In this ongoing series of articles, we probe the minds of some dAmn's
channel founders to find out what makes them tick, how they've made
their room a success and what tips they can provide to budding channel
owners.
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This month is `
RetroZombie and
#NaNoWriMo---
1) First off `RetroZombie, can you tell us a little bit about yourself!Well, it's hard to know where to start, without writing my whole life's story! On dA, I've tried to take advantage of the wide range of art that can be presented here to explore all of my creative outlets. So you'll find visual art of many varieties alongside prose and poetry. I've always had a desire, lying just under the surface, to pursue a career in something creative--usually I envision myself knocking out a great novel, buying a pipe and smoking jacket (no tobacco, though
) and living out my years as an eccentric writer of fiction.
2) When did you first discover dAmn, and can you remember the first room you ever chatted in?Wow… That would be over 5 years ago. There was a chat room that was, at the time, "the place to go" for writers--I can't recall what it was called, though. I remember `
imperfect and `
MinorKey were the Gallery Directors (yes
Directors!) at the time. I actually didn't spend a lot of time there, I have to admit. It wasn't until later on that I plunged back into dAmn and found some rooms that were fun and friendly to be in.
3) What prompted you to create #NaNoWriMo ? Did you feel dAmn was missing a room on a specific topic? Did you think other rooms weren't catering to a user's needs? Tell us all!Well... as far as I could tell, there weren't
any chat rooms dedicated to the participants in that exquisite masochism called NaNoWriMo. I had managed to get myself talked into participating that year (2007!) and didn't want to suffer alone. So, no, there were no other chat rooms that would do, and so I took it upon myself to make one.
4) When you created #NaNoWriMo , did you promote it, and if so how?Hmmm... What
did I do to promote it? As I recall, it was mostly via word-of-mouth at first, and then one of the admins heard of it and made it a featured room, about a week into the event. After that, it just exploded!
5) Have you ever held any contests or events in #NaNoWriMo in order to generate more exposure and more traffic? If no, why not? If yes, what sort of events / contests?No, not really. The closest I've come to that was adding the "Word War" feature into the NaNoWriMoBot. That allows the chat participants to create impromptu contests as the whim takes them. Once the room took off, there didn't seem to be any real need to organize contests--besides, when you're trying to write 50,000 words in 31 days, who has time for a contest?!
6) Do you have any advice for new room owners? Should they collaborate with existing rooms? Should they pester their friends to help promote?Well, I would encourage them to tell anyone and everyone who they think would be interested. Talk to the GM's that are in charge of the galleries that most closely match the theme of your room (if that's applicable). Groups didn't exist when I created
#NaNoWriMo, but if I were creating it now, I would ask the admins of as many writing groups as possible to spread the word.
7) Has the Groups platform aided you in managing your chatroom; if so, how?I, unfortunately, haven't been able to be nearly as active in managing
#NaNoWriMo this year as I have in the past, so I don't really have a good answer for that question.
8) Anything else to add?As I said, I haven't been very active in the room lately, so I want to use this section to call attention to the
true stars of
#NaNoWriMo this year--the volunteer moderators:
^
Beccalicious who got the whole thing going again, for the second year in a row now,
~
KisayaMyst (who keeps a good weather eye on the bot, which sometimes decides to wander off to parts unknown),
*
BlueFoxofWater1569 (another good bot watcher
),
=
Caedy, =
Demonicsoul87, =
Flaming-Spirit, ~
Molly-Snicklefritz, ~
Op-Artt, `
Pola-444, =
Tannalein, and =
TheSkaBoss, all if whom pitch in to keep the room running smoothly; some of them returning from last year. Honestly, without this great group of people, the room just wouldn't be functioning at all this year.
My role for now is resident bot mechanic, but the
#NaNoWriMo moderators have kept the room alive and flourishing. If you visit the room, be sure and thank them for their efforts; after all, they're trying to write a novel this month, too!
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Thank you `
RetroZombie and everyone be sure to check out
#NaNoWriMo on dAmn!
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If you are the founder of a chatroom and would like to be interviewed for
the "I Came, I dAmned, I Founded" articles please contact the Community
Volunteers Team by noting the #
communityrelations group.
Sta.sh
Zest 
New Community Relations openings can be viewed 
as prizes. 
We are willing to held more events in the future 
~ 
8D 
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