How Many Members?

I know some people love joining huge sites,
other people get intimidated and will only join if a site has between x-y for joining, because they dislike feeling like a small fish in a large sea.

So my question is,
what's everyone's preferred range?
For me, I HATE when I see a site has 45+ members. I'll feel like a small fish in a sea of many, and quite frankly, I'll begin to shut down. Even when a site I'm on has grown to a very large size, I'll begin to feel....uncomfy, I guess the best word is. Yeah, I love the members I've made relations with and the staff, but just feels like I'm in the middle of a small elevator filled with 15 people X_X

For me it depends on the site, genre, and those involved.

My site is in the 15-20 active at a time range (with ~30 total) so it's comfortable where you can find friends and partners but still have interaction with everyone. I'm quite fond of the size that we're at.

For me I prefer small communities, I feel like it's a family of like minded people with similar goals for their characters. Once it starts getting bigger, like 20+ or so I feel like I'm being lost in the crowd.

I like small. ^^ I can be quite happy in a small game! Of course, my idea of small may be different from other peoples'--I've heard people call my games large before, but to me they're fairly small.

My favorite size is large, though, with hundreds of players. I'd love if my games had that! For me it has nothing to do with success or popularity--it just means more people to play with. I'm one of those "the more the merrier!" types and I love seeing tons of diversity.

But I'm comfortable in games of all shapes and sizes. I'll play on a game that just has one other player, and I'll play on a site like Gaia that has millions. I don't get intimidated and I just view more people as more threads and plots. 8D

Basically, Rhi is an adaptable fishy.

I don't care about the size of the game so long as I've joined early enough in its lifespan that there aren't a whole lot of IC events to catch up on or loads of tight-knit groups that are impossible to penetrate. This generally means the size of the places I'll be joining are around 10-20 members, but if it hit 100+ eventually, I wouldn't be bothered.

are you referring to actual individual players or how many registered accounts there are?

In the end, I prefer games that're just starting up, because I don't really like being the new kid, and I genuinely like being a part of a site's early days where everything's still coming together. When everyone's new and eager to play, it's just a really fun environment. For sites of middling size, sometimes when I join, I feel like everyone has their established place, and I'll never be able to find my niche. (Which isn't to say that I haven't had great experiences joining established sites, because a lot of them are super friendly, but sometimes it's just plain hard.)

If I can't have that, I actually don't mind big sites that're 50+. Not MASSIVE like 100+, because then I'll never figure out who's who, but big enough that it doesn't feel like it's a super tight-knit game where I'm an awkward stranger. I would've been pretty terrified of sites that big a couple years ago, but ever since my own site got that big, I've just gotten used to that size, and it doesn't feel overwhelming to me anymore.

Although I'd say overall site activity is more important to me than the size of the membership. Sites feel "huge" to me if there's tons of replies going up every day, and even if a site does have 100+ members, it feels like a smalltown place to me if there isn't that much posting.

At the lower end of the scale, definitely. So long as the members are active, I prefer there to be less of them because when I take on a thread with someone, I like to know just what I'm dealing with. On larger sites with 50+ people it's impossible to keep up with writing styles and whether player X is a flake or player Y is a serial character creator. I have too many turn-offs to thread with just anybody.

I like cozy, smallish-medium sized sites the most! :D It also helps that I find that the genres I prefer to play in tend to have smaller sites with close-knit communities, and I've grown very fond of that feeling of being an intimate part of the workings of a story.

That's not to say I don't enjoy being part of a massive roleplaying universe with 100+ players; such vastness is great for just being able to mill about as you please, and usually when a site happens to be that big, that usually means it has a really enthusiastic member base with wonderful admins, which makes roleplaying all the more fun. Being able to meet such a diverse group of people and characters can be very refreshing, since you're bound to run into all types of personalities with awesome plots and ideas. There is that sense of being a tiny speck in the universe, when you start, but... mmm, I've never really been bothered by that at all. I simply head over to the cbox/introduction thread/etc. and start trying to integrate myself into the community and 99% of the time people are very welcoming and willing to plot. Of course I'm not going to be able to plot with every single character on the board, but when do you ever anyway? XD I don't really mind not being able to keep track of who's who, since I just tend to roll with the flow and talk with anyone/everyone.

I'm kind of all over the place for this...

If the board is new - five members, preferably five daily posters.
If the board isn't new - eight and upwards, preferably with three daily posters or more.
If the board has 20+ daily posters, I'm as happy as Larry (whoever the heck he is). I have lots of people who thread like me - daily!

If the board is huge and I get more than eight PMs rather than hitting my up in my intro, you'll overwhelm me and I'll actually leave. This includes if I just registered and lots of people start PMing me conversations As an admin, I'm fine, but as a new player, don't make it daunting for me! Excitement at a new player is awesome, but I just can't handle all the interest being literarrly chucked at me in buckets (though it is nice).

I voted 21-30, but I don't really care? I'd join a smaller or bigger board if it was friendly, welcoming, and interesting. People themselves make or break the board more so than the number of them.

I prefer smaller rps. When it gets too big it just becomes really impersonal. However, I do need enough people to keep things pretty active.

Like Rhi, Des is an adaptable fishy.

I mean board numbers, feel free to take it overall.
some people won't join if the stats say (x) number, some won't join because they see a lot of apps and they get overloaded or some other things of the sort.

I am not picky. The number of members is not something I look at when I consider a new forum to join, it is the game's theme and the plots and scenes I can pick up during a cursory scan of the place. However! Once in a game, the number may become important so I'm going to go with the 11-20 range though if it's less I'm not fussed either. More may become confusing though. But that is just me!

Twenty or thirty is honestly a minimal "safe" number in my opinion, enough people around that I could work up the ranks but not so few that trying to do so would instantly have half the burdens of the site left in my hands, and definitely enough that I know it won't sit there and suddenly die out due to lack of activity. More than that is preferable, but it would depend on the circumstances before going too much farther up.

Of course, my game currently has maybe six to eight active players counting myself, so in that regard, the more the better.

I don't really care, but I voted around the 50+ range because I prefer a community that's been active for a while.