Membership Site External Supplimentary Material

[CovertSphinx 710]

I've seen once or twice (and attempted it once), a Facebook Page dedicated to a particular RP site.

 

On an old site, we tried a Wikia at one point (mostly for site-wide plots and stuff to reference back to).

 

And I've heard of sites using a Twitter account to supplement their forum.

 

 

Anybody here have experience with either of the three? And how well did you like/dislike it? What worked, what didn't?

[Morrigan 1,826]

@CovertSphinx In what way do you mean supplement? Like used to advertise or what?

[Huskerdust 625]

I've used Twitter and Facebook to advertise my sites but that's it. And to be honest, it seemed like a waste of time because I can't recall ever getting members this way. We tried Wikia on Tellius but I think it was a waste of time too. The information was already on the site so putting it onto a wiki was just putting the information in two different places. I had planned to let members add content of their own to the Wikia but nobody ever did.

[CovertSphinx 710]

36 minutes ago, Morrigan said:

@CovertSphinx In what way do you mean supplement? Like used to advertise or what?

 

Not particularly Advertise, but to like, post updates and special features and such.

When an old site I was on did a facebook page; it had highlight images based on plots, announcements for events coming up, etc. The initial idea had been that members who weren't on like everyday or anything could still keep up with the important things going on. Big issue was, very few members were actually interested in being on it.

[Morrigan 1,826]

For roleplays I can see it being somewhat helpful but overall I've found that Facebook is more or less a waste of time but Twitter is helpful by following the right places like DF who retweet tweets for advertising and whatnot.

 

Wiki's I think can work but they have to be used early on and constantly encouraged to be used.

[VirusZero 176]

I use a wiki on my site. (I had one for a year before I went self-hosted and it's part of why I chose to go self-hosted... So I could actually bridge the forum and wiki so they only used 1 login, the forum's.) 

 

On our wiki I've written up a ton of lore and stuff, filling in gaps of the world that:

- we've made through roleplay,

- I've just thought of, or; 

- was referenced somewhere in other works.

For example there was a comic that referenced a species of advanced robots drinking alcohol and one getting sick because of the taste. So that got added in that these robots had a sense of taste. Which also meant they needed some method to dispose of any food/alcohol. But because alcohol isn't actually entering their "bloodstream" (they have no blood) they can't actually get drunk off it. (Sense of taste is more for social appearances, alternative energy replenishment and their enjoyment. Because who wouldn't enjoy eating a slice of deep dish pizza right?)

 

Now of course something like that is entirely for fun rather than actually changing the world. But there are other bits where we go into detail about how some of the technology works (theoretically anyway since it is tech from ~2200) and that stuff serves both as flavour text and to put some limits on how things work. 

 

 

I also have a fair section devoted to writing improvement, tips and that sort of thing.

 

 

As for other things like facebook and twitter... I'm not sure how they'd really supplement a site beyond advertising. Though I also have other contentions with these sites...

Spoiler

 

I will openly admit I have zero love for facebook. I actually refuse to get an account simply because of how badly they've behaved in the past. (I could rant about that for quite some time.)

 

Even twitter now I don't like using. They've taken a very "social justice" stance and have numerous times either stopped hashtags that they disagreed with from trending (jesuismilo being one), pulled some shady crap (unverified a user without offering any explanation), and have seen a mass exodus of both users and staff (4 top execs departed in one weekend).  I also find it very sketchy that they have no problems tolerating the abuse from someone like Randi "formerly freeBSDgirl" Harper or Leah "I'll end your career" Alexander but someone like Alex Baldwin cracks a joke and they suspend his account.

 

And tumblr... a lot of the problems with those two above sites, and RPing in general, originates from here. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2016 by VirusZero

[Elena 546]

We have FB page, tumblr and twitter. These are good for advertising and for gaining inspiration, by promoting various characters, threads, chronicles.

 

And a Deviant Art page which nobody is using anymore since the creator left RPGs.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Elena

[Cloud 0]

On 2/7/2016 at 4:08 PM, Morrigan said:

For roleplays I can see it being somewhat helpful but overall I've found that Facebook is more or less a waste of time but Twitter is helpful by following the right places like DF who retweet tweets for advertising and whatnot.

 

Wiki's I think can work but they have to be used early on and constantly encouraged to be used.

 

This. I found that Facebook is so very very hard to get any leeway on. Literally almost have 1/8th the followers on Facebook than on Twitter. I at least get people to look at the forum on Twitter and if 1/50 people bother saying something in the chat and 1/10 of those make an account then it was a success. 

I'm doing Facebook at this point just so that the already existing members know about content updates while they are out and about/on their phones.