Myself and my co-Admin Romy have used one of the commonly used methods in proboard-based RPGs; where you have in your rules somewhere, stating an answer or secret password that is needed to access the application board list.

We have one such password stuck in the middle of our Rules & Guidelines board; you need it in order to access the application board to either read and/or actually submit an application.

Does this put off a lot of possible members, or not? Is it needed at all?

I no longer use it on my LiveJournal RPGs because people tended to complain about moderators who use it, in various role-play discussion communities.

I say that's a pretty good idea. It pretty much makes your members read the rules. If it turns off any members, it'll be the ones who plan on breaking them.

If you actually have a question on the application that says something like "what's the secret answer?" then people will get the hint and go to the rules to look for it, because it's a common practice on RPGs, not only on proboards but IF as well.

I've done it on my RPGs, and if there's a question that says "what's the answer?" then everyone catches it. But if I really hide it by saying just bold a certain letter or word in say, the personality section, a lot of people don't do it. I say just go over the rules, and there you have it.

I sort of don't get the point, though. I mean, if people don't read the rules, that's their problem. If they break one, you can just ban them since it was in the rules. Lol. And if most people tell them to reread the rules, there's really no point in having a secret message either...

I'm afraid I find them horribly annoying because as I'm reading the rules, "Potato is the secret world!" gets tossed out as being irrelevant information. I simply don't remember it and always have to go back looking for it when I'm filling out my application.

Honestly, if someone doesn't read the rules it becomes fairly obvious. I tried having the secret word thing on an RP I used to mod quite a long time ago, and it became very obvious which people read the rules only to find that secret word.

I've come to that conclusion, too; if they break a rule, of course they will get banned. The Secret Question/Answer just helps that they've actually READ the rules rather then skip over it, or simply ignore that board altogether.

In the RPG that I'm talking about with this method in effect; in the Rules board (not too long, it's got the necessary rules but nothing too complex or descriptive that just makes it look 'pretty'.) there's an actual rule that just says 'Secret Password to Application board: <insert password here> (no spaces!).'

And then later, when you click on the application board, it asks for a password, so.. yeah. Not too hard.

It's not an actual question IN the character sheet, because I do find that somewhat a hindrance, and also I can see how -that- might put someone off; since you finish your application all the way down to where suddenly, you see this 'Secret Question's Answer:', and you might've genuinely missed the password in the rules where it was italicized/a very light/faded font colour 'ya01 RP is t3h @wes0m3.'

So it just makes you go '....what?', because it's very hard to actually see on the screen, let alone remember it.

I tried the secret word thing with an Avidgamers community once.

Unfortunately, I found that my members tended to use control + F and then typing in "secret", rather than actually reading the rules.

I don't think secret words are too bad unless they're really hard to find. Such as putting one word on each page is really tedious. But if your phrase is "I read the rules" or something, *shrugs* I have no problem with it.

At the moment, I still cannot make up my mind: keep the secret answer, which isn't italicized or hidden or spread out over pages or anything silly, I'm... just so paranoid that people won't join because they believe it may be too hard to remember the three word password. =(

You see, to get into the application board you need the password; it prompts for a password, which you'll only know (and only know why it prompted you) if you read the rules first.

It might give the wrong impression that only logged in, approved users can see that certain board.

Don't be paranoid. A lot of forums do that, so I think a lot of members anticipate having to look for it. And honestly, it's not that hard to highlight the secret word/phrase, copy it, and paste it into the application later. +_+

Well this board i'm on it had three i highlighted them all so it would be the same colour as the background so they had to highlight to see the answer, and one of the admins said i had it wrong even though i read the rules over 10 times, and she said i still had it wrong. i don't know it makes people read the rules but it's kinda true that some members don't read the rules the look through them to get the secret word. So you should make them put something in the description or something.

I have changed it now so that there is no password prompt to look at the aplication board; and I've put the password as a requirement to answer the question in the application itself =)

Thanks, everyone.

My board has one, but I'm not overly strict about it. If the application is acceptable, I'll probably just accept them anyway. But if there is something wrong with the app and I'm editing the topic to say so and they don't have the word, I'll probably say to read the rules.

But you see if you do that, it basically loses its point.

^ What's the point of it to begin with?
As if people actually read the rules anyway. The only reason they do is because they know a secret phrase will probably be in there. also, members know admins can ban them for following the rules, and rules are basically the same everywhere.
It's the members' fault for not reading through them. They're joining at their own risk, lol.

The reason I'm not strict is because I think it's a pain in the ass as a member who is only not being accepted because I didn't get a secret word. It's an inspiration to read the rules, but as other people say, if someone doesn't read the rules and breaks one, they'll just have to deal with the repercussions.

I find it to be an annoyance really, if I am interested in an rpg the first thing I do is read the rules, for one the way someone words their guidelines tells a lot about how an admin is going to run their site and asking for a password tells me that you don't trust me to actually read what has been written.

However, I do like the practice of signing a little pledge such as:

It's basically a nuisance. 90% of the rules are the same everywhere, and it becomes really obvious if someone didn't read the rules that you don't need to have a "secret answer."

I simply don't see the point in having members hunt around for a secret word to get an application in. It becomes counterproductive.

I personally do not use a secret question, and I tend to lean towards not using them for any website I run. My reason for this is that I don't feel that a secret answer will mean someone has read and understood the rules. I also know from person experience how easy it is to skin through the rules (usually for fanlistings, since the rules are pretty much the same for each fanlisting) and just pick out the secret answer. I mentioned understanding the rules there as well; just because someone has read them or answered the secret answer doesn't mean to me that they have understood them. I also cannot be bothered to make sure someone has given the correct answer, and I know what it's like to get it wrong. Even the most dedicated rule reader can miss things sometimes, and I would end up becoming one of the people that ended up 'letting people off' when they didn't give the correct answer.