Want to see 3 web3 communities that are KILLING it during this bear market? I started to take notice of the following projects that have done really well at building their communities and engaging their members:
- The Possessed
- God Hates NFTees
- DeGods
The Possessed
Website:
What makes their project great:
Their homepage Invokes curiosity right from the start
Branding is strong throughout their website and Discord: and it’s also unique – they use “NFT” instead of the traditional “C” symbol for copyright and they use wording that is unique to their project (instead of “mint date: they will use words like “outbreak started” which is on brand for their project
Strong onboarding: As soon as you enter their Discord server it is a unique experience for new members.
- Created their own version of Captcha that is way more on brand for them to ensure the right people are accepted into the server.
- In order to get full access to their “lab” new members have to book a time slot to gain a “site visit pass”. Creates exclusivity and requires more effort on new community member’s part.
Utility is clear right from the start: several NFTs included all in one, and members were dropped tokens, tokens can be used for future utility
God Hates NFTees
Website:
What makes their project great:
Relatable to the community they are targeting: This project truly understands a part of the web3 community well: there are people in web3 that have faced a lot of kickbacks from the broader world (NFT’s cause environmental harm, they are run by greedy criminals etc), this project actually capitalises on this and their tone is very on point with what the web3 community are facing
Tons of personality in this project and really deep dives into the humour of web3
Website is very unique: looks nothing like a “typical” NFT website these days
They tell a story of who is behind the project:
- “Can you imagine a tasty 67-year-old creating an NFT community managed through a DAO, and in which one of the requirements to be is to have a 4channer spirit? My name is Mr. Peters, and welcome to God Hates NFTees, a collection of 5022 NFTees just for the culture.”
They face challenges with humour too (i.e. they stay on brand). For example: this project got banned on Twitter, they created hilarious graphics like this:

The team’s actions show they care about the welfare of their community members straight after launch- the team bought floor NFTs, did a giveaway of 3 mutants to those who minted the project, those who swept the project were added to a list for future giveaways, they offered a Tesla but polled the community to ask if they even wanted the Tesla or preferred to split the funds across various community members (the community voted for the latter). This all indicates its a “community first” project.
Important note: I’m not a fan of providing community members with tons of “extrinsic rewards” to encourage them to join the community. It usually doesn’t bode well in the long run – if the funds run out then who is left in your community? But the important note here is that they delivered a TON of value to their community straight away.
DeGods
Website:
What makes their project great:
Pushed to be better than the “average” generative art project: This was a collaboration between 3 artists where they really pushed to produce higher quality art then “another 10K generative NFT collection” and they discuss this in depth on their website.
Buy the floor, receive a community token: this is their way of encouraging a higher floor price over time, it’s an interesting take that I hadn’t seen a lot of.before.
They want long term relationships, not paperhands: they even encourage members of the community to become “neighbourhood police” and report paperhanders in the community so they can be “punished”. Punishment means paperhanders will not receive the same benefits as those who are truly in it for the longer term and believe in the bigger mission (not just short term profit taking).
They have clout: big names in the web3 space hold their collection including the cofounders of Solana and team behind Magic Eden marketplace, plus celebs such as Icecube.
Bought a basketball team with Dao funds: because, why not? It hasn’t been done before! Adds to the bragging rights.
Branding & useful collaborations: just like the Nouns.wtf project who refer to members as the Nounders, these guys call members that collaborate together the DeGods Mafia. They also show the real business impact the collaborations in their community have had (i.e. – impact from being a member of their community and taking part in collaborations with other community members).
Do you have an NFT project I should take a look at? Contact me below to get in touch.