Questions have been raised about how exactly we can get a community of people to go from just subscribing to actually helping out. Various proposals have come and gone, and I figured I’d throw in my two cents and also use this thread as an opportunity.

The most common type of proposal I’ve seen has relied on some sort of paid marketing or financial incentives for contributors. In my view, this is a poor foundation to start with, as it gets people in this mindset that without money they can’t do anything, and even if we had money, we’d just be encouraging people to only do things for money. As we’ve seen with all these other alternative social media sites, throwing money at the problem doesn’t create organic communities.

We have to incentivize by creating a sense of community and mutual accountability. Working on this should feel rewarding and fun, as if you’re a part of something. In that sense, this initiative isn’t just for the purpose of marketing but also a way of prefiguring the vision of the Open Web.

The first step has been taken in that we have a Discord/Matrix server which allows for closer and more real-time communication, but I do think it’s time to take another step in ensuring people participate: tasking people.

In this thread, put down your skills and any ideas you have (if any). I (and hopefully other people in this thread) will try to come up with suggestions of what you can do. By tasking people and having them report on their progress here, that’ll create a sense of accountability.

If you’re convinced you have no skills of use, doesn’t matter, post anyways. What we need is engagement and commitment, and one of the biggest obstacles to that so far is people being convinced they’re useless.