What attracts you to a forum?

What do you look for most in an RP forum you want to join? A clean site? An active discord? Post length/quality? I would love to hear what everyone looks for when they go looking for a new place to write.

 

Activity, the skin/theme/colors (because honestly some are a headache to look at), genre, general story, ease of navigation, post lengths+ writers style (I got for the 2+ paragraph literate ones) and if its adult + dark themes.
A discord helps a lot, honestly. But I dont think its the end of the world if it lacks one.

 

A well layed out (simple, easy to use, clear) skin/theme; usable from a mobile perspective; well written lore.

 

I generally like a site more if the skin is pretty and modern looking. I also like the site to be "user friendly" and not hard to navigate or read. The if I like the genre and the community seems friendly - i am probably all good.

 

Since I'm a girl I go for aesthetics first, activity second, and how difficult they make it to join and play - all of which can put up red flags and scare me away.

Then, joining the Discord to see what the flavor of folks and activity is like, if we gel.

 

I like a forum that is fun and relaxed, somewhere that doesn't take itself too seriously. Prettiness is always a plus, and seeing that it is active with well written characters is always appealing!

 

Good looks and a sexy theme? Also it not being jcink helps the case.

 

Theme is huge and general aesthetics. Secondly would be the type of species.

 

Ideally, all of these things, but I'm unbelievably picky.

The things I'm most willing to compromise on are the busy discord and clean site; mostly, I want quality roleplay and people to thread with who will give and take as much as I do. As long as the site doesn't burn my eyeballs out of my skull, I'll put up with it. I might even offer whatever contributions I can to make it more pleasing to the eye.

 

Really? Activity and a common interest. It doesn't have to be the same opinion on said common interest, but it does need to be civil and respectful.

 

Definitely activity and a gripping premise/storyline. Layout is a good bonus!

 

The site has to be readable--being aesthetically appealing to me absolutely helps, though. I'm shallow, what can I say? What ultimately will make me interested is the setting and the vibe/community in general. That's why I've never really considered joining a site where all IC activity is hidden from guests... I like to get the lay of the land first! I do think there's something to be said for judging a site by its cover though. Chances are, a site that is a total mismatch/turn-off for me visually will also probably be a mismatch in terms of community.

 

An active Discord is important to me, but the members on said Discord have to be kind and inclusive, not clique-y at all! I don't care so much about post length, but I love it when people are passionate about their writing and really seem to be engaged with the world and the characters they write.

 

creative and active! if nobody is posting whats the point? and if it doesn't have a unique and interesting world, why should i play? preferably with high quality writing and without a lot of rules surrounding how i have to write. i like getting funky with perspective and wording! im also easily baited in by nice aesthetics or themes.

 

I'm the odd bunny out and struggle in the social scene so if a site says it is mandatory to join the discord then that site isn't for me. When it comes to what I do look for in a site, it's a variety of different things. I want to make sure that the current community has characters and active RPers that I would be interested in roleplaying with, so I typically do check out the threads going on in the recent activity. I make sure that the admins seem friendly enough through their conversations with the members. I make sure that the site doesn't have an overabundance of rules that make the site really strict or the acceptance process really brutal. I can't handle posting requirements once every seven days, so I look for sites whose activity checks are more lenient of one or two posts in a month. Now mind you I typically post a lot more than that in a month, but there can be times that I get busy and I personally don't like the stress of feeling like I have to post once every single week regardless of how I'm feeling, or that I have to announce how I'm doing with various hiatus messages to keep up with the rules.

 

That's a good point about the Discord thing, too. I generally LIKE being in a community's Discord, but something about it being required makes me itchy. There was a site I used to be on that had no real OOC stuff--not even PLOTTING--done on the board at all, and it was weirdly stressful when I was really busy with work but still felt like I HAD to be paying attention to the chatroom. So in a more positive sense: a site that at least has some activity in the OOC section!

 

An active discord and a couple posts weekly, maybe even daily ;3

 

First and foremost, I look at the skin/layout. If it seems too busy or difficult to navigate, I'm generally out of there pretty quickly. Beyond that though, I look for somewhere with an active and casual/fun community, as well as well written and thought out lore. I'm an introvert at heart, so I only really ever join a Discord server if I am really set on joining the forum.

 

Activity and community. When joining it's important to see if the type of community is right for me. Too much drama/negativity can scare me off, if I'm early on in a community.

 

I'm kind of with you. It's not so much how the site looks. I mean if it looks nice, it looks nice. As long as the other admins and members are open to actually accepting new people, that is what draws me in. Though I have been in a couple of places before, where it had started out that way, and then all of a sudden, people are not so nice. I didn't even do anything to provoke this, the next thing I know I am getting nothing but nasty messages.