Crosspost from DeviantArt...
Aug. 14th, 2006 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI was wondering why my DA pagecount was suddenly zooming when I usually only get two or three new visitors a week. I think I've gotten over a hundred since the first of August, and finally figured out that one of the clubs I'm in used my account (as one of a group of them) for a scavenger hunt. I didn't have the deviation everyone was looking for (and I'm not there just to get pageviews), but I'm glad everyone stopped by! Thanks,Ex-po-zure!
I was kind of wondering about several new DA communities I've noticed that started after I started BioMarina - within a month or two they're at the level of several hundred members and at least that many deviations submitted per week. I admit to feeling slight twinges of envy that these clubs were suddenly so big, so active and so ...well, popular so quickly and was wondering how they did it, whether the founders were already fairly well-watched people or they were advertising in some place I wasn't aware of.
Then every single one of them started having problems, whether it was people complaining about "Hey, you're flooding my inbox!" or "you're not being fair" or just keeping up with all the submissions/notes that it generated. Drama sometimes ensued. Most of them have managed to deal with their growing pains pretty well, but it just made me think. Most of the clubs concerned were primarily photography, which has a potential for generating a lot of material fairly quickly, and either general in topic or a topic that's wide enough that many people are able to participate (and please note that I am in no way disparaging photography as an art form because of that). So now I'm rather glad that BioMarina's topic is fairly wide, but narrow enough that 1) not everyone is interested in it; and 2) to take photographs that fit the topic, you have to go someplace, either the ocean's edge, diving, or to at least your local aquarium. As a result, less than a quarter of BioMarina submissions are photographs - so I'm happy there's a bit more diversity in media. I've also decided the rate BioMarina is growing is just fine with me. It would be nice if members could interact a little more, but I realize life is more than just my piddly little club.
Maybe I should take page from Ex-po-zure's book; that contest seems to be a good way to get people to at least check other people's galleries...I wonder if they'd let me borrow it... ;)
And thanks also to Scientartists, who used my idea for the contest they're having right now - submit a picture of your favorite branch of science (extended to August 31).
I was kind of wondering about several new DA communities I've noticed that started after I started BioMarina - within a month or two they're at the level of several hundred members and at least that many deviations submitted per week. I admit to feeling slight twinges of envy that these clubs were suddenly so big, so active and so ...well, popular so quickly and was wondering how they did it, whether the founders were already fairly well-watched people or they were advertising in some place I wasn't aware of.
Then every single one of them started having problems, whether it was people complaining about "Hey, you're flooding my inbox!" or "you're not being fair" or just keeping up with all the submissions/notes that it generated. Drama sometimes ensued. Most of them have managed to deal with their growing pains pretty well, but it just made me think. Most of the clubs concerned were primarily photography, which has a potential for generating a lot of material fairly quickly, and either general in topic or a topic that's wide enough that many people are able to participate (and please note that I am in no way disparaging photography as an art form because of that). So now I'm rather glad that BioMarina's topic is fairly wide, but narrow enough that 1) not everyone is interested in it; and 2) to take photographs that fit the topic, you have to go someplace, either the ocean's edge, diving, or to at least your local aquarium. As a result, less than a quarter of BioMarina submissions are photographs - so I'm happy there's a bit more diversity in media. I've also decided the rate BioMarina is growing is just fine with me. It would be nice if members could interact a little more, but I realize life is more than just my piddly little club.
Maybe I should take page from Ex-po-zure's book; that contest seems to be a good way to get people to at least check other people's galleries...I wonder if they'd let me borrow it... ;)
And thanks also to Scientartists, who used my idea for the contest they're having right now - submit a picture of your favorite branch of science (extended to August 31).
