Okay so I have a One Tree Hill based RPG that opened earlier this week, we have all the canons and even a few original characters. My problem is this; the members are fantastic about logging in but they'll spend hours just "viewing the board index" and then log off without replying where they're needed. it especially bothers me when they read the thread they're needed in, but still do not post. What can I do about that? I don't want to sound harsh or pushy but I mean the storylines don't get started if no one posts. Advice?

If I were you, then I'd just tell them that if they have vital, main canon characters, then they're expected to make some posts. And if they really were main roles then I'd threaten to take their canon away and leave it open to someone who would be more active. It might not get you in their good books, but having someone waste a canon isn't exactly nice. It's just those people who claim the canons, just so they can say that they have them, and that's it. Role-playing is about role-playing, after all, not looking-at-the-board-indexing. So yeah, say you expect like, one post at day minimum or something. xD

It looks like it's because you have a premium cbox. Those tend to refresh the page without the person actually being there to look at it. So, they might not really be on the site, just left the page open.

Personally, I think that requiring one post a day, like Seanu suggested, is way too excessive, and I would leave a site that forced that kind of activity on me, because I just don't have time or motivation for that. Some kind of posting requirement is fine, to ensure that people stay active, but be reasonable. There are days when you just don't have the time. There are weeks when you just don't have the time. There are days and weeks when you just can't squeeze out a decent post no matter how much you try.

Now, during summer vacation, I work a job that allows me to be online literally eight hours a day, and I'm usually logged on for the whole duration, but that doesn't mean that I can post. Small snippets, like games, chatting and the like, sure, but actual IC posts? My boss wouldn't be pleased about that at all.

It's the same thing during the school year, really: I use my computer to do school work, and it's a habit to log on while I'm doing that, but that doesn't mean that I'm just looking at the page. I'm doing something else at the same time as being logged on.

However, you are entitled to expect a certain amount of activity. But, like I said, be reasonable: don't expect too much. If they're logged on every day for a whole week or more without posting, it's okay to say something. But if it's just a few days I'd give them more time.

Thank you guys. :)

I didn't even think about them just leaving the page open. We'll see how it goes, like I said it just opened so maybe thats it too?

True, its annoying. But you can't control them without scaring people off. Someone once advised me to send a PM to everyone on the site, just updating them with stuff that was going on, so for you, you could update with plot lines. I thought it would never work, but the fact that people recieve an email usually when they get a PM encouraged them to log on and join in. Everything is worth a try.

I find a few things are good

-Sending mass PMs or Emails, reminding people that you are there and what is happening.
-Compititions that offer insentives for people to activily post
-Activity checks that require you to post.

Also, creating a rule that defines activity might be good. That way whent this kind of behavior does happen, they won't take it personally if you approach them about it. Instead, you can be like "I'm sorry but I'm just doing my job, please don't forget about rule #2!"

As people have already said RPing Forums are for RPing. I think I struggle with having members come on and then get distracted by the Cbox, lol, but that is a feature I would never take away. I guess you just have to make suggestive comments to keep people aware of the true purpose of the site ^_^ Typically, once they have their chatting spree, they'll get back to the game.