So much activity in the past 24 hours

but so little in the way of posts o.O What's going on? xD Maybe there's a finger breaking epidemic =S

My excuse is lack of motivation. Perhaps people are put off by the lack of topics... Or lurking is becoming the latest thing. Then again, it's school time, again. It's why the old RPL died, or so people claimed. Mayhaps the end of the world is approaching.


Feh... I should go school. It might give me something to do.

Well if people dont post, then topics arnt going to grow, and new topics arnt going to develop.

The lack of topics, is due to people not posting new topics.

I can try and think new topics to post, but I cant increase posting ativity alone

I'm going to request a new forum where we can post topics about Links... or just take the "No links" rule off of the 'Off Topic' forum.

Lilith wrote:

Well if people dont post, then topics arnt going to grow, and new topics arnt going to develop.

The lack of topics, is due to people not posting new topics.

I can try and think new topics to post, but I cant increase posting ativity alone

We can't perhaps have a "Forum Games" topic can we

Or maybe a suggestions thread? >.~

Entertainment forum! For music, tv, books and whatever.

A suggestions thread would be good, really. Shall we make one? Or maybe a whole section for suggestions, problems, etc. It'd be handy, i suppose.

I'm not much of a topic started, but I usually have something to say lol. I'm all for word games, its a way to stay on the forum while waiting for others to reply.

Things are still being really quiet. Considering that this is a newborn forum, that's quite worrying =S

*chuckles* well by the sound of it half of the members have exams, and its still holidays in some parts of the world. Give it time.

By the looks of it, most of the ppl here have been to the old RPL, so why not do what I always said, advertise? Some forums don't allow it and of course sometimes it doesnt even work, buts its worth a shot. Open more threads and fill enough forums so it looks alive attracts members

Query: If I have analysed this thread correctly, there was once a previous incarnation of this site that is now all but terminated, correct?

Suggestion: One obvious measure that could be taken to both make the forum look active, and to intice new members to stay, is simply by posting.

A hypothetical situation for you to consider:
Some new members log on, say, once or twice a day at times separated by a couple of hours. If at both points in the day they see no new activity or new posts being made, then it will discourage them from staying as the forum will appear inactive or dead, or they may feel that they are wasting their time.

However, if at either of these time, said new members log in to find that there has been signs of recent activity, or that some new posts have been made, then it will at least give them some reason to stay on the forum; as their time spent here will not appear to be in vain.

Suggestion: Another suggestion I can give you relates to those who claim to lack "motivation".

My suggestion to those individuals would be that, if you lack the motivation to log in and provide some input to the site via posting, then the solution is simple.....motivate yourselves, and actually make some effort to log in and keep this site alive.

On the other hand, as for those who claim unable to participate due to external influences - such as work, school, university, illness, holidays, etc - inactivity, for the most part, cannot be helped.

Statement: These are some very basic suggestions on my part, but at the same time, they are steps that can be effective in achieving the desired results.

Also, in regards to advertising: advertising on other sites, whilst effective, on achieves the effect of drawing people to the site - flashy ads, whilst attractive and eye catching, have no effect in actually making people want to stay active on the site. Efforts made to advertise the forum need to be backed up by efforts made to make the forum appealing enough for visitors to stay on it.

Conclusion: In short, if you wish to keep this website alive - unlike its previous incarnation, I believe - then some time and effort put into the above areas will certainly help.

Of course, these are just suggestions on my part - whether or not you wish to read them and take note of some of the points I've made is entirely up to you.

Lord British has the general gist of what has to happen =)
I 've been trying to encourage conversation at any moment I can which should help things evolve a tiny bit, but if we all pull together it could really lead to something. Next time, in the welcome board for example, try saying more than just a simple "hi" (which leads on to nothing in most cases)- little changes like that could lead a long way =) There was a guy called Adam in the old forum that had something along the lines of "it's not about your post count, it's if your post counts" under his avatar and I think these are wise words to live by =)

Statement: I am pleased to see that I was on the right track with my previous input to this discussion.

However, I have noticed another slight problem that perhaps should be brought to your attentions.

Observation: The problem I refer to is that for a roleplaying forum, the actually number of posts made in the roleplaying areas of the forum is, put simply, rather weak. The sum total of all posts made in the entire roleplaying section of the board amounts to little more than a puny 67 posts.

Now, that on its own might not seem that bad, but when you take into consideration that those 67 posts are a fractional part of a grand total of 759 posts across the entire forum, you can see where the problems start to arise.

Irritated Rant: So, if little more than 67 posts out of 759 posts have been consumed by all of the roleplaying boards COMBINED, that must mean that a larger portion of the total posts on the forum are divided up else where.

And it will take little more than checking the main index of the forum to see the three areas where most of the posting in the forum has taken place - and they are (in order of highest-to-lowest post count):

"New Members" - 249 posts.
"Forum Games" - 243 posts.
"Off Topic" - 145 posts.

And do take time to note that these three totals are from three separate boards on the forum.

And when you compare these three totals to the marginal 67 - a combined total accumulated between EIGHT SEPARATE BOARDS, no less - then there is only one word that can really be used to described the situation:

Pathetic!

Scathing Remark: That is correct - "Pathetic". I'm sorry if this causes any of you any offence, but it really is Pathetic when the members of a forum that focuses mainly on ROLEPLAYING waste most of their time and energy posting in pointless sections that have NOTHING AT ALL to do with roleplaying!

Exception: The only minor exception to this would be the "New Members" board - after all, it pays to put some effort into welcoming new faces and fresh blood to the forum; but there is no need to go overboard and have everyone on the forum greeting each and every new person, now is there?

Seriously - I spotted two introduction threads that have more than 20 posts each! There aren't even ANY roleplay thread that have a post count near that, except the Open roleplay board.I even noticed in my own introduction topic that the two members who originally greeted me then went off on a little tangental discussion of their own.

Statement: However, in regards to the other two boards - "Forum Games" and "Off Topic" - there's no real excuse or reason as to why the combined post count in two non-roleplaying-related boards should dwarf the combined post count of eight roleplaying-related boards.

Suggestion: Therefore, my two further suggestions are this:

1) Cut down the number of people posting in "new members" introduction threads. All it takes is a couple of different people to welcome the new members to make them feel even semi-welcome - nothing more.

2) Impose serious posting restrictions on the "Forum Games" and "Off Topic" boards until the overall combined post count of all the Roleplaying Boards has improved, either to the level of equalling or surpassing the posts counts of the "Forum Games" and "Off Topic" boards. I realise that in one aspect, this is rather ironic, as this very thread is located within the "Off Topic" board.

Therefore, I would further advise that this thread be relocated to a more appropriate and suitable board within the forum.

Conclusion: I have already elaborated on some basic steps that members of this forum could take to keep the place alive and active, but I feel that the above points fall into more of a critical analysis of the posting behaviour of the members of this forum.

I am not, as it may appear, trying to offend anyone with my statements - however, I do feel that, along with generally improving activity on the forum, posting behaviour is an issue that must also be addressed.

Lord British, you have some extremely good points. The last forum really only stayed alive as long as it did because all of the members were posting in pointless word game topics and such.

I and a friend of mine created a very original RP with a description of the worlds layout, background history and all. We then promoted the RP in our signatures with links to the RP. Only two members joined. My girlfriend and her best friend. I found that to be rather pathetic for a RP board.

BTW - Knights of the Old Republic pwns. =)

Statement: Indeed, Knights of the Old Republic is a fantastic series of games - and I'm sure you can guess who my favourite non-jedi character is, correct?

But unnecessary talk aside, I do hope that some of the points I've listed prove to be of use in improving this forum - it has the potential to be a great roleplaying site, but for that to happen, it needs to be managed and developed the right way.

I think those posts stats will change once the RPs actually start. At the moment its still in the joining phase apart from the open RP. The other topics are there to show the kind of activity there will be once the RPs start (at least to my not very logical mind) *grins*.