Ok being real for a sec, I've been using this site for a while now basically by myself as a publicly accessible personal journal which is not what I had in mind when I started it, the ".social" part of rambl.social hasn't really been working out as I've only been able to attract one other member. For whatever reason it's been harder than I thought to drum up interest for the site this time around. Maybe it's a reach problem and people just aren't seeing my posts on other platforms. Or maybe my fears are correct and people just aren't as on board with the idea of a slower, simpler, privacy-focused and slightly less convenient social forum as I envisioned.

That said I'm not as upset with the low turnout as you might think. The lack of members has given me time to get familiar with the platform and experiment a bit and make sure things are ready in case it does finally pop off. Though if you are seeing this and are interested in the concept, I would absolutely love it if you would sign up and share the site with your friends! It would be cool to have a little network of founding members that recognize each other by name when waves of new members come in. Also it would help me out in gaining experience administering rambl to know how people use the platform, things that need to be changed/simplified, and to see a little community in action.

But I digress. I recognize that part of the reason rambl isn't seeing new members is because of the way I'm going about spreading the word: I wanted a slow rollout so I haven't talked about it in public spaces yet, I've only shared with friends and family so far since that way the stakes are lower and I'll be relatively safe from ire if I handle things wrong while I'm still figuring out website administration. I don't mind who anyone else shares rambl with, I just personally am trying to keep it relatively small right now.

On the subject of administration, I recognize some things need to be changed on the site: for one, the code of conduct needs to be separated from the terms and it needs to be expanded to include acceptable/unacceptable topics, a standard disciplinary process, etc. For another, the privacy policy is sparse and unprofessional and possibly inaccurate, in truth I don't understand everything the site collects and how much I have access to so I will need to go on a deep dive on that and update the policy accordingly. I also would like to make some adjustments to the site layout which is a bit of an undertaking, I will need to get familiar with a new scripting language for the site's template engine which is always fun (that was sarcasm)

I also wanted to talk about some ideas I've had to help spread the word about rambl. One is business cards as I mentioned in my last post about the site's tagline. That way I have something physical to give to people I see IRL so they can more easily remember my site and are more likely to actually follow through and make an account. Another is a video ad, I have an idea for a short (~30s) promo video that uses the song "Good Day" by Tally Hall so I'll update you all when I make progress on that.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you post your thoughts here on rambl!