Milestones
In our first official month, Dustjacket reached 1,000 posts and 200 threads. Great job, guys!I am happy with a lot of what the community has contributed and I look forward to building on that. It was important to me that any milestone we achieved wasn't done hastily / for the sake of it. I know a lot of forums have specialized threads that can inflate numbers - i.e. "Count to 1,000" Threads, etc., but I didn't want to do that. Kudos to message boards that do that, and if their members enjoy it, all the best (I mean that with no sarcasm). However, I don't especially care about the post count so much as I care about the quality of each post. I want to build a community of passionate individuals who want to discuss their favorite things in a real, substantial manner, not treat post counts as scoreboards. That's why I am always happy when posters like @John Clarke or @Mr. Fabulist contribute their thoughtful reviews to each thread.
Reviews Section
| Movies | 55 (+34) |
| Videogames | 17 (+11) |
| Books | 19 (+5) |
As I prefaced in last month's briefing, I am really invested in the 'Reviews' section for Dustjacket. In tackling it for March, I had to do some research, roll up my sleeves, and find different ways to improve it. I wasn't able to do everything I wanted, but I was able to do a couple smaller things that will help with its quality-of-life.
Something I wanted to do was incorporate a new layout altogether, one that would better prioritize certain things and, in total, just make it look better. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that this month. A lot of what I want to do is really niche, which means it will either require custom code / or require a lot of ingenuity on how to manipulate existing code. I'm still invested, but it will require a little more time in the oven. In the mean time, I have managed to make the images larger for the section itself, which I believe helps make it standout better.
On the bright side though, the amount of stories logged has increased substantially. The videogame section has nearly tripled. The movie section has taken an early lead and has doubled its previous amount, meanwhile the Books section has seen modest gains as well.
Although there are numerous methods I could have used to making threads (I know there are codes that allow me to pull from other databases), I believe this is the best approach for getting the most out of it. I like the idea of "building" and fleshing it all out together, slowly. I believe it is something that we can be proud of later.
In April, I look to post similar gains and am interested in incorporating new "themed" months later on.
Advertising
I kept it simple this month on Dustjacket's advertising front. In-particular, I focused primarily on organic growth. It only makes sense, after all, we want to fill out the forum before we make any huge financial investment. Can't expect newcomers to partake it a relatively empty forum.
I did, however, make a small play at advertising through Reddit (it resulted in a couple members registering on the forum - "Welcome to Dustjacket!"), but I have yet to truly harness what it is capable of. For April, I hope to continue that, and hopefully, try out another advertising platform as well - maybe Facebook, I know I have wanted to build our social media presence there.
New Features
Something significant Dustjacket saw in March was the addition of a Shoutbox. I was on the fence about adding a Shoutbox, fearful it might stifle conversation that could happen elsewhere. However, upon considering, I decided that having a nice way to decompress and have light-heart conversation was a price worth paying (especially if I want to forego having a forum for General Discussion and other more off-topic forms of discussion).One new feature I would like to implement, either in April or May, is the next step in our "Your Logs", which entails an ability to share them, embed them, and further expand them on the forum itself. For the thread dedicated to explaining the "Your Logs" feature - click here.
The Hall of Fame is another feature we starting to implement on Dustjacket, as is the incorporation of Podcasts and Review sites into what we're trying to create. For a thread dedicated to explaining the "Hall of Fame" feature - click here.
Create Something.
One of the things I believe in most for Dustjacket is that we should create something. I believe in that more than I believe in anything else. I want us to celebrate storytelling and I want us to participate in the creation of storytelling, both. As I've explained, Dustjacket is a subsidiary to the greater Mishmashers Publishing, which means, ultimately, I want Dustjacket to help create for Mishmashers. That's why I am excited to say that Readers Digested, Vol. 2 is now in the final stages and can look toward publication sometime in late-April, early-May.Some of the writers for Mishmashers are users on Dustjacket. Not all of them. Not even most of them, in fact. However, as Dustjacket grows and we find new, likeminded individuals to participate in our goal, I am certain that will start to change in many ways. We will be able to help shape anthologies and Mishmashers-related content in new, collaborative ways.
I have begun the early groundwork for a new relaunch of the Mishmashers website to better reflect that.
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