🫂Community

Community is everything. Many seem to find my approach to community building and Discord unusual or strange. Here’s a little background explaining my philosophy.

Some have commented on the fact that the Discord was invite-only (now fully accessible only to holders/OG’s) very strange, even laughing at the notion. I find it strange that this isn’t the most obvious approach and that more communities aren’t doing the same.

By making sure each member is noticed and welcomed upon arrival, and creating a space where things feel calm and controlled you get a very different feeling than other servers that are incredibly busy and confusing with little or no spam, able to answer almost every question and people feel included.

Sure, my goal was never to sell out a 10k collection, and maybe you’ll need a different approach if your product is for everyone. But I don’t keep the Discord small because my collection is small, I set out to make a small collection to serve a small community. Community is everything.

Art, utility, roadmaps, etc are obviously also important, but without a community, it has little meaning. For me, it would make no sense to create a server with thousands of members, and trust me when I say there has been a flood of people asking for invites. Things that are easily accessible to everyone are often uninteresting.

People have asked, why wouldn’t you let people who want in on the Discord? Well, why does almost every luxury brand keep their supply low? Scarcity is a choice, it creates fashion, word of mouth, and a line that in turn creates demand.

The physicals for those holding an NFT from Chapter 01 were sent out on June 6th 2022. After that, no more physicals from Chapter 01 will be produced. Again, scarcity.

Another important aspect: real connections are scarce. During the last month, from having 0 to around 3-400 members on Discord, I have had the honour of getting to know some of the nicest people I’ve ever met on the internet — considering your usual internet hangouts, that’s saying something.

Also: the DDD Discord is a calm, collected place with little traffic. I greet most of the members there every day, and the atmosphere is calm and pleasant, which I’ve heard several members say. Some come and go of course, but there’s a core that is a solid foundation.

If I had to deal with thousands of people, I doubt I would have been able to get to know some of my valued holders / OG’s the way I know them now. A mint will always have flippers looking for a quick buck, but some of these are people I trust and would call friends. That’s scarce — and valuable.

There’s also the issue of security: keeping a Discord server small and tight makes it MUCH harder for scammers to scam and it’s much easier to keep it clean. Seeing the amount of scams lately, I think this is a huge advantage.

However, I don’t believe in scarcity in terms of sharing knowledge and experiences. I’ve learned so much from this community the last months, and people offering to help without asking for anything in return. This is why I really want to do the same. I’m far from a veteran, but I’d be more than happy to share my experiences with anyone else who could benefit from it.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s been part of this journey so far and who have all proved that the Cardano community really is something special.