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I've seen a few questions that don't seem to be about building communities but, rather, are about building readers or customers or are about making a stronger personal presence on social media. I realize that this community is (ironically) struggling to establish itself, and that might make us reluctant to close them (I haven't voted yet either), but I'm not convinced that the answer is to become Personal Marketing Stack Exchange. Marketing is an important part of community-building but not all marketing is about communities.

What should we do with questions like these? Is there some edit that makes them fit, should we welcome them, should we close them?

Examples: How to convince my subscribers to buy my merch, Promoting a multi niche blog with a limited social media presence, How do I make my users comment on blog posts?.

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  • There seems to have been only one question a month (approximately). Broadening the scope of this group should be a priority rather than actively discouraging posters I would have thought.
    – Poidah
    Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 14:35

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I think things with subscribers and blogs are still communities. Both of these typically have comments sections and interaction with people that follow them. The last one especially is truly building a community. I think the other two are probably close enough to fit as well but are much more borderline. (Can't support the community without having funding.)

I think the key is that the activity forms a community. How to sell cars isn't on topic and how to build your brand as a book author isn't either as community interaction isn't a typical part of those experiences, but Youtube/Twitch/etc subscribers and blog followers frequently interact with the creator and each other.

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  • I guess it still feels like 1:many when a community is many:many. Blog commenters sometimes interact but that isn't the goal. A blog is centered on one person. Yeah there are shared blogs and those can be communities, but those questions would use "we" not "I".
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 13:10
  • I don't know, I normally see discussions about blog posts based around blogs. The comments sections tend to be many:many even if it's talking about the post of one person. The comment section of a blog is more akin to a fan group for a particular artist, those are communities. "How do I write a blog?" isn't on topic, but "how do I make users comment" certainly is. "How do I write a blog post so the community engages with it?" might be.
    – AJ Henderson Mod
    Commented Sep 13, 2019 at 22:39

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