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The Red Flags of a Failed RP


Kajes
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Actually seeing the staff not want to get anyone else involved. Or members that say "Plots are what the staff makes them be."  Members that don't want involvement. And Staff that are always the stars in a plot

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Very strict sites, with tons of micro-managey rules, and lots of tedious, menial tasks for staff to do, lists to update, etc.

 

a.) members are gonna be turned off from that and

b.) the ones that DO join are gonna burnout.

c.) Staff is gonna burnout SO FAST as well.

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When I was younger, I used to have elaborate lists that were long and insightful and witty. A few years ago, I condensed it to one thing.

  • The staff loves the site

And then, I realized that wasn't enough. There was one more:

  • That other people love the site, too

 

Everything that is good about the site boils down to love. A staffer may love his site where he talks condescendingly down to players, but the players won't like it. A site may be wonderful and marvelous, but it may still just not get the love that it deserves from others (in other words, life's not fair). 

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A relaxed, dark and gritty roleplay based on Disney's Zootopia. 

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Exceptions for Staff to rules that limit what the regular players can do. 

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  • 3 months later...

One thing that stood out to me like a sore thumb on one site:

 

The head admin had a HUGE ego issue from the get-go, and wouldn't hand out tasks they weren't suited to do for 2 reasons.

1. They couldn't handle the work-load, and had just way too much on their plate.

2. Thought they knew better than people who studied or were studying for that particular task. The site artist (studying web-design) wasn't doing their job correctly so they took over that task. The tech-support admin (had an IT / marketing degree) wasn't doing their job correctly so they started to tinker on that. A member studying business administration offered help with promotion and getting new members, that person was actively put down and chased away, cause apparently this admin knew all about how to do this as well.

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Always believe in yourself and keep going. You don't have to have the most talent in the world. You don't have to be the smartest person in the world. If you persist and you persist and you persist, you will be successful.

Dean Cain

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In the genre I RP in, most failed sites share the same few qualities:

 

- opened within days, maybe a week, of a new film coming out

- solo admin (bonus points if the solo admin is a known Serial Site Creator)

- the plot might as well be cookie cutter, it's literally just a straight fandom adaptation including the lore from (latest film) with literally no interesting changes to differentiate it from any one of the 386 identical sites opening up at the same time

- same premade skin as nearly every other site in the genre

- cbox full of "Hey guests!" and nothing else

- the admin has a handful of important canons but there are no active threads up when the board opens

 

All this screams to me of a case of the New Shinies, a site based on the enthusiasm for a new film and put together hastily and without consideration. IMO when you're excited like that, sure, go ahead and build the site, but let it sit for a week or two after you've built it before you open it because if the enthusiasm wears off then you've saved yourself the hassle of trying to admin, and you haven't wasted a potential player's time. I always feel so bad for people who join these sites only to have them die a month or two later -- it's happened to me frequently and it doesn't give me a good impression of the admins who do this.

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On 8/15/2018 at 10:41 PM, Rune said:

Are there any sites that make it past a year that have song lyrics as their category names?

 Yes, mine! Before the Mast lasted for 8 years, then it passed to its next volume, titled Caribbean Dawn, and some of the names of categories/ subforums/ whatever are inspired from songs or that time's chronicles.

 

I think lack of interest/ love from staff and members is the obvious sign of doom. Everything else can be recoverable.

Edited by Elena
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  • 1 month later...

>looks at all this especially the coding one. 

 

(Well it seems like i'm gonna have to do a gofundme in order to ask a coder to make my site less bland.)

 

besides the slight sarcasm, i think a big red flag is when i post something and it takes a month until someone replies to it. I've seen forums with less people on it respond to stuff in hours or minutes even. that, and the atrocious website design. nothing turns me off more than bland, poorly planned theme.

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  • 3 months later...
On 8/17/2018 at 8:52 PM, Viscount Rhi-Rhi said:

Very strict sites, with tons of micro-managey rules, and lots of tedious, menial tasks for staff to do, lists to update, etc.

 

a.) members are gonna be turned off from that and

b.) the ones that DO join are gonna burnout.

c.) Staff is gonna burnout SO FAST as well.

 

This 100%

 

I was actually just banned from a site like this. It's GOT and AU which means the canons don't have their usual storylines, and shocker-- Jon Snow doesn't exist. But wait! He does. In the form of the King with an entirely different face. To make matters worse, they have a sexual predator on staff and when this was pointed out by a friend of mine as well as myself (though, my complaint was not actually one; I was just there as support and pointing out that I had been approached by this staff member as well. And this happened last night.) This morning I woke to a message saying I was being asked to leave with a file for my apps that, unfortunately, I can't even open. They stated "asked to leave" but when I went to the site, my accounts were deleted and someone had reserved the two canons I played. Not only did they do this to me, but three other people as well. So yeah. Banned. 

 

For no reason.  

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  • 1 month later...

-- The site is the 5th or 6th roleplay site you've seen that owner make. The other sites got deleted or put on maintenance mode. (':

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/24/2019 at 10:01 PM, Izayuki said:

-- The site is the 5th or 6th roleplay site you've seen that owner make. The other sites got deleted or put on maintenance mode. (':

 

I know of one person that has done this multiple times and my question is-- where on earth do they get the money? For JCINK premium, it's $75 a year. That's not counting whatever extras a site may have like a domain name, discord nitro, upgraded c-box etc.

 

More confounding for me, yet again I was banned from another site (2 sites in 3 months, wtf is wrong with people?) Literally there over a year, and I get banned. The explaination? The fact that I'm clingy to certain FCs and that they "hope I get the help I desperately need.". Who isn't? And just what the fuck??? (Pardon my french) -- and these same people know I'm seeing a therapist, on a ton of medication and have never, ever been a problem. So, I've lost friends, or rather... people I thought were friends, no one will talk to me except for one person and she's got a hell of a lot on her plate. Ugh. I would never ban for no reason and it would have to be pretty serious. Nothing like I've dealt with at all. It's crazy! (It's having one hell of an affect on my anxiety and severe depression) 

 

So what am I doing to remedy this? Making my own site. Because damn it I want a home I don't have to ever worry about leaving!

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On 7/15/2019 at 4:36 PM, Daryl Dixon said:

where on earth do they get the money? For JCINK premium, it's $75 a year. That's not counting whatever extras a site may have like a domain name, discord nitro, upgraded c-box etc.

 

 

You can add multiple boards to one subscription, so they’re likely not spending more than $10 a month or the $75 flat. No reason to repurchase.

 

To add to the thread. When the staff aren’t posting or are only posting with each other and none of their members. What’s the point?

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* I call it sharks smelling blood in water*

 

 

 

* Graphically hard on eyes: I do not mind eye candy relative to the over all theme, but if its hard to navigate it is over compensation sometimes. We look good...but..

 

* Never appearing staff, and rules and lore that seems contradictory leaving too many questions and no answers ( non user friendly )

 

*No IC threads ( I know it has been mentioned ) but I want to see the stories - get a feel for the writers/characters which ultimately draws me in- or not. If there is no real threads it does tend to lead to the thought that its a sinking ship.

 

*Lack of TLC on the forum- whether its with writers, keeping up with queries etc. Staff not giving much in the way of support or interaction on the positive side.

 

*Same people posting- but there are other members - as if the other members are not interested either.

 

*Negative crap in the cbox or discord or whatever they use. That tends to reflect everywhere in the context of the forum.

 

 

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On 8/13/2018 at 9:26 PM, Uaithne said:

- They're still using the default skin/theme.

 

- They're not using the default skin/theme, but they've done a poor job adapting the one they're using to their site.  Colors are mis-matched, or the skin doesn't really "fit" the board.

 

- Post templates are mis-matched.

 

- Spelling mistakes.

 

- The plot has no redeeming qualities in it.  There's nothing that makes it different from the next site over.

 

- The plot relies on "...with a twist!" too much.  Often the twist isn't really interesting or it's so far-fetched that it doesn't make sense.  "Real life . . . with a twist!  Here's Boringsville, Utah where one guy was murdered like 2 weeks ago and no one knows who the murder is.  But there's like 10,000 people in this town and nobody normally ever gets murdered.  And somehow your random real life characters are supposed to know and/or care and/or have some connection to this event, but we're not going to help you figure out how unless you take one of these 27 generic pre-made characters for the staff to drool over.  And that's it.  Have fun."

 

(Okay, I got a bit carried away.)

 

Hey, I live in Boringsville, Utah! 😭

 

My top red flags are:

 

1) Admin who act like they want to thread with you, but end up channeling a whole lot of boredom in their posts. It tends to fizzle out a player's enthusiasm when we have to wait for like 2 weeks for a 2 paragraph reply that gives very little to interact with.

 

2) The players are all the Admin's friend. I mean, if they're all welcoming and pretty chill, sure. But more often than not, it's a clique, and it's very hard to break into OOC or IC.

 

3) Nothing but affiliate posts for days on end. If there aren't more player-made threads than adverts, there's probably a lack of interest. Your site is now a billboard.

Edited by slowsadmariachi
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