One thing I think Lemmy could use more of is recurring community events. We have great discussions, but there aren't many activities that bring people together over several days or weeks.

A few ideas I've been thinking about:

A live, expanding username crossword where people volunteer their usernames and each new one has to connect to the existing puzzle. Community scavenger hunts. Weekly trivia challenges. Screenshot or photography contests. Geography and history guessing games. Seasonal community events that become traditions.

These don't necessarily need to be built into Lemmy itself. They could simply be community-run events that moderators host on a regular basis.

One thing I like about the username crossword idea is that it becomes a living record of the people who participated. As more users join, the puzzle grows into one large connected community creation.

Stuff like that... I'm curious what others think.

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[–] Prathas@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I completely forgot about that and had never participated. How did it operate?

[–] Flatfire@lemmy.ca 1 points 17 hours ago

Like a well oiled machine by the end of it. You'd submit some information; likes, interests, hobbies, etc. and then you'd be paired with another participant based on a random draw with some selection restrictions (i.e. national vs international). You had roughly a month from being matched with someone to get a gift shipped out.

It was particularly fun to get to know the person both through their suggested interests but also to take a peek at the communities they participated in. You could post gifts you received to a gallery (which I wish they archived), confirming receipt and letting the sender know your appreciation.

Some people sucked, and wouldn't deliver on their end, so there was a volunteer "elf" system that would let folks become secret santas for any recipient that was let down by their own santas. Not sending something generally got you banned from future participation, and filling the elf role would gain you general reputation within the program