Membership Are OOC boards important?

[Booster Gold 1]

I'm terrible about using OOC boards and see lack of use of them, myself.  Though when someone posts something interesting in them, they pick up..  Games also tend to be active.  But with stuff like Discord, Skype and a myriad of ways to contact eachother, I can see why some might say they're not quite as busy on some sites.  For me and sites I pop on, it usually gets active in bursts, then the OOC board dies, then back active lol.

[Phear Lap 6]

I like ooc boards, I can feel like a real member as I don't have to wait fr a small timed window xD as in, early morning in discord, otherwise the chatroom is empty.

[ChrisOwl 59]

I haven't found the one I set up to be as busy as we used to be on them with the Discord... however they've come in handy for announcements. I'm probably going to narrow ours down now that they aren't getting much use anymore though. We're also going to start up some writing challenge type stuff in them so that will be fun to see.

[Seahorse 79]

The best stories are driven by the foundation of strong community. To me, I find it doesn't matter if this community is used a little or alot, so long as the community is there. OOC boards/board sections serve the purpose of helping people connect, plot, and keep track of their creative endeavors. They can be ways to encourage research, share new findings, or even tell jokes! On ours, we do all the things that are here mentioned. We've discussed listing prompts there, streamlining it, inserting toolboxes of this or that, etc.  

It's also an important piece of the community option. Discord, just as Cbox did when it was first introduced, or the use of a service like AIM, Skype, etc are something to build from, but in my opinion not a hard choice where you need one or nothing. Every site does what works best for them.  Where I am at, we have the OOC section, the Cbox, and Discord.  The OOC section makes for a great extension given we have had members who prefer not to use Discord and are only in Cbox. Without the OOC component, they'd miss out on the chance for in depth character plot discussion. They wouldn't be able to engage. While the use may not be as high as the Discord server itself, it still sees good traffic.  

[StormWolfe 557]

I'd give my fictional life's blood for an active OOC community!

 

Due to the way my sites work, we do not have an on-site OOC "board". When polled, my members at all three games (there's crossover) stated they preferred mailing lists or something like Discord. To date, no one uses the game specific OOC groups (we use Google Groups). They use the Game Management Group which is one for general announcements and updates that affects all three sites to leave absence notices.

 

As a GM, I don't care how my members communicate as long as they participate in OOC discussions in some form. Me, I tend to be active in OOC discussions.

[Guest BETA BLUE]

Make sure you have forum games. I have read that a lot of guests use it to judge activity and during slow periods or when people are just super busy, it's a good way for them to stay connected with the site if they can't posts in character topics.

[SoulsRPG 15]

Sunny: I like OOC forums, and I do think they're important to get a gauge of your community - OOC chats are important too (maybe even moreso?) when they help members get to know each other better, and facilitate plots and whatnot.  We have a Discord server, and it's always active!

[Richard Castle 7]

I'd say yes but only because it allows members to get to know one another outside of roleplay. Roleplay is supposed to be about forming lasting connections and without proper OOC communication, that's kind of impossible. 

[AlbinoFyre 3]

I have an OOC board area but it's rarely used. Most often if people want to socialize they'll do so in the cbox or site discord channel. That said, i keep my OOC area around because maybe someone will want to use it and it's not hurting anything to have it.

[omgwes 18]

I don't find my board used them much either. We have a gif game and that's about it. It's fun but it's definitely not necessary imo.

 

We also have shippers, development, and wanteds. These are OOC and get some traction of course. Wanteds bc there's really no other way to snag guests.

 

One issue I see is our shippers are kind of becoming obsolete... we are all plotting in discord! So it looks to the guest like we don't plot with each other. I haven't quite figured out how to cure that issue so if anyone knows do let me know!

[lola_shvarek 5]

I find that OOC boards are a bit bare on my site, people much perfer Discord these days apparently.

[Gothic 307]

They seem to have dropped a little since discord became popular for RPers. Personally, I love OOC boards, and especially games boards. I like getting to know my fellow rpers better. 

[Suzi 20]

We have an OOC board... but honestly, it rarely gets used. Most of our OOC business takes place on discord! 

[Archivist 26]

On 8/23/2017 at 6:12 PM, Zozma said:

I really like them and am always thinking of things to add to mine. But outside mine... I admit to not finding much to talk about.

 

I'm thinking this is the issue in itself.  We can post in story threads no problem but when it comes to communicating out of character- suddenly, it's a struggle.

 

My site has an OOC forum- with a number of sub-forums for specific activities- like posting games such as word association, general conversation etc. We offer them because we don't have a discord channel or other means of yapping among just the members- not counting Facebook. These get views but little if any posts.

 

I think sites keep them in the hopes that someday, they'll take off with people getting to know each other outside the games. 

[Gibson 21]

In my experience OOC boards were more active years ago and were a good place to build the community. Game threads especially would be pretty active. But ever since chats became more popular, starting with cbox and now moving to Discord, the OOC community aspect seems to be concentrated there.

 

So, personally, I only use OOC boards for away notices because I feel the chat covers all the rest.