Just wondering what you guys do... what works best, etc.

Do you have a forum for telecommunication and emails? Or is it in threads??

I've done it in threads before, if they're gonna go somewhere plot wise, but otherwise I've never had any phone stuff, or computer stuff.

What do you guys do?

My medieval fantasy game has a "letters" section that gets used here and there but not much because of the genre. ;D It's fun though and a great way for characters who are great distances apart to keep in contact! And it's very awesome for the plottage.

My sci-fi fantasy game has a few different means of communication. There's a forum for messages/chats, a forum for blogs, and then in one of the countries there are two forums: one for military personnel to chat on and one for members of this underground rebel group to chat on.

They all get a TON of use and are really great for character development, plot, and just amusement.

None, really. The only thing we do is use the post office to send owls--always with a purpose and always a direct lead-on to a thread.

What's the purpose of the IC communication? Do you find it enriches roleplaying? How the heck do you do it? o.O

We have a thread for the Phone Lines and a thread for the E-mail address. However, we really don't use them since the whole rp takes place in Las Vegas. And everyone kinda lives together considering what team they are on. Well, yeah...I mean, honestly.

But we really just have people reserve phone numbers...though it isn't completely necessary. As an admin, i dont require postage on there. It's fun to have though. Because really, its pure IC communication. So it's easier to make fast replies and keep relationships up.

I've always had letter boards at my HP sites.
The point is...they're fun I guess. We use them for actual owl-sent letters and also for, like, notes in class or whatever.
Sometimes they're build up for threads or ways for characters who aren't going to thread to interact or just time filler or whatever.
I've always enjoyed them - but I'm a letter-writing addict. ><

We have a topic started for each new letter andpeople thread back and forth using it.

I'm entertaining the idea of adding some kind of communication forum to 2376. Since we're politically based and spread over a galaxy, I can see how something like that could be useful to plotting. And fun! Fun is good too.

I've played on LiveJournal games where we had a separate community just for the characters to post on (since we had character journals and all that jazz). Depending on what kind of game, it either represented a message board, email, or some sort of communication system.

As for forums, I've never actually been on one with a section quite like that, and the reason I don't like an IC cbox is because I like everything neatly archived.

Other than that, I think it would be really cool. It really gives you an idea of a character's voice and sense of self.

I have instant messenging, myspace and phones. [:
They work pretty well.

I've had communication boards and have played on some without. I find that communication boards can greatly increase a plot. On a board I was on before where my character and her boyfriend were doing kind of a long distance relationship it was hard to have them interact. They've added communication boards and while in a thread with another character I can talk about sending a text message, photo message, or getting a phone call and actually play out that communication in relation.

Personally if it fits with your story base (if fantasy or historical doing letters or modern to future something more hi-tech) I say use it. I always thought something like letters getting intercepted or perhaps dialing the wrong number/someone else picking up lead to great plot devices.

Hmm. One forum I was at had that, but... it never really seemed necessary. You could just post in a forum with your character writing the letter (in the suburbs, they're in their house) and the person replying could just... reply. In the thread or something.

Having a communications forum just seemed like a waste. You're adding a new forum, increasing the clutter. It's unnecessary, I think. :P

It always seemed to me that it was one of those unnecessary forums that tended to distract from roleplays. At AG we have one forum for that sort of supplementary RP stuff, Tangled Threads, and it's worked very well. We've had two characters send letters back and forth in that forum amongst the other scraps and RPs. Honestly, though, I don't think there's enough demand for it to constitute an entire forum, at least not at my site.

I always make some sort of IC communication area on my sites. Usually, there's a category for it, and then a forum for phones and one for computers (photo albums and journals too, but those aren't really communications with other charries). It's never required to make a computer or phone for your character, but it can be useful. I mean, people call/text/email/im people in real life, so it's not a stretch to have characters do it. It's useful for keeping a character that leaves town active and in touch with other characters. I had a character that had to leave town for 3 months, and the only way she remained active was through phone calls to her friends. That also helped me get more of an idea of what was going on with her during her absence, so that I didn't have to make things up when she came back.

Yeah, my HP-esque site has a "post office" that most owls are sent through. If the owl is intended to arrive to the person while they're somewhere else than in the post office, the poster makes an intro note of that before writing what their character actually wrote. We've had some great things go on through the post office including secret santa, a ransom note, love letters, etc. I think it helps keep your characters' relationships intact when you don't necessarily have the time or energy to do a whole thread. Also, it's just another way of finding your character's voice... like with character journals and whatnot.