The more I've experienced with regards to RPGs and member activity, the more I am convinced that a lot of what determines how proactive your members are is the environment they enter into.
Do you find yourself roleplaying, and worse, hauling the plotline, for all or almost all of the threads in your game? Does everything just stop as soon as you walk away?
If that is the case, your game is not a healthy one. Nor is your lifestyle, if you're unable to leave your game for even a single day without it collapsing.
I think a mistake that many admins make {myself included many times in the past} is to try and do everything for a new member at the outset. I don't mean it's a bad thing to answer their questions or help them find a roleplaying partner, or roleplay with them. I mean that when you take up a thread with them right away and provide all or almost all of that thread's plot, you're setting that member on autopilot, making them a follower rather than encouraging them to be creative and proactive.
Now, this could be fine if you have the time and the muse to keep up such a plot. I run one of my plots long term this way. I probably provide 99% of the push. But it's a rather slow running plot, people come and go in it, and it's not the only thing going on in my game by a long stretch. You're not going to be able to keep that up in your whole game, and the game itself needs proactive members in order to survive. Provide them tools and incentives for using their own creativity such as a brainstorming board, and ways for them to hook up with each other, like a board for finding a roleplaying partner or posting ads for one.
Here's hoping this solves what seems to be a very common problem in the roleplaying community!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Reviving a Dead RPG
So your RPG is a ghost town.
I won't ream out the why and wherefores of how you might have arrived at this, except to say that the #1 most common reason is neglect. Where there's a will, there's a way, and where there's no will...
The good news is this still applies even if your game's deader than a doornail and flat as a pancake. Let's touch on a few tips to get the ball rolling again!
First, how dead is it? If people are no longer posting {Excluding advertisements} but they still log in occasionally, then it actually still has signs of life. If nobody's logged in for weeks {or months} and even the guest ads have stopped coming, then you have a game that's more than mostly dead, I'm afraid.
Regardless, it never hurts to send out an email to your members alerting them of the planned revival. But make sure there's something doing when they get there. Before you send out that email, post around. Don't just post a brainstorm thread. Post a couple of actual plots, using your charcters, either new or old--it doesn't matter, as long as the threads are new. Don't bother trying to revive old RP threads that never got finished. You want the game to appear fresh and new. So, start a few threads. Give them something to do once they get there.
The brainstorm thread and new plot announcements are also quite helpful, though. Make sure that whatever you've started back up, is joinable by anyone, new or old.
And, oh yeah. Get the ads started, and let your affiliates who've dropped you know that you're up and running once more. Most sites are glad to add a newly revived site back on their link exchange if they'd dropped it for inactivity. {I have such a policy myself.}
A new skin, while not necessary, can be helpful as well to give the appearance that you are definitely serious about your reboot.
If this article is sounding a lot like some of my others, that's because reviving a dead game is remarkably similar to starting a brand new game. With that in mind, take this article's advice to help you get your dead game rolling again, and browse my other entries for more advice on how to keep it alive once it's up and going!
No RPG is dead forever unless you want it to be.
I won't ream out the why and wherefores of how you might have arrived at this, except to say that the #1 most common reason is neglect. Where there's a will, there's a way, and where there's no will...
The good news is this still applies even if your game's deader than a doornail and flat as a pancake. Let's touch on a few tips to get the ball rolling again!
First, how dead is it? If people are no longer posting {Excluding advertisements} but they still log in occasionally, then it actually still has signs of life. If nobody's logged in for weeks {or months} and even the guest ads have stopped coming, then you have a game that's more than mostly dead, I'm afraid.
Regardless, it never hurts to send out an email to your members alerting them of the planned revival. But make sure there's something doing when they get there. Before you send out that email, post around. Don't just post a brainstorm thread. Post a couple of actual plots, using your charcters, either new or old--it doesn't matter, as long as the threads are new. Don't bother trying to revive old RP threads that never got finished. You want the game to appear fresh and new. So, start a few threads. Give them something to do once they get there.
The brainstorm thread and new plot announcements are also quite helpful, though. Make sure that whatever you've started back up, is joinable by anyone, new or old.
And, oh yeah. Get the ads started, and let your affiliates who've dropped you know that you're up and running once more. Most sites are glad to add a newly revived site back on their link exchange if they'd dropped it for inactivity. {I have such a policy myself.}
A new skin, while not necessary, can be helpful as well to give the appearance that you are definitely serious about your reboot.
If this article is sounding a lot like some of my others, that's because reviving a dead game is remarkably similar to starting a brand new game. With that in mind, take this article's advice to help you get your dead game rolling again, and browse my other entries for more advice on how to keep it alive once it's up and going!
No RPG is dead forever unless you want it to be.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
How to Make Your RPG Last
I've probably covered this before, but an update never hurts, because a lot of people ask this. We all want our RPGs to last a long time when we begin them! Yet most don't survive the 6 month mark let alone see their first birthday. What goes wrong?
It has nothing to do with your forum host. You can pick a free forum {Highly recommended when starting out, as if it fails, you won't be out any cash} or a paid one, this will not affect the outcome. Most RPGs begin on free hosts like Proboards and Invisionfree. There are many more, I would shop around.
Assuming that you set it up adequately and market your RPG, it will go through a couple of initial phases. The first one being the initial "burst" with a handful of members signing up all right at the start. They want to be in on your brand new game at a time when they can grab popular canon characters {if this is a fan game} or just help establish the initial parts of the game and/or become your staff should you be needing a mod or two to help you out. Also, many people like to get in on a new game because it has no history to have to worry about reading into, other than what you put as the backstory in your rules area.
The RPG goes along like this until around 4 to 12 weeks, depending on how large that initial burst was. You may start to see some slacking off of activity at this point, but this is often partly because advertising has also slacked off. You cannot put your feet up! Advertising is VERY important at this phase, because you're not "shiny new" anymore yet don't have the "proven" age of older games. At this point you aim to hold your activity up over about 10 members on daily. If you get less than this, people may fail to sign up as often because they perceive that your site is not active enough--even if it is. Sites that get fewer than this on daily are also at risk of dying out because you never know when your members will have to leave. You need to keep them flowing in regularly. if your RPG is of a rarer niche {Not a really popular one} you will have to work a lot harder. My Warrior Cats game is of a popular genre, and Harry Potter, Twilight, high school, anime, wolves, horses and dogs are some other popular genres. These sorts of genres may cause some eye-rolling by some but they're easier to get members for. So just be prepared that while you CAN create a very successful real life World War 1 RPG, you got your work cut out for you and it may never be enormous.
A game will be much more stable if you can keep the daily logon and participation {Actually posting!} at least 20 members or so on daily and preferably no less than 10. The more the better in this case. You should see growth throughout the year, gradually although you will reach a point where growth tapers off and then flutuates mildly from thereon. As long as this level is above critical you should be okay. The challenge is to keep it up, and this should be done by making your member base as happy as possible, listening to what they want and ask for {Within reason!} and keeping up the marketing. All the while doing what you can to keep the site fresh. Offer new things once in a while. Even if they don't take off, they show that the site offers new perks sometimes and some of them will take off.
Once your site has gone a couple of years and is still thriving, you know you've got what it takes. The trick is to just keep doing it! Congratulations. You're now the owner of a long running RPG and you've figured out a system that works.
It has nothing to do with your forum host. You can pick a free forum {Highly recommended when starting out, as if it fails, you won't be out any cash} or a paid one, this will not affect the outcome. Most RPGs begin on free hosts like Proboards and Invisionfree. There are many more, I would shop around.
Assuming that you set it up adequately and market your RPG, it will go through a couple of initial phases. The first one being the initial "burst" with a handful of members signing up all right at the start. They want to be in on your brand new game at a time when they can grab popular canon characters {if this is a fan game} or just help establish the initial parts of the game and/or become your staff should you be needing a mod or two to help you out. Also, many people like to get in on a new game because it has no history to have to worry about reading into, other than what you put as the backstory in your rules area.
The RPG goes along like this until around 4 to 12 weeks, depending on how large that initial burst was. You may start to see some slacking off of activity at this point, but this is often partly because advertising has also slacked off. You cannot put your feet up! Advertising is VERY important at this phase, because you're not "shiny new" anymore yet don't have the "proven" age of older games. At this point you aim to hold your activity up over about 10 members on daily. If you get less than this, people may fail to sign up as often because they perceive that your site is not active enough--even if it is. Sites that get fewer than this on daily are also at risk of dying out because you never know when your members will have to leave. You need to keep them flowing in regularly. if your RPG is of a rarer niche {Not a really popular one} you will have to work a lot harder. My Warrior Cats game is of a popular genre, and Harry Potter, Twilight, high school, anime, wolves, horses and dogs are some other popular genres. These sorts of genres may cause some eye-rolling by some but they're easier to get members for. So just be prepared that while you CAN create a very successful real life World War 1 RPG, you got your work cut out for you and it may never be enormous.
A game will be much more stable if you can keep the daily logon and participation {Actually posting!} at least 20 members or so on daily and preferably no less than 10. The more the better in this case. You should see growth throughout the year, gradually although you will reach a point where growth tapers off and then flutuates mildly from thereon. As long as this level is above critical you should be okay. The challenge is to keep it up, and this should be done by making your member base as happy as possible, listening to what they want and ask for {Within reason!} and keeping up the marketing. All the while doing what you can to keep the site fresh. Offer new things once in a while. Even if they don't take off, they show that the site offers new perks sometimes and some of them will take off.
Once your site has gone a couple of years and is still thriving, you know you've got what it takes. The trick is to just keep doing it! Congratulations. You're now the owner of a long running RPG and you've figured out a system that works.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Power of Suggestion--or NOT
I'll be quick on this one. Writing rules for your RPG can be tricky, but today's tip to bear in mind is: Don't suggest. And don't use the word "try" anywhere in your rules.
It doesn't work. Ever.
"Try to keep a balance between the types of characters you play," or, "Try not to post one liners/Try not to put too big a picture in your sig," whatever. Or anything with the word 'try.' This doesn't create a rule, it creates a guideline, per se. People don't listen to guidelines on an RPG. Unless they're enforced like rules, and then they should have been written up as rules in the first place.
"Don't post one liners." "Don't use pictures more than 500 pixels wide in your sig." Make the rules concrete so people know just what their limits are. Other similar pitfalls to avoid are things like, "It's a good idea if..." "You probably shouldn't..." "You should..." Just don't use the word "should" at all either. Use must, can't, do, don't. Always use absolutes if you mean it absolutely. And bearing in mind that things like "large," "small," and "balanced," are arbitrary terms and if you are placing a concrete limit on such traits you need to be specific.
Everyone is much happier when they know their limits. Make sure your rules are clear on them! :)
It doesn't work. Ever.
"Try to keep a balance between the types of characters you play," or, "Try not to post one liners/Try not to put too big a picture in your sig," whatever. Or anything with the word 'try.' This doesn't create a rule, it creates a guideline, per se. People don't listen to guidelines on an RPG. Unless they're enforced like rules, and then they should have been written up as rules in the first place.
"Don't post one liners." "Don't use pictures more than 500 pixels wide in your sig." Make the rules concrete so people know just what their limits are. Other similar pitfalls to avoid are things like, "It's a good idea if..." "You probably shouldn't..." "You should..." Just don't use the word "should" at all either. Use must, can't, do, don't. Always use absolutes if you mean it absolutely. And bearing in mind that things like "large," "small," and "balanced," are arbitrary terms and if you are placing a concrete limit on such traits you need to be specific.
Everyone is much happier when they know their limits. Make sure your rules are clear on them! :)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Abusive Forum Syndrome: Getting out!
This might be part one, or might be standalone. I got another thing I want to write about too, so after this I'll take an interlude.
Tonight's topic though is how to leave an abusive forum!
If you read my last article, "I Hate Your Forum - Please Unban Me"--it was about recognising whether your favourite online community is in fact a cesspool of emotional and psychological abuse. Now let's assume it is, and you want out.
Leaving is not as simple as people might think. The abusive forum has a pull on you. Remember one thing to start from: You are not a bad human being! These people crapping on you in this place aren't doing so because of failures on your part. They are being abusive and controlling of you, and the best sign of this is you feel guilty, inadequate, and constantly unable to live up to their expectations. You keep coming back hoping today will be the day that things get better.
It won't get better! It will only get worse.
Or, you may think that if you improve your writing a bit, do this, or don't do that, that it'll get better.
It won't! Changing will not stop the abuse!
One good way to loosen the vice of abuse is by joining a second community. Aside from having good real life connexions, but let's assume you don't want to sever your involvement with your online fandom, or whatever scene online you're into in your hobbies. Let's say it's an RPG and you don't want to quit roleplaying.
So, join another RPG. Find a good one. Or even start your own, though this can be slow going at first. Remember--you won't have to quit the one you're currently in, either, and remember, you have no obligation to tell them you're joining another site, and if they give you a hard time about that, remember that's only one more sign they're trying to exert dominance and control over you.
One of the main things an abusive person or group will do is try and cut the victim off from outside support. You have to make sure this doesn't happen, or if it does, break out.
Once you find a non abusive, fun forum to spend your time in you may begin to see the ugly on the abusive site for what it is. Others that you might know who are nice on the abusive forum {if any} may even be persuaded to go over to your new site. Chances are they've been taking crap too.
The more time you spend outside the abusive forum/community, the less reliant you will feel on them and the more you will see their true colours.
Tonight's topic though is how to leave an abusive forum!
If you read my last article, "I Hate Your Forum - Please Unban Me"--it was about recognising whether your favourite online community is in fact a cesspool of emotional and psychological abuse. Now let's assume it is, and you want out.
Leaving is not as simple as people might think. The abusive forum has a pull on you. Remember one thing to start from: You are not a bad human being! These people crapping on you in this place aren't doing so because of failures on your part. They are being abusive and controlling of you, and the best sign of this is you feel guilty, inadequate, and constantly unable to live up to their expectations. You keep coming back hoping today will be the day that things get better.
It won't get better! It will only get worse.
Or, you may think that if you improve your writing a bit, do this, or don't do that, that it'll get better.
It won't! Changing will not stop the abuse!
One good way to loosen the vice of abuse is by joining a second community. Aside from having good real life connexions, but let's assume you don't want to sever your involvement with your online fandom, or whatever scene online you're into in your hobbies. Let's say it's an RPG and you don't want to quit roleplaying.
So, join another RPG. Find a good one. Or even start your own, though this can be slow going at first. Remember--you won't have to quit the one you're currently in, either, and remember, you have no obligation to tell them you're joining another site, and if they give you a hard time about that, remember that's only one more sign they're trying to exert dominance and control over you.
One of the main things an abusive person or group will do is try and cut the victim off from outside support. You have to make sure this doesn't happen, or if it does, break out.
Once you find a non abusive, fun forum to spend your time in you may begin to see the ugly on the abusive site for what it is. Others that you might know who are nice on the abusive forum {if any} may even be persuaded to go over to your new site. Chances are they've been taking crap too.
The more time you spend outside the abusive forum/community, the less reliant you will feel on them and the more you will see their true colours.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
I hate your forum. Please unban me! ;_;
That's about it--right there. As a matter of fact I may just wind up writing an entire series of articles on this subject. Heretofore I've written most of my pieces here about how to be a good forum/RPG manager. But most of us out there aren't managers on most forums we frequent or even any of them. We're members, those folks who just join a message board community to enjoy what it has to offer, make friends, roleplay, whatever. Forums offer a wide variety of things. But one thing any forum, of any size, brand or genre can become, is an abusive forum.
You get perma-banned for posting a typo/being "illiterate"/posting a topic in the wrong board by accident/Or maybe just because the admin was in a bad mood that day.
And next thing you know, you're begging them to let you back for more. You feel you can't live without your beloved community, who treats you like dirt but on a good day, say they love you and give you virtual cookies. Then they turn on a dime and you're insulted, banned, whatever. And you're in tears, begging again.
I've covered much of the warnings signs that an admin is moving into tyrannical or abusive territory, but haven't yet addressed their enablers--those hapless people who get tangled up in a community that does them more harm than good--yet they can't just leave.
Why?
Well, someone I was discussing this with likened it to a form of spousal abuse--why does an abused significant other, even one who's unmarried and without children or financial needs--keep on coming back anyway?
It just has to be plain old human psychology, turned around to become your worst enemy.
Let's see if I can use this blog to assist any of you out there who may be stuck wasting a large chunk of your time online {or even time overall} taking it up the rear from a forum community that is abusing you.
First, I will outline some of the signs that a forum's disciplinary policies or style may be abusive. Bear in mind there's a "sliding scale" of acceptability, occasional trolls or arguments happen everywhere, and ALL forums must keep the peace in order to be successful. Some message boards including RPGs are stricter than others, and there is nothing wrong with being strict, in and of itself. Some people prefer a high degree of limitation and order in an RPG in particular because of the way it might shape a game's atmosphere.
It's more in how these rules are enforced.
The number one easiest sign to see is insults, belittling, nastiness, putting people down. I mean if that's not the most effective form of abuse online I don't know what is. You can't hit someone through a computer but you can sure as hell berate them. And you should NEVER have to put up with it on an online community, unless of course you enjoy flame wars, and in that case, you know what you are getting into when you join THAT kind of a community.
This isn't about that. This is about, say, an RPG, for example, that purports to be friendly, helpful, creative and fun. Say you're new, and you broke a minor rule by accident, maybe you posted a RP post in the wrong style. How does the staff react? Is it like this:
"Hi, I see you're new here, welcome to the game. I just wanted to point out that posting in first person is against our rules here. Here's a link to our rules {link} and some examples of roleplaying threads using an acceptable style {links} I strongly recommend reviewing them, and if you have any questions just let us know."
Or like this:
"Um...ok...WOW. I see yet another illiterate n00b failed to even bother reading our rules. I truly pity you if you actually thought you were going to be able to keep up on our game. Try LOOKING around and reading the required material, and oh, also try writing at least a first grade level, your typos insult my intelligence."
I've seen examples of both on many different sites. If you see the first one, it's a good sign. If you see the second, don't walk away--run. Any staff member who treats someone like that at the outset isn't going to improve how they treat you later on.
Abuse isn't limited to staff either. A forum could have the nicest staff, and yet the members could be total monsters because the staff aren't on the ball. Poke around in the general board or other out of character area of the forum, where member interactions are freest and most obvious abuse, if any, tends to therefore take place. Is a typical new topic like this:
"Hey guys, how is everyone? I had a great time at the beach today, here's pictures my friend took of us parasailing!"
Or is it more like...
"Okay. I just want to make one thing clear. I CANNOT STAND HALF OF YOU GUYS ANYMORE! You whine and moan about your problems and then when someone tries to help, you screw it all up! I can't take it anymore and I hope you guys {You know who you are!} go to hell!"
Did a staff member do nothing to stop that second topic?
...Did a staff member POST that second topic?
First example=wonderful, typical fun topic for general discussion. Second one=if it isn't promptly removed and given a warning, you're on a forum with bad morale and it probably won't improve unless the site comes under new administration, which very rarely ever happens. You're best off heading for greener pastures.
What do your general experiences on the forum tend to be like? Do you take a verbal beating in the general board or get yanked around by passive-aggressive roleplaying partners who drag you into their drama and somehow manage to make you feel like a horrible human being, ending in you often signing off from the site in tears? Only to come back tomorrow, and present yourself for yet another round of abuse?
This...IS supposed to be an "escapist" hobby, right? I don't know about you, but I don't like escaping to something even worse than anything going on in my real life. If you are dealing with this on a forum, you're a victim of abuse. If you tolerate and engage in frequent fighting on the board when all you wanted to do was roleplay and joke around, you're a victim of abuse. If members and/or staff often put you down, call you illiterate, {Very common!} diss your writing style {I don't mean constructive criticism, I mean plain insults} you are being abused.
Every board has the occasional member who gets out of line, so if a member mistreats you, let the staff know. If it is clearly dealt with, and it doesn't happen again, then you can probably rest assured the problem was a one time issue. If you find yourself going up against this crap on a regular basis after that and staff just aren't doing anything--or worse, they're taking part in the insults--congratulations, you're a victim of an abusive forum.
And you and only you can stop it. If I were you, I'd handle it this way: the quick easy severing. Don't bother posting a long winded {or any} leaving note. Just hit the delete button on your account, and breathe a sigh of relief that never again will you have to subject yourself to abuse there.
Move on. There are literally thousands of other forums around, and hey, if you don't find one that's exactly to your liking, you can always make one =)
Stay tuned as I try to post up more about Abusive Forum Syndrome and how you can identify it, and break free of it. Let's start empowering ourselves by just saying no to abusive message board communities!
You get perma-banned for posting a typo/being "illiterate"/posting a topic in the wrong board by accident/Or maybe just because the admin was in a bad mood that day.
And next thing you know, you're begging them to let you back for more. You feel you can't live without your beloved community, who treats you like dirt but on a good day, say they love you and give you virtual cookies. Then they turn on a dime and you're insulted, banned, whatever. And you're in tears, begging again.
I've covered much of the warnings signs that an admin is moving into tyrannical or abusive territory, but haven't yet addressed their enablers--those hapless people who get tangled up in a community that does them more harm than good--yet they can't just leave.
Why?
Well, someone I was discussing this with likened it to a form of spousal abuse--why does an abused significant other, even one who's unmarried and without children or financial needs--keep on coming back anyway?
It just has to be plain old human psychology, turned around to become your worst enemy.
Let's see if I can use this blog to assist any of you out there who may be stuck wasting a large chunk of your time online {or even time overall} taking it up the rear from a forum community that is abusing you.
First, I will outline some of the signs that a forum's disciplinary policies or style may be abusive. Bear in mind there's a "sliding scale" of acceptability, occasional trolls or arguments happen everywhere, and ALL forums must keep the peace in order to be successful. Some message boards including RPGs are stricter than others, and there is nothing wrong with being strict, in and of itself. Some people prefer a high degree of limitation and order in an RPG in particular because of the way it might shape a game's atmosphere.
It's more in how these rules are enforced.
The number one easiest sign to see is insults, belittling, nastiness, putting people down. I mean if that's not the most effective form of abuse online I don't know what is. You can't hit someone through a computer but you can sure as hell berate them. And you should NEVER have to put up with it on an online community, unless of course you enjoy flame wars, and in that case, you know what you are getting into when you join THAT kind of a community.
This isn't about that. This is about, say, an RPG, for example, that purports to be friendly, helpful, creative and fun. Say you're new, and you broke a minor rule by accident, maybe you posted a RP post in the wrong style. How does the staff react? Is it like this:
"Hi, I see you're new here, welcome to the game. I just wanted to point out that posting in first person is against our rules here. Here's a link to our rules {link} and some examples of roleplaying threads using an acceptable style {links} I strongly recommend reviewing them, and if you have any questions just let us know."
Or like this:
"Um...ok...WOW. I see yet another illiterate n00b failed to even bother reading our rules. I truly pity you if you actually thought you were going to be able to keep up on our game. Try LOOKING around and reading the required material, and oh, also try writing at least a first grade level, your typos insult my intelligence."
I've seen examples of both on many different sites. If you see the first one, it's a good sign. If you see the second, don't walk away--run. Any staff member who treats someone like that at the outset isn't going to improve how they treat you later on.
Abuse isn't limited to staff either. A forum could have the nicest staff, and yet the members could be total monsters because the staff aren't on the ball. Poke around in the general board or other out of character area of the forum, where member interactions are freest and most obvious abuse, if any, tends to therefore take place. Is a typical new topic like this:
"Hey guys, how is everyone? I had a great time at the beach today, here's pictures my friend took of us parasailing!"
Or is it more like...
"Okay. I just want to make one thing clear. I CANNOT STAND HALF OF YOU GUYS ANYMORE! You whine and moan about your problems and then when someone tries to help, you screw it all up! I can't take it anymore and I hope you guys {You know who you are!} go to hell!"
Did a staff member do nothing to stop that second topic?
...Did a staff member POST that second topic?
First example=wonderful, typical fun topic for general discussion. Second one=if it isn't promptly removed and given a warning, you're on a forum with bad morale and it probably won't improve unless the site comes under new administration, which very rarely ever happens. You're best off heading for greener pastures.
What do your general experiences on the forum tend to be like? Do you take a verbal beating in the general board or get yanked around by passive-aggressive roleplaying partners who drag you into their drama and somehow manage to make you feel like a horrible human being, ending in you often signing off from the site in tears? Only to come back tomorrow, and present yourself for yet another round of abuse?
This...IS supposed to be an "escapist" hobby, right? I don't know about you, but I don't like escaping to something even worse than anything going on in my real life. If you are dealing with this on a forum, you're a victim of abuse. If you tolerate and engage in frequent fighting on the board when all you wanted to do was roleplay and joke around, you're a victim of abuse. If members and/or staff often put you down, call you illiterate, {Very common!} diss your writing style {I don't mean constructive criticism, I mean plain insults} you are being abused.
Every board has the occasional member who gets out of line, so if a member mistreats you, let the staff know. If it is clearly dealt with, and it doesn't happen again, then you can probably rest assured the problem was a one time issue. If you find yourself going up against this crap on a regular basis after that and staff just aren't doing anything--or worse, they're taking part in the insults--congratulations, you're a victim of an abusive forum.
And you and only you can stop it. If I were you, I'd handle it this way: the quick easy severing. Don't bother posting a long winded {or any} leaving note. Just hit the delete button on your account, and breathe a sigh of relief that never again will you have to subject yourself to abuse there.
Move on. There are literally thousands of other forums around, and hey, if you don't find one that's exactly to your liking, you can always make one =)
Stay tuned as I try to post up more about Abusive Forum Syndrome and how you can identify it, and break free of it. Let's start empowering ourselves by just saying no to abusive message board communities!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
It's all fun and games
until someone loses an RPG. So you have a thriving community on your RPG, yet...almost no actual roleplaying. Your members happily wile away their precious free time on "Ban the Person Above You" and "Count to a Million!" while your roleplaying boards sit empty.
What to do?
First, count yourself lucky to have a thriving forum community, even if it's a small one. You've accomplished what a lot of prospective forum owners fail to do even when they pump out money for professional software and SEO advertising. Chances are good that all you need is a little tweaking.
The reasons why people join an RPG and then don't roleplay are many, but it tends to be a vicious circle. They join, then see that hmm, there's only 17 posts in in-character area but over 12,000 in "Spam Your Ass Off." Members follow where the action is! A forum is always a community first before it is anything else, whether that something else is an RPG or a trading post. When you walk into a party, do you go sit or stand around by yourself or do you join the crowd over at the other end of the room? Same principle applies.
Here are some tips that might help you out.
First, if your board has post count turned on on all boards, switch them off for all but the roleplaying boards. Members like seeing their numbers go up. Numbers are sweet. Don't reward them for posting "lol" on the "Post Your Funny Pet Pictures Here" thread, reward them for roleplaying.
Second, cut the number of roleplaying front boards {or boards altogether} in half, or more. Crowding the roleplay areas all in closer will make it look more active, AND it will push the members in closer to each other.
Third, start up a plot discussion board and start some brainstorming threads, then mention to your members as they are discussing Lady Gaga's latest antics, that you have a swell new bunch of plot ideas you are inviting them into. Mention also that their characters could have a strong role to play if they jump in and see what it's about.
You can't force people to roleplay. But you can entice them. You must.
What to do?
First, count yourself lucky to have a thriving forum community, even if it's a small one. You've accomplished what a lot of prospective forum owners fail to do even when they pump out money for professional software and SEO advertising. Chances are good that all you need is a little tweaking.
The reasons why people join an RPG and then don't roleplay are many, but it tends to be a vicious circle. They join, then see that hmm, there's only 17 posts in in-character area but over 12,000 in "Spam Your Ass Off." Members follow where the action is! A forum is always a community first before it is anything else, whether that something else is an RPG or a trading post. When you walk into a party, do you go sit or stand around by yourself or do you join the crowd over at the other end of the room? Same principle applies.
Here are some tips that might help you out.
First, if your board has post count turned on on all boards, switch them off for all but the roleplaying boards. Members like seeing their numbers go up. Numbers are sweet. Don't reward them for posting "lol" on the "Post Your Funny Pet Pictures Here" thread, reward them for roleplaying.
Second, cut the number of roleplaying front boards {or boards altogether} in half, or more. Crowding the roleplay areas all in closer will make it look more active, AND it will push the members in closer to each other.
Third, start up a plot discussion board and start some brainstorming threads, then mention to your members as they are discussing Lady Gaga's latest antics, that you have a swell new bunch of plot ideas you are inviting them into. Mention also that their characters could have a strong role to play if they jump in and see what it's about.
You can't force people to roleplay. But you can entice them. You must.
Admin, Incognito.
I hear the question come up pretty frequently: Should an admin create a second, member account to roleplay with their members and interact with them like "one of the guys" {or girls or both} while they keep their administrator account reserved only for staff functions?
This is a personal choice, but not one I would make. I don't do it, because you're essentially creating two personas on the game, one as a member and the other as an admin. While you then "escape" the natural fear of authority that will always attach itself to an admin, you don't spend that time cultivating your presence and persona as an admin on your site, which only strengthens members' fear and sense of alienation from the leader of their game. An admin, in my opinion, shouldn't be trying to escape difficult issues on their board, they need to confront them and improve them as best they can. Avoiding it doesn't make it go away, and having an admin/staff who openly communicate with their members on a regular basis goes a very long way.
It is human nature to fear authority to some extent, the bigger the authority the bigger this natural fear, which is why this situation is worse the larger the forum is. But if you show them you're really a nice old human being like the rest of them, this fear will mostly fade and you'll make some friends and make your board a warmer place at the same time.
Honesty is also the best policy.
This is a personal choice, but not one I would make. I don't do it, because you're essentially creating two personas on the game, one as a member and the other as an admin. While you then "escape" the natural fear of authority that will always attach itself to an admin, you don't spend that time cultivating your presence and persona as an admin on your site, which only strengthens members' fear and sense of alienation from the leader of their game. An admin, in my opinion, shouldn't be trying to escape difficult issues on their board, they need to confront them and improve them as best they can. Avoiding it doesn't make it go away, and having an admin/staff who openly communicate with their members on a regular basis goes a very long way.
It is human nature to fear authority to some extent, the bigger the authority the bigger this natural fear, which is why this situation is worse the larger the forum is. But if you show them you're really a nice old human being like the rest of them, this fear will mostly fade and you'll make some friends and make your board a warmer place at the same time.
Honesty is also the best policy.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Those Members Need A Kick In the Pants Sometimes
Say, do you manage your own RPG? Do you know this type of player: They want to roleplay, so they come to you, and ask if you'd like to roleplay. You say sure! Your game's just starting out, they put up a great application and can't wait to get started. This is going to be a blast!
So you start up the thread with a little plot beginning to get it moving. And then...you find that you have to keep on coming up with stuff to keep it moving. I don't mean half or even most, I mean virtually ALL of the ideas, twists, any plot movement, is coming from you. The other player's character is following your lead. They aren't doing much of anything on their own to impart any kind of spin on the RP. You might as well be roleplaying solo...in other words, writing your own fiction.
Try doing this with 5 different players, all who offer no or very little of their own plot power and instead rely almost completely on you. Even when it's more than 2 of you in a thread, you're doing the heavy lifting. And your well of plot ideas is quickly running dry.
It's no surprise. Coming up with constant streams of new plot ideas for 5 different threads on a daily basis quickly wears almost anyone out. The mind needs a break, like the rest of the body. But your members are offering you no relief.
Ah, inert members. It's like those chemicals, what are they, the noble gases? They don't readily mix with other elements, and basically don't react at all unless you like, fire them up with electricity or something...yeah. Basically, unless you force them, constantly, to do something, they don't do much of anything.
Most players are followers. They have little self motivation and basically want everything laid out for them to do. They come to be passively entertained in what is supposed to be a cooperative writing game. They can be great supporting characters in a plot, but they need a leader to follow.
You can't transform a follower into a leader type--an active, reactive player who produces their own sparks of creativity and helps inspire the masses to creativity. True plot-movers, leader types, are rare. And in my experience they can be a mixed bag. Some want TOO much freedom and can take over your game if you're not careful. Many can be argumentative and their ambition can get in others' way. That incredible energy that we often all wish we had!
There's the possibility that some of those passive players are not as passive as they seem, but feel too intimidated or restricted to try their own ideas. Are your rules allowing for them to be creative like you are? Double check. Ask them what ideas they have for their character and what they'd like to do with them in the game.
And you can only sustain a finite number of sub plots. So, the first thing to do is stop creating new characters or threads for every new player who requests it. I recommend no more than 10 active characters at any one time...if only I took my own advice...And once you have your limit established, hold firm. Invite the next new player into the already ongoing plots, where hopefully they will start up something with the players already in it, and you will be there to supervise and make sure they get settled in. Sometimes, the right two characters can inspire normally passive players to greater heights.
I would also use a plot discussion board to get maybe a little something heating up there. It can't hurt. Two or three players previously depending on you for their entertainment may strike up something better when given the chance to brainstorm among themselves. They may even inspire you in turn.
It's a cooperative effort!
So you start up the thread with a little plot beginning to get it moving. And then...you find that you have to keep on coming up with stuff to keep it moving. I don't mean half or even most, I mean virtually ALL of the ideas, twists, any plot movement, is coming from you. The other player's character is following your lead. They aren't doing much of anything on their own to impart any kind of spin on the RP. You might as well be roleplaying solo...in other words, writing your own fiction.
Try doing this with 5 different players, all who offer no or very little of their own plot power and instead rely almost completely on you. Even when it's more than 2 of you in a thread, you're doing the heavy lifting. And your well of plot ideas is quickly running dry.
It's no surprise. Coming up with constant streams of new plot ideas for 5 different threads on a daily basis quickly wears almost anyone out. The mind needs a break, like the rest of the body. But your members are offering you no relief.
Ah, inert members. It's like those chemicals, what are they, the noble gases? They don't readily mix with other elements, and basically don't react at all unless you like, fire them up with electricity or something...yeah. Basically, unless you force them, constantly, to do something, they don't do much of anything.
Most players are followers. They have little self motivation and basically want everything laid out for them to do. They come to be passively entertained in what is supposed to be a cooperative writing game. They can be great supporting characters in a plot, but they need a leader to follow.
You can't transform a follower into a leader type--an active, reactive player who produces their own sparks of creativity and helps inspire the masses to creativity. True plot-movers, leader types, are rare. And in my experience they can be a mixed bag. Some want TOO much freedom and can take over your game if you're not careful. Many can be argumentative and their ambition can get in others' way. That incredible energy that we often all wish we had!
There's the possibility that some of those passive players are not as passive as they seem, but feel too intimidated or restricted to try their own ideas. Are your rules allowing for them to be creative like you are? Double check. Ask them what ideas they have for their character and what they'd like to do with them in the game.
And you can only sustain a finite number of sub plots. So, the first thing to do is stop creating new characters or threads for every new player who requests it. I recommend no more than 10 active characters at any one time...if only I took my own advice...And once you have your limit established, hold firm. Invite the next new player into the already ongoing plots, where hopefully they will start up something with the players already in it, and you will be there to supervise and make sure they get settled in. Sometimes, the right two characters can inspire normally passive players to greater heights.
I would also use a plot discussion board to get maybe a little something heating up there. It can't hurt. Two or three players previously depending on you for their entertainment may strike up something better when given the chance to brainstorm among themselves. They may even inspire you in turn.
It's a cooperative effort!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Dead Zone - Why do so many RPGs fail?
It should probably say, 'why do MOST RPGs fail,' but I haven't actually done a count, so I'll just be vague. I think you guys all know what I mean anyway--you've seen it...searching for a good game, you click your way through a wasteland of RPG forums who died in their childhoods, with only a handful of members and a few hundred posts to their name before they gasped their last and joined the multitudes in the many strata of dead websites.
I always feel a little sad when I see a forum that didn't just die, but never got to live. Many times, there is ample evidence that the board was well put together, with a lot of care and time poured into it. Many times it's a game I myself would've joined had it just had a few people still posting to it. Nowadays when I want to try a new RPG and can't find one already going I start a thread in my own forum's multigenre section, which has always worked well for me. However, it doesn't erase the carnage out there...thousands of RPGs gone to waste. I have offered to affiliate with some of them, hoping a button link exchange might rejuvenate them, but more often than not, my offer goes unanswered as even the admin has given up visiting their own site.
Why? What happened? What DIDN'T happen?
A lot of it could be chalked up to some failure on the management level. Too little marketing, poor setup of rules, making the game too complicated--the list goes on as to why so many forums misfire. But I don't think it explains it all.
The truth is, it's just too easy for anyone to start up their own independent RPG forum.
Too easy? How dare I imply that it should be made harder? This is the internet, freedom reigns! But hear me out. I'm not saying it's a bad thing that anyone can go start their own RPG at the press of a few buttons. I am saying that this is the cause of a lot of forum failures--they call it oversaturation.
This is common in any market--eventually, the supply exceeds the demand. It means that unless your RPG {or whatever you're marketing} is truly a cut above the rest and you know what you are doing, it's unlikely to thrive, as it cannot rive above the masses of other competing games.
One way to get around this is by creating an RPG for which there is interest, but few or no other games exist yet in its genre. This is referred to as a "long tail" approach in marketing jargon. If you create a Warriors RPG, wolf RPG, high school RPG, Naruto RPG...you have literally hundreds of other sites vying for the same member pool as yours. What does your site offer that those hundreds do not? Think about it. "Build it and they will come" doesn't apply when there are 300 other available houses on the street. Are there REALLY no other sites in that genre that you want to play in? Ask yourself: why do I want to make my own game? Is it because you really can't find what you want anywhere else? Because you have this awesome idea that you just have to share with the roleplay world? Or...it just seems cool to be an admin? Because the cool starts to wear off quite quickly once your game is under way. Managing an RPG is wonderful when it works, but the key word is "work": there's a lot of it involved. If you go into it, go into it prepared.
I highly suggest that people look, and look hard, for an existing game of the type, size, style and genre that they want, before up and deciding to make their own. If you choose to make your own, make sure there's at least enough interest in it to sustain it. Know your market. One effective way to test the waters is to try it as a thread in a multigenre game, and see how much interest it garners; then if you decide you want to take this one step further, you'll also have a ready pool of members to go join up with you!
It's a dog eat dog world out there. Or is that cat eat cat? :P
I always feel a little sad when I see a forum that didn't just die, but never got to live. Many times, there is ample evidence that the board was well put together, with a lot of care and time poured into it. Many times it's a game I myself would've joined had it just had a few people still posting to it. Nowadays when I want to try a new RPG and can't find one already going I start a thread in my own forum's multigenre section, which has always worked well for me. However, it doesn't erase the carnage out there...thousands of RPGs gone to waste. I have offered to affiliate with some of them, hoping a button link exchange might rejuvenate them, but more often than not, my offer goes unanswered as even the admin has given up visiting their own site.
Why? What happened? What DIDN'T happen?
A lot of it could be chalked up to some failure on the management level. Too little marketing, poor setup of rules, making the game too complicated--the list goes on as to why so many forums misfire. But I don't think it explains it all.
The truth is, it's just too easy for anyone to start up their own independent RPG forum.
Too easy? How dare I imply that it should be made harder? This is the internet, freedom reigns! But hear me out. I'm not saying it's a bad thing that anyone can go start their own RPG at the press of a few buttons. I am saying that this is the cause of a lot of forum failures--they call it oversaturation.
This is common in any market--eventually, the supply exceeds the demand. It means that unless your RPG {or whatever you're marketing} is truly a cut above the rest and you know what you are doing, it's unlikely to thrive, as it cannot rive above the masses of other competing games.
One way to get around this is by creating an RPG for which there is interest, but few or no other games exist yet in its genre. This is referred to as a "long tail" approach in marketing jargon. If you create a Warriors RPG, wolf RPG, high school RPG, Naruto RPG...you have literally hundreds of other sites vying for the same member pool as yours. What does your site offer that those hundreds do not? Think about it. "Build it and they will come" doesn't apply when there are 300 other available houses on the street. Are there REALLY no other sites in that genre that you want to play in? Ask yourself: why do I want to make my own game? Is it because you really can't find what you want anywhere else? Because you have this awesome idea that you just have to share with the roleplay world? Or...it just seems cool to be an admin? Because the cool starts to wear off quite quickly once your game is under way. Managing an RPG is wonderful when it works, but the key word is "work": there's a lot of it involved. If you go into it, go into it prepared.
I highly suggest that people look, and look hard, for an existing game of the type, size, style and genre that they want, before up and deciding to make their own. If you choose to make your own, make sure there's at least enough interest in it to sustain it. Know your market. One effective way to test the waters is to try it as a thread in a multigenre game, and see how much interest it garners; then if you decide you want to take this one step further, you'll also have a ready pool of members to go join up with you!
It's a dog eat dog world out there. Or is that cat eat cat? :P
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Why do so many RPG forums have so many boards?
Because they don't know how to set up a forum.
I'm not talking about a board-for-every-locale setup being inherently bad regardless. Places are subjective. If you wanted to set one board taking place in a busy shopping mall, you could create one board for the mall, or you could create 30 boards, one for each store, and the food court rb_tongue.gif Which is ideal? Well, that depends. Does your whole RPG take place only in the mall? I'd split it up if so--though for starting sites, probably not with 30 boards. If the RPG takes place in a whole town, probably just one board for the mall would do well. Over time, if that mall board became hugely busy and several significant locales arose within it that became game landmarks, I'd set up a few sub boards for them: the food court, the record store, the clothing store, etc. How many would depend on how much activity there was, but also, secondarily, on how many landmarks came to stand out.
Sites just starting out should have very few RPing boards, as few as possible, ideally no more than 10 to 20 in all. {The same goes for OOC boards.} This is regardless of setting or type. Too many boards discourages activity, it does not encourage it. The more boards you have the more your members will spread out, and this lessens the chance that they will encounter one another.
Those rows of zeroes also make a board look really, really lonely. {And hiding the zeroes with code looks worse.}
Less is more.
I'm not talking about a board-for-every-locale setup being inherently bad regardless. Places are subjective. If you wanted to set one board taking place in a busy shopping mall, you could create one board for the mall, or you could create 30 boards, one for each store, and the food court rb_tongue.gif Which is ideal? Well, that depends. Does your whole RPG take place only in the mall? I'd split it up if so--though for starting sites, probably not with 30 boards. If the RPG takes place in a whole town, probably just one board for the mall would do well. Over time, if that mall board became hugely busy and several significant locales arose within it that became game landmarks, I'd set up a few sub boards for them: the food court, the record store, the clothing store, etc. How many would depend on how much activity there was, but also, secondarily, on how many landmarks came to stand out.
Sites just starting out should have very few RPing boards, as few as possible, ideally no more than 10 to 20 in all. {The same goes for OOC boards.} This is regardless of setting or type. Too many boards discourages activity, it does not encourage it. The more boards you have the more your members will spread out, and this lessens the chance that they will encounter one another.
Those rows of zeroes also make a board look really, really lonely. {And hiding the zeroes with code looks worse.}
Less is more.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
"We want a plot. But it better not be boring and it better be fun."
Or, how to, and how not to, create and run a large scale plot for your RPG!
Most people join an RPG hoping that it already has an interesting storyline, or ten. The beauty of play-by-post is its ability to build complex plots that can develop your characters far more deeply than other kinds of RPGs. Some RPG forums run their game more open-ended and allow players to create their own plotlines, others force a more rigid adherence to whatever happens to be going on at the time.
My experience is that a plotline should always be optional.
Now I don't mean that the game setting should be optional. I mean that when you sign up and create your character, and get started, you should be able to come into the game's world, in any plausible way you choose as long as it gels with the setting, doesn't break powerplaying type rules, and doesn't otherwise disrupt ongoing storylines in ways unpleasant to the existing members. If I have a smashing idea for my own startup storyline in the game-verse, out of the way of the main storylines, I'd sure not stick around if I was told I couldn't play it.
That said, a game can often lose momentum from time to time and probably the best way to counter it is to create a game-wide main plot. So you decide, "I'm going to do this. My members are begging me for a plot!" So you brainstorm and create this original plotline, several chapters outlined and events packed in all along the way. You make sure to keep it under wraps, only letting the other staff know, and then maybe only the ones who need to know, because why give it all away? That'd spoil the whole thing.
You start the plot, introducing some new character, disaster, event, mass attack, what have you, and then watch as it just somehow doesn't work.
What happened?
Maybe it's more like...what didn't happen.
If you did all the above you probably went about it all wrong. An RPG is not a novel. It isn't even a short story. You have no idea how things are going to pan out, and to create a long elaborate plot dependent on several events that are in turn dependent on certain characters doing certain things, I recommend you put down the Word document and do something a lot more productive: look at your game.
I go by a sort of rule when I RP: I think "one step ahead." This is true whether or not I'm planning out a plot or just RPing on the fly. Plotting a roleplay is like trying to plot real life...almost. It's certainly almost as messy. If you structure it in a rigid story outline, it will fail two steps in, by which time at least most of the characters will not be acting as they were required to.
That's the beauty of it, you know.
So you still want the plot to wind the game up in a certain circumstance by the end. That's reasonable. But it must be FLEXIBLE. Keep a general bunch of notes on what you'd like to see happen, but really only plan your characters' moves one step ahead. Then, take a step back and assess what could come of it that would forward the exciting plot. It is touch and go. An added benefit is that nobody has to be locked out. Newcomers can hop into it, and still events will transpire. If things get slow, reassess where things are, and what each character wants the most. Keep a running brainstorm thread in your plot discussion board {you have one, right?} and invite members whose characters are in it, or want to be in it, to discuss their ideas and what they plan to have their characters do. Suggest what X might possibly want to do, in X situation that would cause some exciting things to happen, and as you get better at this, you'll be able to suggest ideas that would "nudge" the plot in the direction you think is most exciting. I guarantee it will get your members excited.
But what about the surprises? Well they sure have a place in a plot! I'd keep them solely restricted to what your own characters are in control of, or you and a few others you plot closely with. Like anything else in the plotline, it has to remain flexible. If the players are roleplaying their merry way right through one of your carefully planned surprises, remember the main reason why you started up this plot in the first place--making it fun for them--be happy you are succeeding, and then quietly adjust whatever surprises you have in store, to fit with the story's new direction.
There will be enough surprises for everybody here.
A good main plot for your RPG isn't this separate thing planned out by the staff and then shoehorned into the game from nowhere, where members are told they have to follow the script, or even that certain members can't even be a part of it. That sort of junk is destined to fail and leave your members feeling cheated out of a fun story experience.
A successful large RPG plot should be written the same way as any other part of your RPG: by the whole of your member group, arising out of existing situations, with some novel things thrown in here and there. It should be optional, flexible, and natural.
Most people join an RPG hoping that it already has an interesting storyline, or ten. The beauty of play-by-post is its ability to build complex plots that can develop your characters far more deeply than other kinds of RPGs. Some RPG forums run their game more open-ended and allow players to create their own plotlines, others force a more rigid adherence to whatever happens to be going on at the time.
My experience is that a plotline should always be optional.
Now I don't mean that the game setting should be optional. I mean that when you sign up and create your character, and get started, you should be able to come into the game's world, in any plausible way you choose as long as it gels with the setting, doesn't break powerplaying type rules, and doesn't otherwise disrupt ongoing storylines in ways unpleasant to the existing members. If I have a smashing idea for my own startup storyline in the game-verse, out of the way of the main storylines, I'd sure not stick around if I was told I couldn't play it.
That said, a game can often lose momentum from time to time and probably the best way to counter it is to create a game-wide main plot. So you decide, "I'm going to do this. My members are begging me for a plot!" So you brainstorm and create this original plotline, several chapters outlined and events packed in all along the way. You make sure to keep it under wraps, only letting the other staff know, and then maybe only the ones who need to know, because why give it all away? That'd spoil the whole thing.
You start the plot, introducing some new character, disaster, event, mass attack, what have you, and then watch as it just somehow doesn't work.
What happened?
Maybe it's more like...what didn't happen.
If you did all the above you probably went about it all wrong. An RPG is not a novel. It isn't even a short story. You have no idea how things are going to pan out, and to create a long elaborate plot dependent on several events that are in turn dependent on certain characters doing certain things, I recommend you put down the Word document and do something a lot more productive: look at your game.
I go by a sort of rule when I RP: I think "one step ahead." This is true whether or not I'm planning out a plot or just RPing on the fly. Plotting a roleplay is like trying to plot real life...almost. It's certainly almost as messy. If you structure it in a rigid story outline, it will fail two steps in, by which time at least most of the characters will not be acting as they were required to.
That's the beauty of it, you know.
So you still want the plot to wind the game up in a certain circumstance by the end. That's reasonable. But it must be FLEXIBLE. Keep a general bunch of notes on what you'd like to see happen, but really only plan your characters' moves one step ahead. Then, take a step back and assess what could come of it that would forward the exciting plot. It is touch and go. An added benefit is that nobody has to be locked out. Newcomers can hop into it, and still events will transpire. If things get slow, reassess where things are, and what each character wants the most. Keep a running brainstorm thread in your plot discussion board {you have one, right?} and invite members whose characters are in it, or want to be in it, to discuss their ideas and what they plan to have their characters do. Suggest what X might possibly want to do, in X situation that would cause some exciting things to happen, and as you get better at this, you'll be able to suggest ideas that would "nudge" the plot in the direction you think is most exciting. I guarantee it will get your members excited.
But what about the surprises? Well they sure have a place in a plot! I'd keep them solely restricted to what your own characters are in control of, or you and a few others you plot closely with. Like anything else in the plotline, it has to remain flexible. If the players are roleplaying their merry way right through one of your carefully planned surprises, remember the main reason why you started up this plot in the first place--making it fun for them--be happy you are succeeding, and then quietly adjust whatever surprises you have in store, to fit with the story's new direction.
There will be enough surprises for everybody here.
A good main plot for your RPG isn't this separate thing planned out by the staff and then shoehorned into the game from nowhere, where members are told they have to follow the script, or even that certain members can't even be a part of it. That sort of junk is destined to fail and leave your members feeling cheated out of a fun story experience.
A successful large RPG plot should be written the same way as any other part of your RPG: by the whole of your member group, arising out of existing situations, with some novel things thrown in here and there. It should be optional, flexible, and natural.
Friday, July 30, 2010
It's my roleplay and I'll godmode if I want to.
To self-entitle or not to self-entitle?
That is the question facing many of you RPG owners. You've suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous member behaviour, skins and codes gone wonky, absentee moderators and more. You feel you've earnt a few perks!
Well, whether you have or haven't is actually irrelevant. It's your game. You can give yourself as many privileges as you wish. This is the main appeal for many if not most who start their own forum: I can do whatever I want to.
Yeah, that's cool. But once you set your rules just as you like them, will you give your members the same in-game rights you have, beyond what is necessary on your part to keep the plot going and keep the peace {such as bringing in PBA's}?
It starts to get thorny when you consider whether your privileges sit well with your members. Take it from me: Godmoding, getting "the best characters" for yourself, and other types of privileges that let you lord it over your players in the game will not sit well with them. It will come off as just what it is: power tripping.
Now, there's a difference between starting off the game with an important character, and full-on power tripping behaviour. Obviously, especially at the beginning of the game's plots you're going to have to be the one hauling most of the weight. And if Hermione is your favourite character, by all means start with her. But the whole Hogwarts trio? ....and all 4 Marauders...and and and...You do realise this is an RPG, right, a cooperative writing game?
Share and share alike. Members can smell an admin's greed a mile away. When the owner of a Pokemon game I was in at one time decided to fashion themselves a female Mewtwo with yes, all the power and privilege that implied, including nuking whole armies singlehandedly, nobody was fooled and a lot of disdainful things were said behind their back regarding it.
I've found the best way to run the game is to play by the same rules that you enforce. Don't want your members godmoding? Don't godmode yourself. They will learn by your example, and respect you for enforcing the rules to keep things fair. But not for being "above the rules" yourself. Nobody respects that.
You are a leader, a peacekeeper, an equaliser. Not a tyrant. They're your members, not your minions. And your game is nothing without them.
That is the question facing many of you RPG owners. You've suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous member behaviour, skins and codes gone wonky, absentee moderators and more. You feel you've earnt a few perks!
Well, whether you have or haven't is actually irrelevant. It's your game. You can give yourself as many privileges as you wish. This is the main appeal for many if not most who start their own forum: I can do whatever I want to.
Yeah, that's cool. But once you set your rules just as you like them, will you give your members the same in-game rights you have, beyond what is necessary on your part to keep the plot going and keep the peace {such as bringing in PBA's}?
It starts to get thorny when you consider whether your privileges sit well with your members. Take it from me: Godmoding, getting "the best characters" for yourself, and other types of privileges that let you lord it over your players in the game will not sit well with them. It will come off as just what it is: power tripping.
Now, there's a difference between starting off the game with an important character, and full-on power tripping behaviour. Obviously, especially at the beginning of the game's plots you're going to have to be the one hauling most of the weight. And if Hermione is your favourite character, by all means start with her. But the whole Hogwarts trio? ....and all 4 Marauders...and and and...You do realise this is an RPG, right, a cooperative writing game?
Share and share alike. Members can smell an admin's greed a mile away. When the owner of a Pokemon game I was in at one time decided to fashion themselves a female Mewtwo with yes, all the power and privilege that implied, including nuking whole armies singlehandedly, nobody was fooled and a lot of disdainful things were said behind their back regarding it.
I've found the best way to run the game is to play by the same rules that you enforce. Don't want your members godmoding? Don't godmode yourself. They will learn by your example, and respect you for enforcing the rules to keep things fair. But not for being "above the rules" yourself. Nobody respects that.
You are a leader, a peacekeeper, an equaliser. Not a tyrant. They're your members, not your minions. And your game is nothing without them.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Back Up Your Stuff.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. You create something beautiful when you roleplay. Together with the help of other writers, you build up a story that has never existed before and will never be duplicated, ever {Well, unless it's plagiarised, but that's another topic for another day}.
But I've seen and heard about RPGs closing, or being wiped {Posts all deleted} either by a hacker, or just some careless staff member or even the head admin themselves, when they wanted to 'tidy up.' I'm not kidding. On one board I know of well, that was even the reason stated when someone deleted over 60,000 posts. In character and out of character. Apparently, to them, the only clean forum was an empty one!
And every time one of these incidents happens, the typical member reaction is, "I've lost everything I wrote there! My character bios, my threads, everything!"
Why? When the answer is as simple as hitting "Save Page" and storing it on your hard drive for all time?
A couple of minutes each day could save you a lot of heartache and loss.
Here's how I recommend preserving your material for all time. If you own your own RPG and have access to the database, you should perform a full backup at least once a week, more if you don't also do partial backups. Store these backups on your HD, and not only the most recent copy; just in case anything is wrong or corrupted, store a few older ones as well.
If you don't own your own forum or are just a member where you roleplay, a very effective measure is to create a folder in your hard drive documents area of the same title as the RPG whose stuff you want to save. Then you save the page, in Internet Explorer, since the title of each page will be preserved {Firefox does not do this} without you having to key it in. Store the saved pages in this folder. If a thread you're saving has multiple pages, put a number at the end of the title on all pages after the first.
If and when anything happens and the RPG itself sinks, you now have your lifeboat to keeping your own stuff preserved for all time and your losses have been cut.
If nothing bad ever happens, you can still sleep more easily at night now, knowing that if anything does happen, you have insurance.
For extra safekeeping, I'd occasionaly burn the contents of the folder onto a CD or DVD for permanent storage. You may never look at it again for the rest of your life, but it's kind of like your old childhood photos or even a wedding album. It's nice just knowing you have it.
But I've seen and heard about RPGs closing, or being wiped {Posts all deleted} either by a hacker, or just some careless staff member or even the head admin themselves, when they wanted to 'tidy up.' I'm not kidding. On one board I know of well, that was even the reason stated when someone deleted over 60,000 posts. In character and out of character. Apparently, to them, the only clean forum was an empty one!
And every time one of these incidents happens, the typical member reaction is, "I've lost everything I wrote there! My character bios, my threads, everything!"
Why? When the answer is as simple as hitting "Save Page" and storing it on your hard drive for all time?
A couple of minutes each day could save you a lot of heartache and loss.
Here's how I recommend preserving your material for all time. If you own your own RPG and have access to the database, you should perform a full backup at least once a week, more if you don't also do partial backups. Store these backups on your HD, and not only the most recent copy; just in case anything is wrong or corrupted, store a few older ones as well.
If you don't own your own forum or are just a member where you roleplay, a very effective measure is to create a folder in your hard drive documents area of the same title as the RPG whose stuff you want to save. Then you save the page, in Internet Explorer, since the title of each page will be preserved {Firefox does not do this} without you having to key it in. Store the saved pages in this folder. If a thread you're saving has multiple pages, put a number at the end of the title on all pages after the first.
If and when anything happens and the RPG itself sinks, you now have your lifeboat to keeping your own stuff preserved for all time and your losses have been cut.
If nothing bad ever happens, you can still sleep more easily at night now, knowing that if anything does happen, you have insurance.
For extra safekeeping, I'd occasionaly burn the contents of the folder onto a CD or DVD for permanent storage. You may never look at it again for the rest of your life, but it's kind of like your old childhood photos or even a wedding album. It's nice just knowing you have it.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
When your forum starts to die
...or continues to die.
So your long term forum community, once thriving, doesn't seem so active anymore. One day you wake up and realise it--wow. My forum's just about dead.
How did this happen? Out of nowhere, all of a sudden? You were doing everything right. But were you?
It didn't happen suddenly. It sneaked up on you and you just didn't see the signs before it was too late.
What I see again and again is forum owners waiting way too long to do anything about flagging activity. I saw someone's plea for help, showing a graph of activity with a decline lasting more than half a year and they wait that long to ask for advice? I would've been pulling all the stops I could after only a week or two of downward trends. My own forum isn't active by accident.
You have to keep in touch with your forum community, make sure they're happy, and the board in general is peaceful and there is regular interaction and people aren't getting bored. And you have to keep some track of your forum's stats--how many signups, posts, visits etc. daily, weekly, monthly; they're logged for a reason. That is usually the first place you will notice if the forum is in danger and if you go more than a few weeks without taking action and just sort of hope it corrects on its own then you have yourself to blame when it doesn't.
I see a lot of forums in long term decline and admins not apparently doing much or anything to turn it around. The members won't turn it around for you, that's your job.
Promote. Ask your members what they like/dislike/want to see, on your forum. Research--was the decline due to a competing forum or resource gaining more popularity? The market's always changing. If you get most of your members through search engines, has your forum dropped in the ranks? New sites appear all the time and may bump down old sites.
A forum can't run on autopilot. It may remain active without promoting for some time, but sooner or later it will need your help again because nothing just stays booming perpetually. You need to keep in touch with every aspect of your forum. What's harder, pulling out of a month of low activity or a year? Two years?
Time's a wasting.
So your long term forum community, once thriving, doesn't seem so active anymore. One day you wake up and realise it--wow. My forum's just about dead.
How did this happen? Out of nowhere, all of a sudden? You were doing everything right. But were you?
It didn't happen suddenly. It sneaked up on you and you just didn't see the signs before it was too late.
What I see again and again is forum owners waiting way too long to do anything about flagging activity. I saw someone's plea for help, showing a graph of activity with a decline lasting more than half a year and they wait that long to ask for advice? I would've been pulling all the stops I could after only a week or two of downward trends. My own forum isn't active by accident.
You have to keep in touch with your forum community, make sure they're happy, and the board in general is peaceful and there is regular interaction and people aren't getting bored. And you have to keep some track of your forum's stats--how many signups, posts, visits etc. daily, weekly, monthly; they're logged for a reason. That is usually the first place you will notice if the forum is in danger and if you go more than a few weeks without taking action and just sort of hope it corrects on its own then you have yourself to blame when it doesn't.
I see a lot of forums in long term decline and admins not apparently doing much or anything to turn it around. The members won't turn it around for you, that's your job.
Promote. Ask your members what they like/dislike/want to see, on your forum. Research--was the decline due to a competing forum or resource gaining more popularity? The market's always changing. If you get most of your members through search engines, has your forum dropped in the ranks? New sites appear all the time and may bump down old sites.
A forum can't run on autopilot. It may remain active without promoting for some time, but sooner or later it will need your help again because nothing just stays booming perpetually. You need to keep in touch with every aspect of your forum. What's harder, pulling out of a month of low activity or a year? Two years?
Time's a wasting.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
If Barbie's so popular why do you have to buy her friends? {Paid Forum Posting!}
This is more of a general forum topic than roleplaying, and probably applies more to non RPG forums: paid forum posting.
To those of you unfamiliar with this {and I was too until I joined forum management boards full of people desperate to jumpstart their forum, and doing all the wrong things to do it} there are people whom you, the proud new owner of a dead forum, pay {either with real money or money earnt on whatever forum} to join and make posts on your board. Theoretically there's no better way to ensure your board will take off in activity and enjoy a prosperous future, right? Right?
Don't waste your time. This is a horrible way to start a forum, because it doesn't start your forum. It doesn't work.
People will join a forum for its community and its quality of either information, availability of goods {if a trade forum} entertainment, and/or friendships. Paid forum posters have no such investment in your board or any desire to be there beyond filling their part of the contract. The post quality is usually low and often these people will cross-post, meaning your forum may not even get much original content in starting off topics. Once they've completed the number of posts they signed on for, they leave, and the lack of genuine interest they had in your board is palpable.
Would you pay someone to be your friend? This is about as effective.
This is not to be confused with promotional contests or other fanfare you may "pay" your own members to do via forum money or real prizes. Those are already-devoted members, and you need to find a few of those.
Let's assume you already have everything on your forum optimised for new members: catchy niche topic, very few boards to start with, etc.
The very best way to get yourself some members is by connecting with people already in your forum's niche. Join some other forums in it, if there are any, join sites pertaining to this niche, meet a few people and drop a line that you have a brand new forum going, just a small community meant for discussion of whatever-it-is. Emphasise that it's a small quiet group where fans of whatever can just get away and chitchat. Don't make it painfully obvious that you're trying to become the next Something Awful or Facepunch or One Manga. That takes time, often years. Start small and fun and quiet because those early months will be the ones you look back on fondly later on.
Enjoy your forum's childhood! You only get one.
To those of you unfamiliar with this {and I was too until I joined forum management boards full of people desperate to jumpstart their forum, and doing all the wrong things to do it} there are people whom you, the proud new owner of a dead forum, pay {either with real money or money earnt on whatever forum} to join and make posts on your board. Theoretically there's no better way to ensure your board will take off in activity and enjoy a prosperous future, right? Right?
Don't waste your time. This is a horrible way to start a forum, because it doesn't start your forum. It doesn't work.
People will join a forum for its community and its quality of either information, availability of goods {if a trade forum} entertainment, and/or friendships. Paid forum posters have no such investment in your board or any desire to be there beyond filling their part of the contract. The post quality is usually low and often these people will cross-post, meaning your forum may not even get much original content in starting off topics. Once they've completed the number of posts they signed on for, they leave, and the lack of genuine interest they had in your board is palpable.
Would you pay someone to be your friend? This is about as effective.
This is not to be confused with promotional contests or other fanfare you may "pay" your own members to do via forum money or real prizes. Those are already-devoted members, and you need to find a few of those.
Let's assume you already have everything on your forum optimised for new members: catchy niche topic, very few boards to start with, etc.
The very best way to get yourself some members is by connecting with people already in your forum's niche. Join some other forums in it, if there are any, join sites pertaining to this niche, meet a few people and drop a line that you have a brand new forum going, just a small community meant for discussion of whatever-it-is. Emphasise that it's a small quiet group where fans of whatever can just get away and chitchat. Don't make it painfully obvious that you're trying to become the next Something Awful or Facepunch or One Manga. That takes time, often years. Start small and fun and quiet because those early months will be the ones you look back on fondly later on.
Enjoy your forum's childhood! You only get one.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Constructing your RPG's Rules: Freedom and Simplicity
There isn't enough room in a blog post or an afternoon to outline all the ins and outs of the issues about making rules for your RPG and forum in general. There are a lot of pitfalls so I'll break it down and discuss one facet of it now.
More freedom isn't always better.
Now this might seem strange coming from me since those of you who know me know I'm always looking at the rules of ourWarriors RPG with a critical eye as to whether it is necessary and doing trial runs, that usually succeed, without that rule. But where you sacrifice simplicity to make exemptions to the rules, you can actually make the whole thing less appealing to your members.
Consider this: We discussed altering the rule we have against any member enforcing rules on another player--we instead require them to report them in the reports board for staff to handle. We considered allowing it in some cases, but ultimately for now that has been put on hold because the exemptions would have had to have been listed and taught to the members. It would have complicated the system and ultimately, a happy member is one who easily understands the limitations of the game or forum. A lot of complex exemptions confuses people and causes them to be unclear on what they can and can't do and that is far worse than just having a rule that says, "You can't do this" and understanding it.
So, this is something for you to keep in mind. Less is more, but not always in the way you might think.
More freedom isn't always better.
Now this might seem strange coming from me since those of you who know me know I'm always looking at the rules of ourWarriors RPG with a critical eye as to whether it is necessary and doing trial runs, that usually succeed, without that rule. But where you sacrifice simplicity to make exemptions to the rules, you can actually make the whole thing less appealing to your members.
Consider this: We discussed altering the rule we have against any member enforcing rules on another player--we instead require them to report them in the reports board for staff to handle. We considered allowing it in some cases, but ultimately for now that has been put on hold because the exemptions would have had to have been listed and taught to the members. It would have complicated the system and ultimately, a happy member is one who easily understands the limitations of the game or forum. A lot of complex exemptions confuses people and causes them to be unclear on what they can and can't do and that is far worse than just having a rule that says, "You can't do this" and understanding it.
So, this is something for you to keep in mind. Less is more, but not always in the way you might think.
Monday, July 12, 2010
A conundrum.
It still amazes me that there are people find this to be a conundrum, but sometimes they do. As in, your site is getting too much exposure, from search engines. And you don't like the 'quality' of roleplayer strolling into your site from there.
Roleplayers coming in from Google tend to be inexperienced moreso than roleplayers coming in from other roleplay sites or the RPG community in general. Wow, big surprise there :)
The trouble is when you aren't prepared to help them and/or don't want them on your site. Well, as long as you rank at or near the top for your RPG's most common search terms, you're going to get them coming, probably more as time goes by. Build a bridge and they will come....or something like that.
Option One: Put up with it and just ban them or otherwise dispose of them as they come in and rape their way through your character application process. {Or as they just bypass it altogether and start spamming the boards with first-person asterisk-filled roleplay posts in chatspeak.}
Option Two: Contact Google and request that they de-index your website. You can do this and they will comply. You won't get any traffic from Google anymore or at least you shouldn't. Watch your activity wither over time as you find yourself on a suddenly disquietingly quiet board. Be prepared to work harder marketing wise in other avenues to keep your RPG alive. And to think on whether you might have also lost out on some good roleplayers, because it isn't just beginners who use Google to find a new RPG. {Is it obvious yet that I don't recommend doing this?}
Option Three: If you can't beat'em, join'em. Set up a board to help teach and tutour beginners. Show them the rules and explain to them how your RPG works. You'll get some who don't want to learn. You'll get many who do. Promote extra staff to handle character application reviews. Do a little hand holding. We were all beginners once.
Enjoy your nice, busy board while it lasts. You don't know what you have till it's gone.
Roleplayers coming in from Google tend to be inexperienced moreso than roleplayers coming in from other roleplay sites or the RPG community in general. Wow, big surprise there :)
The trouble is when you aren't prepared to help them and/or don't want them on your site. Well, as long as you rank at or near the top for your RPG's most common search terms, you're going to get them coming, probably more as time goes by. Build a bridge and they will come....or something like that.
Option One: Put up with it and just ban them or otherwise dispose of them as they come in and rape their way through your character application process. {Or as they just bypass it altogether and start spamming the boards with first-person asterisk-filled roleplay posts in chatspeak.}
Option Two: Contact Google and request that they de-index your website. You can do this and they will comply. You won't get any traffic from Google anymore or at least you shouldn't. Watch your activity wither over time as you find yourself on a suddenly disquietingly quiet board. Be prepared to work harder marketing wise in other avenues to keep your RPG alive. And to think on whether you might have also lost out on some good roleplayers, because it isn't just beginners who use Google to find a new RPG. {Is it obvious yet that I don't recommend doing this?}
Option Three: If you can't beat'em, join'em. Set up a board to help teach and tutour beginners. Show them the rules and explain to them how your RPG works. You'll get some who don't want to learn. You'll get many who do. Promote extra staff to handle character application reviews. Do a little hand holding. We were all beginners once.
Enjoy your nice, busy board while it lasts. You don't know what you have till it's gone.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Generalist rules, rule.
So your RPG states that in your setting, no guns are allowed. What do you do when a player's character brings in a flamethrower? Immediately you know that they aren't allowed either, so what do you do? You add "No flamethrowers" to the rules list. There, all good! Until someone else comes along with a laser.
We had a problem with players having their cats be carried around alive, acll over the game by eagles and falcons until we finally put an end to this with a rule: No carrying your cats around by eagle or falcon.
It only added to the clutter.
Looking in our rules, we saw that they were in fact getting quite long. And it was totally unnecessary. What did we do? We filed that falcon rule under rulebreaks that break the "realism" rule, removed it from the rules directly except as a link out to a guide.
Write your rules to be broadly reaching wherever you can! Instead of "No guns, no flame throwers, no lasers, no missiles, no bows and arrows..." say, "No weapons beyond X level of technology" or "No projectile weapons" based on the setting of your game you will be able to determine the parameters better than I can as an outsider. Be as broad as you can.
A clue that your rules are not broad enough is that you have been adding new ones frequently and your rules list is getting quite long. chances are that if you look back you might find that a given rule break is already covered under an existing rule. "Play within the realism of the setting" is a nice one that covers plenty. and remember: prospective members tend to find long rules lists intimidating and confusing. So! Keep your rules as broad as you can and it's likely you can also keep them short and sweet.
We had a problem with players having their cats be carried around alive, acll over the game by eagles and falcons until we finally put an end to this with a rule: No carrying your cats around by eagle or falcon.
It only added to the clutter.
Looking in our rules, we saw that they were in fact getting quite long. And it was totally unnecessary. What did we do? We filed that falcon rule under rulebreaks that break the "realism" rule, removed it from the rules directly except as a link out to a guide.
Write your rules to be broadly reaching wherever you can! Instead of "No guns, no flame throwers, no lasers, no missiles, no bows and arrows..." say, "No weapons beyond X level of technology" or "No projectile weapons" based on the setting of your game you will be able to determine the parameters better than I can as an outsider. Be as broad as you can.
A clue that your rules are not broad enough is that you have been adding new ones frequently and your rules list is getting quite long. chances are that if you look back you might find that a given rule break is already covered under an existing rule. "Play within the realism of the setting" is a nice one that covers plenty. and remember: prospective members tend to find long rules lists intimidating and confusing. So! Keep your rules as broad as you can and it's likely you can also keep them short and sweet.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Ripping Off Other Forums/RPGs: How and Why Not to Do It
Ever stumble onto some forum or RPG when you are maybe hunting for one to join, and swear you've seen or read it all before?
Maybe you have.
It seems to be VERY common, in my experience, among people who belong to our warrior cats forum and then decide to go start their own {usually rival} forum. We've had at least 5 or 6 people plagiarise from us, or steal our graphics sometimes, or even both, from our site, onto their new site. I'm not sure why. Maybe they think some of the fairy dust will rub off onto their site from ours and make them magically successful. They don't understand that it's not our board descriptions or our graphics that made us what we are, it's originality, creativity, hard won experience and most of all, a lot of hard work over 5 and a half years' time.
I put in HOURS every day to our site. No lie. Not a day goes by that I don't at the very least, check in a couple times. And that's on vacation. I have managed to downsize my workload a bit--I had to or I was going to burn out {That's what my next article will be about!} but a busy forum is WORK.
People seem to think they can steal someone else's success by stealing their material or ideas or formula. All they are stealing is output--at the best, making their work a faded copy of something more vivid. They can't steal what created that output. And they can't back it up.
Your forum/RPG will never be successful until it can stand on its own.
And there are free resources that you can get graphics and layouts from, so there's no excuse there. As for the writing portions, if you can't come up with basic board and rule descriptions on your own then throw in the towel now before you go any farther because you aren't ready for this.
Nothing looks worse on a writing-based game than plagiarism on the setup of the forum itself. Better to have mediocre writing than stolen writing.
Plagiarism WILL catch up to you.
Maybe you have.
It seems to be VERY common, in my experience, among people who belong to our warrior cats forum and then decide to go start their own {usually rival} forum. We've had at least 5 or 6 people plagiarise from us, or steal our graphics sometimes, or even both, from our site, onto their new site. I'm not sure why. Maybe they think some of the fairy dust will rub off onto their site from ours and make them magically successful. They don't understand that it's not our board descriptions or our graphics that made us what we are, it's originality, creativity, hard won experience and most of all, a lot of hard work over 5 and a half years' time.
I put in HOURS every day to our site. No lie. Not a day goes by that I don't at the very least, check in a couple times. And that's on vacation. I have managed to downsize my workload a bit--I had to or I was going to burn out {That's what my next article will be about!} but a busy forum is WORK.
People seem to think they can steal someone else's success by stealing their material or ideas or formula. All they are stealing is output--at the best, making their work a faded copy of something more vivid. They can't steal what created that output. And they can't back it up.
Your forum/RPG will never be successful until it can stand on its own.
And there are free resources that you can get graphics and layouts from, so there's no excuse there. As for the writing portions, if you can't come up with basic board and rule descriptions on your own then throw in the towel now before you go any farther because you aren't ready for this.
Nothing looks worse on a writing-based game than plagiarism on the setup of the forum itself. Better to have mediocre writing than stolen writing.
Plagiarism WILL catch up to you.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Co-Admins: Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket
I'm not talking about the assistant administrator {or five} that you may have to eventually hire to help out with your high-end tasks on your forum. I mean when you and your buddy get this GREAT idea to open an RPG, or just a forum, together!
It's a marriage made in heaven, right? Both of you bring different strengths to the table and nobody has to sit around alone waiting for the first members to trickle in. One can do graphics, maybe; another one sets up the boards, and when the show opens, the forum's already got interaction and activity.
So why then do I keep hearing about sites {and friendships} gone to hell in some way relating to co-adminships? I began to hear about it again, and again. Sure, single-owner forums also fall to pieces for various reasons; most RPGs will not live to see their 6 month birthday. AND {this is a disclaimer!} not ALL co-adminships wind up in ruin. I'm sure there are many of them thriving out there. But from what I have heard and seen, the risk is there, and it has led me to make my point on this article that in general, two people opening a site together claiming equal power is a bad idea.
It's not a democracy.
You've heard this before. Well, the running of a forum seems to require that there be one person who has at least executive, if not total, control. Running a forum council style is, I have found, the best way to do it. But if no one person is that leader, that tie-breaker and the one whose final decision is at the ready should it be needed, then there seems to be a breakdown of order. You and your co-admins may be BFFs but you're bound to disagree on something. Maybe you can sort it out. Maybe it becomes a point of contention on the boards. All it takes is one seed of discontent. A forum's staff runs like a business does and there is no way around this. Business may be co founded but you generally don't find them co-owned at least not in the sense that both have absolutely the same level of power.
Inefficiency.
You'd think this would be the last problem you'd have. Two owners=twice the efficiency! Well maybe in the setup and very early phase, yes. But you're going to have people seeking your advice and decisions for everything, and since both owners need to be in the know, to keep on the same page they'd need to relay everything to each other, asking what the other thinks, though this happens in a council-run game anyway, with two equal weighted owners there is a lack of focus on just who is running the show, and as a result, ambiguity on the part of members on just whom to go to.
Of course, you and your co-admin might have decided that it's more efficient to each manage different areas of the game. But that opens up another can of worms: Whose show is it, anyway?
Power struggle.
This will set in sooner or later. All two-way relationships have a dominant and a submissive member. This isn't necessarily like it sounds; both generally find that one is just better not at bossing the other around, but is simply the one who takes the most initiative, and naturally the other follows. It will happen in your forum between you and your co-admin. The problem here is that you really ARE in charge of a community, and therein the arguments over just who is in charge begin. Your co-admin made a decision without your say? Your members seem to be gravitating towards one owner and not the other as a leader? {Because they will almost immediately notice who seems to be doing more of the leading and will look to that person. They may even notice it before you do; seeking out the leader of your group is instinctive.} Your members are roleplaying more with one owner and not the other? It all comes back to the plain fact that not all roleplayers and managers are created equal. And when you supposedly start on perfectly equal ground and inequities arise, particularly in how your members treat the two of you differently, comparisons and rivalry will inevitably arise. Watch the differing skills and abilities of the two of you come into view as you run your game, jealousy flourishes and your friendship crumbles.
The lousy co-admin.
So you're 6 weeks into running your game together and it's become painfully obvious: Your co-admin sucks at this. They may be rude to members, or fail to enforce the rules, or fail to do much of anything meaning guess who winds up doing most of the work or even all of it. Congrats, you're a head admin without all the necessary privileges of one. Welcome to hell. Because it's not even as simple as just winding up doing all the work. Your co-admin still wants their half of the pie! How do you tell them their management skills suck? This is your BFF or at least a good friend. So you're doing double duty mopping up after their messes: their arguments with members, their drama fests in the Cbox, or maybe their Mary Sue roleplaying that, because they're an owner, has no real stops on it. They're bringing the whole thing down and there's no getting rid of them.
The AWOL co-admin.
This one isn't one that anyone sees going into it. But sometimes, one of you just loses interest. so you're stuck running the show yourself. You never anticipated it, but now you've got to decide whether you want to, so you decide to brave the storm, promoting another mod or co-admin if you need to--which, even if it's another co-admin, will still place you as the owner, both in your members' eyes {you were there first} and that of your new helper. So the game is running smoothly, it's growing, it's a blast, and then one day, you turn on your computer, go to your site and there's a blank screen. You find out your site was deleted! By whom? The admin! But you didn't do it...were you hacked? Noooo the co-admin came back and perhaps decided that he/she didn't like what you'd done with THEIR site during their absence. Real life came up that forced them to be away! Their dog died, their house burned down and they lost their job. And you with your selfish interests just decided they didn't matter. Of course this is an extreme case, but you probably have no idea how many times I have seen exactly this or almost an exact same case be described on RPG assist forums. My point is, that when a head admin goes AWOL you can't tell what will come of it. You don't know what to do. Do you go on without them? Do you start another game on your own? {Even this could piss them off as you'd be moving on without them, shame on you!} Or do you just have yourself committed after all this insanity that was never necessary in the first place?
A tip.
Determine just who is the owner if two of you decide to jointly set up a game. One of you needs to have the ultimate executive control, and this needs to be made clear at the outset--before emotion and other investments become a factor. And don't waver later on.
I think that's about the only tip I have that would prevent the disasters described above, and even then, it won't prevent all of it, but it will certainly set you on a better path than true joint ownership. Two heads are definitely not ALWAYS better than one.
It's a marriage made in heaven, right? Both of you bring different strengths to the table and nobody has to sit around alone waiting for the first members to trickle in. One can do graphics, maybe; another one sets up the boards, and when the show opens, the forum's already got interaction and activity.
So why then do I keep hearing about sites {and friendships} gone to hell in some way relating to co-adminships? I began to hear about it again, and again. Sure, single-owner forums also fall to pieces for various reasons; most RPGs will not live to see their 6 month birthday. AND {this is a disclaimer!} not ALL co-adminships wind up in ruin. I'm sure there are many of them thriving out there. But from what I have heard and seen, the risk is there, and it has led me to make my point on this article that in general, two people opening a site together claiming equal power is a bad idea.
It's not a democracy.
You've heard this before. Well, the running of a forum seems to require that there be one person who has at least executive, if not total, control. Running a forum council style is, I have found, the best way to do it. But if no one person is that leader, that tie-breaker and the one whose final decision is at the ready should it be needed, then there seems to be a breakdown of order. You and your co-admins may be BFFs but you're bound to disagree on something. Maybe you can sort it out. Maybe it becomes a point of contention on the boards. All it takes is one seed of discontent. A forum's staff runs like a business does and there is no way around this. Business may be co founded but you generally don't find them co-owned at least not in the sense that both have absolutely the same level of power.
Inefficiency.
You'd think this would be the last problem you'd have. Two owners=twice the efficiency! Well maybe in the setup and very early phase, yes. But you're going to have people seeking your advice and decisions for everything, and since both owners need to be in the know, to keep on the same page they'd need to relay everything to each other, asking what the other thinks, though this happens in a council-run game anyway, with two equal weighted owners there is a lack of focus on just who is running the show, and as a result, ambiguity on the part of members on just whom to go to.
Of course, you and your co-admin might have decided that it's more efficient to each manage different areas of the game. But that opens up another can of worms: Whose show is it, anyway?
Power struggle.
This will set in sooner or later. All two-way relationships have a dominant and a submissive member. This isn't necessarily like it sounds; both generally find that one is just better not at bossing the other around, but is simply the one who takes the most initiative, and naturally the other follows. It will happen in your forum between you and your co-admin. The problem here is that you really ARE in charge of a community, and therein the arguments over just who is in charge begin. Your co-admin made a decision without your say? Your members seem to be gravitating towards one owner and not the other as a leader? {Because they will almost immediately notice who seems to be doing more of the leading and will look to that person. They may even notice it before you do; seeking out the leader of your group is instinctive.} Your members are roleplaying more with one owner and not the other? It all comes back to the plain fact that not all roleplayers and managers are created equal. And when you supposedly start on perfectly equal ground and inequities arise, particularly in how your members treat the two of you differently, comparisons and rivalry will inevitably arise. Watch the differing skills and abilities of the two of you come into view as you run your game, jealousy flourishes and your friendship crumbles.
The lousy co-admin.
So you're 6 weeks into running your game together and it's become painfully obvious: Your co-admin sucks at this. They may be rude to members, or fail to enforce the rules, or fail to do much of anything meaning guess who winds up doing most of the work or even all of it. Congrats, you're a head admin without all the necessary privileges of one. Welcome to hell. Because it's not even as simple as just winding up doing all the work. Your co-admin still wants their half of the pie! How do you tell them their management skills suck? This is your BFF or at least a good friend. So you're doing double duty mopping up after their messes: their arguments with members, their drama fests in the Cbox, or maybe their Mary Sue roleplaying that, because they're an owner, has no real stops on it. They're bringing the whole thing down and there's no getting rid of them.
The AWOL co-admin.
This one isn't one that anyone sees going into it. But sometimes, one of you just loses interest. so you're stuck running the show yourself. You never anticipated it, but now you've got to decide whether you want to, so you decide to brave the storm, promoting another mod or co-admin if you need to--which, even if it's another co-admin, will still place you as the owner, both in your members' eyes {you were there first} and that of your new helper. So the game is running smoothly, it's growing, it's a blast, and then one day, you turn on your computer, go to your site and there's a blank screen. You find out your site was deleted! By whom? The admin! But you didn't do it...were you hacked? Noooo the co-admin came back and perhaps decided that he/she didn't like what you'd done with THEIR site during their absence. Real life came up that forced them to be away! Their dog died, their house burned down and they lost their job. And you with your selfish interests just decided they didn't matter. Of course this is an extreme case, but you probably have no idea how many times I have seen exactly this or almost an exact same case be described on RPG assist forums. My point is, that when a head admin goes AWOL you can't tell what will come of it. You don't know what to do. Do you go on without them? Do you start another game on your own? {Even this could piss them off as you'd be moving on without them, shame on you!} Or do you just have yourself committed after all this insanity that was never necessary in the first place?
A tip.
Determine just who is the owner if two of you decide to jointly set up a game. One of you needs to have the ultimate executive control, and this needs to be made clear at the outset--before emotion and other investments become a factor. And don't waver later on.
I think that's about the only tip I have that would prevent the disasters described above, and even then, it won't prevent all of it, but it will certainly set you on a better path than true joint ownership. Two heads are definitely not ALWAYS better than one.
Monday, July 5, 2010
How to CLOSE Your Site? Pros and cons.
So you've decided to close your RPG forum. Maybe it never got off the ground at all; maybe it just ran its course; maybe you just didn't have time or desire for it anymore and you've decided to abandon ship. Do you actually close the site, or just let it sit there?
Are you wondering why it would even matter? Well, those of you contemplating how to close the book on your forum's run might appreciate a little advice so I decided it was worth a post here.
Let's start with the choices and move on down the list.
Deletion.
The surest way to wipe your site off the face of the Internet for good. The pros? It's a clean break and there's no going back. {Well, not usually; some free forums can be restored.} The cons? Destruction of all the beautiful material you and your members laboured over. Those members might not be so happy about this choice since it destroys their work. And unless you have access to your root directory and can download a full backup before the deletion there's either no going back or no guarantee you can go back.
Maintenance Mode.
The closure method of choice for many. It closes the doors, but the site's still there. Pros: This is particularly easy on a free host since you're not footing the bill for the data storage anyway. {Be careful to check and see whether your host deletes long-inactive forums though.} And you can keep the forum as is and just reopen it any time you like. Cons: Your members might not like not having any access. You can enable members to be able to enter just to grab their things, but this can be laborious depending on how many you have. Recommended: Keep your affiliates, if any, intact if you put the site into maintenance; at least any visitors coming in will then be presented with several other options, not just a dead end they have to click Back out of.
Letting it sit there.
Spammer's paradise? Yes, but only if you really do let it sit there and don't take any precautions. You have the option of turning off registrations altogether; and turning off posting on all the boards too if you want to. Pros: Your forum will now be a permanent and publicly accessible archive, a legacy if you will. Members can access their own material. Cons: So can thieves. They could access it when it was open too, but this leaves it more wide open. Consider though that thievery can happen to just about anything online. Usually it eventually catches up with them.
There you have it, and I hope this makes your decision on how to write your forum's final chapter a bit easier!
Are you wondering why it would even matter? Well, those of you contemplating how to close the book on your forum's run might appreciate a little advice so I decided it was worth a post here.
Let's start with the choices and move on down the list.
Deletion.
The surest way to wipe your site off the face of the Internet for good. The pros? It's a clean break and there's no going back. {Well, not usually; some free forums can be restored.} The cons? Destruction of all the beautiful material you and your members laboured over. Those members might not be so happy about this choice since it destroys their work. And unless you have access to your root directory and can download a full backup before the deletion there's either no going back or no guarantee you can go back.
Maintenance Mode.
The closure method of choice for many. It closes the doors, but the site's still there. Pros: This is particularly easy on a free host since you're not footing the bill for the data storage anyway. {Be careful to check and see whether your host deletes long-inactive forums though.} And you can keep the forum as is and just reopen it any time you like. Cons: Your members might not like not having any access. You can enable members to be able to enter just to grab their things, but this can be laborious depending on how many you have. Recommended: Keep your affiliates, if any, intact if you put the site into maintenance; at least any visitors coming in will then be presented with several other options, not just a dead end they have to click Back out of.
Letting it sit there.
Spammer's paradise? Yes, but only if you really do let it sit there and don't take any precautions. You have the option of turning off registrations altogether; and turning off posting on all the boards too if you want to. Pros: Your forum will now be a permanent and publicly accessible archive, a legacy if you will. Members can access their own material. Cons: So can thieves. They could access it when it was open too, but this leaves it more wide open. Consider though that thievery can happen to just about anything online. Usually it eventually catches up with them.
There you have it, and I hope this makes your decision on how to write your forum's final chapter a bit easier!
Writing that Commercial!
I'm going to use one of my posts I made on another forum yet again, on the topic of writing an ad for your forum especially for an RPG. Many RPG forums have a guest-friendly board specifically meant for other games to post their ads and in the early days of an RPG's life, can be an amazing aid to bringing in your first members. Just make sure that if you do use these, that you have a similar board for them to link back with their own ads.
...Your ad's first draft probably will require considerable editing regardless of your skill level. 99% of writing is rewriting! One problem a lot of people seem to have is that they windup with a first draft that is overly wordy. Heavy use of large words, long sentences and flowery text only serves to dilute the writing's effect and in a commercial this is particularly harmful. You could probably say the same thing in half the length or less, which would concentrate the information much more closely and make that same plot summary a lot more riveting. Take these two examples:
"War and death was all the people of Aden knew for hundreds of years, running for their life from the bandits, evil beings, men who wish to claim the world of Aden as theirs, and even the people they loved who went mad. The people desperately needed a hero, they cried out for someone, anyone to save them from this horrible life, some even took their own lives to escape the pain of this world. "
Could be something like...
"War and death were the only things the people of Aden knew. Bandits and evil beings tormented the land with their greed, driving its denizens to desperation and suicide. The people needed a hero."
When you write a commercial, and this is basically what these ads are, you aim for brevity and a poetic feel. The rhythm of the text {first sentence in my example} , as well as moderate use of things like alliteration {"driving its denizens to desperation.."} will help the words sort of fit well in the reader's mind. Aspects of poetic writing also enhance prose quite a bit. Just make sure if you try this stuff that you know what you are doing.
This is an ad I created last year for my own game:
http://forumpromotion.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29493
Not saying it's ideal, but it did have the highest click through rate of any ad I ever did. That might have been due to the shock factor of the graphic though :P But that's another topic for another day!
...Your ad's first draft probably will require considerable editing regardless of your skill level. 99% of writing is rewriting! One problem a lot of people seem to have is that they windup with a first draft that is overly wordy. Heavy use of large words, long sentences and flowery text only serves to dilute the writing's effect and in a commercial this is particularly harmful. You could probably say the same thing in half the length or less, which would concentrate the information much more closely and make that same plot summary a lot more riveting. Take these two examples:
"War and death was all the people of Aden knew for hundreds of years, running for their life from the bandits, evil beings, men who wish to claim the world of Aden as theirs, and even the people they loved who went mad. The people desperately needed a hero, they cried out for someone, anyone to save them from this horrible life, some even took their own lives to escape the pain of this world. "
Could be something like...
"War and death were the only things the people of Aden knew. Bandits and evil beings tormented the land with their greed, driving its denizens to desperation and suicide. The people needed a hero."
When you write a commercial, and this is basically what these ads are, you aim for brevity and a poetic feel. The rhythm of the text {first sentence in my example} , as well as moderate use of things like alliteration {"driving its denizens to desperation.."} will help the words sort of fit well in the reader's mind. Aspects of poetic writing also enhance prose quite a bit. Just make sure if you try this stuff that you know what you are doing.
This is an ad I created last year for my own game:
http://forumpromotion.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29493
Not saying it's ideal, but it did have the highest click through rate of any ad I ever did. That might have been due to the shock factor of the graphic though :P But that's another topic for another day!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
...Who cares?
Topic of the day, just when I thought I was going to go through all today without a blog entry, something hit me and I'm surprised it never hit me before. Concerning the anal-retentiveness and pickiness of so many forums over what they consider "spam."
I don't mean automated spam links, or even completely off-topic posts that seem to come out of nowhere and server to rumple up a smooth-running conversation on a topic. I mean pickiness over people who post happy faces as a reply, or single word responses like, "Cool" "Yeah" "I agree." Etc.
Who gives a crap? I don't restrict this content on my forum, it is part of having a conversation. Do your dinnertime discussions or talks on a bus, have a word minimum? I see this more and more on forums, administrators requiring a "5 word minimum" on all posts, or even "a few sentences". I can see why that might be the case for filling out a given form or supplying some kind of specialised information for some kind of event or activity on the boards, I have no idea what...but just plain old conversation topics in your general discussion area? Get me out of there!
If people artificially inflating post counts are your issue, regulate rank by currency earnt via wordcount instead. Sometimes, the natural reaction to someone's post is just, "Cool." And I'm cool with that.
I don't mean automated spam links, or even completely off-topic posts that seem to come out of nowhere and server to rumple up a smooth-running conversation on a topic. I mean pickiness over people who post happy faces as a reply, or single word responses like, "Cool" "Yeah" "I agree." Etc.
Who gives a crap? I don't restrict this content on my forum, it is part of having a conversation. Do your dinnertime discussions or talks on a bus, have a word minimum? I see this more and more on forums, administrators requiring a "5 word minimum" on all posts, or even "a few sentences". I can see why that might be the case for filling out a given form or supplying some kind of specialised information for some kind of event or activity on the boards, I have no idea what...but just plain old conversation topics in your general discussion area? Get me out of there!
If people artificially inflating post counts are your issue, regulate rank by currency earnt via wordcount instead. Sometimes, the natural reaction to someone's post is just, "Cool." And I'm cool with that.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
My Roleplaying Forum Likes and Dislikes
This came up on one of the other forums I go on. People were listing what they like or look for on a roleplaying game before joining, and what turns them away. And here is my list:
My likes:
Small or nonexistent application. I've been using character sheets/bios for a decade and I'm used to them, but please don't make me post a novel about their childhood. I'd like to save my writing muse for, you know, the roleplaying.
Free roleplay. Like, where I can plot as I like, make as many characters as I want or need, without needing approval for everything every step of the way or having to play by a post order or whatever. I need a good deal of freedom, within minimal, but necessary rules.
A friendly community where nastiness of any kind isn't tolerated and the staff actually enforce the rules on the rules list--but not any that aren't. In other words, good management makes the difference to me.
High activity. I don't just like a big active RP board, I need one. I quickly get frustrated or bored with small games that don't have a large bustling community and hundreds of posts a day and lots of stuff going on. I don't care if I'm not the "centre of attention" on said board, I don't care that the entire place doesn't revolve around me. I didn't come to steal the limelight. I came to plot and roleplay exciting, interesting and fun stories with people and do so intensively. I need that energy, and that variety. This is usually the first thing I look at when I come to a forum and if it is not active enough I don't look at the rest, I just move on, unless I just can't find what it is I'm looking for anywhere else. {I realise I'm probably in the minority here with this!}
My dislikes:
..No, wait, more like "my won't-do-under-any-circumstances":
Word counts. This is a game, not English class. I already graduated, thank you.
Grammar/rules/etc. Nazis. Again: lighten up, it's a game, I am a laid back person on forums and this includes roleplay and OOC talk too. I don't want to be banned for a week because I made a somewhat off-topic reply to the thread, "Who Hates Justin Bieber" or whatever. What gives. And yet I see a lot of this on forums. Lighten up.
Unfriendly, cliqueish community. I won't even go there.
Half dead forums. Needs to have a few hundred posts going on each day or I'm going to lose interest and wander. I guess you could call me high-maintenance but I just thrive on that constant influx of new material coming in. Makes me feel like I'm part of a large, complex RPing world.
My likes:
Small or nonexistent application. I've been using character sheets/bios for a decade and I'm used to them, but please don't make me post a novel about their childhood. I'd like to save my writing muse for, you know, the roleplaying.
Free roleplay. Like, where I can plot as I like, make as many characters as I want or need, without needing approval for everything every step of the way or having to play by a post order or whatever. I need a good deal of freedom, within minimal, but necessary rules.
A friendly community where nastiness of any kind isn't tolerated and the staff actually enforce the rules on the rules list--but not any that aren't. In other words, good management makes the difference to me.
High activity. I don't just like a big active RP board, I need one. I quickly get frustrated or bored with small games that don't have a large bustling community and hundreds of posts a day and lots of stuff going on. I don't care if I'm not the "centre of attention" on said board, I don't care that the entire place doesn't revolve around me. I didn't come to steal the limelight. I came to plot and roleplay exciting, interesting and fun stories with people and do so intensively. I need that energy, and that variety. This is usually the first thing I look at when I come to a forum and if it is not active enough I don't look at the rest, I just move on, unless I just can't find what it is I'm looking for anywhere else. {I realise I'm probably in the minority here with this!}
My dislikes:
..No, wait, more like "my won't-do-under-any-circumstances":
Word counts. This is a game, not English class. I already graduated, thank you.
Grammar/rules/etc. Nazis. Again: lighten up, it's a game, I am a laid back person on forums and this includes roleplay and OOC talk too. I don't want to be banned for a week because I made a somewhat off-topic reply to the thread, "Who Hates Justin Bieber" or whatever. What gives. And yet I see a lot of this on forums. Lighten up.
Unfriendly, cliqueish community. I won't even go there.
Half dead forums. Needs to have a few hundred posts going on each day or I'm going to lose interest and wander. I guess you could call me high-maintenance but I just thrive on that constant influx of new material coming in. Makes me feel like I'm part of a large, complex RPing world.
Forum staff roleplaying with members or not?
Someone brought up on another forum, that on their board the administrators don't roleplay with the members, but instead those admin accounts are used strictly for dealing out discipline and maintaining the law. This is done on some RPG forums and is a valid way of handling staffing. So what do I think?
On our forum all us staff roleplay right in there with the other members. I'd never want to give up roleplay, for one thing. Also I think it makes us seem like "one of the folks" which I feel is important because we are subject to the same rules that we enforce, I don't see us staff as above the members at all--just that we have an added job to enforce the global rules. I've had members come out with saying they were scared of me on the boards, even if I'd never had a conflict with them and they'd never had any infractions or difficulties. They'd say things like, "When I got a PM from Wynn the other day I was freaking out thinking I did something wrong. But she was just PMing me a link to a RP!" or something. I was like whoa, don't be afraid of little old me! I think it may be not that I'm a particularly scary person {I'm not, at all} but that members have an inherent fear of authority to some extent, especially if they've been treated badly on another site. And that fraternising with them helps a lot to ease that. I want to feel like I'm part of a big family, not just a police officer presiding over it, waiting for someone to screw up. Besides which, it's fun to just hang out with these awesome people. They have great taste in RPGs, after all.
On our forum all us staff roleplay right in there with the other members. I'd never want to give up roleplay, for one thing. Also I think it makes us seem like "one of the folks" which I feel is important because we are subject to the same rules that we enforce, I don't see us staff as above the members at all--just that we have an added job to enforce the global rules. I've had members come out with saying they were scared of me on the boards, even if I'd never had a conflict with them and they'd never had any infractions or difficulties. They'd say things like, "When I got a PM from Wynn the other day I was freaking out thinking I did something wrong. But she was just PMing me a link to a RP!" or something. I was like whoa, don't be afraid of little old me! I think it may be not that I'm a particularly scary person {I'm not, at all} but that members have an inherent fear of authority to some extent, especially if they've been treated badly on another site. And that fraternising with them helps a lot to ease that. I want to feel like I'm part of a big family, not just a police officer presiding over it, waiting for someone to screw up. Besides which, it's fun to just hang out with these awesome people. They have great taste in RPGs, after all.
Forum software demo site - very helpful
http://www.forum-software.org/
Found this the other day posted on one of the forums I frequent. It's a site that lets you preview various brands of forum software to help you decide on the one that's the best fit for your community's needs or your plans. I don't think i need to go on about how useful this is. I picked my own forum's software, SMF, based on the advice of others and didn't get to preview it before I'd already decided pretty much. I love SMF despite its drawbacks {it's a spam magnet, mainly} but a chance to test out the other types of software would've been nice.
Here's hoping this post gives this blog's followers a chance I didn't have.
Found this the other day posted on one of the forums I frequent. It's a site that lets you preview various brands of forum software to help you decide on the one that's the best fit for your community's needs or your plans. I don't think i need to go on about how useful this is. I picked my own forum's software, SMF, based on the advice of others and didn't get to preview it before I'd already decided pretty much. I love SMF despite its drawbacks {it's a spam magnet, mainly} but a chance to test out the other types of software would've been nice.
Here's hoping this post gives this blog's followers a chance I didn't have.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
happy lights
Let this blog's first post be about my Happy Lights background, which I made myself =) I did it in Photoshop from a composite of several photos and then highly manipulated the hue, saturation, layer type, shadows, contrast and colour variation. It took me a couple hours. I like it and hope it makes people happy when they look at it :)
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