GameMafia , looking for some feedback

[Ice_Knight]

gamemafia.boards.net

Looking for a review of the forum to make sure that it will attract members

GameMafia is a Pokemon RP website who also hosts Forum Mafia games.

[Kami]

May 24, 2024 7:35:31 GMT -8 Ice_Knight said:

gamemafia.boards.net

Looking for free advice

What kind of advice / feedback are you looking for? It would also generally help to let folks know what the purpose of your forum is and the kind of audience you'd like to attract.

[Ice_Knight]

bump

[Kami]

May 24, 2024 7:35:31 GMT -8 Ice_Knight said:

gamemafia.boards.net

Looking for a review of the forum to make sure that it will attract members

GameMafia is a Pokemon RP website who also hosts Forum Mafia games.

I have been trying to word this in a way where I don't come across mean, but I'm not entirely sure that I'll be successful. Instead, I will do my best to be honest with you. Please take my opinions with a grain of salt; it's nothing personal, just thoughts I've formed using my experience with forums (specifically RP) and my profession (web & video game development).

So, gently, I don't think this is going to be a successful forum premise. If this is really deeply and truly the kind of forum you want to run, then I absolutely think you should ignore everything I have to say below except for the last two paragraphs.

Ultimately, it looks like you really want to run a mafia game forum, but think that a Pokémon RP will drive players to join, and then get them to participate in the other half of the forum. From experience, a vast majority of RPers will not do this. They join forums to RP with other RPers and build a community of people who share that interest. Setting up an RP forum that's only really 1/2 of a forum's purpose means that there will be a not insignificant portion of players who will never engage with each other. That's not a community, and I don't know a lot of RPers who would stick around in that environment for too long. My advice is to pick a topic that you really want to devote your free time to, and do that topic really well, instead of tacking on unrelated stuff in an effort to get people to sign up.

I've written extensively about my thoughts about RP here whenever people ask, so here's a few things you might want to browse:

• Tips on starting your first RP forum
• Being a mod on an RP forum
• Should site-wide plots be open-ended or staff-defined?
• Running an original, high-fantasy RP
• General forum-running advice

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However, if I'm wrong about my hunch, and this is truly the type of forum you want to run, then a few general tips:

• Colour scheme of the default theme is a very big strain on the eyes. There are a lot of resources about deciding on colour schemes for your website, but my favourite is colormind.io because you can select your colours and see how they look on a sampling of different types of elements, with some granular control over which colours are must-haves in a theme. I also encourage you to run your selection of colours against the WebAIM Contrast Checker for accessibility.
• A description of the forum's goals in a table so guests don't have to click around to find the info they need (and you may want to put up some rules both for social interactions and the RP)
• Organise your forum better to put pertinent info first (rules, etc), followed by the primary focus(es) of the forum (RP and mafia games), followed by off-topic areas.

Best of luck, whatever you decide to do.