What we've achieved with 1 Month of Basement Devs
Tags: devrel, community, beginners, career
Published: 2024-02-19 15:29:22

Running a community is a tough job, but after a few years of doing it, it becomes an easy task. This is the first month of our community and I want to show you what we have accomplished so far.

If you're planning to run a community or even join one, this series will show you how to measure the health of the community using [Basement Developers](https://discord.gg/basementdevs) as an example. 

## Table of Contents

* [1. General Achievements](#1-general-achievements)
* [2. Demographics](#1-demographics)
    * [2.1 New Members](#21-new-members)
    * [2.2 Members Activation](#22-members-activation)
    * [2.3 Member Visits & Comunicators](#23-member-visits-amp-comunicators)
* [3. Events](#3-events)
* [4. Partnerships](#4-partnerships)
* [5. Published Content](#5-published-content)
* [6. What now?](#6-what-now)


## 1. General Achievements

First of all, I'd like to thank a few readers who joined the community. Now we have a couple of Polish people who engage there on a daily basis. 

> FYI: the community is looking for members like you, so join us ASAP! :D

![Weekly Meeting with a peak of 71 members](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q0zly7fwr9rjijsuz832.jpg)

<center>Peak of 71 members in our latest weekly meeting.</center>
<br>

Since we started the community, our weekly meetings have been the place to discuss new opportunities, projects, and other opportunities down there, and to listen to what the members have to say.

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Speaking of community feedback, most of our members are Brazilians who want to get used to English, so the first project made in the community was an overlay to translate everything we say in our weekly meetings from English to Brazilian-Portuguese! Cheers to [Pantotone](https://github.com/Pantotone), the creator of this amazing tool!


![Github Organization](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yv2brtina8dtrd1ifqb0.png)

Also, since we're starting to create projects, a new GitHub organization has been created to host all projects related to our community. Don't forget to [follow our community](https://github.com/basementdevs) to get the latest project updates!

## 2. Demographics

When we talk about growth, we talk about numbers! Here's a recap from **January 14 to February 12**. 

### 2.1 New Members

Since January 15th we have doubled the number of members! Currently we have 2197 active members on the server and many of them are practicing English every day in voice channels (in groups or one-on-one) and text channels of different styles.

![Chart with peak of 2k members](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/w1dqorxb9zx3gl86iug7.png)

### 2.2 Members Activation

One of the metrics we'll be working on this month is the "activation" of a new member, which is when they understand what the community is about and why it's a good fit for them.


![Chart of new members interacting over the last month](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zmjkzxh5d2te1gzmbl1y.png)


We did great in the first month and you can see the graph going straight to the bottom, but that's just because this last week we had **Carnaval** here in Brazil, so it was expected and our Brazilian developers deserve this amazing event and a good vacation.


### 2.3 Member Visits & Comunicators


![Chart of member visits over the month](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7xs7vtuw8fyd1h5ldfbq.png)

Our average number of communicators or engagement is 8%. Our goal is to get to 15% by the end of March. How are we going to do that? I don't know yet, but with this list of weekly events, it should be a good bet.


## 3. Events 

Events are at the heart of our community, and last month, 16 pre-scheduled events were held, divided into 5 models:

- **Basement Meeting:** Our weekly meeting held every Tuesday at 07:00 PM BRT. Its purpose is to share the plans of our community, announce new partnerships, update members on news, and of course, practice English.

- **Practicing with Renato:** Every Wednesday, our community gathers to practice English with Renato. In this practice session, our members are given a topic, and each one engages in a conversation with Renato about it, always introducing new words to expand the community's vocabulary.

- **Traveling with JP:** In this session, our members will plan their dream trip together with JP, discussing costs, places to visit, local food, and much more! Come and plan your trip with us.

- **Practice with Leonardo:** Every Thursday morning, our community participates in an English practice session with Leonardo. Participants are assigned a topic and engage in conversation with Leonardo, incorporating new words to build vocabulary.

- **Coding Dojo:** In early February, we launched the Basement Coding Dojo, an event where community members take on roles in a development team during a simulated sprint. Our first Dojo Dev Team is made up of [Gabriel](https://github.com/gvieiragoulart), [Lorena](https://github.com/Lorenalgm), [Lucas](https://github.com/lucas-pace), [Pedro](https://github.com/pedrovian4), [Renato](https://github.com/reenatoteixeira) and [Yuri](https://github.com/yurastico). Over the course of a month, the team aims to build a simple but complete application, working on design, backend and frontend, attending weekly meetings and interacting with an open-source project. You can find more information about this event in [this repository](https://github.com/basementdevs/english-coding-dojo).

## 4. Partnerships

Right now our biggest goal is to find HR companies or even companies that are actively recruiting developers. 

For this month, our goal is to build a demographic with more information about things that will be interesting to bring these opportunities to our members, e.g: Seniority, Stack and others. So far we have some results, but nothing that's meaningful yet, since it's a new approach on our side.

![User Early Demographics](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bxll9ud9we8y6uo1miry.png)

If you have an open position in your company, please email me at danielhe4rt@gmail.com and I'll forward it to our best members to apply! 

## 5. Published Content

During the last month, members of our community have received several recognitions for the articles produced on this platform. We would like to highlight the following articles, which were among the most relevant articles of their posting weeks (Top 7).

{% embed https://dev.to/danielhe4rt/database-101-how-to-model-leaderboards-for-1m-players-game-2pfa %}

"In the latest installment of his "Database 101" series, @danielhe4rt explores the intricate art of modeling leaderboards for games with a million players. Drawing on personal experiences with the open-source rhythm game YARG and leveraging ScyllaDB's efficiency, the article delves into Query Driven Data Modeling and wide-column database concepts, providing a comprehensive guide for crafting performative leaderboards."

{% embed https://dev.to/reenatoteixeira/everything-that-you-need-to-know-about-git-2440 %}

"Discover the world of code versioning with GIT through this comprehensive beginner's guide! Authored by first-time DEV contributor @reenatoteixeira, this breakout article meticulously unpacks all the essentials of GIT, ensuring a smooth learning journey. With crystal-clear explanations and detailed step-by-step instructions, you'll master the art of GIT, empowering you with seamless version control capabilities."

{% embed https://dev.to/kecbm/staircase-detail-112g %}

Discover how to build staircases in programming for beginners with this fantastic step-by-step tutorial created by our contributor @kebcm! A staircase is a visual representation formed by a series of steps, each represented by the # character. Explore how to create a function that prints a custom-sized staircase.

{% embed https://dev.to/anthonyvii/be-a-better-developer-with-these-git-good-practices-2dim %}

If you're a developer, you likely use Git regularly. It's vital for app development, whether solo or in a team. But many struggle with messy repositories and unclear commit messages / branch names. Learning Git well and sticking to best practices is one of the keys for career growth.

## 6. What now?

So far our community is growing in a way we didn't expect, but still in a healthy way. Many people who have never tried **Technical English** before have taken their first steps to practice and have begun to **glimpse new possibilities**, and that's the fuel we need.

If you want to be a part of this transformative journey, please join our [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/basementdevs) and don't forget to like and comment on this article! 

Any tip to make our community better is welcome, ok? Stay hydrate and see you next month!

> Btw, cheers to **Renato** and **Anthony** for helping me on this report :D