing every member to rec a fanart they wanted to, without having to commit to a whole set but still dip their toes in. (though really, it's only four! *puppy dog eyes*)

Comments

[dancing_serpent]

I'm one of the lurkers on this comm.

I've thought about reccing, but committing to a whole month/at least four works is not something I feel comfortable with. For one because I don't always have four works I would like to rec - maybe there's one or two which I really liked in a specific fandom, and that's it, and also because I'm not very good at committing to specific terms/times.

Also, I'm often not sure about the fandoms. I find myself thinking "oh, I could rec for fandom x" and the next thing would be "again? People have recced for that one in several months already".

[dirty_diana]

not a mod, but if a fandom is lucky enough to have lots of participation, I don't think anyone begrudges that/wishes fewer reccers would sign up? At least, I've never felt that.

[dancing_serpent]

Hm, I don't know. My own reaction to that is very often "fandom x has taken over, time to move on".

[dirty_diana]

Something I'd add is that if I'm the only person reccing a fandom in a community like this? I feel more pressured to represent the fandom well and provide something for everyone. Even if I'm not personally interested in some of it. As opposed to now when I'm reccing Avengers here, and don't have to feel guilty about focusing on my OTP because I'm not the only Avengers abassador the community will ever have.

(I do see what you mean about fancake, but I feel like this comm is set up differently enough for it to not be the same.)

[dancing_serpent]

I feel more pressured to represent the fandom well and provide something for everyone. Even if I'm not personally interested in some of it.

I've heard that from other reccers, too, but I always wonder about that. Depending on the fandom I either have my OTP or I have my little black dress character. Or it's simply a matter of time priorities - I might like lots of characters/pairings, but as my time is limited I favour reading/looking at the ones that intrigue me the most at the moment.

And I assume it's the same for most people, so why try reccing out of one's comfort zone? Or feeling guilty or pressured about about it?

[dirty_diana]

Theoretically, I'm all for no one feeling guilty about anything fannish. But in practice: I might want to encourage people to join a small fandom, and feel that's likelier to happen if I give a representative sample of everything that's in it. Or get people hooked to what's popular. Or I may be into a pairing that's not that well-shipped in a fandom that's got a dominant OTP. So I would spend the whole month thinking my recs are boring everybody.

I have actually been asked, during overviews at crack_van, whether I'm going to be reccing fandom bandwagon OTP X, or just (my personal OTP that only 4 other people care about). So not an issue that's wholly invented, you know? It sucks and no one should feel bad about what they like, but I don't want to be wasting time either.

[dancing_serpent]

So I would spend the whole month thinking my recs are boring everybody.
Well, yes? But that's normal with reccing I think? There's always someone deeply uninterested in your/my favourites, and they will be bored out of their mind when you/I rec. And even if you/I try to present a broader selection, there are the small fandom/unpopular pairing shippers you/I can't make happy.

So not an issue that's wholly invented, you know?
I know, but I still don't get it. See above. Also, I'm a slash & gen reader exclusively, so I would never be the right person to rec het. I couldn't represent it, because I have no idea about the popular pairings, the most loved authors, the best works, etc.
It's like asking about my favourite recipes when I don't cook - I can neither give an informed opinion, nor a personal recommendation, because I just have no idea.

I think it's a mistake to think that reccing means "reccing/representing a whole fandom", at least in specific comms like fanart_recs. It's about reccing a fanwork that you love, for whatever reason. For example, there's artwork I adore for fandoms I can't stand. I would rec the artwork in a heartbeat, but never the fandom.

[dirty_diana]

Again, don't disagree in principle. It's just not that easy in practice, for *me*, to decide I don't give a crap whether my recs are boring everybody. I hang out in a lot of fandoms where there is a massively dominant pairing, that I don't necessarily get. I'm not talking about boring a few people. I'm talking about boring *everybody*.

But this is reminding me a lot of an lj conversation I had a long time ago, where the person really didn't get why anyone would read outside their preferred pairing without a gun to their head. And I didn't get what the big deal was. So personality is a factor, I'd say. No universal way to approach it. Or universal reason to rec.

[dancing_serpent]

Oh yeah, definitely different personality/different approach here, and I think a wholly different fandom experience in general. *g* I'm starting to get where you're coming from - and thanks, this is a very interesting discussion!

I'm used to hanging out in either very small fandoms or in very huge ones, and I'm mostly rare-pairing shipper. So, I'm used to being bored by or uninterested in 99% of the recs I stumble upon - I believe that's a huge part of the reason why I don't give a damn about boring people with my own recs.
Boredom or disinterest is simply the way I'm used to feel or even expect to feel when I see other people's recs, so I assume others will feel the same about mine.

And yep, there has to be a huge reason for me to even consider reading out of my preferred fandom or pairing. For me to even be interested in reading/looking at something, I have to have established some kind of connection to at least one of the characters first. No connection means no interest in reading/watching/etc in my case, no matter if it's something produced by one of my favourite authors or artists in a fandom.

Also, I'm someone who doesn't often get squicked by content, but who has major character squicks. To the point that I even skip stories with my favourite pairings when I see certain character names mentioned in the summary.

Another major factor is time. Life's too short to read bad fic (unless I'm getting really desperate *g*). Or uninteresting fic. Regardless of quality, I wouldn't even think about reading a fic out of my comfort zone/my preferences when I have a long backlog of fic that fits my preferences very well and only about two hours a day to read, for example. Or I'd rather read bad!fic for my favourite pairing than a quality fic with a pairings I'm not interested in. Uhm, yeah...

No universal way to approach it. Or universal reason to rec.
I agree. Also, no universal reaction towards recs. For example, recs are not the way for me to get introduced into a new fandom - they only work for me if I'm already invested.

[ratcreature]

But it is awesome if a fandom is recced for several months in a row! A steady stream of recs in a popular fandom is a great attraction for people to subscribe, if they happen to like that fandom. I'd love if a fandom I particularly like, say X-Men: First Class, was recced every month.

So would you post the recs you do have during an open period? Like say if the comm announced a "February Reccing Frenzy" for a week in an open period, would that make you post then? Or would that still count as specific time, and wouldn't be a turn-off?

[musyc]

This is the concern that's kept me from signing up. My fandom is Harry Potter, and I don't ever leave it, but there are already 70+ tags for it here. I felt signing up for "huge, often-recced fandom" might be a bit eyerolling for watchers, but if it's not, I'll definitely consider signing up for a month or several.

[ratcreature]

I certainly would be happy to see more HP recs, and I'm sure everybody else is too. And if they are not, on DW you can fine-tune your reading list by tags, so if anyone absolutely did not want to see HP recs, they could just subscribe to this comm and filter them out.

[dirty_diana]

Gonna repeat something from above, since it might be relevant for a multiship fandom like you're in. Maybe *some* people are tired of HP? but there may also be some HP fans who are waiting for a reccer to come along who shares their thematic interests or rarer OTP. And maybe you're that fan, you know? You shouldn't think of your recs as just being more of the same imo. They might be totally unique and exciting to someone watching. :)

[dancing_serpent]

But it is awesome if a fandom is recced for several months in a row!
Okay, two people in a row saying the same thing? Tells me my perception might be a bit weird. For me it's mostly "fandom x has taken over, time to move on". As in, ignore/leave the comm, or stop subscribing.

It took me ten rounds until I stopped thinking of fancake as "that bandom recs community" and get my own first recs in.

Possibly, I'm not sure. It could go both ways for me - saying hey, that open period is far away enough that I can prepare (I'm the person who saves art to her hard drive, but doesn't bookmark - finding certain art again on the net can be a bit difficult sometimes), but it could easily turn into me saying "now? Argh, no way, I'll never manage".

I might be better off as a lurker here. :(

[ratcreature]

For me it's mostly "fandom x has taken over, time to move on". As in, ignore/leave the comm, or stop subscribing.

But under the current sign-up model that can't even happen. I mean, even if a fandom is recced every month, it is still only one reccer posting for it, unlike the fancake model. And okay, there is no upper limit, so it could be more than four recs, but usually not that many more, and the FAQ even explains that when considering the upper limit, posters should pick something that doesn't swamp the other recs through volume.

[dancing_serpent]

Well, I'm still here and watching, right? *g*

Yeah, it can't happen here like in other comms. And my reaction isn't really logical. But sometimes, when I think I should give it a try I take a look at the tags. And then it goes "okay, not this fandom, and not that one, or that over there..."