Well, after leaving a link in every place I go to, affiliating with anyone who will have me, and doing my absolute hardest to make the place visually appealing without any knowledge of coding, my board still cannot get any activity. In the last few months, I got three new members to add to the two who regularly post. One posted single sentences with bare bones quality and shortly left. One posted an extremely crappy character profile, refused to edit it, and instead spent her time advertising her own forum. She left when that didn't work. The third was good, but left when I was unable to post due to college finals and everything died down.

No one wants to interact. at. all. The only time I can get anything to happen is if I start a thread, and if I get pulled away by something in real life, the board dies. God forbid anyone act on their own accord and put some effort into roleplaying with each other for an extended period of time.

I can't keep running this board alone. I can't advance the story because all my time goes into getting people to actually partiipate. Offers to anyone willing to help carry the load either falls on deaf ears or is outright ignored.

I made this board for fun, and it's sucking the life out of me because people stubornly refuse to work with me. I want to give up, but I don't want to let fate win. Too bad that determination alone can't get attention to a forum.

Is there anything I can do, or should I just give up and accept that I've been a failure since the beginning?

Find some friends from other boards/RL that will help you get it active. Don't give up. I had the same problem XD now I am giving it another shot. Just get your friends to join and RP like mad crazy and advertise. Then when ppl come they can see your rp skill and decide to join.

Unfortunately, out of all my friends on other sites, the only people who would ever actually join were the two other active posters I had to begin with.

Put up a staff request. For coders and such to help.

I'd do a revamp- clear out all the old, dead threads, rewrite the plot/ad (even if it's all the same info, just present it in a different way), and get back to advertising. Most places will let you post a second ad if it's for a revamp, or let you update your old one, or whatever. Make sure you have more than one character so you can build up some activity just role-playing with yourself (even if you stop using the second character once activity picks up). Ask one or both of those friends to be mods, so if life drags you off again, there's someone around running the board.

Good luck!

I agree with stormyhearted. Try revamping the site, maybe make a new banner and get a new skin. Clean everything out, maybe ask one or more of your dedicated RP'ers if they would like to help out with the revamp, maybe promote them as Admin or Mod. It helps when you have some help, even if its just deleting things. Don't give up just yet :)

Another vote for a revamp.
Find someone who can help you with the coding. I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding someone who wouldn't mind helping you revamp.

Post a few really long and interesting posts to get a plot started. That's always worked for me. Even though it'll just be your own characters, it'll act like the beginning of a book does and get other people wanting to jump into it.

I also think that you should do a revamp. It makes everything look different, and then you can post again on various advertisement sites and other RP sites. Maybe word your plot in a way that gets more people involved.

You could also possibly consider making canons and subplots. Some people prefer to have a little bit of drama pre-made for them, that way they can get the feeling of their characters a little better and have something to base the character on.

Playing with yourself (-wince from the dirty sound-) is also a great idea to get people slightly more involved. It may be a little dull, but it'll provide for some interesting reading and make people want to get involved on your site.

I've revamped the site once before. Cleaned things up. Messed with the layout. Tried to make things more interesting. I've tried every skin under the sun that fits the theme (and some that don't). I've made one of my friends a co admin. I've signed my site up for a forum that was supposed to give it some nice exposure, only to start getting spam in my e-mail and one person who just used the site as her own personal billboard. Plus, I've been forced to play with myself several times, as that's the only way I can get people to post. One of my threads ended with three posts of self discussion, and then faded off into oblivion.

I've done everything suggested here once before, and still nothing. Why shouldn't I give up?

You have to answer that one for yourself.

If you believe in the story you're trying to tell, keep going. If not, throw in the towel. It's pretty simple, really.

I also have the same problem... I just revamped it.. still.. nothing. I have advertised on so many sites its killing me. Other than that what other advise do you guys have?

I personally think an RPG is a community. Sometimes it works sometimes don't. However, the secret is keep trying. Most of the people want to immediately have success when creating an RPG and to build a community takes time. My advice is to analize your board from a guest visitor and honestly ask yourself what the biggest flaws and strenghts your board has. :yellow:

Make sure your forum offers something that a} has a market of some kind, and b} offers something that no other RPG has. People won't join if they think your RPG is "just another {whatever} RPG" that a million others just like it already exist. Make it stand out in some way. I'm not saying yours don't, but it can't hurt to take a good long look at your RPG and assess whether you have something to offer that people can't get by playing anywhere else.

Keep in mind that there are a great deal of Gossip Girl RPGs out there. If your GG RP doesn't stand out, then against the many others, it won't stand a chance.

Like others have said before, bring something to the table that no one else does. With all the different types of boards out there, it's difficult to get on your feet if nothing really stands out. Try to brainstorm some different options.

I also find it best if you pin point the focus of your board and twist your advertising to attract that audience. It's good to say that your roleplay is about vampires, or fantasy, or whatever, but there are so many adverts like that you'll get lost in the sea. But if you realise your board is more about physical conflict and writing out these beautiful and elaborate fight scenes, that could catch a whole demographic's eye that you might have previously missed if you state that in your adverts. The same could be said for any niche you want your board to fill, I just used that as an example.

And, of course, you shouldn't give up on an idea if you really believe in it. They'll be someone who'll want to participate, you just gotta be patient.

everybody wants their site to be popular but sometimes, having a few good roleplayers is better than having about 20 okay roleplayers. I myself think a good roleplay would consist of at least 7 good rp'ers.

but then again xD my sites have a lotta characters that need to be taken so i kind of have a problem there.

i have the same problem you have. it all seems to die when i'm not there and when i am there, most of the pple don't do anything anyway.

patience, young grasshopper. patience. just keep trying! <33