What Do You Do...

... when you're feeling utterly discouraged and desolate about your board?

Maybe its silly of me but lately I've just been feeling like the effort I've put forth on my board is pretty much all for naught. Its not inactive but its not exactly the most active board out there. Its a great board. It may not be the prettiest or the trendiest out there but its my board and I think its wonderful. I met the love of my life on this board, I've grown as a person on this board, my writing has improved significantly on this board... it is literally like my little, six year old internet baby. I love and want this board to succeed.

So I go on my advertising kick, I rework the rules, I open up new character opportunities and try and get people into my board and we get three or four members and I'm really happy! But then this other board of the same fandom pops up and I peak in the day it opens and it does things completely different from us. It doesn't give members nearly as many choices as we do for starters. I drop my advertisement there though and keep going, thinking,"well good luck to them!"

This was ten days ago.

I peak in today just out of random curiosity and they've already got 110 members. 110 in ten days. It felt like literally a punch to my gut...

So now I ask. What do you do when you feel discouraged about your board? How do you get back into the groove? Do you keep telling yourself to keep going, buck up? Do you try to rework things more? Or do you think, when something like this happens, you should just give up on the board, move on, and try again later?

I make a new layout. Making a new layout tricks my brain into feeling the 'new site' glow and I return to having a honey moon-esque enthusiasm about it. I make a new layout roughly every month, though since my current one took three weeks to complete I waited a little longer [though I'm starting on a new one soon]. I also make a matching ad to go with the new layout.

Also, is this other board an account per character board or per person? If it's account per character, that explains the count.

Honestly not certain. I thought that myself but after skimming their rules, they didn't make reference to it. It just sort of blew me out of the water and blindsided me. They're both the same fandom but it feels like the newer one is better because it exploded like it did.

Though your reply made me smile cause I'd actually started surfing around for skinning ideas and discussing it with my other admin. *shot* I don't even know why; my brain just went to,"Maybe a new skin?" The current one is about a year old and before that, we had one for five years. We don't make a new skin that often because none of us are very adapt at skin making. The current skin we have took me almost a month... but making a new skin might be a good place to start. Thank you.

They probably are account per character in that case. When you do APC, the numbers inflate really fast. Like, example, I have 161 accounts registered on mine and that seems massive, but really I have 18 character accounts and my co-admin has 18 character accounts and so on.

You make a good point and it probably is a lesson I need to learn. Sometimes something like that is a hard pill to swallow though. It has at least fifteen active-ish members and we do all enjoy and have fun together. Its had other members in the past as well who are no longer there but we do still consider part of our very small family. I enjoy the board and my few members and my fellow staff... So maybe I am just being silly and over reacting. Like I said, it just really blind sided me.

And XD; Ah. Yeah, we don't do that at our board... again, maybe I was just over reacting.

Thanks, both of you. <3

Try not to compare yourself to other boards in your fandom or genre. It can be damaging really fast. You may not have the most members, but I'll bet you you have a better community feel than a larger board (a few will prove this wrong, but hey, shoot me in the knee). Take a look at us fantasy sites for example - most of us are lucky to even reach 20 active members (most Sizael has reached was 24), and a select few sites do much better. World of Tur being the most obvious example for us fantasy boards - they have stats, activity checks, inventories and other stuff that I don't have on my board.

And that's what makes my board more fun We don't have to go about updating inventories, we do our best to avoid activity checks and we dropped stats because of the way they hindered the memberbase.

Keep your chin up, think of all the great things that have happened on your board, make sure your characters have their own sub-plots to the site plot, and thread with on the site, try and get them involved. PM your members, chat with them. Advertise a few times a day.

Keep positive, and the rest will come.

PS: Don't complain to another member about anything negative, even if they are your partner in RL etc, it's catching, and will only cricle round and smack you in the face again through reinforcements as they repeat your original concerns.

I always compare my site to other sites, lolololol. It's not damaging to me. But that's because my self-confidence when it comes to a site is so strong that it makes rays of sun shoot out of my orifices. I basically see every site in my genre and go 'HAH. I CAN DO BETTER'.

OtterlyLost, you should do that. Harness your insecurities and turn it into sunshine and channel it into being as awesome as you can possibly be.

LOL. Honestly, I do usually avoid comparing my site to the other sites... primarily because I kinda usually do what metaphorical does... But this one just struck me. XD; I don't know why it through me off kilter like it did. The admins on the board are pretty nice(I spoke briefly to one of them the day it was open to suggest a helpful wiki to them) and its not a bad site. Its just a little different from my site and more like everyone else's site. It restricts members in all the same ways that I have seen other sites of the fandom do. But I definitely won't make the mistake of letting it get to me again.

As for not complaining to my fellow members... I agree this is a bad idea but usually the only person who ever hears my worries or complaints is my significant other and half of that is because he's also my fellow admin; he usually helps bolster me and come up with plans to fix things and make the better. And I do the same for him. Its part of why we work so cohesively. Before anyone mentions it though, we generally do try to avoid letting the members know we're an item. I personally kind of worry that newer members who don't know as well would be concerned about a falling out between us. ^^; Which... I could see as being pretty messy.

Thank you everyone. Seriously. I know my site is good and that's all that should matter in the end. Sometimes... I just need a little nudge to remind me of that.

True Story: I had a board that was a sister site (same fandom) to another board.

My board: 10 members
Sister site board: 60 members

Guess who had more rp threads and more IC posts. My board.

Size matters not!

Breathe, don't compare your board to theirs, just have fun. As long as you and the members you have are having fun that's all that matters. You may get more members, you may not. But as long as you and the ones you have are playing and having fun, it's all good. Success isn't measured by how many people you have on your board. You could have thousands of characters/members but if they aren't doing anything, then it's not really a success. At least to me anyway. I'd rather have a board with just a few people and actually be posting and coming up with ideas and getting them put thread, then have several people and nothing happening. That to me is a successful board.

You just have to hang in there. c:

Numbers do not a good RP make. It's all about the people you meet and the friends you make.

/hugs!

I'm going to second what the others have been saying about numbers. I've seen boards that have 100+ members and who have very few IC posts and an unwelcoming community. I've also seen boards that have 5-10 regular members and who have 10x the amount of IC posts and have such an awesome and welcoming community that it feels like home.

Going to add in my own experience with apc. Account per character really does shoot the numbers up. We have over 100 accounts, but probably only 16-20 active members on my site, for example. It just looks a lot busier because of all the different accounts a few people are logging on to and posting with. =)

I'm pretty sure I know which site you're talking about, and from what I've observed, their member explosion can be attributed to four things:

• Word of mouth and drawing from previous playerbases. The admin has created sites before and is attracting folks from those past games. Those players happen to be on other sites of the same fandom and are bringing their friends from there.
• Account per character and no limits or wait times on alts. Simple enough.
• An extremely short, easy application. A short application requires very little investment from players, so people who are on the fence may feel less apprehensive about taking the dive.
• It's a new game. New games attract a lot of attention. Again, they require less investment from potential players, which can often sway a good number of folks into joining.

The last point is probably the most important. I've noticed player attendance often drops significantly after the first few weeks; after the shiny newness wears off, it's sink or swim. Whether it actually remains this active depends entirely on the dedication of the admins once the "fly by night" users have been weeded out.

My board's APC and we're four years old... and at the present moment, we have a total of 120 registered users.

That's taken work and persistence. But all of those accounts are in use, apart from the handful that are retired accounts that could be brought back. So don't be discouraged by this site with 110 accounts in a week - who's to say those accounts, those people, will still be there in six months - or even that the board will be there in six months?

After all, slow and steady wins the race...

The fact that you allow more player choices sadly means nothing in terms of what a player looking for a new site will choose. Most people want quick and easy start. Before you go, "Oh they probably have only 5 members and the rest are all character accounts," don't be so quick to just comfort yourself at the risk of ignoring clear warning signs that your site isn't as welcoming as you believe it is.

Have a close look at that site, particularly its rules and basic setup for new members. Are their rules simpler, easier, fewer? Their apps {if any} are they, too, easier? Is there a plot or two set up that's easy to just jump into? Compare to your site. Players looking for a new RP will choose the path of least resistance. Make sure your site is quicker, easier, faster, simpler to join and get started. Don't require any background info other than whatever the fandom's basics are {Digimon, I'm assuming?} The basics for Digimon. And if it's AU or apocalyptic, etc. get that across in a sentence or two and just make sure it's really simple and obvious within 5 seconds of viewing your site how to jump in.

Also this: I've seen it demonstrated many times that people are more likely to try a brand new, unproven site, than an older one that appears to be struggling or dead. Remove all outward signs that your site is struggling. You do this with a fresh layout and removing older threads to an archives, where members can see and browse it but it doesn't reveal that it is in fact an old site. You don't need to lie and say the site is new--I don't advise lying at all--just make the site LOOK new.

Good luck!