Resources

For the people doing the organizing

Everything here came out of watching communities on Commonry succeed and fail at the same things. It is written for organizers, and it is free to copy.

Guide9 min read
Starting a community that survives its second year
Most groups do not fail at launch. They fail somewhere in month fourteen, when the founder gets tired and nobody else knows how anything works.
- Write down the one thing your group does before you write anything else. Every community on Commonry that lasted has a sentence its members can repeat.
- Pick a cadence you could keep during a bad month, not a good one. Monthly beats weekly for almost everyone.
- Recruit a second organizer before you need one. The median community loses its founder to burnout at eighteen months.
- Publish the schedule at least four weeks ahead. Members working shifts cannot attend anything announced on a Tuesday for a Thursday.
- Decide what you will not do. The groups with the clearest boundaries have the highest return rates.
Checklist4 min read
The first-timer checklist
Everything a new member needs to know before walking into a room full of people who already know each other.
- Say where to meet precisely enough that someone could find it in the dark. “The waterfront” is not a meeting point; “by the old crane” is.
- Say what it costs, including if it is nothing. Unstated costs are the most common reason people do not come.
- Say what to bring, and say when the answer is nothing.
- Say when it ends. People with responsibilities elsewhere will not commit to an open-ended evening.
- Name one person a first-timer can look for on arrival.
- Follow up once, briefly, after their first visit. Once — not three times.
Guide6 min read
Running a critique people come back to
Adapted from the formats used by Type & Tell and Basement Tape Club, both of which arrived at nearly the same rules independently.
- Ask for unfinished work. Finished work invites praise, and praise teaches nobody anything.
- Describe before you prescribe. What the room actually perceived is more useful than what it would do differently.
- Cap the responses. Three per piece keeps the notes sharp and the evening finite.
- Protect the maker’s right to ignore all of it. A critique is information, not instruction.
- End on time. A crit night that overruns twice will lose the people with childcare and never get them back.
Guide7 min read
Moderation is mostly editing
How Commonry moderators actually spend their time, written by the moderator who drafted the current guidelines.
- Most moderation is moving a thread to where it belongs, not removing it.
- One clarifying question resolves more conflict than any policy. Ask it in public where possible.
- Act early and small. A quiet word in week one prevents the thread everyone remembers in week six.
- Write decisions down. A group that cannot see how a rule was applied assumes it was applied unfairly.
- Removal is a last resort and should be rare enough to be notable.
Checklist5 min read
Making a gathering people can actually attend
Practical access considerations for in-person events, drawn from what organizers on Commonry get asked most often.
- Publish step counts, gradients, and whether there is a step at the door. Say so even when the answer is unhelpful.
- Name the nearest accessible toilet and how far it is.
- State whether the room has seating, and whether standing for two hours is required.
- Give a transit-reachable meeting point. Not everyone drives, and not everyone can walk from the parking.
- Offer a quiet option or a defined break in anything running over ninety minutes.
- Ask, once, on sign-up, whether anything would make attending easier. Then actually read the answers.
Template3 min read
Event description template
The structure every event on Commonry follows. Copy it, fill it in, and delete the parts that genuinely do not apply.
- One sentence on what will happen, written so someone outside the group would understand it.
- Two or three paragraphs on the detail: the format, the level, and what makes this session different from the last one.
- A short list of what to bring, including “nothing” where that is true.
- Precise start and finish times, a findable meeting point, and the cost.
- The name of the member hosting it.
Guide6 min read
When a community outgrows its room
Growth is the most common thing that breaks a working group. Three approaches that have held up on Commonry.
- Cap attendance rather than the community. Sourdough Sunday has 3,912 members and a swap that seats 120, and both numbers work.
- Split by geography before you split by topic. People will travel for a subject but not for a subject twice as far away.
- Repeat rather than enlarge. Two sessions of twenty beat one session of forty for almost every format.
- Watch the returning-member rate, not the joining rate. The first is health; the second is weather.
Policy4 min read
Winding a community down well
Groups end. Ending one deliberately is far better for its members than letting it go quiet.
- Say it out loud. A community that simply stops posting leaves members checking for months.
- Hand over the shared things — maps, recipes, survey data, specimen shelves — to whoever wants to keep them.
- Run one final gathering. It matters more than it sounds like it will.
- Archive rather than delete. Commonry keeps discussions readable after a community closes, so the knowledge stays findable.

Thinking about starting something?

Read the second-year guide before you announce anything. Starting a group is easy; the part that needs planning happens around month fourteen.

Talk to us first

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Resources

For the people doing the organizing

Everything here came out of watching communities on Commonry succeed and fail at the same things. It is written for organizers, and it is free to copy.

Guide9 min read
Starting a community that survives its second year
Most groups do not fail at launch. They fail somewhere in month fourteen, when the founder gets tired and nobody else knows how anything works.
- Write down the one thing your group does before you write anything else. Every community on Commonry that lasted has a sentence its members can repeat.
- Pick a cadence you could keep during a bad month, not a good one. Monthly beats weekly for almost everyone.
- Recruit a second organizer before you need one. The median community loses its founder to burnout at eighteen months.
- Publish the schedule at least four weeks ahead. Members working shifts cannot attend anything announced on a Tuesday for a Thursday.
- Decide what you will not do. The groups with the clearest boundaries have the highest return rates.
Checklist4 min read
The first-timer checklist
Everything a new member needs to know before walking into a room full of people who already know each other.
- Say where to meet precisely enough that someone could find it in the dark. “The waterfront” is not a meeting point; “by the old crane” is.
- Say what it costs, including if it is nothing. Unstated costs are the most common reason people do not come.
- Say what to bring, and say when the answer is nothing.
- Say when it ends. People with responsibilities elsewhere will not commit to an open-ended evening.
- Name one person a first-timer can look for on arrival.
- Follow up once, briefly, after their first visit. Once — not three times.
Guide6 min read
Running a critique people come back to
Adapted from the formats used by Type & Tell and Basement Tape Club, both of which arrived at nearly the same rules independently.
- Ask for unfinished work. Finished work invites praise, and praise teaches nobody anything.
- Describe before you prescribe. What the room actually perceived is more useful than what it would do differently.
- Cap the responses. Three per piece keeps the notes sharp and the evening finite.
- Protect the maker’s right to ignore all of it. A critique is information, not instruction.
- End on time. A crit night that overruns twice will lose the people with childcare and never get them back.
Guide7 min read
Moderation is mostly editing
How Commonry moderators actually spend their time, written by the moderator who drafted the current guidelines.
- Most moderation is moving a thread to where it belongs, not removing it.
- One clarifying question resolves more conflict than any policy. Ask it in public where possible.
- Act early and small. A quiet word in week one prevents the thread everyone remembers in week six.
- Write decisions down. A group that cannot see how a rule was applied assumes it was applied unfairly.
- Removal is a last resort and should be rare enough to be notable.
Checklist5 min read
Making a gathering people can actually attend
Practical access considerations for in-person events, drawn from what organizers on Commonry get asked most often.
- Publish step counts, gradients, and whether there is a step at the door. Say so even when the answer is unhelpful.
- Name the nearest accessible toilet and how far it is.
- State whether the room has seating, and whether standing for two hours is required.
- Give a transit-reachable meeting point. Not everyone drives, and not everyone can walk from the parking.
- Offer a quiet option or a defined break in anything running over ninety minutes.
- Ask, once, on sign-up, whether anything would make attending easier. Then actually read the answers.
Template3 min read
Event description template
The structure every event on Commonry follows. Copy it, fill it in, and delete the parts that genuinely do not apply.
- One sentence on what will happen, written so someone outside the group would understand it.
- Two or three paragraphs on the detail: the format, the level, and what makes this session different from the last one.
- A short list of what to bring, including “nothing” where that is true.
- Precise start and finish times, a findable meeting point, and the cost.
- The name of the member hosting it.
Guide6 min read
When a community outgrows its room
Growth is the most common thing that breaks a working group. Three approaches that have held up on Commonry.
- Cap attendance rather than the community. Sourdough Sunday has 3,912 members and a swap that seats 120, and both numbers work.
- Split by geography before you split by topic. People will travel for a subject but not for a subject twice as far away.
- Repeat rather than enlarge. Two sessions of twenty beat one session of forty for almost every format.
- Watch the returning-member rate, not the joining rate. The first is health; the second is weather.
Policy4 min read
Winding a community down well
Groups end. Ending one deliberately is far better for its members than letting it go quiet.
- Say it out loud. A community that simply stops posting leaves members checking for months.
- Hand over the shared things — maps, recipes, survey data, specimen shelves — to whoever wants to keep them.
- Run one final gathering. It matters more than it sounds like it will.
- Archive rather than delete. Commonry keeps discussions readable after a community closes, so the knowledge stays findable.

Thinking about starting something?

Read the second-year guide before you announce anything. Starting a group is easy; the part that needs planning happens around month fourteen.

Talk to us first

Starting a community that survives its second year

The first-timer checklist

Running a critique people come back to

Moderation is mostly editing

Making a gathering people can actually attend

Event description template

When a community outgrows its room

Winding a community down well

Thinking about starting something?

Starting a community that survives its second year

The first-timer checklist

Running a critique people come back to

Moderation is mostly editing

Making a gathering people can actually attend

Event description template

When a community outgrows its room

Winding a community down well

Thinking about starting something?