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Members w/o Shippers


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So this is something that I'm always curious about...

 

What do you guys do when a new member joins or creates a character and then doesn't post a shipper or post in other people's shippers? Any suggestions for how to help these players get involved without making them feel pressured?

 

EDIT: A shipper/plotter is a page/thread posted on forums that gives some basic information about a character's personality and who they get along with that is more subjective than the objectivity of the application and is meant to help people figure out whether a character would get along with/hate/love another player's character. They're kind of like a brainstorming area for a specific character or group of characters. ^^

Edited by Thyme
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So.... what is a shipper? If I joined your site, why would I need one, and what would it be for?

 

Outside of that, it's impossible to not make someone feel pressured when you require something. So, you'll probably need to weight the pros and cons of people not participating in that part of the site.

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It really depends on the site itself. If there is no app then I would PM them and ask them to make one as there is no context other than a playby and possibly a rank to be able to figure out what sort of connections one can make.

 

If there is an app them the only reason to PM them would be to plot with them. Definitely not my preferred method but one that is doable.

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So, I know what a shipper is, and what it's for and all that.

But my question is, what are you really asking. And what is the actual issue behind them not having a shipper?

 

Because if it's a member who is seeming to stay isolated and not doing anything that's one issue.

 

But if it's someone who just joined, did their app, and posted an open thread instead of a shipper? Then my answer is "try threading with them"

Some people don't like shippers. They just want to jump in and play. Help them feel welcome by playing with them and then maybe encourage them to make a shipper (or not. They're not exactly required. Unless they ARE on your site)

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14 minutes ago, Thyme said:

EDIT: A shipper/plotter is a page posted on forums that gives some basic information about a character's personality and who they get along with that is more subjective than the objectivity of the application and is meant to help people figure out whether a character would get along with/hate/love another player's character. They're kind of like a brainstorming area for a specific character or group of characters. ^^

Well that seems REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT. I think you should make that mandatory!

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9 minutes ago, Yume said:

So, I know what a shipper is, and what it's for and all that.

But my question is, what are you really asking. And what is the actual issue behind them not having a shipper?

 

Because if it's a member who is seeming to stay isolated and not doing anything that's one issue.

 

But if it's someone who just joined, did their app, and posted an open thread instead of a shipper? Then my answer is "try threading with them"

Some people don't like shippers. They just want to jump in and play. Help them feel welcome by playing with them and then maybe encourage them to make a shipper (or not. They're not exactly required. Unless they ARE on your site)

We've recently had an influx of people on my board who do applications and have characters accepted... and then stop. They don't make shippers; they don't plot in other people's shippers; they don't join the open threads; they don't even poke around for threads in the cbox. 

 

I'm wondering if there's something I can do to help them. I don't mind PMing people, but I also feel like that is really intense coming from an admin? Even if it's for plotting? I don't want to scare people away, but I also don't want to have someone sitting and twiddling their thumbs wishing they had threads and plots and not having any... :( 

Edited by Thyme
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I try to catch them in the cbox. I'll ask if they have a shipper, which usually prompts them to at least consider it. Others will generally ask who they play and ask the same or make suggestions. Some will ask if they've looked at anyone's shippers. 

 

If they aren't talking in the chat or participating in any way they're one of the people that pops up, goes through the effort of getting accepted then vanishes never to be seen again. I do not understand why.

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1 hour ago, Thyme said:

We've recently had an influx of people on my board who do applications and have characters accepted... and then stop. They don't make shippers; they don't plot in other people's shippers; they don't join the open threads; they don't even poke around for threads in the cbox. 

 

I'm wondering if there's something I can do to help them. I don't mind PMing people, but I also feel like that is really intense coming from an admin? Even if it's for plotting? I don't want to scare people away, but I also don't want to have someone sitting and twiddling their thumbs wishing they had threads and plots and not having any... :( 

 

I mean... I don't want to sound mean but if someone doesn't do a thing to post on the site, they don't really want to. There are always ways to get involved, as you said yourself. If you are new on a site, you need to be proactive.

 

If you really want to do something about it, Rune's suggestion is probably the best one. You can also, as an admin, add "preferred contact method" as a profile info section and write a news' thread to tell people about this update. 

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Some people need to take their time getting their feet wet on a site. I've seen plenty of folks who don't jump in immediately, and instead just seem to lurk, while getting a feel for a site. Some members who do this end up being flakers. They may join, make a character, and never be seen on site again. There is very little you can do about this. Some folks end up deciding a place isn't the best for them only after joining, and so walk away without a word. If you still see their accounts as logged in from time to time, than you can assume they're still considering getting involved, and reach out to them..

Rather than ask immediately about plots and involvement, you can always  ask how they're managing more generally. Are there any confusions? do they need help with something? I would personally find staff jumping straight to the chase if there's an issue about participation to be a little intimidating. If talking as an admin seems too intense, maybe you could encourage a few members to help out, with "hey, you have a cool character. want to thread?" or other more casual form of request so its not coming from staff.

That said, I don't think a shipper or plotting thread is a necessary requirement for a member to get a character involved in a site. I'm the jump in and play type, and so usually only look at plotters if I'm looking for something specific. I don't think you should make such threads mandatory, unless the culture on your site makes it difficult to get plots in any other way.

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9 hours ago, Thyme said:

I don't mind PMing people, but I also feel like that is really intense coming from an admin? Even if it's for plotting? I don't want to scare people away, but I also don't want to have someone sitting and twiddling their thumbs wishing they had threads and plots and not having any... :( 

 

I do send them a welcoming PM with plot ideas after I have approved their bio. I also ask them, in that PM, what kind of stories would inspire them most to write.

 

I don't mind if people don't post a plotter. It is not compulsory on my site and I have none. Actually, out of 11 active members, only one or two have a plotter. We use more PMs and e-mails, a dedicated subforum for collective plots and sometimes plotting in the c-box.

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It might be a good idea to just give them time. If there's a lot to get through on your site, they might not have got around to posting it yet, or they might have RL stuff to deal with. Joining a new forum can be quite daunting and, (from experience), when I've joined a site and had a look around the place, I find something that puts me off taking it further. If it happens a lot then it might be a good idea to make an anon survey where people can state their concerns. Other than that, I don't think there's a lot you can do without making the member feel pressured.

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11 hours ago, Thyme said:

We've recently had an influx of people on my board who do applications and have characters accepted... and then stop. They don't make shippers; they don't plot in other people's shippers; they don't join the open threads; they don't even poke around for threads in the cbox. 

 

From a member perspective, I don't really have anything to add because I can't imagine joining a site and not at least trying to get something going. 

 

As an admin, I leave them alone for a week and then I'll send them a PM with ideas for plots, generally being upbeat and hoping that everything is ok. I think the first few weeks of a member's 'lifespan' is prime ghosting time, no matter their best intentions, because they haven't built up a personal loyalty. Offering a hand to guide them onto the forum seems like the thing to do if there's nothing coming from them?

 

But after that, I will take the hint and make no further attempts. 

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My site doesn't have shippers or plotters at all, but we don't use a forum. On occasion I've considered implementing them as a subpage off user pages on our game's wiki, but honestly we don't miss them. We do all our plotting via Discord, with occasional PMs through our game site. The big thing—as many have mentioned in this thread already—is are the players otherwise active, which you later said is part of your concern: they're not.

 

Honestly, if all it takes to scare them off is a staff member messaging them asking them if they need help getting started, or offering to thread with them? They probably weren't going to be that active on your site anyway. I always include an open invitation in the acceptance letter to poke the command team (what we call our staff) if new players want help getting started, and will make an effort to offer them a log (what we call a thread) if they don't appear to jump into something on their own right away. And as others have mentioned, a lot of new players flake out not long after they join, it's just a fact of life with RP. I tend to not assume anyone's in for the long haul until they make it past a month, but I will always try to make them feel welcome in hopes that it'll help them want to stick around.

 

So def reach out to them as an admin, asking if they want to thread or otherwise need help getting started. At the same time, check in and see if they know what a shipper is, and offer to help them set theirs up if they don't. Also consider asking some of your more active and better established member of the community to make the effort to get the new members involved in the community.

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I had never heard of plotters and shippers until I recently returned to hosting one of my games on a forum. The venue suits that game's premise better than Nova, but I won't be leaving Nova anytime soon for the other two.

 

We've set up two forums for plotting. People can use them or not. Most of us use Discord. Personally, I'd never join a game that mandated using plotters or shippers. Making them optional is fine. However, IMHO, the point of RPGs is to interact and write. If I have to spend an hour updating a bunch of stuff, it kills the incentive to write.

 

I'd say give them a bit of time, reach out to them, and if they rabbit, they weren't gonna stay anyway.

 

Update: Our character pages give really good information on the characters. Again, my opinion only, if reading a well-written bio isn't enough information to decide whether or not you want to write with a character, what is?

Edited by Stormwolfe
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3 hours ago, Stormwolfe said:

Update: Our character pages give really good information on the characters. Again, my opinion only, if reading a well-written bio isn't enough information to decide whether or not you want to write with a character, what is?

That's true! But I like the plotters as they are the place to ask permission/show interest in rping with a character. This is down to it not being an easy thing to do on twitter without people saying that you message them too much, so for me, they are essential because they're a place I can show my interest. I'm not one pm/e-mail people and due to some bad experiences I had on twitter, they seem more welcoming.

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