Hitting a Plateau

[Wolverine]

I like it...

[🎶Sossity🎶]

May 2, 2011 12:00:46 GMT -8 Wolverine said:

I like it...

Hi

Please read the rules/criteria for posting on this and all other boards.

Thanks.

[sharon]

I'm experiencing this myself. The mistake I did was simply disappearing. I left my moderators with no notice and expected them to pretty much run things without me. If you don't have time to regularly visit your forum then you shouldn't have one simply put. If you're going to choose to have other staff members stay in touch with them and treat them even more special than regular members. Knowing what I've realized I am hoping to revive my forum.

[imitateslife]

My forum is incredibly small and I worry we've hit or are hitting a plateau. To be fair, when we first created RW, we didn't opt to advertise. I'm hoping that now that I'm advertising, cleaning the site up, and making it more user friendly, we will attract new writers. However, my site tends to "plateau" in sync with everyone's school year. Most of our members are in college and around finals, the site becomes a ghost town. During the summer, however, almost all our members return to play. I've learned to go with it to some extent. It is frustrating, though, because I love my members and I love RPing with them. I wish there was a better way to keep them around when summer breaks and winter holidays are over. Has anyone come across a solution to seasonal plateaus?

[HoudiniDerek]

Jan 5, 2013 16:04:38 GMT -8 imitateslife said:

My forum is incredibly small and I worry we've hit or are hitting a plateau. To be fair, when we first created RW, we didn't opt to advertise. I'm hoping that now that I'm advertising, cleaning the site up, and making it more user friendly, we will attract new writers. However, my site tends to "plateau" in sync with everyone's school year. Most of our members are in college and around finals, the site becomes a ghost town. During the summer, however, almost all our members return to play. I've learned to go with it to some extent. It is frustrating, though, because I love my members and I love RPing with them. I wish there was a better way to keep them around when summer breaks and winter holidays are over. Has anyone come across a solution to seasonal plateaus?

One of the things we do on the sites I am on is hold contests, especially ones that those members have discussed wanting to see.  If we can preview it far enough in advance, it will sometimes have the effect of keeping them around for the other seasons.  Granted, I have seen this cause a rise in plateaus at other times, but that cannot be helped overall.

I use those times to change up the site and then hit them with an email blast so they know that some things have changed.  That can have the same effect for a while.  Just use the plateaus to your advantage and sometimes you don't even notice them.  

[JD]

Something to keep in mind for keeping people on the forum is to make it so that they kind have to be there to keep up with what's going on, if you see what I mean. Like, keep people informed about it by emailed and such but, like Houdini says, try and make sure there is always something going on that needs their input.

Also, don't be afraid to shake things up. I was on a forum once that was sort of like a town thing. And in a single plot, the staff just destroyed the town in a hurricane. It was amazing! Stores had to be rebuilt and all the characters who had money were offered the chance to buy up new property and make it their own - so lots of locations boards changed and anyone who didn't like one of their characters anymore could have them die in the hurricane and not just get bored of them. It was really really good.

So I would say don't be afraid to really crash in on plots and force members to pay attention and see what's going on - because plot changes like that can't be missed or ignored.

[Mandoli]

I think my forum's hit its plateau, and I'm not sure what to do.

I've re-started advertising, but I don't know where to truly begin in order to bring up activity. And it's not as if the members of my board really care - I ask them "tell me what you think of this", and I'll get one response and a few votes in a poll. I'm getting frustrated with the lack of attention people are giving the really important topics.

I'm honestly afraid that it's me that's the problem. And I'm not sure why.