Hello everybody. A question.

I have a roleplay and I want to attract more participants. It's for a fandom, and I noticed their are several dead roleplays for the same fandom. Would it be appropriate to either @mention members of those roleplays to ask/suggest they join my roleplay, or PM them directly to ask? Or is either option not really advisable?

I would say it would be best to PM them directly. A few of my roleplays I've joined was because of a direct connection from the GM. @mentioning in a dead roleplay could come off as intrusive to the GM and possibly those who are invested in the previous roleplay so I would avoid that. @mentioning them in your roleplay would be better but I personally would be weirded out if it isn't someone I already know but I'm guessing not everyone would see it that way.

You can DM people you might think would enjoy it, but always remember that no means no. That and you can advertise your roleplay thread ion the status bar.

I've had really good luck DMing people to become friends, and then turning those friends into players when I was ready to hatch my idea.

I looked all over the place for people with Danganronpa avatars and just struck up conversations with them. After a few week or so of chatting, I let them know I was making a Danganronpa RP and got feedback from them. I involved them in all kinds of aspects from what they thought the rules for character creation should be as well as just discussed concepts for the RP. As an example, Danganronpa takes place in a secluded location where a murder game can unfold, so I would tell them about how I could overcome that to let new roleplayers join down the road. It worked very well, and 4 years later one of the people I approached this way is still playing.

But it sounds like you've already made your RP. And while people genuinely enjoy forging new friendships, they don't like to be sold something. I would just do a periodic status bar avert. it's the difference between seeing a flyer in the mall and getting spam mail. One gives you a sense of discovery and can be ignored easily, the other can be a bit of a nuisance.

Thank you for the advice everybody. =) I really don't want to insult or annoy anybody, so I think I will just post occasionally the status updates like most of you suggested.
Mayve about what's happening in my game... Thank you!