It’s been a busy month for Slowclap, and for the first time I can say that’s been largely thanks to the community, rather than because of new features or ongoing development.

The first few months of Slowclap’s existence felt like a scramble. My goal in releasing it was to get it out to the world and see if it felt like a viable platform, and with some early promising signals I was really determined to build it into everything I initially envisioned. I think I can say that what Slowclap is now, from an engineering perspective, has mostly achieved that vision. That’s not to say that I don’t have more ideas (I have too many) but I’m finally at a point where I feel like I can take a step back and allow the community to drive those as well.

This project has been a labor of love for me, but it’s always been something that I hoped would allow communities to support each other, and for the first time since I launched it a few months ago, that feels like it’s starting to take shape. Creators continue to join, people are subscribing more frequently, and that’s all happening because of you.

Starting a supportive community from scratch is hard work, and no one joins a platform like this because the guy who made it is telling everyone how cool it is. They join because creators like you take a chance on it, talk about it, and support each other. And you’re all doing that. It might take a while, but I can promise you that working together to build up support for your entire community is not only more rewarding, it’s also more effective in the long run. That’s how audience building works, and with Slowclap, it’s how patronage can work now too. In the meantime, I really appreciate your continued support, feedback, and engagement. I’m going to continue to build and advocate and support my own creative work through Slowclap as best as I can, but it’s been so amazing to see the start of what I know this place could be for all of you.

Here’s twenty five reasons to join today

We’ve got writers, artists, crafters, developers, streamers, podcasters. So many cool people making so many cool things, and you can support as many of them as you want with a single subscription.

I want to make a special callout to Q.I.A Claps a project by peckish-friar to showcase diverse voices on Slowclap. It’s such a cool project, and I hope that list continues to grow! If you’re looking for a group of people to support, that’s an amazing place to start. If you want a more exhaustive list, here’s 25 people and the communities they’re a part of:

A note on this list

If you’ve been featured on this list in the past and aren’t finding yourself here, I’m sorry! I’m moving to a new and hopefully more maintainable system for featuring our creators, but it’s reliant on you joining at least one community. On the plus side, joining a community is super easy! Go to your account/manage pageand pick any that apply to you. Don’t see one that applies to you? Make a suggestion! I just added the Developer and Poetry communities earlier this month based on member requests, and I’m certainly happy to add a few more!

I need a favor

This community is already so cool. It’s building up from exactly the sorts of underrepresented, niche, grassroots creative people that I was hoping this could be a home for. Slowclap was built for diversity, for weird niche projects, for tiny passionate communities of people that share their stuff with the world regardless of whether or not they ever see a dime. People hacking old Super Nintendo games to build roguelike randomizers. People trying out weird operating systems. People speaking truth to power. People making stuff by hand. There’s so many of you out there, but you’re all over the place, which means to find you I’ve been all over the place. I can be everywhere, but I can’t be everywhere all at once. And so I’m asking you, if you’re willing to stay involved. Tell me what’s not working for you. Tell me what is. Tell me how it’s been going. Keep talking about the platform. Share when people applaud you. Share when you applaud others. Make it seem as fun to be generous as it is to be generous.

Share your cool new community cards. Share your goals. If there’s a reason any of this stuff isn’t something you’d be excited to talk about, tell me. I want to know, so I can fix it. Don’t like any of the themes? Tell me to do a better job. Let me prove to you that I actually am trying my best to build this platform for you and your communities to grow and thrive.

Thank you all again, for your continued support! See you out there on the internet!