Showing Up: Do It, Or Go Home

[Seraphim]

Oh, so the one thing we all vowed wouldn't happen again, has happened again. I don't know whether to just laugh, or be irritated. We go from 500 hits a day, to 50-60, all in a weeks time. Someone want to clue me in on why just about no one here is doing anything? Is it lack of time? Interest? Lack of creativity? Here's a site that has just about everyone on it, with all different types of genres, and this is the turnout? If this is the kind of crap we're going to deal with, then we might as well just call it quits, and everyone can go make their own little sites. This is pathetic, people. It takes maybe 10 minutes to a half hour out of a day to do this kind of thing, which I know for a fact each and everyone of you has, and for some reason, some unknown reason, the majority of you sit there with your thumbs up your asses. I'm not going to put work into a site that you're all going to just stare at. This is a roleplay site. Where people actually roleplay.

If I haven't made myself crystal clear, then here it is again; start participating, or get the fuck out.

[Nikki Gavinox]

Well...It might work out a little better if we,by chance...Took maybe one topic,at either the CoD or at one of the other places,and EVERYONE roleplays on that topic? sort of like a roleplaying game,they meet the people their going to travel with,Run into old friends..Enemies meet one another...So on and so forth,There of course would have to be some type of storyline behind it..But instead of everyone secluding themselves to a topic for just themselves and maybe one or two other people...They could all just take what they were gonna do,and put it to that instead? i dunno..Just an idea..for an Overall,all together,interaction amongst the characters.

[Jack Serithva]

I was going to do this today, if someone else didn't put up a topic like this. Guys what seems to be the problem? We're human too, and you see me and a couple of others still roleplaying. I still have the interest, for me it's just time. I work almost everyday 5 days a week to the late 10 Oclock PM. I can't get on that time because I still have to eat something, shower and then go to school the next day. Now my other two days I show up most of the time unless I am hanging out but I still go on afterwards. What the hell seems to be the problem? I'm pretty sure Spring Break is coming up for some of you or has happened, today is my last day for school for spring break to begin. And you know what else? I requested the morning shift for this week and sacrificed one to two of my work days to come here and do this. Why don't you post on the RP instead of the OOC topics? Hell if we had -that- many hits a day then maybe it'd spark your interest. I can understand those who are waiting for some people to post so you can, but you gotta let them know. I'm sorry to point you out Dan, but it seems Eric and I are waiting for you to post in "The Office of Power" thread. Come on, it's not that hard.

[Donovinh Krushchev]

Yeah, I know I've been neglecting my duties here as-of-late.. Honestly, I could shoot out excuses 'til the cows came home, but I won't. The only real reason is that, this week, my grandma had some eye surgery done to one of her eyes, and I've had to take care of her until she's gotten better. I'm not complaining, though.. I love her, so I will.

However, I will start picking up my slack and begin posting again. I certainly don't want to be the "Pot calling the Kettle black", with all this talk of Roleplay I've been spitting out.

So, yeah, I'm getting off my ass now.

[Xfee]

Paul... how the hell do you do that? How do you go from having English worse than Fez on That 70's Show to sounding like you've been studying English in the local university. You're a strange strange individual.

I've been beating myself up a bit, but even that hasnt quite done the trick. I'm with the rest of you, though, in working to keep this place going. Just because one or two members has left doesnt mean its the end of the world. I'm damn certain that there is never a completely full day where no one can get involved here. Stop sitting in front of the tube during commercial breaks, or watching the entire rerun of Friends. Homework certainly doesnt take from 2-5 (whenever you get home) until 10 or 11 when you go to bed. Neither does your chores, or dinner. A lot of you go out of your ways to make time for friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, whatever else. What happened to all of us being friends? How many of you are actually selling out our friendships? Yah, I'm playing the guilt card here. And the most of you should feel guilty. Some of you started something and just gave up because you're a quitter, a procrastinator. That crap doesnt fly here. All of us here are supposed to be friends, and we're supposed to hang out, play together, have fun and stuff too. What kind of friend just stops hanging out because they're 'too busy' or 'bored' with us? That really hurts when you think of it that way. -.- I thought we'd all always be friends.

As for some of you who do make time to come roleplay, feel free to make another character. You can take the character to another area to RP in, so 1. You're never bored and 2. You interact with more people and places and 3. You're really being a big help to the rest of us. We'd all really appreciate a little extra effort from those who have more time.

And in regards to Dan's comment... I dont want to combine CoD and any other place. I think things arent too shabby as they are currently, but it doesnt hurt to have threads broadened a little. For instance, "Not So Alone in the Castle of Dragons" thread got a lot of posters, simply because it had to deal with one location, rather than a personal journey. If more of you want to interact, make threads about locations, where other people could be, even if they were still a good distance away. Try to minimize small journey threads, or personal story threads as much as possible, and see about moving it to the Individual Storylines section.

I also see a lot of people who sign on to see the boards, and either post some crap int he OOC section, or stick around a while a leave. And if you have that kind of time, just make a post. No one cares how big or small it is, so long as it says something. No one here is competing for paragraph after paragraph type RP. In fact, I usually dislike that type myself. A measely little paragraph, about half a dozen sentences, something! Anything works, ya'll. No one will think any less of you if you make a shorter post than most. We'll applaud your efforts and actually thank you, if anything.

And those of you who have roleplaying buddies, or go to chats, or have even RL friends that are into the same type games and stuff as you are. Why arent you inviting them? Ask these people if they're interested. Dont be so embarrassed about confessing that you play on an online RP forum and chat. If anything, its boosting your english and creative writing skills. And for some of you, even your history. Its vital that we dont keep this place hidden, and try to recruit as many people as we can. It doesnt hurt to bring it up in conversation. Maybe the next time someone tells you "Whats up" you could respond with something like, "Oh, nothing much. Just posting on this RP forum I go to. You should check it out, you'd like it. Its pretty cool." Or something to that extent. Even if you yourself are losing interest, try getting your friends in here. Maybe that'll help you want to play. Eric is making both large and small Zephyr Stigma banners for those of us wanting to link on our livejournals, deviantart sites, or personal websites. All you have to do is make a teeny tiny effort.

Gawd, I hate when I type a lot.

[Donovinh Krushchev]

Xfee said:

And in regards to Dan's comment... I dont want to combine CoD and any other place.

That wasn't Dan.

[Xfee]

Oops. Alex. Same thing.

[Nikki Gavinox]

Very...Very different....Not the same...:: takes hold to her hand and slaps it with a ruler :: Pssh...am i THAT lame that you can't even remember my name?

[Azalea Nelthrope]

Its been 5 days since anyone other than Eric, Kara, me and one or two others has posted anything on this damn board. I see ya'll all online, and ya'll dont do anything. I have just about everyone on my damn buddy list- BitterzoeteRaven, cavalrymistress, CraftedMemory, Divine Blazerine, Kento Tyrago, KSivarial, MusterMash1313, RashionAngel, RuiningRelics, SanguIncarn, Satrntiger, The3s0lution, watcherassassin, XxAshiMoonxX, xxProjectBlazexx ... I see all but one or two of you signing on every day for lengthy periods of time. Sometimes more than once a day. I even see some of you showing up on the boards. For what? To see if anyone has PMed you? To see if anyone has drew you a pretty picture? Looking for replies in the OOC boards? Expecting someone to just walk up and talk to your character? Well, folks, all sorts of shit has been happening, and ya'll obviously dont give a damn, so go the fuck home, stop coming here. I'm sick of you people. Fuckin' sick of you people. I am not going to sit here and create 3 more characters so the rest of you can have someone to play with when and if you ever choose to come around. There's more RP in gawd damn Meta and Furcadia than here. I'm ashamed now to tell people about this place. You've all let me down. You've let Eric down. You've let everyone down. This isnt just some rant. This is really me. And this really hurts. -.-

[Seiryou Shinjou]

Do any of you remember a time in this 'roleplay business', when there was nothing but a few forums that said "The Great One Appreciation Site" on them? Now that I look back at it, I remember a lot of that stuff. People trying to get sites off the ground, but only getting maybe a week or two into it before I snuffed it out. Before I crushed any hope there was for roleplay to exist. Roleplay took a huge hit, but there it was again, still going strong after a semi-lengthy drop off. Is that what you all want again? Do you want a barren online world, with no sites, no nothing? It's not like I couldn't make it happen. There isn't a single person here who can stop me from just letting this all go down. You could build your own sites, right? I can take those, too. So you people tell me what you want to do, because I really don't mind taking this all away again.

[Seiryou Shinjou]

See, now that's my point. The fact that people aren't even going to be open about that is what bothers the rest of us. If you're not going to be here, then say something. I'm not threatening to tear this site down. All I'm saying, is that if this is just the same old thing, where people are creating their own sites again for no reason, then expect them to be gone as soon as I find them. If not, and it's just lack of interest, then oh well. We've got enough people to do something. People just need to stop being so retarded about this, and actually show up, or just leave. 157, or just 7. It doesn't matter. It just irritates the people who do show up, because the others said they would, and where are they? Off playing little games or something? Be upfront, or get out. It's that simple.

[Jack Serithva]

You already know my take on this and I'm waiting for people to actually reply. Now people said they were going to show up, and why aren't they? I can understand being busy and not interested. If you're not interested or are too busy then just atleast take the time and post on this board saying that, then we'd stop asking you and you wouldn't get so bothered. There's more places here to go and everything, so people who are still interested why don't you take time and post and wait? Hell if you can't just interact with someone instead of making new threads. It's easier with less threads and maybe you'd have fun if you interacted more. Come on, this is all what you guys wanted and you're just letting it go?

[Seraphim]

Doesn't really matter at this point. If you noticed, almost 10 people signed up yesterday alone. I've got everything under control, and if everyone else here decides to come in and start something up with all the new people, then that's cool, too.

[Jack Serithva]

Reason I didn't come on yesterday was because I was having computer issues. I finally fixed it this morning, I probably will show up after work today and tommorow, and Saturday.

[Khazkall Halziano]

Well, this message might be a bit late. Soon after I signed up I had to call it quits for the night. Anyway, I really worry about drops in activity on the board that much. From what I understand this place has been open for role playing since what? February? It's been up for two months and you're already freaking out? Calm down man, don't sweat it. I've been in the business of forums for about eight years going now. You should actually expect activity to drop once in a while. All boards experience those kinds of moments, even Gaia (and yes, dare I say it, I've been to Gaia). Anywho, threats (whether they be empty or not) and trying to strong arm people (which is, in my opinion, a feeble tactic in-and-of-itself) definately will not help the situation. Everyone has times where they're just a little too busy, or having stalls in their creativity, or just temporarily lose interest to post.

That should be a given, actually. Also, a new board (especially one such as this) almost always has high activity at first. Let's just call it a "novelty effect". Well after a while, the "novelty effect" will wear off and activity will go down regardless. But then, it usually goes back up after a short while. Trust me, I know the flow of activity that often manifests itself in forum-based role playing. So, in short, be patient man. There's no need to go all ape-shit on people about it. I'm not trying to contradict you or question your methods. I'm simply saying that these things happen every once in a while and you really shouldn't be worrying so much. I'll be producing posts-a-plenty myself since a couple of the other boards I usually go to are kinda' in a slump right now.