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How to encourage members to plot?


Anonymous
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And talk in the discord.

 

My site is new and opened about three weeks ago now. We have about five active members but nobody except myself and one other are putting any effort into plotting or even chatting in the discord. I reached out to one member and offered thread ideas and plots ... no response. Messaged them directly in case they didn't see my tag in the discord's plotting channel, they said 'sure!', but didn't give me anything else to work with. 

 

Another member joined right at the beginning and raved about how great they thought the site was and how excited they were, took an important canon character, I offered SO many thread ideas ... crickets. They're still in the discord but never ever chat with anyone. They appeared again lately and asked for plots, I offered some once again and suggested someone else's character too... still no response. 

 

I'm just so confused. Myself and the one member who's making an effort keep chatting in the discord, offering plots, but our efforts don't seem to be working. I'm not sure what else I can do and it's getting exhausting & making the site seem inactive, as if only two of us are the active members. 😞

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It's tough, no doubt. I'm in a similar boat slowly pumping my new RP site up.  I think the first thing is to not beat yourself up about others not responding to you. They will respond or not and this will happen a lot.

 

I'm newer to the RP scene but gamers have been using discord since day one. I've found in any groups around 10-20% of the people in your server are the most active and the ones that keep everything going.  I suspect that rings true for many RP discord servers as well.

 

Keep writing your plots and threads but put some of your energy into building the community through advertising and places like this. I'm sure you're already doing that.  What I mean is don't expend all your energy on people who aren't putting in the effort. They will find their legs in their own time and you may find others to write with by finding more members.

 

I'm sure the more seasoned here will have better advice than this, but don't lose hope no matter what. 

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Hey Anon!  (and @Flahme !)

 

First, don't despair! Like don't worry about it at all. If your site is new, that explains most of this. Newer sites always get some people right away who seem to love the concept, characters, and everything else and then they disappear. This happens a lot. Why? Who knows. But it isn't something to be overly worried about. There's a chance they did truly intend on joining and something came up, or they were really excited about the site concept but were already up to their ears in threads on another site. Either way, don't take it personally. 

 

What do you do? Just keep plotting, threading, and chatting in your discord. If you have a member that you offered to plot with but just got a "sure!", try a different approach. Sometimes people are too mentally drained to plot things out and it can be easier to just toss the characters into a thread and use that to help build up the plotting. Try a "Hey, do you want to thread Character X and Character Y? I can start the thread." If they don't answer, that's okay. But it is likely if a member is not answering discord and is not getting on the site, that they've moved on. Don't be hurt by this. It happens. 

 

Also, try making some open threads. Have an open thread channel in your server so people can easily see them. The longer you stay open and the more people you have looking around, the more active the site will get. Just stay active, keep advertising, and don't lose hope. New sites go through these stages and it's normal. 

 

Edit: if either of you would like some input on anything regarding your sites, feel free to dm me. 

 

Edited by PixieMegs
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PixieMegs said it absolutely the best. 

 

Just keep plugging away at it and don't lose hope. It takes time to get over the new forum smell. I went through that as well. I also went through the dreaded freak out because I thought I had a revolving door on my forum. I stayed the course and kept at it. I advertised, I wrote, I had open threads, and I even had the site reviewed from a few places. This all helps. If people aren't plotting like Pixie said, try a different approach. Just don't lose heart if people don't stay. There's a constant ebb and flow in communities. I wish you both the best of luck. 

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Hi everyone, original anon here. Thanks so much for the replies and advice!

 

However, it isn't that I'm trying to stop people from flaking -- these members I'm talking about aren't leaving the site. They log in daily. It's that I can't get them to engage with anyone and plot, even when I reach out to them. In the last few days I've gotten some responses finally, but I'm still finding it so hard to encourage them to plot with each other and not just wait for me to reach out to them.

Anonymous poster hash: bd96e...c6b

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It's that old adage, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Same thing here. Their engagement is decided by them not you. It sounds like you are giving all you can in terms of enticement and encouragement but ultimately it's up to them to take that step. It sounds like you are doing a great job, so don't be too hard on yourself.

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"You tie the knot, I'll start the fire."

~ The Amity Affliction

 

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The World Withing - Modern Supernatural Roleplay (JCINK 18+)

 

 

 

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You can always suggest connections for members' characters as well. An admin on a site I was on once asked if one player's mercenary could have taken up the same bounty as another player's monster hunter, leading to those two threading together. 

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A lot of Rps will struggle with this when first opening, I am going through it too. I think doing some kind of a site wide event/plot with some added incentives like store items or point earning. 

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This is why any site I've run/staffed on has always ended up having what I call the Roleplay Roulette. Post the characters you want to enter, and then every two weeks or so, staff come along and pair up characters randomly or based on some staff-determined criteria, providing a location to start in and a situation, premise, or even just a prompt to get the ball rolling. Offer some sort of encouragement/reward for signing up and getting things going, and just make sure the people you pair up don't typically RP together. We've also run roulettes with the option for canon or AU/crack RPs with some... hilarious results.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I like the above idea ^^
But you could also use the lack of plotting to have a different type of site. Some places plot the crap out of things and leave little to happen ICly... maybe your site could be a place where things just happen as they happen and everything is IC based.

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  • 4 months later...

I can understand a tester thread to see how characters work out. As there has been times that a plot was interesting but the characters don't mesh and it's pointless to try otherwise. I've noticed that many don't either want to plot or don't understand how to. Like it's a lost art and I love to plot... even if it's a basic outline (much loved as you get to see how it plays out). Overplotting is just as icky as not plotting but I've tried a few different ways to brainstorm with newer rpers. We try to throw out a few open threads out and seasonal plots now and then to try to get things going. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've also had that happen. I ended up trying to play with those people myself and pair us up in groups of 3 so that it would introduce others to each other and get them plotting together. Sometimes it works sometimes now. you just got to keep playing. I think a lot of people struggle with starting the roleplay, whether that's on a forum, chat etc. Sometimes just having someone to start it is enough. 

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It's been my experience that there are  rpgs where the game manager controls every aspect of the story and setting, and the players only react and are not allowed to influence the story.  (I avoid these games, but some people like them.) There are other collaborative rpgs where the players actively engage in plotting and story development.  (My favorite.) And  of course a range of playing styles in between.

 

To generate more interest in collaboration, maybe it would help to involve your players' characters' backstories, personal goals, ambitions etc. in a plot or subplot, so that the outcome has an impact on their character.

 

Best of luck, this  is tough. 

 

 

Sprite (tiny fey, neutral good)

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  • 6 months later...

Something to try could be OOC events or IC events that gift certain perks or recognitions to writers/characters. That might boost interest in people who might be hanging back or feel too hesitant to really reach out and plot something. I also second the idea of giving a specific idea and offering to start threads. I know so many people who hate typing up starters but once that's done, things get more fluid and there's more participation. Everyone's different, though, and all of us have community members who are less active than others. It's normal! 

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  • 1 month later...

It does sound like you're doing everything you can; short of asking the people in question directly if something isn't clicking for them, I don't know that you can really do much else. They might be waiting for more site activity overall, or any number of other little things you have no control over. I would try not to let it bug you too much, although I realize that's easier said than done. 

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