The Plight of Inactivity

Try not to let it bother me, for one. I opened a Star Wars site in April of 2011, and it basically lasted from then to December of 2015 (we moved from one board onto another and changed its name when we moved, so I'm counting that all as one site, since we still had the same characters for the most part). I pride myself on the fact that it lasted as long as it did, even with activity drops and with people leaving either without saying anything as to why or telling me, but not telling me the reason until after the fact/it was too late (I'll get to one example of this). One of the main reasons we closed in December was because the activity drop was bad enough that even when we tried to blow up a planet, barely anyone blinked an eye. We tried to do what we could with it but I think we got frustrated and kind of burnt out so we made the decision to close. We decided that we would wait until the end of my spring semester of school before opening up a new site (which we've done and has been open since mid-May).

My two example with the activity: we had a member who was generally somewhat active for a good while, and he had a fair amount of Star Wars knowledge. He was also going to school, and he started getting busier and not posting as often. It was like pulling teeth to try and get him to post and he'd just avoid doing it altogether. Eventually, he did tell me that he was going to leave. He said it was because he was on another (non-Star Wars) role play that was offering him a staff position. While he was a valued member and we did discuss some things regarding the site that I wouldn't have discussed with just ANY member, I wouldn't have offered him a staff position because he and I just clashed way too much. We had different ideals when it came to how to run a site.

I found out after he left that he had left because of the low activity. But he never bothered telling me that he was concerned about the activity level, or that he was bored and that's why he wasn't posting, nothing.

Things like plots, contests, and other events can be effective, I suppose. But it also depends on your players. i.e. blowing up one of the most important planets in the galaxy barely made people blink an eye and react when we did it. Contests...we tried to do of the months, briefly, when my site first opened but it didn't really pan out.

On my current site, the new Star Wars one we opened in May, we had several new people join when we first opened, but they've, like, disappeared. I don't know if it's because it's summer or what. But it sucks. Because they've disappeared, we've been kind of chugging along but it sucks. I don't want to have to do an activity check three, almost four months, into my site's existence. I've sent out emails and basically none of them have really come back. :| So, we'll keep chugging along and hope they'll come back eventually. It's a sandbox role play, so it's not like things were on my old site where I had to come up with plots for people to participate in. They're the ones who're supposed to come up with the plots with each other and do their own thing.

Mostly, and this is something that I've read elsewhere as well, it basically just really helps when the staff team is actively posting and doing more than just logging in or just chatting in the cbox. People have to know that the staff cares, otherwise why are any of the members going to care? What's going to make them want to stick around and post?

 

Some lulls or drops in activity are normal. Depending on the age range of your player base, students will have less time for RP during the school year (if they are in college) or during summer (if they are in high school), in my experience. Adults who have jobs can either be very consistent or not consistent at all. So because of a lot of factors, you may just have some low activity times. The thing to do in that case is RP with people, make sure that your members are getting their RP needs met. This means you may need to host events or advertise your members to each other. And stay positive until activity picks up. You'll obviously need to advertise etc in the meantime.

I prefer member driven roleplay with occasional plot heavy events.

I have incentives for activity in the form of vouchers, which can be exchanged for different ways to advance a person's character or characters.

 

My experience is that things do ebb and flow. The challenge is that sometimes a sense of worry sets in and people can make drastic decisions that turn out to be rather foolish in hindsight. I guess that what really matters is building community and keeping a core of faithful people who'll hold out through the bad times and still be there when things pick up again!

 

Before the main administration split off its parent site we tried everything. I even had a gold rush event that boosted productivity for a time. However, when your lead admin no longer wants to work with you you can't do much. There was so much of a problem that when I first joined the staff as a deity we were voting on if guns would be allowed on the site. The deities voted against it because it didn't fit the time period and it was a rather stupid idea. The lead admin said we weren't staff and overthrew our votes doing it anyways. Thus plunging our activity numbers down the toilet even farther.

When we launched Revaliir we had 100 members on launch day. ON LAUNCH DAY. We weren't expecting that for a month. So many people said they were just tired of an admin who didn't care and were so happy. So when it comes to activity remember that members care about what the administration does and how you present yourself. I am very active on facebook and on the site. I am always doing something to make sure that I am in at least connection to them. Don't ever do something that might blow back in your face just because your pride says to. Take all your members feelings and especially your staff into account.

At least that's what we learned.

 

This! Omg! Yes if you don't have an admin team or staff team that does not care about members you will never be active! I tell my staff that we are there to make sure members are happy! We are not a clique or better than regular members.

I see sites from former staff that I booted off because of their atrocious attitude towards members and even other staff they deemed "lower" than them and their sites are not even close to as active as mine is on its slowest time period.

If your members don't enjoy your site or feel welcomed they will avoid it. They will take their friends to other sites. That's something a lot of people don't realize when they make sites. Then they wonder why it's dead.

 

We are currently trying to break the stigma that we are not the old site. It is absolutely terrible thing to deal with. Though we hope with time that these things go away. It is the one way to ensure that even if new members stop flooding in your old members will remain loyal. Also try to be invested and show new ideas. I have events planned up until summer of next years for administration events.

We made it mandatory that Deities host an event once per year as well. Deities also have to post 5 times a forte night with 2 different PEOPLE not just accounts. We find that helps spread the love.

 

Yeah. I try not to roleplay with staff only. I try to roleplay with as many new people as I allow. Luckily my current staff are all super friendly with everyone and are open to roleplaying with anyone who they may feel are a match.

I also try to help new members find partners that may fit with them as writers.

We are also working on a mentor concept. To help those who are brand new to roleplaying get into it so they aren't confused by people using them for cybering.