Growth plan for Creative Spark [discussion]

[Joy]

Same here, John. I wouldn’t draw or paint if it wasn’t for a site like this.

Penny - One cannot understate the positive impact CS and similar sites have on the members. Such help and encouragement really motivates me. It is thrilling to look at the work in all genres and see the creativity. Often when I am at a loss for what to do, participating in the challenges gives me "homework" that has a deadline. What I finish may not be "pretty", but at least I am trying to broaden my scope.

 

[Schuee]

I agree, Joy. I wouldn’t be drawing/painting at all if it weren’t for these sites. This site is rich in interesting people and their art. I enjoy it very much. Having the challenges and prompts is excellent as it gives something to aim at. You mustn't do yourself down as you are much better than you think you are.

 

[Artyczar]

I have had a plan up my sleeve in the past weeks to start doing monthly spotlights on our artists here with a short interview. I just have to put it together and decide if the interviews are going to be the same questions every time. This is so I won't have to spend even more time working on the website coming up with unique questions every month for each individual artist. I just have to come up with a kind of template to make it easier on myself. I already have some basic questions planned though, so that's something. I'm also going to have Hannah make a way for me to get a member to pop up randomly from the database to pick from to make the selections fair. This may even bring former members back that haven't been participating in over a year. Who knows.

Anyway, I'll make an announcement about this as soon as I have this all worked out. It's still in the planning phase.

 

[Joy]

Ayin - What an inspired idea! I concur that the same questions would be best for continuity and ease, perhaps with a few unique queries in some cases.

 

[smaughazard]

New member, and I really like the site. That said, would it be possible for members to each have a gallery page in their profile, so that we could look at others artwork overall without having to chase every thread?

 

[E.J.H.]

Not a bad idea. But it is quite easy to take a look at posted work of particular members by going in their profile and sect the threads they started, the majority of the ones posted in the different media/subject subforums shows their own work.

 

[Bartc]

No worries here. You're doing fine.
Only thing that concerns me is low volume of posts of late, or maybe that's just my impression.

 

[CaliAnn]

Only thing that concerns me is low volume of posts of late, or maybe that's just my impression

I've been getting that impression too - and I only joined in May

 

[Terri]

I've noticed it, but I'm guilty of being so busy packing up and moving over the last several weeks, I've barely had time to duck in and say HI, let alone post anything new. *sniffle*

Fall can be a busy time - work, school, family schedules - these things are cyclical and unavoidable.

I miss this place! Love being able to look at everyone's work in a leisurely way. Things will pick up again, especially when winter keeps many of us inside and able to work more. I'm personally looking forward to it!

Got my art supplies mostly unpacked, just shoved around waiting for order. More controlled chaos these days. Huzzah!

 

[snoball]

I'm guilty of contributing to the low volume of posts too, but just super, super busy. I feel guilty and only have time to look into a few of the threads.

 

[MurrayG]

Hey guys. Firstly thanks for this site. Sometimes it's what motivates me not only to paint but to push myself to try new things. Re posting - hmm well yes it's a smaller site, so you must expect some traffic variation. It can be seasonal, obligations, illness, or whatever gets in folks way. That's just a small site reflection of a community. Folk doing different stuff. We cannot all be retired or professionals painting all the time. Sometimes it's just the "black dog" and motivation becomes an issue.
The site is good.
Maybe a little growth would be good.
But it should retain a personal touch.
It has a caring shared by artists feel, not just a group of back slappers.
Sorry for being AWL for a bit, I'm working at getting dusty fingers a bit more.

 

[MurrayG]

A thought came to me.... there have been good studies on community sizes. Here is an extract from one reputable study:

Community sizes of 50, 150 and 500 are disproportionately more common than other sizes; they also have greater longevity. These values mirror the natural layerings in hunter-gatherer societies and contemporary personal networks

So by that measure the site can safely grow somewhat without compromising communication and cohesion. There are suggestions that once a limit is reached, a subgroup can be hived off, but remain connected to the mother group. That seems true of many social media groups regardless of "follower pressure". Once a social media group of "followers gets too big, it looses contect.
So one takeaway is that Subgroups or Subforum groups of "likeminded" folk can grow to 150 - 500 active members. Whereas the main site would be the sum of those groups. Just thinking aloud incase folk are worried about "getting big and impersonal". Sorry if I am off on a tangent.

 

[ZenDruid]

New member, and I really like the site. That said, would it be possible for members to each have a gallery page in their profile, so that we could look at others artwork overall without having to chase every thread?

With your avatar is your forum handle in blue letters. Double click on that and you will go to the artist's profile page. There will be a box that says Find. Click on that and there are two choices: Find All Content by XXX and Find All Threads by XXX. Click on Find All Threads and you will go to the artists list of all new work posted, with images. A good way to see what others have done and are doing.

 

[smaughazard]

With your avatar is your forum handle in blue letters. Double click on that and you will go to the artist's profile page. There will be a box that says Find. Click on that and there are two choices: Find All Content by XXX and Find All Threads by XXX. Click on Find All Threads and you will go to the artists list of all new work posted, with images. A good way to see what others have done and are doing.

Thanks!

 

[Artyczar]

Hi smaughazard. I am very guilty of being absent lately. I've had a lot going on and I apologize to everyone. I notice that when the mods are more active, so is the rest of the site, but I could be wrong. We've all been preoccupied with a lot recently.

Yes, it is a small site, and I like to keep it that way. I don't mind a little growth, but I prefer it to grow as organically as possible if that makes sense. I'm interested in quality over quantity, and the site is being run out of a labor of love, as well as a few contributions (thank you everyone!).

That being said, giving each member a full gallery website is a great idea, but it may take up even more bandwidth, which equals more funds. However, it's not out of the question and I will look into it with Hannah, my partner.

Again, welcome to the site. It's good to have you.

 

[16ga]

I've also been busy. Infact just yesterday I was able to sit down and paint for the first time in over a month I think.

 

[Hannah]

would it be possible for members to each have a gallery page in their profile...?

Potentially.

At some point we may move the forum to cloud hosting that's managed by the company that makes the forum software. If that happens we'll also have access to their gallery add-on.

At some point. Potentially.

As for the size of the forum or the number of members, you can have 10,000 members and still maintain a friendly and personable forum. It's not the number of people, it's the people themselves.

 

[Marc]

What Murray mentioned about small numbers reminds me of the Dunbar number of 150 persons. Robin Dunbar noticed that groups were more stable around this number. Schools (for example) functioned better when of this size or divided into sub-groups of this size (often called houses) The Gore-Tex factories have 150-200 workers and when they need to expand they just build another factory next door or a few doors down.
I don't know how this would play out on internet forums though. Perhaps up to 150 or so daily active members, but this would have to be self emergent, not regulated. (God forbid that.) The only time I've really noticed too many members was years back on a Harry Potter forum. That site was crazy! In half an hour your question could be on the second or third page as there was so many new posters. I suppose it was like fly fishing. If you didn't get a bite immediately, you weren't going to get one at all!

 

[MurrayG]

What Murray mentioned about small numbers reminds me of the Dunbar number of 150 persons. Robin Dunbar noticed that groups were more stable around this number. Schools (for example) functioned better when of this size or divided into sub-groups of this size (often called houses) The Gore-Tex factories have 150-200 workers and when they need to expand they just build another factory next door or a few doors down.
I don't know how this would play out on internet forums though. Perhaps up to 150 or so daily active members, but this would have to be self emergent, not regulated. (God forbid that.) The only time I've really noticed too many members was years back on a Harry Potter forum. That site was crazy! In half an hour your question could be on the second or third page as there was so many new posters. I suppose it was like fly fishing. If you didn't get a bite immediately, you weren't going to get one at all!

Hi Marc. I like the site small, it's personal. But some growth may be a good thing. Yes the numbers are well researched. There are even permaculture community numbers from wayyyy back that researched community sizes and found the Goldilocks numbers.
As social media has developed, these number groups are WELL researched, after all, its about marketing potential. But I think Arty and Hannah seem to have a handle on the concept.

 

[Artyczar]

Yes, we like to keep it small, which is why we don't do much community reach. We like a more word of mouth approach and an organic growth, personally. We are also just a couple of people here, and run on donations. We all do this in our "spare time."