Search the Community

How do you feel about suggested playbys? Do you like them or dislike them? Do they help to provide a possible face? I'm going to be putting up wanted ads soon I wanted other people's thoughts on it.

I was just wondering how you all do wanted ads on your site. What's in the template you use (if you use one)? Do they help your site in any way at all, like do new members join and take wanted ads as opposed to creating their own charries, are people more active because they get their wanted ads picked up? We have a very basic thread for wanted ads, and it's basically just a list and nothing seems to get taken and I think that how they're presented has something to do with it.

What is the best way you've found to advertise? Which ones actually seem to work and what do you think is a waste of time? Personally, I think the biggest waste of time is advertising on other RP sites in their link backs or anything like that. I think that's because I just assume since I never checked out any of the sites that posted in the advertising board on sites I was just a member on I assume most other people don't look at it either.

So there was just a thread about word counts (again lol) and I'd be lying if I weren't doubting having a word count. Here's the thing: I've always been on sites with word counts and the site my co-admin and I (along with our other two original admins) were on before this site shut down had a word count as well. However, I really hate this idea that people might think that because we have a word count we think that quantity = quality and that isn't the case at all. We also seriously don't enforce our word count rules when there aren't any other issues. We've had members in the past who consistently didn't meet the word count in threads (many of them with me) and I never said anything about and neither did any other members because no one ever had an issue responding to the posts. They weren't throw away posts that didn't offer any information or move the thread forward; they were good posts so there wasn't an issue. But then we get into the territory of being wishy-washy with rules and not being firm about them... But also, removing the word count seems like a bad idea because our members aren't used to responding to one liners, even the threads in our rapid-fire boards are usually 100+ words unless they're texting threads or something. And again I run into the rule-writing no-no of "We don't have a word count, but...." I don't even really know what I'm asking here, but I just hate the idea that people who don't like word counts think I, or the staff, believe their writing isn't good because they don't write long posts, which isn't the case at all.

This can range from activity checks to moving and deleting threads. Do you clean your board up at all? How? When? Do you have an established timeline and routine?

How do you feel about members who only RP with one person? They might have one or two threads with other people, but they're rarely finished and never really lead to plots but are just one off threads? And a followup question: how would you feel about a member like this taking up limited spots in terms of special characters or rare power type things? Anonymous poster hash: feabe...487

So there's a situation my co admin and I are going to have to deal with tonight but I wanted to post something to just to gauge how others would handle a situation. Background on this: I've had to talk to this member 3 times this week, once for being dismissive and direspectful to a staff member that started as something with our site vs. book lore our site is inspired by, the second time was for multiple concerns over them having an OP character and for pushing book lore as site fact to other members which caused more than one to come to me about how this person was making them feel stupid for having not read books even though the member that came to me has been on the site for almost a year. This last time started when a member said something as an odd handed comment about how their character didn't trust this other member's character and might try to attack them. The member responded in a rude and demanding way. This has spiraled a bit since yesterday and the member has told the other one that their character CANNOT try and attack their character because they don't want it to happen, even though the post would be open for the other character to dodge the attack. They said they would ignore the post and continue on as if nothing happened. After that convo between the two members the member came to me and told me all the things that definitely *would* happen to the character who attacked theirs which included responses from other player characters. It really seems like power playing to me and the refusal to accept any IC consequences (though I will point out that at no point did the first member say anything about causing definite injuries to their character) and really just doesn't seem to mesh well with the community because they just seem to be alienating people by coming off as superior for having read the books and basically just rude.... So this is just a question about whether or not you guys have dealt with things like this and how you would handle this. In the entirety our site has been open I've never had to talk to the same member this many times in such a short space of time over either new issues or continued issues they've already been talked to about. Honestly, the situation is just stressful and annoying because it doesn't seem to be ending and it's been making it hard for me to get any muse or motivation to post on my own site. Also, I'm sorry if this was hard to follow, I just don't want to use any names or anything. Anonymous poster hash: b387c...0df

So there have been a couple different threads here about deal breaker rules and rules in general and every single time it send me running to our site rules to make sure we're not coming off at strict or horrible or... you know, just bad. Lol Our site has been open for a little over a year and I feel like over that time we've added to our rules when we come across certain situations on the site or problem members. Like when we first started I didn't think we needed a rule about not sending unsolicited, inappropriate pictures of yourself to other members.... Welp, in the first two months of opening we had a member join and we found out that he had been sending close to nude pictures of himself to a member that repeatedly told him to stop. So rule added. Then we have an issue with another member not understanding that if their character goes on a murder spree in Times Square they might be shot and killed by the cops. Okay, rule about accepting IC consequences added. People putting up WIP apps *just* to save a face claim and never working on the app so it sits there for months, rule added. Members signing up for events where they know their character may be injured but then getting mad and all fighty at the staff for giving out injuries to characters, rule added. I've cut back on a lot of them and every one I mentioned today was because of some extreme circumstance that we didn't want to happen again. We felt that if it wasn't explicitly covered in our rules that we somehow aren't justified in reprimanding a member even though we assumed that rules we added should fall under the common sense umbrella. So I guess what I'm asking is how do you feel about rules that were added because of problem members or bad situations and how do you cut down on your rules so you don't seem like the staff is super controlling?

So when it comes to affiliates, what are some of the practices that annoy you when trying to affiliate? I'll get into things that annoy me in a bit.

I'm going to be switching out a new profile template rather than our current one. Is it weird / wrong / not appreciated if I go into people's profiles and switch out the coding for them so that they don't have to worry about it? Historically speaking, when I've switched templates for things in the past on other sites, most people didn't take the time to update their profiles, so some of the profiles had the new template and some had the old template. That's what I'm trying to avoid, but I don't want to be getting up into people's personal space if it's not appreciated. (The core coding is changing which is why it has to be edited in each post rather than through the CSS in the admin CP.)

Hello there, fellow members of the Initiative! I hope I'm not posting this on the wrong spot! I come to you, asking for help and insight from all of the lovely admins out there. I have recently, against my own best judgement, given in and requested a new skin for a site I'm running, and, while I will go through with it, it has left a very bad taste in my mouth, to the point where I'm having a hard time enjoying the site and the skin is not even done yet. Oh, well, what's done is done, and changing my mind now won't really change much. This is not the matter I'm asking for help with, it's just to provide some context. So, while I will neither close down nor abandon the current site, I am creating a new one with a different premise, and I refuse to have this happen again, because this one is going to be much more labor intensive than the previous, with plot, locations, characters, etc. So, my question is: how would you word on a disclaimer or on your rules that the focus of your community is the plot and creative writing, and not 'looking pretty', without it sounding, er, bitchy and bitter? My idea is to have a mission statement on the site, and have one of the points be similar to: We are a community that devotes itself to writing. Therefore, the focus is and will always be on the story and characters. For this reason, we do not use posting templates and our skin is geared solely towards ease of access to important locations and readability. But I still feel it's not really... making my point? I would love if someone could help me with that. Thank you in advance!

That's a super long title, but I didn't know how else to make it understandable. Here's the deal: in the past several months, we've had three separate members complain loudly about not getting posts fast enough - even going so far as to harass specific members in the cbox to reply to them NOW or complain in public that EVERYONE on the site posts super slowly - when they, themselves, are leaving threads hanging for many, many months. We've had more than one person leave in a huff, saying that replies are too slow anyways, when there were members responding to their threads regularly (AND QUICKLY - several times per day), right up until the members who were complaining about posting speed stopped responding to those threads. I'd go so far as to say that if they're not responding to their own threads, making their RP partners wait months for replies, then they have no right to complain about the posting speed of anyone around them. Other than that assertion, however, I really don't know what to do about this. Really, if this is our site's only major complaint - something that seems to ultimately be the roleplayer's own fault - that seems to be pretty good, right? Really, I guess I'm looking for suggestions about how to avoid this problem or commiserations, because I'm getting frustrated with the prevalence of this issue and have no idea how to address it. ...or, I guess, if it even should be addressed.

If you share a mutual member with another site, would you ever consider talking to the other staff about them? What would it take for you to cross that bridge? Would you limit yourself to good things? Bad things? Would you approach the situation to find out if the member acted similar there or if they were having similar problems? How would you feel if someone approached you about a mutual member? (Assuming, of course, you know without a doubt that the member is the same person.)

ASK MOUSIE ANYTHING I pretty much haunt boards like this in search of places to give advice, and new documentations I can write. I'd like to get an idea of what questions people have about anything/everything related to forum RP that I might be able to help with. Thus, I invite you to ask me anything! No question too silly, too dumb, or too out there. Feel free to use the anonymous function if you're not comfortable with having it attached to your username. I've been a board admin since 2003, with a break there between 2013 and 2017. During that gap, I continued to roleplay and manage communities---just outside of the forum RP space. My longest-running RP forum was seven years from opening to hiatus, and has been brought back online because it kind of felt like I was missing an arm or leg without it. In that time, I've encountered all sorts of things: Firing my whole staff Finding my "board philosophy" Ejecting toxic members On-board OOC drama Broken RP partnerships Learning to skin.. multiple times Changing board software Adding/removing features Running contests Running board-wide plots Establishing a strong community Advertising like a boss Surviving quiet periods Recurring ghost members Closing the board Reviving the board Investigating board issues Admin burn-out And so much more... Absolutely any questions are okay! About my board, my style, the RP forum sphere in general, particular trends, or even advice on a scenario you're facing. I'm here to help!

In any roleplay, problem members come up. Either they disrupt threads and plots, negatively influence the community, attack other members, etc. So how do you deal with it? I'm wondering specifically about warning systems, either those systems built into forum software or systems you created on your own. Have you ever set these up and actually used them? What was your process? Do you use a three strike rule, or is it more, or less, involved? And what constitutes an "official" warning, as opposed to a more informal talk? I'm also wondering how you communicated this system to your member base in a way that wasn't threatening until it needed to be. You don't want your members to get anxious and paranoid every time a staff member wants to talk to them about something that's probably totally unrelated! So how do you, as staff, implement a warning system while still making yourself approachable? Or do you keep this entire system internal until you have to use it?

Early again. I had a great topic in mind and forgot it. That's what I get for sleeping. So! This week in Tell Rune Your Secrets: Holidays! Does your board have any IC holidays that differ from RW's? How do you handle RW holidays in terms of activity requirements/posting? Do you cut them some slack or does nothing change? Do you do anything special for the holidays? Either IC or OOC.

I was reading @Naen's into thread and the discussion of maps. Maps are great. I love maps! But aside from hand-drawing one, I'm not sure how to make one. There is software you can buy, but that costs good money. A few sites have free mapping programs (I'll have to find the links when I'm not on my phone) which might help some, though they're heavily fantasy / world-sized maps. Any suggestions for town maps and maps for modern day RPs? (Besides using a map of a real town, which I'm not comfortable with when it comes to roleplays with violence or things that could be construed as a RL threat.) Do you use maps for your site? As a member, do you need maps? What are your favorites?

As Staff: What sort of contests do you run? What kind of IC events do you run? Do you run OOC events? What type of event seems to be the most popular? What would you like to do but can't quite figure out how to make it work? As members: What kind of contests do you enjoy? Do you like when sites have a lot of IC events to participate in? Would you rather they be a setting or occurrence based event? (Examples: Masquerade ball vs serial killer on the loose.) What sort of events/contests would you like to see more of?

Let's say Bob joins your board. Bob proceeds to cause hell, start fights, and is basically a terrible member. You ban Bob. You later see Bob on another board. You know it's the same Bob because they have the same characters. Do you tell the admin about the problems Bob had on your board in an attempt to warn them? Or do you let them find out for themselves?

Apparently I'm doing one of these a week now or something. Maybe I should give them a fancy name. RUNE DEMANDS YOUR OPINIONS. Do you use a site shop? What do you stock in it? As a member, what do you like seeing in them? What kinds of items do you think should/should not be considered "buyable" on a site?

Every forum encounters, roughly, the same things. Whether it be that first breaking of the code, or the first application that, clearly, didn't read anything. What would you consider some less-than-wanted "accomplishments" for every forum to achieve? Applicant doesn't use supplied form. Applicant whines because their extremely popular face is taken That random account that appears, never posts, and never comes back Admin that shouldn't touch the code, touches the code. Proceeds to break something Member can't quite grasp a plot. Someone asks a question in the FAQ. They then ask at least 3 more. An app doesn't even make sense for the setting. Seriously, where do they think they are? Someone yells at you about your ad. The code broke again.

Hey guys, I run a survival horror site. I'm sure most of you have seen enough of me posting around here to know the general gist, but here's the quick recap in case it's relevant: There's a town that is being overcome by the Decay, this strange rotting/rusting phenomenon that brings with it death and monsters. The town as a whole is cut off from society due to this Decay, but otherwise most people can live a normal life. We recently had an event where the Decay "surged" across the entire town, and for about 24 hours the town was ripped apart by monsters. Then it subsided. The event was really fun, but I don't want the entire board to be a face-paced monster mayhem all the time. It gets boring really fast (I've played on similar sites before) and I also like to allow members to play their characters with some "down time" where they aren't running for their lives. The problem is that I'm trying to pump up activity and interest and to make the board actually . . . somewhat scary. It's hard to make a roleplay site scary, but it's even harder when people likely dismiss it because it's not 333/premium. (I'm poor. That's why it's not.) My staff and I came up with an idea to give people a miniature "event" when they reach a certain post count. (I believe it was 15 posts.) This event is very simple, such as a mysterious phone call in which the character receives information about themselves that nobody should really know, or they start to hallucinate dead people, or something. The member is supposed to incorporate it into their RP somehow, either by referencing it in another thread, or by actually using it as a plot device in the thread (RPing it out). Then at about 50 posts, I'd do a more direct one-on-one thread with the member that fleshes it out a little more. Personalized, if you will. I made the first post goal 15 because it's relatively low, but I'm not wasting ideas or energy on people who aren't sure if they will be sticking around. The next one (50 posts) is higher because it requires me being able to put time and energy into creating a personalized quest/storyline for the character for a thread, and I want to make sure that the member is invested in it well enough. There is no time frame, so it's not like they have to reach the 15 or 50 posts in a week or a month - it could be after a year, though opportunities may change based upon the general site plot. Members wouldn't be able to choose which event they received (a phone call verse hallucinations verse whatever), though somebody could politely decline to participate if they really didn't want to. In order to assign the events, I'd try to roughly match it up with the charcter's profile or personality or history or whatever so that it's something that would be relevant to the character. (I wouldn't want a character who never answers a phone because they have some anti-phone religious belief to be given a plot involving phones, for example.) At first I wasn't going to publicize it because I wanted it to be a bit spookier with the element of surprise. But now I'm wondering if it would be better to let people know up front as a selling point for the site so that they know that there is an advantage to participating and being active. People were really interested in the Decay surge event I had, and then activity backed down afterwards which wasn't entirely unexpected, but I'm afraid that people are going to rely entirely on said events and not participate when they don't exist. So I wanted your guys' thoughts about it. I'd also love to know if you have any ideas for a survival horror site. We have no vampires/werewolves/witches/demons. Our monsters are literally monsters, but they stay mostly in the limited areas of town affected by the Decay. I also don't want to rely on them too much because, as mentioned, it'll get boring after awhile. So having some other spooky happenings that are personalized to each character would be really neat and add an element of horror I have never seen on a horror site.

How do you divy up jobs? Does each individual have their own responsibilities? What is the difference between your admin and your moderators? Do the jobs vary depending on the 'rank' they hold in staff? How do you go about inducting new staff? (And, of course, any other details relevant to this topic are always welcome!)

I asked this elsewhere, but wanted to get more bang for the buck. I'm curious to know how y'all choose what goes into the sitewide wanteds and what goes into the personal wanteds. I'm guessing it's a lot easier for those of you who have canons based on fandoms. It's a fair assumption, I think, but please correct me if I'm wrong! I'm very curious. The site I run isn't based on anything but historical events. My staff and I were debating on this a few nights ago, because we seem to have blurred the lines and gotten confused over what is defined as sitewide and personal on our own site and for posting our own personal ads out on directory resources as staff members. I'm working on streamlining the process better since our site has sprouted large groups apart from the historical BEIC and native groups that we consider canon. The problem, I think, is that we over complicated things. So, to simplify matters, we tried to distill the process down to these scenarios. Do we define a site wide by: 1) By the group they are in by forum (BEIC, native, etc) 2) The group they are in by world built creation 3) Roles 4) Any combo of 1-3. I know for sure that personal is what it says... personal. So personal plots, personal wanted family members / friends, etc. I consider some of the groups to be personal smaller groups, but those are considered by others to be potentially part of the site wide wanted. So, hit me with it. As a staff member: What goes into your site wide wanteds across the directory resources? What goes into your personal wanteds across the directory resources? Have you ever experienced too much blurring between your own sitewide and personal wanteds?

Hey guys, I've seen the RP community on this part of the internet move towards having characters and members provide "pronouns" rather than saying sex or gender. I understand that for the members, but I'm not sure about the characters. When I'm RPing with a member, pronouns are useful because then I know how to refer to that person. But when a character is interacting with another character, knowing gender/sex seems more intuitive to me. The last couple games I've played, the characters had to have biological sex stated for the sake of the RP, but in my new one, it's not going to be that big of an issue. This is a bit of a "new" topic for me. So I'm just a bit uncertain if I have characters state sex/gender instead of pronouns if it's going to throw everyone into a fit.