Forums » RP Discussion » Keep that lovin' feelin

I might point out that fragmentation on its own is not necessarily a bad thing. It's true that the average human can only sustain so many close relationships at one time, and though most of the humans (and human-likes) around here are well above average, we all do have our limit. It's when joining a group means you start treating other groups without the basics of human decency and politeness that it starts to rot at the core of a thing. Making certain everyone feels safe here is a rock bottom minimum goal for me.

Finding ways to stir people together a bit is actually a good suggestion. I'm not certain I can make an automated RP suggester, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind and wait for further inspiration to strike.

I do like the RP-suggestion thingy. We already have a wonderful selection of characters we might like to play with presented to us on the Home page every so often, but some folks are shy about initiating contact that might not even end up with any roleplay happening!

Instead of automating a type of RP-suggestion thingy, however, though, I do believe a nice "Looking for Roleplay(ers)" forum would be an addition that would solve the problem. Roleplayers are often looking for new people to play with, even if they stick with the same ones for long stretches at a Time, and this would provide a nice and easy way for individuals and communities alike to find new roleplaying companions right here on the RPR. It might even help prevent that fragmentation we're all so concerned about by encouraging a constant mixing of new blood into the old.

I like both ideas! I must admit though, I feel it might be a bit too much. When groups are fully done, people can join an IC RP group more easily than posting back and forth on a forum saying "I want to RP, who's with me?!"

Perhaps we can add keywords to groups and can search for those keywords to find the perfect RP group. Maybe have an 'open forum' in the group where non-members can ask questions about the group in case they're considering joining. The keywords assigned to a group can also be linked to a user's interests. i.e. In our profile we can have a small field called 'interests', and then RPR will automatically display suggestions of which group falls within our interests.

I've seen a couple of "Finding RP" forums in the past, and they've generally been a bit neglected or unproductive because people don't really converse as much there. If we integrate finding roleplays with groups more, I feel that it might be smoother and easier to find what you're looking for!

I agree with this. I mean, Furcadia's main site has a Looking for section which is, so far as I can tell from the threads made, used to look for specific rp, dreams or even players for a pre-existing continuity. But, to put it in perspective, not everyone I know even goes on the main forums - we stick to our niches anyway. You've the feral rp, the sci-fi, the yiff, the canon and so on, and so forth. Groups on RPR just makes that so much easier. I agree with the keywords idea for certain.

The problem I see with most "looking for" forums is that only people who LOOK for RP go there, and not so much people who OFFER RP. It's a tricky difference to define, but basically, people who look for RP expect others to deliver it. People who offer it reply to people who look for it.

Most folks who look for RP tend not to check out other threads. So it's a kind of unfulfilled never ending cycle. Of course I may be very off on it, but the groups are such a brilliant idea and integration I think there's more luck in doing something with those rather than add an extra forum.

(And now I'm repeating myself, so I'll shut up)

I think I'm going to regret this. First, thanks for responding almost immediately to your userbase, as always. Certainly more than anyone would expect of any moderator, and damn impressive.

Second, I wanted to focus on the last part of the above quote. While I understand that your statement was meant more as a compliment to your users, I feel like I have to point something out. When people start feeling like they're above average, or good enough - that is when they stagnate, become uninterested in self-improvement, and become dismissive, unhelpful and rude towards newcomers, or anyone else they feel isn't above average like them.

Again, this is not a criticism. You were being cool and letting your fellow RPRers (great acronym, or the greatest?) know you think they're cool, and I admire that.

However, I think this idea will be a far more useful contribution and have a more real impact than my previous one. This is a real, actionable way to maintain exactly the kind of feel-good attitude you were referencing in your first post, and I'm pretty sure other people in this thread have suggested other things along the same lines. Basically, we need to be the kinds of people we want to encourage to join, while reminding each other that perfection is an asymptote that we can approach but never reach (LOLOL MATHS).

A simpler way of putting it: Think of it like an exercise program. If you're not improving, you're stagnating, and if you're stagnating, you're atrophying. It's not enough to let your friends stay where they are. Acknowledge that they're doing well, and always push them to do better.

Even if you've only been working out for a month.

Even if you come off like a smug preachy asshole who thinks he knows everything.

Even if the person you're "encouraging" is the one paying for the space and is constantly doing maintenance and adding new and better equipment.

In closing, let me reiterate that this is not pointing out anything currently wrong with the site, its membership, or administration. I just seized on your wording as a way of illustrating what I was trying to get across. Hope there's enough ass-kissing in here to keep me from getting banned!

P.S. The points people have made about "LFRP" forums are excellent ones. Rather than a dedicated forum, I think we're better off constructing an environment (in other words, peer pressure) that discourages elitism and helps people more to venture outside their comfort zones, in order to include people they don't know in their RPs. This isn't a problem now, of course, as the site is so small most everyone just posts RPs and can rely on people jumping in at random. As stated above, as the site grows, I think we'll see the groups feature grow in usefulness and popularity exactly as quickly as this would have become a problem.

P.P.S. Along these lines, I would suggest avoiding the inclusion of anything in a person's posts that indicates seniority, such as post count or join date - although useful in places such as tech forums where expertise and reliable sources are important, they would have little relevance in this place. As far as I know, no such tags exist here, save perhaps on user pages, which isn't a big deal, so... keep doin' what you're doin'?

Personally, and speaking as a timid person myself when it comes to approaching someone to ask for something (i.e. roleplay), I still don't think the groups thing is much more inviting than just having people PM the players of characters they like. Groups are notorious for being clique-y, and don't offer the same atmosphere that an open forum for people searching for roleplay would. Of course, if such a forum ever were implemented, groups would be more than free to post there, saying that they are looking for new blood! (This would also allow those more reclusive and/or selective groups to be left alone, too, simply by virtue of not posting.)

If we wanted to add fancy programming to such a concept, I suppose something like having some indication next to groups that are open and actively looking for people would work--but then there arises another issue, that is, what if you want a certain kind of roleplay, but there are no groups there to cater to it? At the Time of this posting, there are only ten groups. What if I wanted to join a viking roleplay? There are no groups like that. What would I do?

That brings me to my final point, that is, a Looking For RP forums would help encourage the making of new groups. Most of the ones I've seen (Skuldhellir, Esoteric, etc.) seem to be RPR versions of groups that were founded outside of the website. This is because the website does not as of yet offer any good way for people with similar roleplaying interests to get together and found something like that--an LFRP forum would fix that, too.

EDIT: I'd also like to add that the difference between the Furc forums and RPR's is that the Furc forums are not the main method of socializing for the game, but the RPR forums are!

Focusing on Wizard's post, I think we are posing a perfect example of different preferences.

I would never post in a LFRP forum myself, because if someone would offer me a place to RP, I'd feel obliged to do that. I say "Sorry, no" every day at work and rejecting people, so I don't want that kind of pressure in my free time... Which I would inevitably feel considering my very specific tastes in RP and the fact the majority of RP communities/groups/RP dreams etc. don't suit my taste

I feel that if someone wants to RP a certain topic, they should go ahead and post in the RP forum! If you want to RP Vikings? Then start RPing vikings! I'm more of a taking action kind of gal rather than sitting back and asking carefully if someone wants to RP this or that. If I want something and nobody's offering, I do it myself.

That is however the beauty of individualism; not everyone thinks like me, so this doesn't apply to everyone. Not everyone is comfortable enough to take charge. I'm not giving an outright no to a LFRP forum, but I do think there need to be more opinions to base its usefulness on. Perhaps Wizard's p.o.v. is the general opinion and the forum will be used a lot to join RPers together. Or perhaps we have mostly folks here who take matters such as starting RP into their own hands, making a LFRP forum useless if most will just start RPing by themselves without asking for anything.

It's a tricky thing to consider. If anyone has a specific opinion on the forum vs more specific group implementation (or maybe both!) please speak up. That way we can get a better view of what would be more useful, or if we can do both if opinions are divided enough! ^^

If the low level of fresh activity in the roleplaying forums we do have is any indication, I would say that most members of the current user base are less inclined to start things up like that themselves without getting some idea of how many other folks would participate.

I think all of the points you made were actually excellent and have been more food for thought for looking at the future. I did want to respond to the last part of your quoted bit especially, though, and it's something I am occasionally worried about.

We DO have an amazingly sunshiny attitude around here, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but there is always the potential for it to look like what's required around here is a ton of brown nosing and anything less will get you kicked out. To me, this would be a tragic state of affairs. Who would tell me if I'm about to walk off a cliff, if everyone in the world (or on the site) felt that they would end up banned if they took the time to tap my shoulder and say "You're going the wrong direction"?

All civilly stated disagreements are quite welcome, and even if we never do agree, community discussions are invaluable in showing me the needs of the users, and I really do use what's said to help plan for the future, whether it be features or policy setting.

There's only so many ways to demonstrate that I like real debate beyond thanking people when they do speak up. Luckily, we have a system in place to thank people for telling me when I've screwed up or could do something better. Since I think I detected some nervousness in your reply, I've given you an accolade for having the bravery to voice what you thought might be an unpopular decision. There's a shiny trophy on your profile now. Hopefully that helps dispel your fear of being made to regret sticking up for your opinion!


We've had a forum for finding and advertising RP for as long as we've had forums. It's the "RP Discussion" forum. But since people frequently suggest a "looking for" forum and need reminding, I think it wasn't clear enough. That forum's description was sort of long winded and upon re-reading it, the fact that it could be used to find new RP was sort of buried in tiny text. I've gone and chopped the description down to something much shorter and hopefully more scannable.

I'd rather not branch the RP Discussions forum into two (one for discussions and one for advertising/looking for) until we have enough chatter there that they'd both actually be used.

At the moment it seems like people are making some of these declarations of interest in their introductions, which is a start. Unfortunately, most of the intro topics have titles like "Hello" and "Hi!", which does not scream "I am a fantasy RPer looking for dragons to adventure with!"

Dude, badass. Actually that reminds me of this thing Dave Kellett (webcomic guy, known for being good at building communities) said on some podcast: basically, you have to take measures to encourage the community you want, and this accolade system is a great way to provide incentives and rewards to accomplish just that - and since it doesn't provide actual tangible benefits (like say, extra character slots), it's unlikely to divide people or cause jealousy or accusations of cabalism.

Also yeah, I was definitely being the new guy in that post - I only wall-of-text because I care, though. I think this community could end up being a long-term thing for me (which is pretty rare), so it's certainly in my best interest to help out.

I hope this isn't too off topic. It just seemed like the right place to put it. This is honestly the only rp community I actually feel welcome in.

... even if I don't actually rp here (yet).

It is all in due time Meedleboot. All in due time.

Technically~~~ it's a "RP Character Site" website. With the option to RP! If you want to keep RPing in Furc or elsewhere, that's just as fine as doing so here.

One can Only Hope Kim

I'm glad to say I haven't really found someone in RPR yet who I dislike!

Likewise.

In fact, since becoming part of this community, I feel like I've made a completely new circle of friends. You're all brilliant, fun people

Hey guys? I LOVE YOU ALL!

RPRs probsbly the only site i've been to where everyones friendly and no ones yelling at eachother for doing something wrong by accident.