Something I may point out is the welcome PM that every new member receives:
The question I have for you guys is do you also feel that this helps with a new user experience and perhaps should we update it with some details on the site?@Vashonn was kind enough to mention that he never really bothered with an intro post due to a lack of activity, so even before we get a chance to interact with the newbies is there something we can do to encourage them to engage in the community as opposed to hiding behind PMs and the usual lurking tendencies.
I know we're not really looking for stuff for Mahz to do, but profile pages could be tweaked a bit. It would help if there were several sections to fill out with various interests. I realize new users can do that with the bio section, but having various fields kind of gives new users hints as to what they should be writing. I'm not going to lie, quite a few people I recruited for my Danganronpa RP I acquired just by striking up a conversation about Danganronpa with people that had avatars from the game. I think people would be more likely to have conversations with new users if they knew what their interests were.
As a solution to both problems (giving Mahz less workload and addressing any edits to be made to the welcome PM), we could give a sort of list of info to players on how they can hunt for/announce to others what kind of playstyles/genres they would most enjoy. I mean, throwing a link to the introduction board and saying "this is where you say hi!" is simple - and to some, probably effective enough - yet I would imagine if someone doesn't have much history in online RPing communities, or RPing in general, they wouldn't really have much in terms of what they would say. Ya know:
very few of them know how to write an introduction post. "Hello, In case you can't read above my avatar, this is my username. I like rollplaying, and I want to write with you soon."
this kinda stuff. Giving them not necessarily a criteria to follow, but more-or-less a sort of guideline, would allow them the means of knowing what to write, and allow the more seasoned members to look at the introduction thread and say "hey, I like this thing too! In fact, I have an RP starting up with just this kind of thing in mind!" *Cue cordial invitation to said RP, allowing the newbie easy access into the world of RPG* Of course, this wouldn't be the 100% flawless solution, but it would at least curb any further need for Mahz to spend time on factors that would be neat, but not necessary, and give even more opportunity for new and old players to try and interact with one another while the newbies are still getting their bearings. I can say that another factor for me not wanting to post anything in the introduction when I first joined was also attributed to this factor, since I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to say, since a simple "hello, I'm Vashonn, I like to think I'm nice and stuff and enjoy writing" didn't really seem like a satisfactory submission to me. Again, just my two cents on that thought.
I'm slowly starting to think that the "Play Your Avatar" game (which requires no setup time) could be a very good idea to let people jump straight into roleplaying as soon as they join.
I do wonder though, where would such a game be placed within the forums? Granted, this isn't a huge issue, and I imagine having it pinned in the "free" subforum would suffice, though it would probably be best to put it somewhere where people can readily find it - even as a link at the bottom of the welcome PM, I suppose.
Another minor issue/question, is how would the 'game' be formatted - in a similar fashion to an RP, with an IC, OOC, and Char tab? Or, more along the lines of a simple topic, like this one? Just throwing out thoughts to help churn the thinking-pot, though the answers may seem a bit more obvious than I have reckoned.
Hello. I'm a new user as of a few days ago, and speaking from a newcomers perspective, the greetings haven't been that warm to be honest. Besides a couple hollow feeling greetings in the introduction thread, I've yet to hear back from many users. I've sent so couple PMs, and have stated interest in several games only 2 of which seem to have gained any traction.
...
I like the mentor idea.
I'm sorry to hear that - I was in a similar boat, for about the first week I lurked on here. I guess I can just say that depending on what subforum you're more interested in, things will gradually start picking up the pace, though it more often just depends on the level of dedication required and, in my experience, the time of year, even, as things can get fairly hectic during school/end of school times. I think that there are a good number of 'active' members (relative to others) who are in schooling, and may have more irl things to deal with, but I would imagine that when school is out, things will noticeably move faster ('faster' also being relative).
For the mentor idea, and this isn't just limited as a response to you: I think it should definitely be an option for new players to receive some help, if they would request it, from their peers. It probably wouldn't be necessary for them to have it has some requirement, but if they were to message any of the mods for aid, there should mos def be some sort of team/willing-to-help group of veteran RPers to jump on in and help a new player out, especially if they need assistance getting into the lingo, or anything else they seem to need help on. I wouldn't expect the "mentors" to hold the new user's hand and baby-talk their way through a huge list of "this is how you write an RP", because that would frankly be ridiculous, but simply having one or two of these people around to answer questions in a friendly, welcoming, warm manner would probably keep a good number of new users interested in the Guild. This could also go back to the "Play Your Avatar", where "mentor" members would be actively involved in the game, providing assistance when asked to, and acting as a sort of 'big bro' or 'big sis', without making the situation awkward, forced, or childlike/demeaning to people who are showing up just because they wanna have a good time roleplaying.
I think this all equates to... eight cents! It's a shame this ain't the good old days, or you guys would be gettin' a bag of candy or something by now.
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