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Member Apathy?


Indio
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Maybe apathy isn't quite the right word for it, but it's the word that best encompasses what the head admin and I are feeling.

 

So, our site went a bit quiet because our head admin had a baby and for some odd reason all activity revolves around this one person. She's semi-active now and has been trying to drum up interest and activity by throwing out some plot ideas she has and trying to pull people into current plots. And what's been happening for a good portion of a year is that either these plots never gain traction or no one responds. On top of that, no one wants to plot with other people and seem to expect people to come to them. We get so many complaints from members about not having any threads/plots when they don't bother trying to plot with other members. We've even had people complain about the admin taking all the leadership positions, but when the positions are offered up no one takes them. It's gotten to the point where we're exhausted from trying to get people active and plotting and a lot of our site plots are falling flat because there's no interaction from members. We want other people to be the stars of these plots instead of the admin driving anything always. We just don't know how to get people excited enough to actually take that first step.

 

Is this a thing that happens? Is there something we could be doing differently or something we should/shouldn't do? I'm kinda lost here.

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Oh my you are talking my language. I have been right there and i wished i had a solution for you. But i think it all depends on the member you yourself has. I think finding those perfect members is super hard. Honestly i think one thing you can try is do something that forces them to react. Maybe take one of those leadership positions, and do something drastic with them. Or instead of doing a main event, have something that happens in threads effect the site. Currently one of the characters on my site is dying and that is majorly effecting the site. If you can show them that yes the things they do effect the site it might draw them in more. Or maybe even competitions for plotting and posting with new members or even each other.

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ive watched this happen so many times. i think it's just kind of a side-effect of having powerful founding members. often this powerful founding member is the admin, but sometimes its not. p sure if one of my members dropped off my site it'd die without them. go figure. they're also the catalyst and central force of a thousand plots, so yk not surprising.

 

at this point you prolly need to decide if u want these plot roles filled by someone else more, or if u want them played more. bc chances are the important ones are gonna need to be played by the powerful heavy-plot-hitter(s) or it aint gonna get done. if youve got one of these hard hitters, other people tend to get intimidated by them and just stay out of their way, which kind of perpetuates a cycle, but i havent seen a way out of it either. the only other thing i can think to do is back off all the major plot things and see if anyone else will step up and start taking the reins, but that could damage the site too, depending.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh man, I've been in this exact situation before and it's exhausting. Sometimes I wonder if it's better to just straight up respond to member complaints that nobody is plotting with them, with "but you aren't plotting with anyone either?" I always try to emphasize somewhere on my site that people shouldn't expect everything to come to them and to make some sort of an effort to plot. For example, in the site rules at the bottom I might say, "following character creation, it's advisable to create a plotter for your character! This makes it easier for members to suggest thread ideas. Alternatively you can post some of your ideas in the plotting channel of our discord and see who bites." People are sheep and I feel like if you give some kind of direction or implant the idea in people's minds, they're more likely to do it, haha.

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9 hours ago, Runa said:

I always try to emphasize somewhere on my site that people shouldn't expect everything to come to them and to make some sort of an effort to plot.

 

1000% agreed on this. Even though there comes a point where you think people should know this, they just don't. Some people are shy or have social anxiety, some folks have a fear of rejection, and some people get their feelings hurt because they're not getting what they perceive as enough attention and then they kind of retreat and sulk. In my experience, it's important to make it clear in your site guidelines and also just generally in the atmosphere of your game to emphasize reaching out to others.

 

I come from a journal RP background, where open posts that anyone (and generally multiple people) can reply to is the standard, and as long as I've been RPing, there have always been people who complain about how they never get enough people replying to their posts and don't have enough character relationships, while they themselves almost never reply to open posts.  Same thing with plotting. "Nobody will plot with me." Well, did you approach anyone and ask them to plot? The answer is invariably no.

 

So yeah, doing whatever you can to encourage a culture of open communication makes a big difference, IMO. Along with that, though, is also making sure your players feel safe in reaching out and that the overall environment is a positive one.

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Advertise to get new members, and try to point them in the direction of the active / non-clique members.

 

It's just so sad advertise the heck out of your site, see a new member join, try to plot with the wrong people, and slip between the cracks. : (

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This thread hit me right in the feels, because I can completely and utterly relate. It's frustrating when the site revolves around one or two people, and if they fall off the wagon then everyone else does, too. It's hard to get people involved when they don't talk or participate much, and then get frustrated when they aren't included. There isn't much you can do except fill the roles you need filled with people who are around often enough (probably staff...) and try to move the site along the best you can. Keep advertising and hope to find more people who want to get more involved. If nothing else, the staff members can always drop those characters if someone else is interested later down the line? Maybe NPC them until someone is interested?

 

Just....keep trying and don't stop if you love the site and want to continue it. Eventually, you'll find the people you need to keep it going. If not, just have fun with the ones you do post with who are dedicated and try not to worry about it too much. 

Edited by blindxsecrets
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You get 'passive' members who will sit on their hands and do nothing to integrate themselves into the community, acting like it's a staff member's job to do that for them. If I get a run of about five of these people, all expecting me personally to thread with them and no one else (just because I'm the admin), I eventually put my foot down. This makes other new members suffer because they ask me for an RP and I say no. But I mean ... there are dozens of others who would happily RP too. So on the other hand, I'm doing all I can. I'm not going to overload myself for the sake of this kind of mindset.

 

Also will note had these kind of members have, in my experience, asked in cbox whether anyone wanted to RP, then flat out ignored their fellow members who reply. It's like they only see staff and fellow members are invisible.

 

You're definitely not alone. It's a thing, and it's frustrating. If only all members were the types of angels who RP with each other, then many sites would not have activity lulls/issues.

Edited by Honorem
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This is something I have always had to deal with myself. I don't think there's any real way to avoid a site going quiet or inactive when the admin goes away, since site maintenance and plot pushing IS part of being an admin. At the same time though, it can become exhausting to constantly remind members that they have their own abilities to run wild on the site and do as they wish without my permission, so long as it's not against the rules. The only way I've really worked around this with some amount of success is by really supporting the few members that attempt to world-build or take on leadership opportunities. It seems to help bolster their confidence to take on bigger plots and take some responsibility off of myself, even if only in the short term.

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I decided to say something I didn't last time.

 

A long time ago, I once got fed up with this and decided to take matters into my own hands. Whenever there was a new member and no one was playing with them, I did. I made sure that every single new member had at least one roleplay thread going within 1-2 days of their acceptance. I was very busy and I felt overwhelmed at times, but then as I saw these members flake out anyways, I just felt sad, and it greatly discouraged me. I almost fell off my own roleplay at the time.

 

My roleplaying with them didn't help, because I was trying to play with someone who was going to flake out anyways. Everyone else who wasn't playing with them knew that instinctively, and I didn't trust them. And I didn't want the new member to leave. They still did. 

 

In truth, this approach "kept" maybe 1 in 20 new joiners. But the one kept new joiner started a thread with someone else a few days later, so it really had nothing to do with my efforts, and it had everything to do with their own. 

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One of the things I've noticed with roleplaying and sites in general is everything seems to run on cults of personality. Who the admins and staff are will dictate the type of members you attract and the level of activity. Most sites will usually have at least one or two staff members who are the gregarious, outgoing type to attract writers, at least initially. However, if those writers are flaky to begin with, no amount of flash from a favorite admin is going to keep them around. 

 

Though it isn't the most creative advice I can give, I have noticed that offering your members something other than just plots is a good way to keep them engaged (contests and games, writing challenges, etc). Yes, we are absolutely here for RPing and members should make an effort to do the work themselves, but sometimes reminding them that we're running a community, not just an RP site can be an effective way to build a loyal memberbase that feels like family--if that's something you're looking for, anyway. 

 

You can't make anyone RP, but you can help them feel involved in other ways. 

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