Membership Breaking the Inactivity/No Members Cycle

[iReadYerMind 2]

I'm sure we all know the cycle.  You start a forum with maybe one or two interested parties and you start advertising your site.  Meanwhile, you and your buddies are RPing and hoping that your site gathers at least a few other people to play with you!  But as folks visit your site, and they see that you have only a few people playing, they say, "You don't have enough members.  I'm not joining a site that doesn't have lots of members!" and they leave -- even if you and your friends are RPing daily, and in many different places!

 

So no one will join your site because it only has a few members - and yet it can't get more members because no one joins!  Aside from advertising your site everywhere you possibly can, I'm hoping we can share some ideas on how we've managed to encourage those members to consider joining even if your current member base is small.

 

I'm wondering:

 

1. For those of you whose RPs have several members, how did you break that cycle?

2. What are your thoughts on individual members creating multiple OOC accounts with active IC sub-accounts, just to artificially inflate the members list?

3. If you've tried holding "Grand Opening" events or large group plots, what did you find worked best for you?

4. Do you have other suggestions to break that cycle?

 

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

I haven't broken the cycle- and frankly, I don't think there is a magi al, guaranteed player-builder solution. Other than showing genuine interest in your own site, of course. Because sadly, at the end of the day, people will do what they want regardless of the facts. Even if a site has daily activity and hourly cbox posts, people can still complain that it isn't 'active enough'. 

 

I've seen other site staff go through Hell and back with generating outside interest,  only for the new players to disappear for any number of reasons. >( I've been in that crowd - the staffing crowd - and it's an eternal struggle to ultimately convince people to stay in your game.

 

I don't care much anymore, mainly because the majority seem to live on forum rpgs: and expect site staff to cater to them. What the fuck, mate; I am not going to build such an environment, because LIFE > RP.. It's not a bloody 24/7 hobby. Just keep on playing with whoever you have, don't burn yourself out on advertising, and don't mention anywhere on the site that you're in need of more players and such~. 

[Rune 1,099]

I can't say I've ever had someone say they wouldn't join a site due to too few members. I've gotten the opposite several times, but never that. Huh.

 

Advertise. Advertise. Advertise. Seriously, it's something a lot of people hate but its the only way to get your board out there and seen (excluding directories, of course.) I keep a list of places I've advertised and, in the beginning, cycling through it once a month to drop an ad is a good way to get going. If you have topsites that suit your genre, add to them. Affiliate with other newer boards. 

 

Don't inflate the list. It won't serve any purpose. If people are looking at the 'online' list and using it to judge, have yourself and your friends rotate through your accounts but making unused OOC accounts is rather pointless. Especially because eventually it will be discovered.

 

I do suggest events, though specifically 'grand opening' ones I can't say I've ever done. My board did one within a couple months of opening that was just a basic setting (a ball, specifically) and have since rehosted it every year at roughly the same time. If you do host an event, make sure its something new people can easily jump into (which is why I suggest basic setting events as opposed to action ones.) Encourage them to do so. (On a board recently when people showed up, asked about an event and were told it was too late for them to join. Guess who didn't stick around?) I make a special forum for the event, that way I can just rework it every time there's such a thing and let people post their own threads there and do their thing.

 

Also consider the time of year. It's the middle of summer (for some) and thus people are vacationing, working, etc. September is usually when things pick up as people head back to school/have more free time without kids.

 

All that said, getting a board off the ground is hard. If you have a solid memberbase, make sure you're RPing with them, plotting and chatting away when you're able. Some things just don't pan out, but if your board looks active and there are people doing things you stand a chance to get going. 

Edited July 26, 2016 by Rune

[iReadYerMind 2]

Not an unused alternate OOC account, an active one. You're just taking, say, half your IC accounts and putting them under a separate OOC username.  

 

I agree with having a separate board for events.  In one forum I used to run, we had a "fairgrounds" board that could be tweaked to indicate current festivities taking place there.  We did harvest fairs, Halloween/Costume balls, independence day celebrations, Christmas-themed stuff, etc. and let those run for at least a month of real world time before we wrapped them up and moved on to the next event.

 

My current forum has summertime events, one of which will be starting soon.  But with only 4 active forum members (one of which is away due to a family emergency), those group events seem a little less than festive.  Haha

 

Do either of you find that listing "job openings" or adoptable characters seems to draw in more people?

[Rune 1,099]

Open ranks, adoptable characters, wanted ads, etc are always a good move. I've seen a handful of people that specifically try to join with a wanted ad character so they have immediate connections. Of course, with ranks you always wind up with the shitty problem of people wanting that rank and not doing anything with it. (I've found that saying people can't apply until they've been active X amount of time keeps this at bay.)

 

(Your site is very pretty, by the way!)

[iReadYerMind 2]

Thank you, yours is too!

[Rivfader 76]

1. With Valour I think we were just lucky in that our plot and setting seemed to appeal to a lot of people, because we never went through the cycle of inactivity and not having many members. But, I have experienced that with other sites in the past. Perhaps the fact that Valour opened at the start of the summer when there was that vacation hype helped? I have no idea. 

 

2. If people are just making accounts so the online list looks bigger, that's a no-no for me. However if they're just making separate character accounts because that's the style of the site, then sure. I personally like how organised it feels to have one OOC account and lots of character accounts attached as sub-accounts. 

 

3. We've actually yet to have a site-wide event, but we're planning on holding one soon enough. For site events, especially a site's first one, it's always good to do something that almost all characters can get involved in rather than just one membergroup.

 

4. Advertising is obviously important, but don't get bogged down on it. The only advertising I do is bumping directory advertisements and a handful of link backs every week. Directories are definitely the best way to get members, in my experience anyway. 95% of members have come from directories when I have asked, and the rest from first links/link back advertisements. I view social media as more work than it's worth, but maybe it has had good results for some people? Anyway, all in all just focus on the members you have got rather than the ones you don't. A site needs to be active for people to even consider joining, and no matter how much advertising you do, that's not going to boost the site's activity!

[Sekah 0]

I agree with Rune. I've seen sites that should have gotten more members get almost none, because the admins didn't advertise. Hell, the site I'm modding for now was doing a bad job of advertising before I became mod. Everyone wondered about the lack of new members. I joined the staff team, did a ton of advertising, and we got six new members and tons of guests and potentials in a short period of time. It helps!

[Patrick 66]

I don't really worry so much about how many members there are. People who won't join a site with a relatively small member-base, tend not to be the sort of people that stay very long, anyway.  They're often the Hit & Run type.  

 

I much prefer the folks who join because they've browsed a few threads and are so impressed with the calibre of writing/storytelling that they simply HAVE to join.