2 months on, 170 members later: What I have learnt when building my discord server.

#community #discord #webdev #design

A bit of backstory

So, last year, I decided to launch a forem, Easy UI. I had money to host it on DigitalOcean for a year. As the year progressed, we barely gained 30 people. And the only post published, was in fact plagiarased from dev.to. Soon, the 12 months ended, and I was left looking for options. I decided to go for Discord, the only option we could think of. Today we are at 170 members, and growing.

So what helped us grow

1. Disboard

Disboard was crucial in acquiring our initial members. Disboard is a search engine for Discord servers, allowing our server to attain organic growth from Discorders interested in user interface design. These original users then invited people they knew to the server, further boosting our Disboard presence, stimulating a snowball effect.

2. Buildergroop

Buildergroop is a discord server for Gen-Z entrepreneurs and builders. I had been a regular member for the past few weeks, and decided to share Easy UI to the community. It was there I found my board team, lots of members, and a mod team.

3. An amazing board Team

The first board member was @monitrr. He made huge changes to the server, including setting up many channels and setting up bots for verification. Moni also helped with the website design (https://easyui.dev). The next board member to join was wyzlle#6081. He helps with keeping the server active. After that, Ryuˢᶠ#0091 joined to help moderate the server and keep it safe for all. With this, the member count of Easy UI grew past 100. rohak.#9378 also joined our board team to help with social media. Big Don#2322 has also joined our board team to help with marketing and content creation.

4. Supportive friends

I had great friends around me to give feedback on Easy UI (including negative feedback - Easy UI was not perfect).

What the future looks like

The future of Easy UI is a bright one. User interface design is a vital part of digital product design, and educating people on it makes the web just that little bit nicer on the eyes. We plan on developing an integrated platform around Easy UI, and have plans on methods in which we can add value to this space. Easy UI will be the number one place to go to connect with other UI designers, learn about UI design, and grow as UI designers.

Make sure to be on the lookout for our standalone blog, coming soon 😉