The Plight of Inactivity

I feel like I have something in common with both @Iversia and @Invisie - my RPG is super established we actually began with a sizable memberbase of like 30 writers. Long term stats show that Absit Omen is constantly growing - with and without advertising. So I feel so lucky that our large, establish community isn't really affected by seasonal highs and lows.

So when we get inactivity? Like Invisie, we kind of ignore it? Just go with the flow. If things are particularly slow, we might check a few things to make sure it's nothing toxic causing it. But usually all is well and people are just busy with school or vacation.

When things are slow, we try not to push any big plots because we know participation might be low. We use the time, as a staff, to take a bit of a break from 'paperwork' or to go back and find some things we can work on. It's kind of nice, actually? For AO, it just seems like part of the pulse of our community.

 

:: nods :: sad indeed.
What is your RP again, Rise?

Vacation is one thing where it's temporary like a few days or a couple weeks and usually people will forewarn about that.
But school? Really? Rarely have I seen people forewarn about this and it's often the younger players who do this. They feel so burdened with school work (especially college). I find that hard to belive really. I've been to college, too, I'm well aware of how demanding it is but I STILL made time for all my RPs! Even with 12 hr class days and extra activities on top of that, job and more! Frankly, school should not be used an excuse for inactivity. They joined the RP, agreed to be a part of it, it's a commitment, they should be there! There needs to be a Law laid down that you join, you are committed to the RP and WILL post, will MAKE the time to Post, and if you cannot handle it, official depart from the RP with a notice and adopt out characters if that is possible. Just do NOT leave other members hanging and ignoring them, wasting their precious time, too! If they didn't want to or don't really have the time to be a part of it they need to officially leave it or not join in the first place! One HAS to make the time! School should not longer be an excuse. Sorry. I grow tired of hearing that 'busy with school' excuse. That and poor Communication. Just nothing for a while and then out of the blue saying "sorry, busy with school" ... nope, don't cut it! And I KNOW people take communication classes! I KNOW they are on Facebook, texting, Skyping, tweets, etc. constantly. How hard is it to just send a message that takes 30 seconds to type? You do this at work and damn well will get fired!
Again, it's a wake up call! Not only for us, but those who are using excuses.
What are the rules on the RPs out there? Are they focusing on word counts and application processes, etc.. instead of member safety, communication, and activity?
Again, a wake up call here! The Inactivity is a plight that NEEDS to be nipped in the butt! Because there's a lot of underlying issues associated to inactivity.


~Lady B

 

I personally disagree about the "busy with school" thing. I'm an adult. When I was in college I was working at the same time. So I had a full credit load and a job. It's one thing if the person is playing around on Social Networks and things, but sometimes school does eat a person. I was a prime example. We've also got a player who goes to boarding school and has limited time with internet. Just being in school isn't enough, but there are cases where school is enough to take a person away for awhile.

Granted, at CoSC at least, those players have to either file an LOA or face the consequences. Fortunately, most of our players are very good about announcing needed time and off and filing reports in good time.

 

If a person is over loaded with work or school or whatever, then they should leave. They shouldn't be a part of something and leave other members high and dry. It's not fair to everyone to be taking up a character and being silent all the time because one is busy.
I've been overloaded with school, too, with 12 hr class days (double full credit) plus activities on the weekends and weekdays that were related to my schooling, job, and home life, but I still took the time to post. I made no excuse not to post. But if I couldn't, I at least posted something for others that I wouldn't be able to for a certain amount of time. At least I kept others in mind, not just myself. Again, is it SO hard to just post a little something?

I know people want to RP but really, to join, take on characters, and then barely be there and silent? It's excuses that only waste people's time. And to say that school keeps you SO busy that you can't post is a very lame excuse. School is a breeze compared to work and other life things. If people have a hard time with school and their priorities, and cannot post, then they will NEVER have that time for ANY RPs! Period! Even as Admins. I've seen this time and time again! Even Admins who use excuses not to post or work on their RP sites, dump it all on me, then expect to jump back in and take over, but are there only 5 times out of the year! All because they made excuses! Again, DO NOT WASTE THE TIME OF OTHERS! It's more than disrespectful, it's outright neglectful!
School is tough, again, I've been there, too. I've had those college days where I woke up at 4am, to ride horses for a drill team at college, go through classes all day in different buildings, and not get home until 10pm at night! With work, those extra activities and various workloads (try taking Equine classes, History, Acting, and Psychology all in one semester!), it's pretty rough! But nothing compared to the life of a mom and wife and career woman all in one! People who know they cannot do this will say, sorry but I cannot. Not join an RP and then leave everyone hanging.

A good RPer would not use excuses not to post. If they do not want to be a part of the RP or don't have time for it, they shouldn't be there. No matter how much Admins beg and convince them to join.

We need to ENCOURAGE members to PLEASE COMMUNICATE! To encourage them that if they cannot handle Role Playing at the moment, then they can go on a sabbatical or leave. They can ALWAYS return when time allows. But they should NOT take up characters and constantly ignore people with their inactivity. I've been on both ends and learned my lesson but I hate it when people ignore me, and are inactive. It's more than rude!

With Shadows, and most of my RPs... I REALLY make people think, asking them that they only join if they really can commit to posting on a regular basis and contribute to the story. I don't worry about word counts, grammar, applications, or other nonsense... I'm focused upon the member and if they can or cannot do this. I will NOT push people into joining, that is up to them if they really want to. All in all, I do have people who do communicate with me nevertheless. I have one person who's rather inactive but she's let me know of issues. And I'm kosher with that. She's not holding up stories, etc. Unlike some other people in the past who just... disappeared (and really, I will think a person is dead if they do that).

Again, Inactivity is a plight, a plague, it's people who cannot coordinate their priorities, know their boundaries, and are lacking in time management. These are integrity issues and we as Admins SHOULD help members encourage them to make the WISE decision, and get them to ask the question "Can you? Or can you NOT do this? The choice is yours. It's a commitment, not something to blow off and neglect."
Sounds like a responsibility, yes. But an Admin should be like an awesome boss who is encouraging, has faith in you, communicates with you, holds regular meetings, etc... not the boss from Hell who is always ripping into you about anything that goes wrong, does nothing to keep you informed, etc. An RP is only as good as the Admins. And if an RP is inactive, well, then it does reflect upon the Admins, even if the Admin is a good person. A good clip from "The Patriot", where Cornwallis barked at Tavington about his recent activities and leadership: "Your Behavior REFLECTS upon me!" .. or even what Yoda says "Do or do not; there is no try". You either DO post... or you DON'T post.

So... for me, inactivity is a plague I am working to eliminate. And with my RPs, as I mentioned, I do ask people before they join that they think seriously about joining the RP and that they commit to it and take the time to post. I want them to have fun and want to be there. I don't want them to think it's a chore to post, nor worry about unnecessary issues, but if they won't be there, they need to let me and other Members know so we won't be upset and left neglected, etc. Because one member does indeed reflect upon the story and they affect others in the RP.



~Lady B

 

Well, we've had our bouts. We then get a few of the regular members (we don't have much staff in the grand scheme of things) to start posting a few open threads. It seems that as long as things ARE being posted, the activity will come back.

Also, we just had our one-year anniversary a few months ago. At that time, we were getting summer things kicked off, and then preparing for the fall things, so we've just gotten around to holding a site meeting to take opinions and suggestions from anyone. We've tried to incorporate as much as we could, such as a reorganization of a few forums and the side bar. But not all things are possible to use.

Mostly though, we just try to keep it fun, and I love getting to know the members who come play with us. :)

 

Risk, up until a couple nights ago, operated with the two week sweep system. If you hadn't posted in two weeks, your account was moved to Inactive and you could reapply. It's a hassle for members an staff a like to keep up with, especially since myself and one of my team both work full time, as do several of our regular members.

So, upon talking to a friend who's part of another rp and talking about their activity requirements, we kind of had a light bulb go off.

Why worry about who's posted at least once this two weeks? Maybe they're in a rut with a certain character, maybe they're busy with life. I know I get that way. Why worry?

We decided to change it. We'll run a sweep every two months. It removed stress almost immediately, especially for the people who play a lot of characters. It's a pilot run, but I'm hoping it does well. It would be nice to not really have to worry about who posted when.

 

Two WEEKS?!? Wow! I refuse to do it more than twice a year. And then, we post an 'activity check' thread (each player only has to post once, with each C name) and we send out a mass email. We keep the thread open for month. If we're not contacted by the end of the month, then Cs get move to inactive status. To return to active status, a player must come onsite and request it.

 

It wasn't really an activity CHECK. More just a bi-weekly sweep. But I'm used to wolf rps where you have to stay active to keep your rank. I don't like posting activity checks bc I think they're kind of useless.

 

The checks kind of are useless. All it says is that if someone doesn't post in the month we give them that we can consider them inactive and move profiles and such to the inactive section, but it does open up spots that were taken, but not being used. Of course, that's why we only do it twice a year.

 

Changing out the skin has always worked for me. When the members are getting bored or want to see something new and shiny, I give it to them. I also try to sprinkle in events that people can get involved in. Our Secret Admirer wall, for example, was a huge success. People loved it! (Basically, an anonymous account would post character secrets on the wall.) You really have to know your members, though. Some events won't go over well with some groups, so you need to plan accordingly.

 

Activity is something that rises and falls like the tide. You just have to keep going through the times where there is low activity... keep advertising to draw more people to the site, and make sure that the members who are still around are well taken care of.

 

We do awards and people end up posting their butts off and we give out medals that are basically bragging rights

 

If anything when the rest of the SIM is a bit slower the only thing I really can do at will is log more in the hopes that signs of activity might get somebody else writing too. I've never been great at advertising as a GM, I'm more comfortable with character and world building than anything. The more emails our site sends to the crew the better chance they'll see that email and log in (so I hope) :)

 

Just keep in mind that a lot of people are just dating your game and aren't going to commit to it. You've gotta keep advertising because you don't want the playerbase to stagnate if you can avoid it.

 

What do you do when there is a lull or drop in activity?
I do what any good admin has to do, I keep posting. Lulls in activity happen for various reasons, many of which are out of the control of the administrator, so I just try to keep plowing through it. If I go inactive, the site dies, that's incentive enough.

How about when members leave because of it?
Pretty much the same as above, I just take it in my stride.

How effective do you think plots, contests, and other events are at remedying inactivity?
Contests, I have never found work, but that's just a personal experience. I actually find that activity can be picked up when new plots are introduced, so I like to keep the timeline moving as much as possible even if people aren't around. People have short attention spans, it's nice to keep things fresh.

Which do you think works better, a plot driven roleplay or a member driven roleplay?
For me, a plot driven roleplay; if a member leaves, it does not matter too much and does not hinder the game.

Do you have incentives for members to maintain activity?
Our plot and timeline actually move based on activity milestones so that is incentive enough for most people. If they stop posting, the site stagnates, and most of them don't want that. It also helps that the members we've had are rather competitive, so they tend to want to get to the finish line so to speak.

 

Posting does vary with different times of the year, but it has been my experience that a sim dies from inactivity because of a lack of plot-driven story lines; after all, the plot lines is what keeps everyone interested. On top of a plot-driven story, you MUST have an active command or admin team to keep things moving, a team that works well together and that will keep the story moving.

 

Most of the games I've involved with now are on Nova, so it keeps track of activity levels for us. There's an automatic notification when a player hasn't posted in two weeks, but often they have posts saved that aren't ready to publish. So it isn't perfect by any means. It just gives us a starting point.

I don't like to chase people to post. If I've noticed they haven't posted in more than a couple weeks and they have nothing saved, I might send them a friendly note asking what's going on. If I don't get a response to that in a week or so, I might stick them on LOA just so they don't have to worry about it. If I don't hear anything for a couple of months, I might send them an email rather than a private message. It depends on the situation really, and the role they play in the game.

Personally I don't delete accounts. I just move them to inactive after a period of several weeks or a few months, which gives them the option to return when life allows them to. If, however, someone applies for the position while the original player is inactive, they'll have to pick a new role upon returning.

 

At my site, we only move members into inactive member groups if it's been a year or two. Sure we do have lulls but its never really dead. Most of our members are in college so during finals and winters, there's a bit of a slow down, but nothing too serious. And My staff and I are always around doing whatever we can to keep people going. We make seasonal events and themes for our members to keep them active. We try to get members as involved in the actual site as they are their roleplays on site. Make them feel like it is there home. Which it is.

Sometimes member leave for whatever reason and then they come back so we never delete accounts. We make them inactive in which they can't do anything and no one can really do anything on their profiles etc. If they want to come back they just email one of four admins and we make their accounts active again. They don't lost posts or anything else. :3

My site is a general roleplay community, so if a member leaves it only effects their partners but there are over two thousand members on my site so there's always someone to fill that void, but it's still always sad that someone had to leave for whatever reason. :/

 

I find that putting out 'feelers' with the players tends to help as well. If things seem slow - you can ask them what's going on. Are they just busy or are they not interested in playing anymore. Maybe they need direction or a storyline to jump into. I find a lot of players don't want to ask for help, so sometimes you need to offer it or make it available to them.

Plus, feedback is never a bad thing.

 

Totally agree with Chicago by Night, asking your members what's going on and what they'd like to see happen to maybe generate some activity is definitely the way to go.