When you're looking for a new rp board to join what attracts you to a board? What are some key features that could either push you away or draw you in?

Obviously plot is a huge thing when you're looking for something, but besides the plot what are some things that will make or break the deal. Do you take the activity into consideration? Will you not join if it doesn't have a lot of members, or if there are too many? Do you consider the skin, or the overall appearance. For example if the board is a little cluttered will it turn you off?

What attracts you, you pushes you away and how picky are you?

I have a habit of actually searching for sites that have pretty skins. If a site isn't nice to look at, I probably won't join unless it's super-friendly. lawl. Activity is also something I think about; if it's terribly unactive, I won't join. But I also won't join if it has, like, almost 100 members. That pretty much scares me. I fear being overlooked when joining super active RPGs.

I join an RP site depending on what kind of RP I'm feeling into at the moment. I like it when I see Mods and Admin's who are thrilled to get new members and boards that have friendly people. I haven't really run into sites that are too cluttered so I don't know if that would turn me off or not.

Activity is huge. But, it varies as well - different people are looking for different things. Me, I want a board that has a good amount of members, some of them should be online when I visit, and there should be posts that were made within the last 24 hours. If a board is less active or has fewer members, I look at the kind of activitiy that's there. Are there writers who match my level, and are writing things that interest me and that I want to join in on?

The skin isn't as big a deal to me. If it's not readable then I probably wouldn't stay, but if I hate it that won't influence me as much - content is more important than appearance.

Board size can be another influence. Do you have 10 forums, or 40? Some people prefer one over the other. Me, I like a smaller board.

I think, though, that you can design your forum to attract the sort of members you want. If you want few, devoted members who hang around a lot and form a tight community, then you probably want a smaller and simpler board. If you want tons of members coming and going and posting all of the time, then you might want to go bigger. So think about what kind of people you want to attract to your board when you design its layout, structure, appearance, etc.

Good luck! ^_^

1) It may sound shallow, but I'll immedately leave a sight if it has an awful skin. Terrible colors, or a confusing layout are definite deal breakers. If we're all being honest here, I think we can agree that we don't want to join a board that we can't stand to look at.

2) Decent activity. Do I need the site to have 200 active members? No, but I'm a bit hesitant about joining a site with 3 active members that doesn't appear to be going anywhere. I'd hate to put a lot of effort into joining a roleplay that's just going to die in a couple of weeks.

Those are the only two constant considerations for me when checking out new roleplays. Other things are rather obvious. This is assuming that the site has a plot that I'm interested in, and it isn't atrocious in any aspects. I'm fairly flexible with little details as long as they don't destroy the RPing experience (little things like multiple vs. single accounts and mandatory PBs don't bother me).

I shall be shallow too!

1) Crappy skin = instant no.

2) Ridiculous board/category set up. This includes having to scroll a mile to get to the bottom; sub-boards are your friends. This also includes ridiculous side bars that go on forever or are obnoxious.

3) Skins that...don't make sense to the subject matter of the forum.

4) No posts in the past 24 hours.

5) Stupid rules. Specifically rules that prohibit doing things with my account (graphic limits the exception). If I want to use my 360 Gamertag or my locker combination for my username, I shall! If I want to put a fake location within the Location Box, I will! Seriously. The oppression and rights of an admin can only go so far before people stop listening.

6) Spineless head admins. Sometimes the co-admin having all the spine works, but eh. In time of 'crisis', I want to know that the head admin won't give up on me, nor will he betray me as a member. And by no means am I saying I want a jerk admin.

7) Something new; rare, I know. I've been RPing for roughly 8 years now. If you don't have something that'll catch my attention---like a new/uncommon system of attaining rewards---then I don't want to even deal with you. This includes using a cliche plot or being #984345894 in the list of forums that have used your subject matter.

8) Contests. Just something to do every once in a while when I don't wanna RP, but they have to have IC benefits.

9) Preferably there is a character template that doesn't take years to complete. Nice and short and simple. Character profiles are meant to give fellow RPers some preknowledge of your character so that they can RP with the character better. They're not for the RPer to write down every little detail about the character and thus give the RPer (as in the character owner) nothing to mold during the actual RPing. This includes asking for a ridiculously long character history; who needs that much history?! The chances of your character ever actually using that character history IC is slim to none!

10) If the forum is newer, I'd like to see people joining the forum often and know that advertising is getting done. If not, the forum probably won't get anywhere...at least not anywhere fast enough.

11) The way newbs are treated. If new folks aren't treated well (or even if they're over-looked due to too many members!), then I don't want to be there. That only sucks more for when I have a question.

12) The way n00bs are treated. I can understand n00bs can be difficult. However, don't boot them outright! Work with them. We were all there once. If you work with them (without being too pushy or making them feel retarded), they will be one of your most active and loyal members. This becomes all the cooler if they actually get good at RPing, huh? And you were going to throw that baby novelist to the curb! Tsk. For shame.

14) (A special item or prize pack or something for joining is always cool.)

15) A Help forum. Why? Because maybe I'm shy and don't want to PM staff. Or, maybe, I'd rather not look like a retard, and would like to see if someone else before me had already asked the question.

16) Lots of female members. Don't...think I'm some weirdo creeper or anything, but they seem to add a lot more flare to an RP than males. *Is shot* Not to mention that forums with too many guys always end up with a focus on battle RPs. *Is shot again* Just being open. And I said female members, not characters.

17) An argument in the cbox/shoutbox/whatever can kill it for me. Also, on that note, having it much larger than default is annoying.



I think I'm done. Maybe. I will probably have more. As you can see, I'm picky, but that is because I hold my time and loyalty to a forum as very important.

1. None of that "register to see the board" stuff.

2. lots of members. Preferably over 500 (I'm ultra-picky, I know, but I do join sites with less if they're really active)

3. People online when I'm looking, or activity within the last 24 hours. And not just one thread or something.

4. Actual role play threads. I don't want to join a site with a billion "relationship" threads and no role playing.

5. newbies actively welcomed. Boards where I get ostracized for not putting in "enough" effort to be part of the community are a turn off. You have to put some effort in too. More, because I'm new and out of my comfort zone.

edited to add:

6. polite but firm rules as opposed to domineering power-trippy ones.

I personally like to have a simpler plot, rather than a really lengthy, complex one. I love the smaller, just started sites, they feel more like home to me than I'm just another count. If all the role playing was just making love, I would turn it down unless I find one sane person. Everyone should be welcome, or it might as well say "We don't want you" on every page. All pink= no fun. I hate when sites want you to have only one thread going and you always have to put the place were you are, your money, and everything else in your signature or profile. Hope I help.

Oi...okay, im as shallow as everybody else is. A nice simple layout is what i like though. Overly obsessive graphic sites actually kill it for me. O_O

And i absolutely love less scrolling, but i also dont want no scrolling. I want to see plenty of forums, but not to the point it takes forever to get to the bottom.

If i see more than 50+ members...i freak. Well, it all depends on the plot. And how the friendlyness is. I love to be part of a barely growing potential-holding site. And one that seems promising with a little help and advertising.

But really, its all about plots for me. But as long as its friendly and it shows me that i'll definately hold time that isnt wasted is good for me.

For me, the plot is the most important thing, but other than that, I look for a board that doesn't kill my eyes, and that's active. Oh, and the posts need to be of a certain quality. I've been RP'ing for years, and I guess I'm snobby, but I'd like someone to RP with that has a similar level of experience. I'm not saying I won't RP with a new RP'er, just that I will want someone good to post with as well. Other than that, I don't have any specific requirements, but it must be said that I haven't actually joined a new board in years. I'm a quite loyal member, so I'm not on three hundred boards at once. When I do join a new board, it's kind of a big deal to me, and I don't join just any board. It's gotta have something that appeals to me.

: easy navigation
: a good skin, not hard on the eyes
: activity
: good community
: strong mod/admin presence
: interesting characters, originals or canons
: an original storyline

- I'm all about the community – I won't join a roleplay that comes of as unfriendly or disrespectful. I don't like seeing snobby attitudes and members being flamed because they asked a question. Nor do I like to see replies to faceclaims saying "that PB isn't right for that charrie" or "I was planning to use that, you can't have it". I don't like boards with cliques making it impossible to actually get some roleplay going and were the admin's are practically only roleplaying with "their" crowd and ignoring everyone else.

- Admin's should be fair and honest – they should abide by their own rules and set an example for the board. I don't like seeing admin's character's pinned either, that's just elitist in my opinion. I'd rather see one thread named "Staff" with info on how to contact them and what characters they play.

- Reasonable font size. No, I'm not going to squint to see your plot or your rules, sorry. I expect the font size to be easy to read and I don't want to see a lime green font on a white background either. The font should be easy on the eyes as well as easy to read.

- No pre-mades that has their entire background, personality and appearance mapped out. Pre-mades are fine, but while I'm not a huge fan of them, I do like to see how other members use them and make them their own and original.

- I like application-less games. (See Rhi-Rhi's thread for info) I like being able to add to a profile as I go. I usually have an idea of what they're like but I like it when I'm not forced to make up details because the application demands a certain amount of words or a certain amount of content. I don't like to force a character to come to life if it clearly wants to stay dead.

- Rules, plot and other important information should either; a) be placed in the same forum/sub-forum or b) the board should have a thread with "important reads", or something to that effect, with links to the threads for easy navigation. If the board has a lot of history it's also nice if there are some links to threads that have affected this history in some way or were important to the development of the current history/plot.

- Plotting forum. No, not relationship or "plotting" forums (i.e. threads telling who your friend is and who's your worst enemy, that you've never even met). But an actual plotting forum were I'm allowed to go "Hey, I've got a charrie who *insert plot/idea here*".

- Skin. Really, give me the default IF skin over another skin with the stereotypical banner, stereotypical sidebar graphics, the stereotypical colour scheme and so forth. Trust me, you might think it looks pretty, I think it looks just like the 15 other boards I just x'ed out of. That isn't to say I won't join a board like it, but goodness knows I'm turned off the instant I see the skin and usually don't feel like staying long enough to read the plot. Yes, I am odd, I know.

- Forum size doesn't really matter to me. Big, small it's not a big deal as long as the board is easy to navigate and the members are nice.

- Forum age doesn't matter either, been around for 5+ years? Don't care. Just a week old? Oooh, it’s all shiny and new! Old boards can be like that old chair, comfortable and warm, but can sometimes be a bit backwards. New boards are shiny and clean, but sometimes act more like an overly sanitized mental institution, than the "friendly and open" forum they keep telling everyone that they are.

- Friendly. Yeah, I know, I said so before. But to me, that's the most important feature. I will ignore almost anything, as long as the board is friendly and open to new people. I roleplay to have fun, and I don't have fun roleplaying with a bunch of elitist snobs or ignorant divas and drama-whores.

The bare bones?

-Very good writers, but not snobbish ones. RP is for fun.
-On that note: no ridiculous length requirements, such that I have to fill them with grape-flavored cotton-balls as detestable as those you'll find in the dentist's. You know, purple fluff.
-MATURE MEMBERS. Teeny boppers running around whining about how much their lives suck? No. No. Of course, maturity isn't just based on age. Mature means they'll be welcoming, open to new people, and kind, obviously.
-Plots you can easily hook into. Not just romance.
-No Mary Sues. Seriously. Just don't accept them, and you won't have to deal with them as members. If you have a board overrun with these sorts (you know, the shallow whore types that seem to be so common these days)... you've just lost me and many other talented new members. So: diverse characters.
-A skin I can live with. This means: no neon, no ridiculously tiny fonts, no unreadable gray-on-gray.

... maybe that isn't just bare-bones, but honestly... is it SO much to ask?

I'll second this entire post. :D

I also added that cliques will scare me away from any RPG. I might get as far as joining a character, but you've got a lot of people who'll only post to each other and no one else, I'll never even start posting.

...and mature, friendly staff members.

In no particular order ...

1 - If I can play whatever character(s) I happen to have in mind at the time there. Maybe it's selfish of me but, seriously, I play characters, not games. That said ...

2 - Appearance. Text I can read. None of this 3-pt-font-dark-grey-on-charcoal stuff. A color scheme (including graphics) that doesn't make my eyes bleed. And by all that's holy, nothing flashing.

3 - Ads. Hate 'em. I don't mean the for-other-games kind, I mean the dancing-mortgage-guys kind. The boards I've run, I've either paid to make them ad-free or used software like SMF that doesn't inflict them on people to begin with. It's not a major issue, but it's a nice touch.

4 - Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. There can be a minor mistake here and there, since nobody's perfect, but a board that's got major ones or is littered with them ... sorry, no. That includes all that && and ' ' business, everything in lower case, etc. I find that silly and pretentious. And if the admins don't know the difference between 'canons' and 'cannons,' that's a deal breaker, too.

5 - Activity. Not too many members, not too few.

6 - Not too many sub-boards. Saw a game once that had at least 50, for locations from here to the Andromeda Galaxy. A dozen of them were all in one building. And 42 of the 50 hadn't ever been used.

7 - Plots that look interesting and that have interesting characters being played by competent players in them. No slash and/or endless snogging scenes.

8 - Rules that make sense.

9 - An app form, and a good one. Not something hugely long, and definitely not something where you have to fill out rainbow-colored song lyrics justified all over the page (what is that about, anyway?). Something that indicates the admins care who and what they're letting into the game.

10 - Admins and players who are friendly, or at least good-natured. This is a major deal-breaker. I once lurked on a board for two days and the bitching and fighting in the chatbox were horrible. The game looked fine, otherwise, but who wants to hang around with mean people?


11 - No twinks/Mary Sues.

+ Good skin. It doesn't have to be flashy or come from the IFSZ; simplicity works so long as it's nice to look at and fits the RP. And it has to be compatible with Firefox. None of this "forum = 600px wide in IE, but 300px in Firefox" crap.

+ No post length requirements. Okay, if a site asks to try and shoot for 3+ paragraphs or 300+ words per post, I can deal, but other than that it gets ridiculous. And no 700+ words for appearance, personality, history, and shoe size in the application either.

+ Admins / members with a good reputation. This is, actually, a common thing that turns me off from boards. There are several people I've had experiences with while RPing on InvisionFree, and they are annoying and/or flaky. Usually both. So I stay clear of their sites no matter how "cute" it sounds, because I know it'll die within the next three weeks or be filled with annoying, attention-seeking pretentious RPers.

+ Laid-back atmosphere. It's nice when you read the boards' info, and you get the feeling that the admins aren't taking it too seriously. None of that "the admins are ALWAYS right!" or "do what I say or ELSE!" stuff; but I don't really appreciate the whole "join my site biiitchessss" thing either. My best friend can get away with calling me a b*tch and that's it, lmao. Even if you're joking, it sounds so trashy.

+ No boards that name every forum with song lyrics! I want to RP in the supermarket, not "i feel so untouched / and i want you so much" by the Veronicas. Extra punctuation doesn't bother me much in topic titles, but I don't like seeing it in forum titles. Annoying.

+ Quality. I will not join a site that says they're advanced, then bases everything off length. :|

+ Good graphics. Simplicity can go a long way, and it's probably better to stick to that unless you can pull off something a little more 'advanced.' I hate seeing stupid, irrelevant graphics. Like models being used for headers in the sidebar or in the banner. I don't know why, but that just annoys the hell out of me. If you can't see their face clearly, that's okay, but if it's clearly Jessica Stam and Ryan Taylor over and over it just makes it seem like the RP is about them. Oh, and on that note: Rotating banners with the RP characters in them. That's not a deal-breaker, but that also irritates me a bit lmao. =/

I lol'ed. Judging by the ever-lengthening thread you have in Requesting RPGs, I'd say yes, it probably is!!

It's hard for me to find a game that I like which I can stay at. I'm sure you can relate if you run your own game, but when you're in control of your own standards, it becomes hard not to expect the same things from other sites. I am picky, but most of the time I try to quietly go in search of the game I want by myself. That way most of the time no one else has my pickiness inflicted upon them because their heads would explode!

• I like APP games over APC and if I was faced with two games of good quality, which scored the same on every level, but one was APP and the other APC, I would go with APP. I'm old-school like that.
• A strong member-base. I want to be able to have easy access to admin and mod IM details, as well as members. I want to feel welcomed when I introduce myself and not on an enmasse level. I want to still feel like an individual. At the same time, I will run a mile from a game with bitchy members or staff. Nor do I want to encounter manipulative members. If members are greasing up staff to get what they want, I don't want to chance the idea that they'll turn around and do the same to me.
• Admins who don't object to being asked lots of questions prior to application, and are friendly enough that once they have my IM, they will initiate conversations about everything or nothing, with me, rather than me doing all the leg-work.
• I like an admin that asks questions. When I submit an application, I worry that they haven't been read because they're punted straight into Accepted. I don't necessarily want a response that brings to light all my SPAG (spelling punctuation and grammar) failings, but I do want to be asked intelligent questions, or at least be given feedback that tells me they've read my application fully.
• No word limits, please. No paragraph ones either. I want the game to speak for itself on the level expected. I also want a game that has a short but sweet application that covers the basics. I know what to include in personality. I know how to fill out the 'appearance' section.
• An organised approach to information. A clear indication of what threads I have to read and those which are surplus information. I don't want things written out prettily. I want quick access to facts with clear headings (no lyrics) and a thorough breakdown of original game info.
• If there is a plot page forum, that's fine! I like to track my threads and organise character details that didn't make it into the profile (for fear of it being 15 pages long) but I would also like a place where I can request threads, other characters and such. Like a rough planning area.
• Font size is important. Not so much face, because firefox is set to default fonts to one of my choosing, but size is vital. Yes, I realise there is an option to zoom in on the page, but good web design denotes that if you cannot read the font from 1 metre away without straining, then the font is too small. I have a big resolution--1280x1024 so small fonts are even smaller for me.
• Staff that are all enthusiastic about the site and aren't running around planning their next great adventure. I like longevity in a game, and that starts with an admin knowing that the grassis not greener.

LOL, OK, so I am picky.


What are APP/APC games...?

Admins who IM YOU? See, I do this all the time in my admin capacity, and I feel like it may send the message that I'm desperate or something. I love IMing members, I love getting IMs from members--but I suppose it's a balance...

I used to IM members myself until the general consensus was 'hey, don't you have some admin duties to do instead of talking to me.'

Then I stopped. Go figure.

APP: Account Per Player
APC: Account Per Character

I don't see why I as the member should have to do ALL the legwork. Sure I should do my fair share, but I enjoy the social side to a game. I feel like if it's always me doing it, then I look desperate, or I feel like I should only contact them with game-oriented questions.

I make a point where possible to introduce myself over IM, usually once the application process has begun. I believe it's good manners, not desperation (and we Brits are known for our good manners, when we are not smashing bottles into other people's faces over football matches, of course). If a member thinks I'm being desperate then that's their beef and they can do with it what they will. Fact of the matter is, I have a strong relationship with my members and this is due in part to me doing the make-contact thing.

I am so picky about the sites I'll join sometimes it makes even me sick. I almost say that I'm shallow about it.

I like something that's simple but not basic. Meaning that it has to have a nice skin, not the basic one presented when the forum is created, but I don't want one thats going every which way and thats just badlt clashing with itself.

Also, a major turn of for me is a forum with really really really tiny font. It gives me a headache, so I like something with a decent size, basic size even.

The last thing I like is how your allowed to represent your character, namely though banner and avatarsize. 100x100 avatars just dont do it. I usually use 160x250 ones.. alows for a better character image I think.