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I’ve been thinking recently about the amount of communication that comes from messengers, Private messages, and Cboxes. The rp world is in constant communication, but I never feel as if the OCC chat boards see much use on my site. It is there, but it is mostly for games and communicating absences. So I’m curious what it is like on other sites. Sure, Initiative has plenty of communication (here i am!), but what about other roleplay sites.

This may seem like a silly question to some but I'm serious. My forum experience is with phpBB, InvisionFree, and Invision Power Board. if these forum programs had 'Post Templates' I would have heard about them before now. As it is- I have never heard of them until today. So, could someone please explain to me what these things are and why people don't like them? I'm curious. If you could show me an example, that'd be great. Thanks Arch

Mostly, I'd like someone to explain this one to me. What is a soft opening? Why do it? What advantages/disadvantages does it have to a "normal" opening and how else does it differ? As always: Opinions? Thoughts?

Good Day, I am in the process of creating an IPB site with an eye to possibly moving my Nova based game to a forum. I love the features, don't mind the fee, and have made good progress setting up the basics. The problem I've run into and just can't think of the best way to handle it is character bios (applications). Our bios (at the Nova site) are rather complex and while I can minimize some of it, I have a reason for needing the longer history timelines. I don't mind formatting the bio for my players onto a nice tabbed template, but am wary of turning on HTML as this invites malicious attacks (so I've heard). I attempted to set up applications via IPB's Pages feature, but was defeated. I understood the gist of creating the database, filters, records, etc., but the actual practice of creating a character record was beyond me. Does anyone use IPB for RP that could help me out? Direct me to a template, etc.? Share their site so I can see how they have apps/bios set up? I'd honestly love to have the bios on the "character" accounts profile page somehow. Any and all help, suggestions, and recommendations is appreciated. Warmest regards and thank you, ~ Stormwolfe

My site The RPG Organization, has had a long standing rule with a 'minimum 200 word count'. This is not an outrageous amount. It is approximately half a page in a word doc program No big deal. Right? The one problem I've seen with it is that some of the members would top out at 200 and post. Maybe they'd go over by 10 or 20 words. It was as if they were thinking "maximum" instead of 'minimum.- even though it's clearly posted as minimum. Fortunately, these players never stayed long. Since being here and at the other directory sites, I've read posts with clear distain for post counts. Some admit that the moment they see the words 'post count' they're gone. My whole objective in being on these sites is to garner new members. I am willing to do what it takes, within reason and legality, to gain them. I've already posted on my site, telling my members that I'm willing to suspend the word count rule. I'm willing to trust people that they will write full / complete scenes when they post as opposed to one, two, or three sentences / 2 paragraph. If all a person can muster is a few sentences we do have a section for the purpose of collaborations. It's there for joint efforts and mass collaborations. This was intended to be a solution to the 1 paragraph posts. It usually works. A few times the length went from counting the words to the pages. The longest ones were between 5 to 10 pages. Now that's a post! LOL

This is an observation I've made based on my current site vs others I've created/participated in over the years. DBD is the first site I've been involved with that doesn't really use post templates. We allow them, of course, but my member base just doesn't mess with them much. I enjoy them, but I don't really use them if my thread partners don't. This is the first site where I haven't had a request studio set up to make graphics for other players for that reason. It does seem, though, that sites which use them prolifically attract more new members; and they seem to bring them in more often. So my general question set is: Do you use template use as a metric for joining a site? Are you more or less likely to join a site that frequently uses post templates and graphics? Why? Does having studios that take graphic requests increase your odds of deciding to join a given site? Have you made similar observations?

Hey peeps, This is more or less a question of curiosity for myself....cause am well bored dammit! What do you guys think the most popular plotline in role play is? I don't just mean "romance", "apocalyptic" . I want specifics like love triangle, best friend turned love interest. Lastly what is your favorite type of plotline to play? Some of my personal favorites are complicated romances with a lot of build up or darker plotlines with a heavy power struggle.

I've been thinking about this because I wandered onto a site with a specific Canon in mind. I noticed that said canon had a wanted ad attached. So I looked at the wanted ad and it had ideas and plots I wasn't interested in. So I guess my question is as an admin: do you restrict characters to match wanted ads? As a member: Do wanted ads for characters make you want to play? Do you like when they have plot ideas, or just when it's like "I'd love to see __". How do you feel/react when someone clearly doesn't want to run your plot idea (i.e. you ship stony, they ship stucky), but takes a character you love. (I'm gonna just toss out that for the sake of this thread, you can assume the player is a good writer, plotter,etc. They just don't want the plot you mentioned.)

Hey! First off thanks for dropping in! Hopefully am not the one and only lost soul searching for answers about discord. I'm ridiculously new to discord and have zero clue about how to use its features other then the obvious voice/text chat. I made a discord after noticing the popularity surrounding it on numerous rpg sites and now I have no clue how to fully utilize its use. Which leaves me floundering around like a fish out of water. For example what is a bot? Why are there so many of them? What purpose do they serve? Also how do you get more discord members? Can you advertise your discord serve like you do for RPG sites? What I mean by this is there something strictly designed for discord ads? Thus far I have been following the very mature rule of monkey see , monkey do when it comes to my serve by simply adding my discord link along with my site ads. A few other questions are is there anyway to delete messages as a whole, rather then one message at a time? 😒 Whelp, I think that about covers them for now, not that I won't have more later 😂 Again thanks people for anything you can contribute! -CL

I have a problem. There is someone on this forum who knows very well about this problem. My problem is I have no self control when it comes to making new characters. None. Not even a tiny bit. More specifically I can have upwards of 15-30 characters on a single board if I'm truly putting my all into a forum. You know I'm very much into the setting, people, and play, when I start going buck wild with character creation. This is also why I -do not- join sites with strict character limitations.I absolutely, one hundred percent, hate to be limited in any way, shape, or form in how many characters I can have. I don't have an issue being told I have to have so many posts on the previous new character, or that they all have to be active to a certain degree, because, usually, all of my characters are active to some degree..yes...even if I have 20 of them. What is your stand point on this? Do you mind being limited? Do you prefer the limitation? Why? As a staff member do you prefer to limit your members? What is your reasoning behind this limitation?

Sunny: How many members do you have on your forum? O: 'Souls has about 70, with 177 currently active played characters.

How do you feel about lurkers in your rp? I'm talking about the members who joined the forum (or other form of rp), but never really made the effort to create a character or join in the community. Members who login every few days and just sort of...sit there. Maybe they're reading threads, maybe they're not, but they're just kind of...there. What do you think about them? Or ave you ever been an rp lurker? Have you liked an rp so much that you wanted to be a part of it without actually writing in it, so you joined it and just let your account sit? What would make you do this? I ask because we recently had one on our site, and now we might have another, and I'm not sure how I feel about them! Should I feel flattered that we write content worthy of having lurkers who actually register? Should I be concerned that maybe they're stealing content? Maybe they joined so they could get alerts when topics they follow get new replies! Or maybe they're taking codes and content that aren't available to the public. It's impossible to know for sure, so I don't really have an opinion, but I'm curious about what others think!

Good Day, I would like to get some feedback and discussions on RPG management best practices. We have done things a certain way for so long, I feel like my sites are getting stale. I run a western set in Hollywood reality, a fantasy (blend of numerous fantasy genres), and a Hollywood 1980s style action-adventure set in current time. We're a very small group of writers and most of us are at all of the games. The lore is minimal at the western and action adventure but there's a massive amount of reading before joining the fantasy. How do you use Discord for your sites? Especially for Nova since it emails out posts to members so it's easy to see tags and whatnot. Having seen the thread about fast post replies, are tagging or posting requirements a thing of the past? How do you keep your players motivated or is it not an issue? I am hoping this thread will provide me with some inspiration. I can tell from reading the various threads here and participating in some of the discussions that I'm very old school! Blessed Be and Warmest Regards, ~ Stormwolfe

I'm one of those people who actually loves apps, so it's not the app itself that I find kinda weird, but every once in a while I join (or lurk on) a site that pends literally 99.9% of applications. And I just don't understand. Maybe it's because I was a teacher and from a teaching perspective if all your kids are getting D's and F's (which is in essence what pending is, right?), then something is wrong with either your explanation or your expectations. Since most writers on roleplay sites -- especially not-beginner sites -- know how to write an app/character... Anyway, it just seems like if everyone is getting pended, maybe its time to separate out more sections for your application or make more clear requirements to help guide people towards what you're looking for? I dunno.

When reading or looking at a site what size font is your absolute minimum. I know that it does depend on the font as well but for a standard font (often sans serif font) what is your minimum size for legibility without straining or zooming? For me it is 13-14px and when I'm tired/drunk I'll even zoom in on that because it can be straining. So what is your minimum?

This is a question for people who enjoy (or even dabble in) playing canon characters from various fandoms. It can be any genre or medium. When you choose a Canon, what type of history do you prefer in your choice of character: Do you like to take a character who's series/story is already completed or do you prefer to work with a canon who's story is still "in progress". If you take a character from the "middle" of a series, do you then incorporate the new information in your RP as its released, or try to work the same "reveals" into your RP in order to make the transition more organic? For example, about half way through season 2 I decided to try a hand as RPing Lucifer Morningstar from, well, Lucifer. But now that we're starting season 3, I'm finding myself at odds at whether I want to play him as "current" after the Mom Saga is taken care of, create a new "mom saga" in RP to bring him up to speed organically, ignore the Mom Saga all together for the time being and hope that certain character traits he currently has return for season 4, or ignore the show and treat RPing with Lucifer as an Alternate Timeline.

How do you feel about the mobile option on sites? I've had issues in the past where the mobile looked nothing like the true skin, or it hide things that needed easier access too. Because of this we've turned off the mobile version of our site for the time being until we can figure a way to have everything pretty easy to find. This has made me curious how everyone feels about the mobile versions. Do you use it? Do you automatically switch to the desktop? Do you even know that's an option for your devices(or computer going into mobile)? I know it helps save data because your device isn't trying to load everything all at once, it only pulls up what is new, considered more important, but you spend more time searching through to find what you are looking for if maybe you're a new member trying to find all the hoopla, or a member who's lost access to a computer, only just found a link for your phone in an old email after a week and all your posts are buried. I've completely lost track of threads because they were hidden and I just couldn't actually get to them without the direct link.

Okay, so this applies more to those of us who RP in a fandom... but does anyone go to communities targeted at your fandom and try recruiting there? I mean, like I run a Star Trek RP, and I'll go hang out on social media with other Trekkies, but they aren't always set up in a way that welcomes RP recruiting without it being disruptive to the group. Anyone have experience with these sorts of groups and how you can recruit without being disruptive? @Morrigan

Which term do you personally use and prefer to see on roleplay sites? Personally I'm a playby person. It's just the term I sort of grew up on but I'm curious which you prefer.

I, personally, have several genres that interest me, but really only one that will draw me at all times. That being said, however, the genre isn't always enough to get my attention. This is for several reasons, all of which I'm completely unashamed to admit:: My biggest pet peeve- The site has to be aesthetically pleasing. I know this is something not everyone agrees with, but I'm a huge sucker for a well put together site. This includes graphics, the way the site is built, the colors, the fonts. Do I have trouble finding things? Do I understand what the roleplay is about from the header alone? Are the forums upside down...by that I mean is all the information at the bottom and the RP at the top? Can I read everything easily, or am I having to guess what it says in the forum headers? One other part is "Do they allow creativity when it comes to posting templates? This one isn't always a make or break part of a site for me, but it is something I always look at. While I understand wanting your site to look uniform, I like my creative freedom. I like coding my own boxes, showing them off, having fun with them and personalizing them to my characters. Being forced to use one identical box that is exactly like everyone elses is frustrating to me, though not something that will cause me to say no to a site if everything else is going for it. I hate to admit it, but the aesthetics of the site usually come before the plot, which is kind of sad, I guess. What about you? Are aesthetics important to you? What about the ability to use your own templates? Do you prefer the site to set them up for you, or would you rather use your own creations, or ask someone to make them for you personalized to your character?

One of the things we recently did on Blue Windows is allow members to RP with NPCs. There are a certain number of "non-player characters" that were thrown into the mix for the sake of reality (so that we could have some characters that weren't 'main' characters, for example, or who could get seriously injured beyond what the members were comfortable with for their personal characters). Members are allowed to 'rent' these NPCs and RP with them for awhile. Technically the NPCs aren't allowed to survive, so members can really do whatever they want with the NPCs. I've been having a blast. In my latest thread, I had an NPC teenage girl ally with my character, and then she went nuts due to lack of sleep (prolonged periods of sleeplessness over extended periods of time + stress), attacked herself, and then had a seizure due to organ failure and blood loss, and died. Okay, it sounds a little dramatic when I give you the summary. But the cool thing was that I was able to take this at my own pace and allow the storyline to unfold. I had certain elements that I had to work with (I had to include a shack with words carved on every wall as part of a challenge), and the story ran away from me. What was supposed to be a quick thread turned into a giant 7-page thread between my character account and the NPC account, and it was awesome. My personal character received such great development from it, and I know that on my own, I never would have achieved it. Hell, even if I had been RPing against another person's character, I still wouldn't have achieved it. Anyway, this thread is to encourage people to look beyond the bland and see the benefit of using NPC characters as functional individuals. Instead of just being the man who sells oranges on the side of the road, explore opportunities to flesh out the character enough so that it can have meaningful interactions with your personal characters.

I write a lot of threads with deep questions that provoke discussion, opinions, and ideas. Advice and the like are important when it comes to being a part of a roleplay community. This is true. I decided it was time I wrote something that could potentially be more helpful. Here is the idea. I'm going to post a bunch of completely random roleplay thread prompts, some will just be random sentences, some will be longer ideas. Others might make no sense. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to post with some idea prompts of your own! Keep in mind the following: 1) Any and all prompts found in this thread are being given with permission by the author of said prompts to be used anywhere, on any forum, for any reason without credit. If you have an issue with this, don't post any prompts. Super simple. 2) Try to keep the discussions to a minimal, this thread, I'm hoping, can be used for people to jog ideas for roleplays. If you're like me, you struggle sometimes with starters, especially if you find yourself ALWAYS being the one nominated to start the threads. These are always a life saver. DUH PROMPTS: Character A lost their purse in a movie theater, Character B has found it but doesn't stop to give it up, instead they're on their way out of the theater with it to turn it in. Missunderstanding anyone? Character A's car is being broken into. Character B sees this and thwarts it, savior of the day! Character A, of course, missed this, and only sees Character B standing there seemingly red handed. Character A is in a rush, to late, to little time, need to do so many things. Character B is also in a rush, they're both late, they end up running into eachother, literally. Head on collision, huge argument...only to find out they were both late for the same meeting with eachother. Uh-oh character B, how do you get that job now that you've already cussed the boss out? Sudden thunderstorm knocks the power out and the elevator completely stops. The emergency lights are not working, and neither are the emergency call buttons. How long will you two be stuck there? The bank has been robbed, the job was sloppy, at best, and the police are running late on arriving to the scene. Character A has been taken hostage, and Character B suddenly has a strike of "Hero complex". Character B to the rescue! Character A is looking to spice up their life, they suddenly decide that a local advertisement for a meet up and hike through the woods sounds like a great idea. Meet new people, get out of the house. That sounds great, in theory, until a huge storm hits the area in the middle of the night, and the low land they've made camp completely floods, sending the people there scattered in all directions. Character A and Character B (potentially more?) are now stuck in the woods with only what they washed away with!

We have all experienced it. As forum owners some of us go through tons of ideas before we latch onto one that really takes ahold of us. We make forums, reach out to others, desperately try to grab for the attention our ideas, plots, stories, and forums need. Once we find that 'something' we cling to it and put our absolute everything and all inside. We spend hours writing guides, advertising, showing people our shiny new site, making graphics and adjusting skins. We spend hours RPing so it looks active, posting like a mad person in a wild attempt to draw attention. However, sometimes no matter what we do it just isn't enough. People don't bite it, they don't RP, and they don't come in droves like we had been desperately hoping, or thinking, they would. Instead we end up being the only active person, posting to no one, and advertising back to back with little to no results. When do you call it? When has it been dead enough to lay them gently to rest? Do you keep chugging along despite this, or do you finally bite the bullet and realize the dream of a plotline has simply drifted away? When it does die, and you've finally accepted it, what do you do? Do you just drop the whole thing and walk away from forum ownership, or do you try again? What has been your experience here?

I'm building a new site and I'm trying to make it as easy to admin as possible. Therefore, we'll have profiles but no applications which I'm comfortable with, so no worries. I trust people to make decent characters. The question I have is that I've seen some sites where plot pages and profiles are the same thing, and people reply to the profile itself rather than to a separate thread. The major pro I see for this is that the member doesn't have to go out of the way to make a whole new topic for a plot pages, which many members never get around to. The con, of course, is that people can't organize all of their plots in one thread. It also might look messy, or make people believe that one character is super popular. Another idea (slightly unrelated) I had is that the profiles would be posted by the OoC account rather than the specific member account so that it's easy to see which member has which characters. What are your thoughts on this and your experiences balancing profiles and plot opportunities? What approaches have you taken or admired on other sites? Do you find that profiles are better in the actual account profile or as a separate thread, and why? Etc, etc profile discussion.

So I have this member. They haven't specifically broken any rules, nor made any members uncomfortable, maybe only slightly annoyed them. However a few times they have said things that just got under my skin. They've yelled at at staff, for not "doing enough", even though they give us boatloads to do every day, and we are working on our site 2+ hours at least every day, if not more. No other members have complained about how slow we are. They just also seem... to not fit into the community. They act a lot younger than all of us, and sometimes say things that hint they aren't ready for an older community. However, they haven't broken a single rule. What should I do about this? I don't want to ban them, but it's hard for me to see them fitting in.