April 17, 2012: The Puttyverse (formerly Puttytribe) officially opened its doors to its first members, and a new experiment was born. Could an online community survive and thrive without revolving around a specific hobby or topic, but rather something far more transcendental like multipotentiality? What was that term anyway?
What would the Puttyverse’s founder, Emilie Wapnick, imagine the community would be like if it was still around in ten years?
And here we are.
Vanessa and Ted are joined by Emilie and Joel to discuss the early days of Puttyland, from concept to reality, and how it has changed, evolved, grown, and adapted in the decade since.
When did Emilie start thinking about turning her blog into a community? What was the catalyst? What were the origins of the very first huddle?
And at what point did Emilie recognize she was ready for more substantial help, and turned to Joel Zaslofsky, with a promise of full spreadsheet functionality?
Even for those of us puttypeep who have been around a while, it’s remarkable to go back even further to consider those early days, the growing pains and, equally, the possibilities.
What was the outlook like in the early days, would there be enough people to grow and sustain this? How does a community go from an idea to something real and concrete (at least digitally-speaking)?
The diversity of topics and subjects in the Puttyverse, as per the definition of it, makes the community so much different from other online communities that are typically focused on one interest or subject. We may be drawn here because of a yearning for identity and empathy, and then we discover all sorts of interesting ideas and projects to learn about and participate in.
But at the end of the day, it’s a community first and foremost. We’re drawn together and we stick around because we like each other and enjoy each other’s company. The weird, wacky, creative, original, positive, and encouraging people that make The Puttyverse what it is.
Our 10th anniversary is a celebration of gratitude for what we’ve built, and of the relationships built therein.
“They’re relationships that mean something. They last.” – Joel
“Beyond what I ever thought it could be.” – Emilie
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You’re about to Learn…
- How the Puttyverse was initially envisioned as simply a text-based discussion forum.
- How and where Joel first got involved in helping run the Puttyverse, and got his fingers on some juicy Putty spreadsheets.
- How systemization enables Puttyverse events to successfully function smoothly and consistently.
- What did the Puttyverse look like in, say, 2014?
- Ted and Vanessa’s Putty origin stories.
- How 10 years of an online membership community is like 100 years in real-life community.
- How the Puttyverse has evolved as technology has evolved too.
- A teaser on the upcoming redesign!