Membership The Red Flags of a Failed RP

[Lost Boy 18]

- When you notice only staff and their ship partners are posting. Then check staff's posts on resource/directory sites and see them actually bad mouthing someone on their site for having 'the audacity to want to take a want ad of theirs that 'was not meant for them to take' 

 

- When staff says their site is 'going through a bit of a down time' but then notice they're dropping ads over RP Discord hubs and Tumblr advertising blogs for a new site.

 

- When there is a rule in the Discord not to talk about the site on resource/directory and that staff will suspend/ban anyone who even vaguely does so.

[valoura 6]

For me the death knell is this pattern: an Admin who isn't devoting much time to the game anymore, then takes a hiatus with a vague return date, and then surpasses that return date with either no update or a vague one.

And honestly, I've been guilty of doing this too.

[Image 2]

I guess a big red flag for me are: 

 

- When it is mostly staff accounts posting instead of members on the site & the discord is full with inactive people. 
- Creating rules for JUST a set group of players characters, restricting creativity and muse. 
- Role-play Gaters, members that warn or tell you not to roleplay with another member because of gossip. 

[Xochiquetzal 9]

I see a lot of like-minded responses.

 

Another big flag for me that I've seen is staff disinterest in general housekeeping. They just sort of things get so messy they stop bothering to clean it up because the time and energy to clean it up and get it back on track is more than the cost of just creating a newer, less staff-hands-on site. They stop advertising, or opt out of Top RP Sites. Their YouTube and other SM accounts are inactive.

[multiplicity! 11]

When there haven't been any IC posts in a long, long time. Or when it's just the staff posting and the members just have no interest. I think a lot of times a failed RP is the fault of both the staff and members, if only because a site needs members to keep it alive. If the staff is active and doing everything they can to run a game, but the members aren't posting even though they express excitement to be on the game, then it's kind of a two-way street sort of thing? I don't know, just a random thought I had when reading this thread.

[Untold Tales 2]

On 8/13/2018 at 7:19 PM, Huskerdust said:

Usually when I can see that the site was created in a day or less. No offense to people who get things done quickly—I just haven’t seen many of these sites take off. I think they’re impulse creations that won’t last long. 

 

That and when there are no IC threads up when they open. It doesn’t inspire much confidence in the staff if they can’t even come up with some open threads to get things started on their own board. 

I can agree with this. All good things take time, really. And the more thought and effort put into things, the longer they will last. 

[Reaper 3]

When the staff start getting weirdly hostile with the members. Lots of "That isn't what I wanted to do with the site" or "I feel like you all are taking over what I envisioned" 

yes, it's your baby and you put alot of work into it, but role playing is a collaborative thing and you gotten embrace it when the tone shifts. Not to say let people change everything and take over. But maybe not be angry when other people aren't playing exactly what you want. If they are keeping within and lore, theme and rules, let it be.

[huntandmoon 5]

I am honestly a bit naive about this, and tend to have good faith in everyone until a site has already exploded (or imploded, as the case may be), but I'm definitely taking lots of notes from this thread on things to avoid, both in attempting to run a site myself and when scouting somewhere to join. 

[Cheeco 7]

When I go into a site and staff show interest in your plot idea, but get upset when their friend cannot have the character you reseved. Then bully you using their characters. Like seriously guys... I am glad you're closed because you cannot bully your guests now.