Fresh starts in smaller communities
Where old work is new again, there's room to stand out, and members decide what's best
In a piece titled “The Future of Social Media Is a Lot Less Social” published in The New York Times last April, Brian X. Chen wrote:
For years, the notion of a platform — an all-in-one, public-facing site where people spent most of their time — reigned supreme. But as big social networks made connecting people with brands a priority over connecting them with other people, some users have started seeking community-oriented sites and apps devoted to specific hobbies and issues.
For users, this means that instead of spending all their time on one or a few big social networks, some are gravitating toward smaller, more focused sites.
That’s certainly true for me. I used to spend a whopping 1 hour and 20 minutes on average on Instagram before but now that’s down to 15 minutes a day, less if I’m not posting anything.
I know I’m not alone. I’ve heard similar numbers from toy photography friends who just post and run, not bothering to look at the feed anymore. Maybe that’s another reason why reach is down— we’re all just dumping photos on Instagram and not looking at anyone else’s.
I spend most of my time now on Discord and Reddit which are platforms for building communities of people versus Instagram which is one big social media that caters to brands. I also browse through community photo pools on Flickr more.
On all those platforms, mods have tools to curate a better experience for everyone in the community. Spammy posts get downvoted and removed. Trolls and rulebreakers get limited and banned. Ads get deleted. The community has power.
The problem with platforms like Reddit is there aren’t a whole lot of toy photographers on them, compared to Instagram that has thousands. But is that really a problem or an opportunity?
I view it as the latter.
It’s an opportunity for me to start fresh. All my favorite photos are new once again because the people on Reddit in particular are brand new to me too. They’ve never seen my work before. That’s a lot of photos for me to revisit and unearth from my decade of LEGO photography!
It’s an opportunity to stand out. The landscape isn’t nearly as saturated as Instagram so the few creative toy photographers that are on Reddit enjoy prominence.
It’s also an opportunity to create a space for people who have a deeper interest in the photography side of toy photography rather than the toy collecting side. And who also prioritize getting photos seen by more people rather than garnering likes and a following.
I’ve already started a small group on Flickr where it’s just a handful of people doing a very specific activity at a very specific time on a very specific topic: breaking down LEGO photos and discussing it among us (although other members are welcome to chime in with their insights too) every Tuesday.
More recently, I created r/studshooters, a subreddit for LEGO photography where people can share their photos, but also surface the best of the community with their upvotes. The members themselves collaborate to decide what’s good or not and the best gets pushed to the top.
I also like that I can sort posts by newest, top, hot, or even controversial, rather than be forced to see recommendations. I can choose a chronological feed or use any of the community’s ranking systems.
Here are the top two posts as of this writing, for example:
Here are two of the inaugural posts which helped set the tone for the new community (filtered by newest):
r/studshooters has attracted almost 200 members over a few days, and not just transfers from Instagram, but people from within Reddit already.
Here’s a photo from a Redditor whose work I’d never seen before:
I love that a good number of Redditors have joined because they already know Reddit etiquette— shortened Reddiquette. Here are a couple of those rules:
Don’t hint at asking for votes. ("Show me some love!", "Is this front page worthy?", "Vote This Up to Spread the Word!", "If this makes the front page, I'll adopt this stray cat and name it Reddit", "If this reaches 500 points, I'll get a tattoo of the Reddit alien!", "Upvote if you do this!", "Why isn't this getting more attention?", etc.)
Don’t send out IMs, tweets, or any other message asking people to vote for your submission — or comply when other people ask you. This will result in a ban from the admins. Your submission should get points for being good, not because the submitter is part of a voting clique.
I’m sure you can see why I’ve pointed these out LOL. Instagram is rife with this behavior and it’s tolerated to some extent, but on Reddit, you’ll feel the consequences.
Redditors can be pretty harsh to people who don’t know the sitewide rules, especially around self-promotion. You’ll be downvoted for sure but might get called out too.
To be fair, that severity might not be a Reddit-specific thing though. I’ve seen some backlash from Tumblr users when BrickCentral invited members from Instagram to post there. There was backlash from Mastodon users when Twitter refugees signed up. And there was backlash from Bluesky users when it came out of invitation-only status and opened public registrations.
The point is that being on another platform is like traveling to a foreign country: try to be a good visitor, not an ugly tourist. Don’t bring your home culture over expecting everything and everyone to be the same as you’re used to. If that’s the case, just stay home.
Even as more people leave or spend less time on Instagram and move to community-focused platforms like Discord, Reddit, Flickr, and Mastodon, it’s still a great place to share photos.
It’s a problematic place, but I find value in sharing there, just not at a level that I did before. And the time I spend on Instagram now reflects that.
But for community, it makes sense to be on a platform that’s designed for it in the first place.
LEGO Photography Contests
I’ve always enjoyed photography contests, not only for the chance at winning a prize, but because I get to show my work to more people and get feedback.
In February, I ran a LEGO photography contest sponsored by Brickrock Press, makers of awesome custom pad printed parts, and we’re ready to announce the winner: Minifig_Lifescenes!
Drew, the judge from Brickrock Press, and I really loved the concept, details, and lighting of this pirate scene. You really get a sense that you’ve snuck aboard a pirate ship and are spying in on the captain’s plans!
The high angle also allowed us to see all the printed tiles used in the floor planks, table, and on the walls. Suffice it to say, Minifig_Lifescenes showed us how well he can use printed parts to maximum effect so we know he’s going to enjoy the stuff Brickrock Press makes.
High marks for concept and creativity which was 50% of the judging criteria, and also a great job showing us potential use of Brickrock Press products, which was the other 50%.
There were some other great entries on Discord and Instagram that got our attention:
I’ll share these and more on my other socials soon.
If you didn’t win this time, no worries, because I've got another contest starting on March 5 where LEGO fans could win this beauty:
Watch out for the announcement post on Instagram, Discord, and of course, Reddit! Now you can enter on all three platforms!