If you've been on Discord for a while you'll undoubtedly have seen that there's a server for almost every topic you can think of. At TAN we see thousands of server ads per year, some more creative than others. We can confidently say that unique servers are rare. How then are you going to start a server that stands out from the crowd? Should you even try?
Is it Worth It
It's a question that we hear a lot, particularly from new server owners who were expecting their server to quickly attract new members as soon as it became open to the public. Like we said in our previous blog post; a lot goes into making a dream a reality. But if every theme known to man has already been covered, does this work even pay off? The fact that we're bringing it up in our blog today implies that we think we have the answer. However, the best we can do for you as far as short answers is a firm 'Maybe'.
Let's say we have two new server owners. They both like Minecraft.
Server owner A, let's call him Jeff (no, not that one) takes a look around on Discord and sees that there are a lot of Minecraft servers already. They decide to go for something else, like a newly released game that has less servers dedicated to it.
Server owner B, we'll call him Fred (no relation, for all you OG YouTube lovers) also sees there's a lot of Minecraft servers. This is initially a little disheartening but he decides to make his server about Minecraft anyway.
We leave the two server owners alone for a bit and come back to check on their servers about a month later.
Jeff's start
Jeff's server is doing relatively well. He's got about 50 members which is definitely not bad. He gets new people hopping in the server fairly regularly and only a small percentage of them stick around, mostly so they can find other people to play the game with.
Fred's start
Fred's server isn't doing too badly either. He's got 15 members, which isn't a whole lot, but they're working together on a communal town in Minecraft. Occasionally they stream themselves working on it and chatting, which is mostly how they get new members to join. These new people want to join in on the fun. The growth is slow, but steady.
Is either server doing better or worse than the other? Usually when fictional characters are created for comparison there's a clear 'right' and 'wrong' case being made. But both Jeff and Fred have their own version of a successful start going. What we do see is that there are different patterns of growth and new member behavior.
Jeff's progress
Jeff's new members are people who are looking for others who play the new game that's just been released. Their expectations may include finding information on levels, characters, missions, regions, quests or whatever this game might offer. Jeff himself doesn't have all this information and unless someone joins (and stays) who does, the new members aren't going to find that information on his server. If that was all a certain new member was looking for, then they will most likely leave in search for a server or website which does have what they seek. If they were also interested in finding other people to play with, and they see that Jeff's server does offer this, then they are more likely to stick around.
Fred's progress
Fred's new members are people who saw Fred and his existing members having fun in Minecraft. It seemed like fun and so they looked up the Discord invite link and hopped on. There is still a good chance that these new members will soon leave again, mostly if they find the community to not match their own vibe after all, but the chance is lower. The new members came for the people they saw online, after all. They knew beforehand that the server would have that on offer.
The main takeaway is that the theme of a server is only part of the story. The direction the server owner takes it in, the people who join and how they interact with each other is just as important, if not more so.
It's just like with YouTube channels: there's many gaming channels, but there's only one Markiplier.
