LOUDER

Week one: What if Des Moines…

The Project

I was halfway through my shower Monday morning when I had an idea for a website. I called it “What if Des Moines…” and had a Tumblr site and my first post added not long after. The purpose of the site was to create a space where people could get really imaginative about their city. I also wanted to create a safe place to ask difficult questions and generate discussion around those ideas. So far I’d say it’s been a big success.

People took to it pretty quickly and not more than a few hours in I was fielding submissions, monitoring comments, and pimping it wherever I could.

Stats so far (as of Friday July 15)

Note: I didn’t get Google Analytics running until Monday afternoon, so the initial little burst of interest didn’t get accounted for.

• 23 ”What if…” posts
• 25 more posts in the queue
• 27 submitted “What if…” questions (includes posted and queued)
• 107 approved comments
• 1 site inspired by the original (www.whatifcr.com)
• 536 unique visitors
• 2,885 total pageviews
• 25 Tumblr followers
• 45 Twitter followers

Of these stats, I’m most proud of the 107 comments. I really want this project to encourage hearty discussion, not just idle wondering.

Of these stats, I’m most encouraged by the sister-site I inspired, “What if Cedar Rapids…” I have to admit that upon waking up to discover that site Tuesday morning, I was a little upset. That lasted about 30 seconds. I then realized how awesome it was and have been pumped up by it all week. I’m having coffee soon with the gentleman who started it.

What I did right

I kept idea—>execution to about an hour. I’m prone to overthinking things. Getting it out there fast let me iterate quickly based on how people reacted to it.

I stayed positive. I could have gotten upset about the clone site, or the troll comments, or the people who weren’t quite getting the idea. I didn’t. 

I added a lot of my own comments. I wasn’t sure if that was the right move at first, but it seemed to generate a lot of the discussion I was looking for.

I posted about it on Google+. I haven’t really used the service at all since signing up, but I had a nice little response and a few dozen visitors from sharing the link on Google+. It’s driven more traffic than Facebook so far.

Small mistakes

Nothing worth dwelling on too much, but I wish I’d gotten the Twitter account and Google analytics set-up more quickly. I also wish I’d taken the time to personally reach out to more folks and solicit their input during the first week. I’m working on that now.

What I’m not sure about

Being on Tumblr. The Likes, Reblogs, and Followers from Tumblr have been encouraging, and the content of the site definitely suits the fast-and-furious publishing style of the Tumblr community. On the downside, it’s Tumblr. I picked up a couple of retweets from accounts with a lot of followers this week right as Tumblr was taking a shit and elements of the site weren’t loading correctly.

What I want to do next

My big goal now is to shepherd the creation of additional “What if…” sites under the same philosophical banner. I’d like to strike a balance between autonomy and consistency — I’ve seen far too many “open source” idea-based projects like this burn up and fizzle out as enthusiastic recruits abandon their sister-sites a few weeks or months into the project.

I realize that with an idea this simple I’m not going to be able to do much to stop folks from creating their own sites without talking to me. I hope to discourage that by being very open, public, and helpful-as-all-hell. I hope that my passion for the idea will help people realize that there’s a lot more potential in this concept than a handful of Tumblr sites with a handful of posts. It could be really big.

How you can help

1) Tell someone about the project! Send them to whatifdesmoines.com or whatifcr.com, send them this blog post, share links on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. 

2) Give me feedback! I’d love to know what you think. Any and all feedback is welcome. You can comment on this post, or email me at scottkubie at gmail dot com. 

3) Offer your resources! I’m a writer. I’m not a programmer, photographer, or graphic designer. If you think you can help this project look prettier and work better, I’d really love your assistance. Email me at scottkubie at gmail dot com.