In many ways, it's probably easier to create a community than it is to maintain it and keep it thriving in the long run.
Most communities — at least at their inception — are driven by a great deal of vision, energy and enthusiasm. But once the initial dust settles, then what?
The art of the cat!
The sad truth is that many community founders discover that they may be great visionaries, but they don't have the personality and patience for the day-to-day grind of keeping things running and on track.
Unless they actually recognize this about themselves, there's a good chance their "baby" will slowly wither and die, and they may not even understand why.
In my experience, many successful communities are the result of people with a vision and energy starting the community and then seeing fit to hand over the reins of daily operations to somebody else who is more suited to that role.
I have actually tried both starting communities, and running communities in the long term. In my particular case I'm actually better at the running than I am at the starting because I'm not as much of a visionary with original ideas as I am somebody who sees how to work something and then just grind it out.
When we decide to get involved in communities — and perhaps even start one — I think it's important that we are not only aware of what our strengths and weaknesses are, but that we are ready to recognize that we can't necessarily do everything ourselves and still create a successful community.
In many ways one of the more important and creative parts of community building is simply to assemble a team that has the right mix of abilities and strengths to really make a go of the community in the long run.
I expect one of the reasons why so many of Hive's communities stagnate and fall by the wayside is precisely this issue that they don't run themselves. And the day-to-day grind can become pretty boring, after a while... if you don't have the temperament for it!
Till the next one, thanks for stopping by!
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Curator Cat, 2023.07.24