I'm hoping to get some opinions on the re-opening of boards. My old site was closed down in early March, and I've been missing it lately. I realize now that I did a lot of things wrong (in my own defense, I did a lot right too). I wasn't Evil!Admin by any means. Still, there is a whole list of things I'd do differently now.

I went back to the board this week and made a ton of changes to forums, rules, procedures, permissions, groups, etc. etc. I'm not entirely done yet, but I've been thinking. This revamp started as a "I'm bored and miss my RPG" but has turned into something totally different now. I really want to role-play in this genre again, and I've never been satisfied with any other board.

I closed the board because I had too much on my plate, but not in the "life is so busy" kind of way. I expected too much of the forum and the other staff members and got really upset when only one person delivered. I totally understand what went wrong, and I've learned from it.

Does anyone have experience in re-opening boards? Did it go all right or was it another failure? Would you come back to a board that had been closed? (I gave everyone two weeks notice to collect their applications/threads). Or would you just be done with the Admin and move on?

I would honestly rather see a board revived than restarted. And I know there's somewhat of a trend for active boards to restart on another site, and I wouldn't touch those with a 10-foot pole.

If a board had been closed before and revamped/reopened, but I'd never been on it before, it would make no difference to me. I think the only things you really have to worry about are how the old members feel, and whether or not you'll really stick with it this time. No one wants to join a board where the admin has a track record of letting it die.

That being said, you've learned from past mistakes, and you're going to do better this time around. Personally, I would come back, if I really loved the site. Hopefully the old members will understand that. It's not like everyone gets it right the first time (AG is my first really successful board, and I've been an admin on about six over the course of six years). Just dedicate yourself to the site and you should be fine. :pink:

Thank you both for you input!

Roswenth - Ew. I agree. I hate those boards too. No, my site is still at the same URL, same skin, etc. I'm only changing the plot slightly so we're not all spread out. Plus all the things that I should have done in the first place. I do plan on sending e-mails to all the members I'm still in touch with.

AshBeanNun - It was actually your "How to Exterminate Members" that made me realize my mistakes! Then I poked around AG and got some inspiration for how to be better. :p I see where you're coming from. If I open the board again, I have to be willing to do the job and do it right this time. Second chances happen, but third chances rarely do. It is a big decision, which is why I'm mulling it over before I'm done revamping.

Anyone else? Maybe someone has re-opened a site before? Words of wisdom are most welcome.

It depends on why the board was closed in the first place. If it was closed because the members were bored, the site was just being run poorly, or for any other negative reasons like that, reopening will most likely do nothing but inspire a quick, temporary boost of activity.

However, that doesn't sound to be the case, so you might give it a try. Starting anew isn't really going to solve anything, because anyone who might return to the old site, won't realize a new one has been established. But potential new members (like myself) may be turned off by a board that died once before.

I'm in the same boat as you. My board was made around your time and it died down because of summer school and what not. People want it back but I dunno what to do with it.

I dunno whether to start ALL OVER or just pick up where everyone started.
I'm leaning to not restarting. Since there was a lot of committed members who kept posting even if everyone wasn't exactly there. The still haunt the cbox in fact.

I guess it depends on like Maruna said, the circumstances of it all.

I think it's great that you've learned from your past. ^_^ More admins need to do that. And I also think it's cool that you're revamping your board. Hey, why not try it--it could be great.

It depends upon why it's been closed. If there were hurt feelings or people were made to feel unwanted, they may not come back. Though to be honest, I think that many people will take a look at the forum and poke around for a few minutes. And thus you have that few minutes to rope your members back in. Rules and plot would be the biggest parts then.

All good points. I need to talk to some former members of the site and find out what they think of the site closing. No one was really, really active. But they might have taken it more personally than I thought. I'll IM with some of them and find out what they think.

I honestly don't think I burned too many bridges. When I announced the site was closing, several members sent me IM and e-mail information or invited me to join boards they were on. It made me think I ended it on a good note. But starting back up is a whole other thing.

I never planned on putting up a big 'Re-opened' banner on the index. I was just going to send out e-mails and start posting advertisements again. Is that somehow dishonest? I hope not. It's definitely the easier way to go about things.

I think being quiet and matter-of-fact about it is the right way to do it. I get really annoyed at those sites that close for a week or two for 'maintenance' or something and then have a huge to-do about the reopening, after which they settle into the exact same thing as before. There's nothing wrong with doing the same (or similar) as before, but there doesn't need to be a huge song and dance. Makes me think the admins are up themselves.

Your way sounds a lot more sensible and less pretentious.

Meliora was never closed, but it went through a serious revival when I took over (two members were left at the time). If you're willing to put in the necessary work, than I say go for it. You'll already have some stuff to work with, so it could be quite successful. I don't see why you should start over from scratch if you're planning on keeping a lot of things the same. Just pick it up where you left off. :)

Go ahead and invite old members back if you think they'd be interested in getting involved again (two old Melly members returned on their own without my contacting them when I revived it, and they've been very interested in the game since then). Then just start advertising like you normally would. It probably wouldn't hurt to have a note somewhere on the site that explains that the site isn't new, but an older project that's been picked up again if that's something you want to do. Just don't go flaunting the re-opening. It's just not necessary.

Nah, I don't think you need a big banner or anything like that. I think your members will figure out that it's reopened. ;)

Okay, glad I'm not the only person who thinks that way! :p If I do mention the revamp, it'll just be in an unpinned announcement in the right forum.

I've been in touch with one member already, who was thrilled to hear I was thinking about re-opening. I've sent messages to a few more. So we'll see what happens.

Thank you everyone for you input and your support! You've given me a lot to think about and a lot of new ideas.

Heatherbee, your first post is practically out of my own mouth -- I'm going through the exact same thing right now. Although I don't think I was ever a bad admin, I learned a lot, and am going to be doing things a lot differently.

We closed the board due to inactivity, like all people do, but we (me plus some other people there) did try to get it up and going, two or three times. Eventually it ended up closing around its second year anniversary .. We kept having months with no posts, and it was finally time to just shut the door, so to speak. I'd thought about reopening it over and over, but certain things were holding me back, like life, other roleplays, and honestly, general bouts of laziness. Recently, however, I talked to my old co-admin (now just an event staffer, sort of), and .. it's time. We just know in our gut that it is.

The "reopening" is going to be more of a spinoff, so I'm making it on another board. My friend who's helping me -- she's not exactly a co-admin (partly because I don't think she wants the responsibility, which is fine -- I'd rather her be upfront about it then take the position and be a bum), but she helped me formulate and write the plot and has just about the same say in it as I do (imo, anyway), and I think we're kind of taking it slow right now because of school and whatnot. Don't want to rush it, especially when school's making us busy, y'know? And I think that's always the best way, as long as you don't hold it off for an eternity. I'd just like to go into it knowing that I have more than enough time to dedicate.

Anyway. xD Back to you!

I think they'll probably be happy to come back. Sometimes people get burnt out even on their most favorite sites, and need to take a break, but it's fun to pick up old stories again.

And with your reopening, good idea. People get flashy with it and then they never do anything. o_O It's like a jinx, or something.

Good luck! I sincerely hope your board does well. You sound like you have the mindset of a good admin. <3

I'm all up for people re-opening boards. Its just tough work. I think some people are kinda weary of a site that died and is just trying to come back. I've tried to do it with one of my sites; an HPRPG.

I think it really depends on how much your willing to put into it and the staff you have. It's hard doing revamps on your own.

Restarts are different though. If you're goign to completely change the place you might as well go and make another site. People aren't gonna want to return to a completely different place most of the time; its not the place they've missed.

silent cacophony - Thank you for the words of encouragement! Best of luck with your board too. If I can ever offer you any support, tap me on the shoulder! Admins should stick together. :lol:

Demarco - You make an excellent point about staff. I don't have any other staff members yet for a few reasons. One was a naysayer. Seriously, she never said "yes" once. The other was nag. One of the Admins left before we closed. The other Admin is too busy with life stuff and college right now. I can't, honestly, invite any of those people back to the staff and expect a different outcome. I have done it on my own until now, which isn't that bad when I'm just redoing forums and rewriting rules. It probably will be more of an issue when the board opens again.

My board is definitely a revamp, not a restart. The very biggest problem before was geography. Some members were brave enough to be from some largely unpopular realm, then had no one to RP with. Everything I've done in the revamp is trying to correct that.

What I've done is rewrite most of the rules and procedures. I've made a point to emphasize being compassionate to members (not ripping their applications in public. We'll use PMs) and being inclusive (plotting for the main plot is done in the open. Anyone can join in).

I've also redone the forums. They were too specific before. Does anyone need to be told there is a marketplace in a medieval city? If a place wasn't mentioned in the canon work (or at least can be implied, i.e. a foreign kingdom probably has a palace for their King, right?) it got deleted. Also, I've opened up the entire world, so I had to create some more forums. I completely rewrote all the forum descriptions too.

The only thing I've done to the main plot is move the location slightly. It was so spread out before that it would have taken a board of 80+ members to make it work. As it is now, characters can travel anywhere and still encounter the main plot, but it's mostly working towards one goal--the destruction of one kingdom--so they all have a reason to be in a central location.

That was probably more information than anyone needed to know. I tend to get carried away. :innocent:

I say go for it.
If you have learned from your mistakes and you have improved things, people will come.

More power to you.