BAD* is DEAD?: Why We Closed Our Discord & Went Private
BAD* is DEAD?: Why We Closed Our Discord & Went Private
Sometimes you just need to start over.
If you’re feeling lazy:
The the TL;DR is we closed our public Discord.
We're slowly migrating a select few people from the larger community into our private work server; essentially curating a community within itself.
(Read on if you want to know why).
Gone.
BAD* Environment Club was always meant to be a community of creatives, on-top of a streetwear brand that used NFCs to onboard retail to Web3.
As a founder, you want to make your community happy.
To make thousands of people happy is no easy task.
As you can imagine, our goalpost shifted many times.
Eventually it got to the point where we weren't even doing the things that made our brand "cool" or interesting in the first place.
We weren't designing or having fun.
We were barely even making clothes.
We realized pretty quickly what the problem was. It wasn't a lack of direction per se… but a lack of unification.
This is a feature and a bug of NFT collections. You cast out a wide net and catch a “community” of all colors, shapes and sizes.
But real community is not “curated” this way.
I’d argue that 1/1 collections get to curate their community much better than mid to large-size NFT collections.
Because community is curated slowly, through conversation and with precision. NFT communities are “curated” in the blink of an eye. It’s chaos.
There is no unification… This is why almost all NFT project Discords eventually become ghost towns. They’re too large. Some people are short-sighted — some don’t care about the founder’s vision at all.
Communities that are curated like this have a much harder time becoming actual friends.
Friends.
In the 90s there was a skate shop called ‘Supreme’. Back then, Supreme wasn’t as popular as it is today. It was an organic group of skaters that listened to music and talked shit to each-other all day, every day. Eventually it led to something special.
When I lost sight of our North Star, I thought back to why we created BAD* in the first place. Our project is about culture, art, vibes, creators and streetwear. Our project is not about making crazy returns, spamming “GM” or anything like that.
When a community is fragmented, the only solution is to pick up the pieces and start from scratch. So, that’s what we’ve been doing.
We closed our public Discord and opened up our private work server. We only allow a select few community members in through “waves.”
Ballsy and experimental… But fun.
NFTs can be incredible community building tools.
NFTs are not lottery tickets or “luxury goods”.
Most importantly — NFTs do not entitle you to everything under the sun.
INTERVIEWS & WAVES.
For the first two waves, we invited and interviewed people we liked.
It was cool discovering new things about old community members, and seeing their passion re-ignite in ways I didn’t expect.
If you were to be invited, and we let you into our cult, you’d get access to our every day private work server. New designs, marketing strategies and intense brainstorm sessions.
But most importantly you get to be surrounded by creatives, friends, and people that I can personally vouch for.
WAVE 3 invites will be different. We’re letting our community nominate people they believe would be a good fit. Those invites will go out later this week.
I’ve had multiple founders reach out to me since we began pursuing this new phase of the brand. They want to follow our lead, and it would be interesting if they did.
On the e-com side, our brand is scaling incredibly fast, and our SEASON 02* line is dropping soon. Right now, building transparently alongside a community aligned with our vision is the only logical path forward.
If you want in on Wave 3, keep an eye on my alt account. I’ll announce all the details there. Or you can just apply here.
You can follow BAD* Environment Club on Twitter or Instagram.
Shoutout to everyone that has stuck with us regardless of how bumpy the ride gets.
It’s true. Sometimes all you need is a fresh start. — Lite.