Greetings
This post is a result of observation over many months, it's an issue that has gone long unaddressed mainly because I (@amirtheawesome1) have had taken time away from the COMmunity during a specific period which included a lot of growth in terms of numbers. However, this growth in numbers didn't coincide with a growth in comedy post quality, in fact, I could make the argument it met a serious decrease in the quality of comedy posts that turned us no different than any general-topic community such as GEMS
Now, this is obviously not a knock on GEMS as it is one of the largest communities on the platform, however, it does mean that Comedy Open Mic has lost much of its uniqueness which set it apart
Growth in the number of subscribers is obviously a goal among the community's goals, but definitely not one that is the most important, in fact, in comparison to what the community is trying to accomplish, I would argue, that it is not even important.
As implied in the name, the COMmunity is built on creating a place that is not unlike a comedy club. A platform for people to show off their comedic abilities through written posts. Those posts could range in topic which is what we hold similar with communities like GEMS, but definitely should include a large portion of comedy, and that's what set us apart and even allowed us to create many partnerships since the community's creation.
Posts in different communities can or can't be comedic, but this one it can't be anything other than comedic. Topics can vary but comedy has to remain a main pillar. Do we still have comedy-based posts? Of course, we do. But, that takes us to another issue in the community at the moment
We've already established what sets apart this community from other general-topic communities, now let's talk about what sets it apart from other comedy communities.
Other comedy communities on this platform are simple joke-based communities. This means they include basically one joke, one punchline. You can see that in the form of posts including only one-liner or a simple meme format. While here, and as said before, it's meant to mimic a stand-up comedy set that can performed in comedy clubs.
Once that's abandoned, there's really no reason for this community to exist. So, unlike what your girlfriend does say in bed, length does matter. Overstretching what is easily a 50-word post into a 400-500-word post doesn't make the post belong here. Comedy posts here need to be more thought-out. This takes me to the final point of this post.
Going back to a previous point, comedy is the main pillar of this community, it's a non-negotiable. But, it needs to be a longer form than what we are seeing in the past few months. Also, it needs to be more variable, this is why it is important to check out others' posts before posting your own. As we speak, there are three posts about food literally stacked on top of each other, and there are countless posts with the theme "my country does this", which separately could mean something productive, but collectively just means the community is running out of ideas.
The Comedy Open Mic community will go through a certain revamp. The community leaders will be doing their role in that, by providing specific guidelines of the kinds of posts we'd like to see in this community. In return, we will ask our resident comedians to work with us in accomplishing the goal of creating a community that is similar to a stand-up comedy club.
Obviously, we don't want this community to perish, but if the substitute is for it to become far removed from its intended identity, then that is an end we are willing to accept. So, for the time being, we are entering a more strict era as we get our cards in order.