Ideas for Community Co-Creation

Bust out the drawing board. Here are some of our favorite ways you can get creative with your community.

Community Events

If you have creative people in your server, it’s a great idea to host interactive events like art challenges or a show-and-tell.

These are a great opportunity for members to showcase their skills; they can also help your community connect with each other and create artwork for your server.

‍Tips for Hosting a Community Challenge

  • Create a dedicated #submissions channel or form for members to submit their entries. 
  • Use the Pin Message feature to highlight any key challenge details, instructions, or dates. 
  • Get more people involved by allowing other members to vote on their favorite submissions via emoji reactions. You could even introduce a fun prize category like a Community’s Choice award. 

Here’s a great example from the Design Buddies Community!

A server announcement from the Design Buddies Discord community. The post describes the event, how it works, the rules, and how to submit entries.

Voice Events

Your show-and-tells could also be hosted using a voice chat or stage channel to encourage more human interaction.

This could be a chance for the community to come together and showcase their work around a certain theme.

‍Tips for Hosting Voice Events With Your Community

  • Set up an additional Text Channel on top of the voice channel as another way for members to participate, ask questions, or share work. 
  • Use Discord’s Event feature to schedule your event beforehand and move channels to the top of the list during the event for more visibility!  
  • Encourage members to share their own event ideas or invite members to pitch their own community event to host. 

For more on hosting voice events, check out this article. 

Again, the Design Buddies Community does a great job of this, with clubs centered around interests (i.e. games and books) and led by community members. 

These clubs meet regularly in voice chat to discuss specific topics and have their own text channel to share resources. To join a club, any member can assign themselves a role in our reaction roles channel to see the club’s text and voice channels.

Showcase Your Community’s Artwork In-Server

Allowing community members to create custom emojis and stickers is another great way to help drive engagement and build a sense of ownership with any contributing artists.

Additionally, your community’s artwork can be recognized and utilized in a load of other ways too. For example, you can set it as your server icon, include it on your invite splash page, or feature it in your server banner.

A server announcement from the Design Buddies Community showing off new artwork from their members.

You could also feature a gallery page on your community’s website dedicated to showcasing community work like Fluffle’s Gallery!

A selection of images depicting Fluffle, the Design Buddies Community's rabbit mascot, drawn by their community members.

Remember to get everyone’s permission and credit the artist for their hard work!

Asking For Server Feedback

This one is a little less fun, but introducing a channel where community members can give feedback and make suggestions can be a great way to keep up with your member’s ideas and organize their feedback into one place.

After an event or activity, take the time to check in with the community and learn about anything that could have been improved.

Not everything you do will be a total success and that’s okay. It’s a process of trial and error with your community. But each time you can gather feedback and learn, you have a chance to improve.

Each community is different, and there is no right or wrong approach to co-creation. Some communities generate community artwork, some do quizzes, some co-host voice events…

Like we always say, this is your party. So do what you think is best for your community!

With thanks to Grace Ling for all their help in writing this article.