moments when you go: nice, i registered my site it's time to fill it in with content and a cool theme, now would be a good time to procrastinate it forever

my approach is to play shit off casually. like fuck formal tones hella - i mean !! NO NEED TO TALK AS ROUGH AS U GENERALLY MIGHT ???? but like, keep it lose, be fluid, try not to worry too much, and i think keeping that sort of attitude in mind will convey through your message and keep ppl loose. having messages pop up in pms will always be kinda stressful for ppl i think, so there's always gonna be some component of people that are kinda poised to react negatively, but idk. also ig don't leave people hanging! you're the admin so you're gonna need to exert yourself and really strive to spin everything positively - it's all about giving advice and like, actually trying? u can't give half-assed - always gotta give em material that picks them up even if they're giving you very little in return, that'll just upset. it's a lot of hard work tbh and its exhausting as all get out when you can't even figure out what to say or add, but in the end i think you just gotta strive to be open, amicable, and always reaching out!

of course, if you fall short of that, that's fine too. it always sucks if you strain something or lose a potential member, but if you just can’t it's better to cut loses short and honestly - it's gonna be more healthy for everyone in the long run. different strokes for different folks - people are different and sometimes work better elsewhere, and this is the site you're gonna presumedly be putting in a lot of energy in, so you should make sure that there's not gonna be that One member you kill yourself over. i mean there probably always will be but - yeah y'all get my point

tldr; chill, be as proactive as you can, and when you can't, don't beat yourself up over it cuz it's probably better in the long run