Looking to Improve

[Kitten4u]

Well activity has died down a bit compared to what it was last week, and I want to try to get it back up again. I have some ideas and I want to know what you think of them, but if you have some ideas of your own don't hesitate to share them.

First, do advertising forums work? I've been spamming my ad everywhere I can (as you can tell by the many posts in my advertising forum), but I noticed that a lot of them only get two views; mine and the admin that links back here. That also seems to be the case here. So does spamming my link in advertising forums actually bring people in, or am I just wasting my time?

Second, what do all of you like about the site? I'm looking to change my ad a bit and add more details about why this forum is awesome, but I didn't find this site and become interested in it like all of you did, so it's a bit harder for me to pick out those details. So, what specifically do you find interesting?

Third, do you know of any good places for me to spread the word? Of course I need places that don't frown upon links being posted. Right now I've just been posting the link on every forum I can find, but I don't think it's proving to be very effective.

Is everything clear and easy to understand? Is the site easy to navigate? Is it easy to find a place to start and to make a character?

Any other ideas on how to pull new people in? How can I make the site more appealing in general?

Well, now that I've asked how to get new people to join, how can I get the current inactive members to post more? I don't want to bug people with mass e-mails too much, but I'm not really sure how else I can get their attention if they don't actually log in. Also, even if they do get the e-mail, how can I make them more likely to become more active again?

Now onto you, the people that are active. One thing I notice constantly in the "looking for" thread on Proboards Support is that people want a good "plot." My "plot" is more of a backstory, and I decided to use rumors to make things happen instead. Is that a good idea or a bad idea?

Does my weather thing add an interesting dynamic to the RP, or is it just annoying?

Regarding member of the month. I plan to have one at some point when the site is more active. I'm planning on having three categories: Member of the Month, Roleplayer of the Month and Character of the Month. Are there any other categories you'd like to see?

I've considered adding another board called "The Bunbunmaru Newspaper." That's the name of the newspaper that my character Aya writes. One of the reasons I decided to play her was to control the flow of information and to release information when I wanted to, but still keep it somewhat controlled. Anyway, this new forum would be a place for me to put articles that Aya "writes," and then your characters could comment on them. It would all be IC, and I'd probably write a new one every week. I might even interview your characters depending on what the article is about. Does this sound interesting?

Is there anything else you'd like to see done?

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to this~

[sake]

Ha ha, first to respond! I feel speshul.

First- Advertising forums can be hit or miss. I was pulled through that way on proboards support's ad. But it all depends on the demographic and dynamics of the place. You need to advertise in places where the people have to seem similar interests. From the link back section you seem to be doing that fairly well. But people are fickle little things, and the craze for Japanese-themed RPs are generally considered yesterdays news. It's all Twilight and similar shoddy vampire themes.


Second- I like a lot about the site. It's well organized, with enough details to make a Touhou retard like me feel at home, as opposed to intimidated by the information and setup. The color scheme may be off-putting to some, who may consider it too "girly," but I personally adore it. The chatbox is a bit smaller than what I'm used to, but it fits in very nicely with the site's setup.


Third- Dunno. The other proboard sites I frequent are superhero and Star Wars-based, so I doubt you could pull in a large crowd from those sites.


Clear and easy to navigate? Hell yes. This is one of the best site setups I've seen.


Pulling people in? Hm. I think if we have a few active and chatty OOC threads and the like that could help. You do leave the RP sections open to guests to see, though, which I like. It drives me insane when I can't see the RP posts so I can judge their quality and activity. Your site setup couldn't be better in my opinion, but like I said, the general theme is slightly passe to the masses, which makes things difficult.


Inactive members I don't know how to handle. Some may be tied up with life/away, as I have been in the past few days (and still am. Home tomorrow!) But maybe a general "I'm gonna be away" board or sub-board would be helpful. All I can say is scheduled activity checks, and delete those who fail to appear.


I like the rumors idea. It keeps the so-called plot open and flowing, without becoming too stagnant. It also keeps them from becoming too elaborate and too intimidating for new players who want to get involved. Trust me, nothing sucks more than jumping onto a site and being unable to post since you can't decipher the three-year old plot that I can't even begin to comprehend. It may be off-putting to some, but you can't please everyone.


The weather thing. I dunno what to think of it. I generally like it, but I personally feel that it changes too quickly. Though if you need a quick "oh shit I need a setting thing" deal, its great.


I think it's nice. But some may have trouble telling the different classes apart.


That is a damn awesome idea. It'd certainly be fun, at the least.


I really have no improvement suggestions. This is an incredibly well-done site that just has the misfortune of having a theme that's not currently popular. It's not a bad thing, as it's wonderful to find something different amongst the endless Twilight and Potter threads. It's really nothing that's your fault.

[Kitten4u]

Yay responses.

First- Advertising forums can be hit or miss. I was pulled through that way on proboards support's ad. But it all depends on the demographic and dynamics of the place. You need to advertise in places where the people have to seem similar interests. From the link back section you seem to be doing that fairly well. But people are fickle little things, and the craze for Japanese-themed RPs are generally considered yesterdays news. It's all Twilight and similar shoddy vampire themes.

At this point if there's a place for me to advertise I will post there. I don't really pay attention to the theme. XD I just spam it like there's no tomorrow. Anyway, if it's pulling in a couple of people I'll keep doing it.

Pulling people in? Hm. I think if we have a few active and chatty OOC threads and the like that could help. You do leave the RP sections open to guests to see, though, which I like. It drives me insane when I can't see the RP posts so I can judge their quality and activity. Your site setup couldn't be better in my opinion, but like I said, the general theme is slightly passe to the masses, which makes things difficult.

I attempted to make a couple OOC threads, but no one's replied to them. ;_; Eh, I'll make a few more.

And I hate it when I can't view at least some of the IC boards. imo you join to post, not to read so there's no real reason to keep them hidden.

Inactive members I don't know how to handle. Some may be tied up with life/away, as I have been in the past few days (and still am. Home tomorrow!) But maybe a general "I'm gonna be away" board or sub-board would be helpful. All I can say is scheduled activity checks, and delete those who fail to appear.

Introductions board can be used for that too. Most of the time I don't make a seperate board for each, and I normally just name it introductions because some person on one of my earlier sites said that "Greetings and Goodbyes" sounded like people were leaving and it just kind of stuck. I'll edit that into the sticky.

I like the rumors idea. It keeps the so-called plot open and flowing, without becoming too stagnant. It also keeps them from becoming too elaborate and too intimidating for new players who want to get involved. Trust me, nothing sucks more than jumping onto a site and being unable to post since you can't decipher the three-year old plot that I can't even begin to comprehend. It may be off-putting to some, but you can't please everyone.

Basically what I was thinking. Yay.

The weather thing. I dunno what to think of it. I generally like it, but I personally feel that it changes too quickly. Though if you need a quick "oh shit I need a setting thing" deal, its great.

I've been updating it twice a day. Should I lower that to once a day, or even less frequently than that?

I think it's nice. But some may have trouble telling the different classes apart.

Not quite sure what you mean here.

That is a damn awesome idea. It'd certainly be fun, at the least.

Sweet. It sounds like it would be extremely fun to do too.

I really have no improvement suggestions. This is an incredibly well-done site that just has the misfortune of having a theme that's not currently popular. It's not a bad thing, as it's wonderful to find something different amongst the endless Twilight and Potter threads. It's really nothing that's your fault.

Eh, I guess. I just like to feel that I could do more.

Thanks for your imput~

[Genshuku]

Small suggestion: an IRC chat? You may want to look into it and put it in easy view so people can chat and such, and it's easier than typing in that extremely small C-Box. However, I don't know too much about it, so bleh.

Also, being a lazy admin is sort of a turn off