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The Red Flags of a Failed RP


Kajes
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  • 9 months later...

I think a hard to use skin, a messy skin, or spelling mistakes are my biggest turn off when I am looking at new sites. I will also check the board stats for activity level. 

 

Sometimes simpler is better, and trying to make a fancy skin might just be making the board hard to use. I need to be able to find everything I need without much trouble.

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  • 2 weeks later...

- Lots of complaining from the admins about having to do admin related things. You can complain, just don't do it to your members. I know it's tough. Especially when you've been working on guides or lore for what seems like decades and you just want to write some posts- but you'r building the foundation of your site. Be prideful in that (and go cry to your other staff about your eyes feeling like they're bleeding)

 

- "Hey guests!" in the cbox for days

 

- Sites that appear to have copied and pasted another site's ideas, but tweaked them just enough so it's not theft. I think this is more apparent in smaller fandoms- I saw it a lot in GOT sites back in the day. It happens, but unfortunately, it usually doesn't work out. 

 

-Sites made by a serial site creator. 

 

  • Preach it! 2
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  • 2 weeks later...

When the staff are only interested in rping with each other. Like they will actively avoid anyone else! 

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Lack of interest in involving newer members/plotting with newer members, even when new members reach out for threads. That is a red flag for me. Normally they don't last long and end up fizzling out.

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  • 1 month later...

I’m currently watching several sites because of a lot of these red flags, coupled with my curiosity as to what happens. One of my favorite things to do when I’m not writing is to browse sites. I’ve even attempted to create a couple of my own before, though in both cases the loss of my sites was more due to my financial situation over the last few months and a poorly chosen subject for the second one helped to contribute there. Additionally, I think I threw up many of these red flags myself—I had no clue what I was doing, as I was and largely still am new to forum roleplay and building my own worlds. 
 

As for the topic at hand, these are things that throw red flags at me in regards to joining a site that is new (in addition to several of those already mentioned):


• Lots of registered characters/populated discord, but very little forum activity. 
• Rules that exist solely to stifle a player’s creativity—specifically character limits regardless of user activity.

• Active discouraging of players by the admin.

 

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A major red flag for me is when there are more posts in plotters than actual threads. It tells me the players are more interested in headcanoning their stories than actually writing them, and the site will limp along for a little while until it quietly dies off from lack of interest.

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  • 5 months later...

Admins who do not engage their members or visit their own forum for weeks on end. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm, i guess the top things that discourage me from joining a site would be a messy or non-user friendly skin/layout, limits to creative freedom or overbearing rules, and a closed off community. however, if a site has an easy and clean skin and friendly community, i am often fine with joining.

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NSD - Never Say Die

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  • 10 months later...

A recent one I've witnessed - in the first week of opening, I joined a site, and there was 1 admin staffer, who seems to have ghosted entirely after the first week. Don't know what this speaks to, whether they had expected more activity starting out, or more likely something IRL came up, but I certainly don't think it will pick back up.

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I think a 'failed' RP is different than a 'dead' RP. A failed RP is an RP that is not fun. It is negative and toxic. The mechanics are overly micromanaged. There are too many limitations or restrictions, or not enough structure. A dead RP is an RP that is not active. The signs of a failed RP in my opinion are more community-oriented, whereas a dead RP is activity-oriented. Both are important. Most of my RPs have died because I've gotten lazy, tired and bored and just failed to keep up with them as an admin. 

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  • 3 months later...

When the 'recent topics' is just filled with text threads and nothing else.

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Original Poster, you focus a lot on the creator. I believe that a single "creator" is often a red flag. You need a starting community to make something healthy and lasting.

 

Additionally, I believe that the best "creators" as in "primary admins" attempt and succeed in handing off as many responsibilities as necessary to other staff members. If you can't do this, you will fail. Period. This includes handing off decision-making when you are too busy to do so.

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5 hours ago, Zina said:

Original Poster, you focus a lot on the creator. I believe that a single "creator" is often a red flag. You need a starting community to make something healthy and lasting.

 

Additionally, I believe that the best "creators" as in "primary admins" attempt and succeed in handing off as many responsibilities as necessary to other staff members. If you can't do this, you will fail. Period. This includes handing off decision-making when you are too busy to do so.


 

I started as a single admin with no community and still do 60-90% of the admin work with help from my co-admin when she can. We’re 4 years old and I refuse to let the site die. Ultimately, if the admins aren’t willing to keep the site alive through the natural ebb and flow of active/not active points, then it doesn’t matter what kind of community you started with it how many duties you delegate. It will end either way.
 

That said, my dying site red flags are:

 

-when admins try to claim every important role without first at least trying to get players to fill those slots. 

 

-When there’s no OOC chat and very little to anything going on IC. If there’s still OOC chat and some ic stuff, there’s a chance it’s just a slow period/life is busy for many peeps… school vacations/end of semesters, and holiday times tend to biiig big slow times.

 

-When the admin’s friends or longtime members get special characters/treatment/etc, often because the admin seems to fear losing them.

 

-When admins have a bunch of rules built around specific situations or people instead of just using their own discretion.

 

-When an admin throws an absolute fit, banning and being nasty if plots don’t go their way instead of just talking to people.

 

-Problem members not being dealt with once admins have been made aware.

Edited by Brie
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  • 2 weeks later...

-Serial site creators for sure. When you can look at someone's post history in a directoy site and it's basically the same site with different names every few months, yeah. Also when an admin decides to shut down the current site you're on and then immediately invite everyone to their new very similar site... no thanks.

 

-A brand new site where the admins have all the most popular canons right off the bat. 

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