Membership Are OOC boards important?

[Kieran 15]

Yes, they're important. I feel that an RPG should aim at being a community of members and not just players. This is why I think it's sad that so many who consider joining seem to only stare at and care about IC posting activity. It's especially harmful for sites with only one or two members playing. I wish the international rpg community would start caring about sites as a community as in also join if at least the OOC boards are active even if the in-game boards currently aren't as active as they'd like them to be.

General discussion with the other members helps keep the community spirit alive even at times when not everyone are on gaming mood, and throwing ideas/suggestions for the site's development can make it even more fun, and doing character development stuff outside of in-game posts can greatly help in character building.

That's why my site doesn't have a CBox or any private channel for communicating other than of course Private Messages. And to encourage members to treat the site as a whole and a community, I very recently added a Prize system for my Harry Potter site. As in I will reward two of the most active members of each year with a 10 to 20 bucks worth Gift Cards. I give points for different activities on the site through the year and those two with the most points get the prizes. I give points for IC posts AND doing stuff & discussing on the OOC boards - and to have a chance to win a member must gather points in both categories. As in, if you don't do anything on the OOC boards you can't win a prize. And of course the more you do the better your chances. However I put emphasis that it's not supposed to be a contest but an extra thank.you from me for the most active members of a year.