The idea here isn’t exactly bad. It’s a technique known as “salting the jar”. The problem is that the suggested solution involves duping your audience – which might pay off in the short term, but at the cost of your credibility. This means you’ll also be a bit paranoid of people finding out(not fun), and should they find out, then they’ll feel like you and your platform can’t be trusted. Repairing that is a bigger job than preventing it.
Others have touched on a real solution here: Start with enthusiastic people first
This is my “Rule 1” of getting a group together, whether it’s friends or for a community. That means finding and recruiting the people who have already expressed some desire to have something like this. To begin with look for people who match at least two out of the following three criteria:
Note, “core topic” here denotes the main focus/theme of the platform.
- Clear long term interest in the core topic
a. They have been involved in that kind of topic, or done that activity for a long time
b. They have heavily invested in that topic, such that they are likely to have an interest for the next few years
c. They have had long term interest in abstractions/parents of that topic, or similar topics(e.g. if football is the core topic, then “sport” would be an abstraction/parent of that topic) - Desire for a platform to discuss the core topic
a. Strong opinions about the core topic
b. Desire to teach about the core topic
c. Desire to market to people with that interest
d. Desire to learn about the core topic - Some form of investment/interest in you as a person
a. Family
b. Friends
c. Investors
If you can find about 20 people who have two out of three of those traits then, so long as you listen to their feedback and adapt the platform accordingly, they’ll begin to bring others to the platform too.