I've been working on a rpg site for almost a month now; I've been sick the past three weeks, so I haven't been getting as much done as I'd hoped. I probably have another solid week of work left to do before I officially open. But I'm going away for three days next weekend (and I'm the only staff), so I was thinking about waiting until after I get back to open. I'm a little worried that I'm going to have a very reduced audience at that point, though, between classes starting and people moving into dorms and whatnot.

Any thoughts?

I think the best time for you to open your site is when you have the most time to devote to it. There is so much work to be done after a grand opening. It's important for the admin to have a strong presence during the beginning.

I "inherited" DaBS from the original admin. She had opened the game too early, when she didn't have the time to care for it properly. It started with a bang but quickly fizzled because she (the only admin) was never around.

I say wait until you have the time to devote to it. Like Royan said, it's important for the admin to have a strong presence on the site in the beginning or your new members will get bored by the time you get back. Also, your argument that people won't join because of school starting doesn't make much sense to me. You might get a slow start if people are really busy, but if you opened it sooner, then you'd get people who would just leave once they got busy. The site's affected no matter what if you really think school will make that much of a difference on your audience. Remember though that people start school at all different times- I start next week, while my best friend doesn't start for another month.