Community Dilemma

[scarletladyy]

We have a bit of a dilemma, in that we only received 22 prompts for our 2017 Dark Witches fest. I don't want to put on a fest that nobody is interested in, so I thought I'd ask the community what they thought the best course of action was. Since the fest hasn't run since 2013, I think the problem is that we haven't got a lot of the newer people to

Comments

[plaidphoenix]

I think part of the problem is that the fandom has shrunk drastically over the years. It's not a bad thing but I see a lot of the same people participating in most of the fests.

I'd like to suggest two things. One, advertise more. Ask other comm managers to post something for their members to see and second, don't cancel the festival but convert it to a comment challenge instead.

[flipflop_diva]

I'm super excited this fest is back, so I'd be really sad if it were cancelled. (I've just been sooooo insanely busy with work I didn't have time to prompt. Plus there are already prompts I'm interested in, so I didn't really feel the need. So it could also be that way for other people.)

One thing you might try is send a quick PM to people who have participated in past years, just letting them know it's happening. It could be there are people out there who want to participate and just haven't been paying as close of attention to things as before.

But I really, really hope you have it! I'm for sure going to write!

[emmatheslayer]

i think maybe keep prompting a little more and maybe like 2 weeks more and more promo

[kiertorata]

Advertising more and extending the prompting is probably the only way to get more prompts. I don't know if the amount of prompts is a problem though, some of the prompts that have been posted are pretty damn great!

I haven't participated in the fest before, but I'm definitely interested. I'm just not a fan of this kind of prompt-claiming fixed-deadline fests. I think it would be cool if the fest was more of a "no claiming, pick a prompt and post when you feel like it within the given time period"-fest. Just throwing that out there. (I don't know about other people, but I certainly prefer the kind of more "relaxed" fests, where you can even post several works if you're inspired to. Exchanges are also great.)

[themightyflynn]

I'll promo the hell out of it if it means more participation! Two of my comms at least are active now, so it may help a little? :/

I also agree with plaidphoenix: fandom has shrunk so much that niche fests are having issues all over. Hopefully extra promos will help!