Some food for thought...

So I have been on this site for around a month now, and I wanted to see if other people are having the same problem as me...

You find a search thread with some stuff your interested in. Kinks, plot, fandom, whatever. So you contact the person who posted it, hammer out a more refined idea, and start it off. Then... Nothing. I get a few steps into the new rp, then they just stop responding all together. I would say it was just unfortunate timing on my part, but that is not the case. I have tried to start around 10 people, and out of them, 2 have been consistantly replying. I am not at all trying to call anyone out on this, maybe I am just a lousy roleplayer, but I would expect a little "Sorry, rps not doing it for me." message.

Now for the discussion... Is anyone else having similar problems? I don't intend to make anyone upset or uncomfortable, but I just need to know if its just me.

http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=72183
http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=71512
http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=66141
http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=72316
http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=73780

Eh. It comes up from time to time. And that's just the first 3 pages of the GD.

Ugh... At least I know I am not alone, but I am not entirely sure if that is a relief or not... I guess I will just have to be an incredibly harsh stickler about it in my search thread.

Hey there!

I appreciate that you didn't mean for this to be a negative thread.

And to answer your question, this is a completely normal thing that happens in roleplaying, regardless of whether it's here or some other site. Not all roleplays wil work out, and waiting for the right roleplays (or finding them through trial and error) is just part of the game.

It would be courteous to get a little message relaying disinterest in the RP, but not all people are going to do this. And this is my own personal opinon, but I don't believe anyone owes me an explanation or even a courtesy mesage as to why they're dropping the roleplay. It is only a hobby, after all, and if it doesnt work out... well, I'll just continue my search. In my 9 years of roleplaying, I've learned it's easier and better to just let it go. It's not a big deal, and it doesn't mean either participant is a bad roleplayer or person. It just didn't work out.

This is something we all go through, so don't let it get you down! It's all part of the process, I promise. C:

I understand that point completely. I have been role-playing for around... 7-8 years off and on. I suppose I am just now finding a problem with it. I appreciate to encouraging words, it's jsut a bit haggering spending the time to press out an idea, just to have it dropped at the... Well, drop of a hat.

TameTheBlackNeko said:

Ugh... At least I know I am not alone, but I am not entirely sure if that is a relief or not... I guess I will just have to be an incredibly harsh stickler about it in my search thread.

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You can be. I don't know anybody who lists "random abandonment without notice is totally cool/in fact that's what I'm looking for in a pardner" though. Nearly everybody lists the opposite and yet don't give the same courtesy to the people who contact them. It is a problem that has been prevalent in this community in particular, ever since I arrived - I have a collection of links for these types of threads going back to 2009, one of which I started, way back when.



Since the roster has changed over the years and yet it still happens, I'm not sure what the resolution would be. Aria has the right of it though. I didn't point out the links to be disparaging but you did ask if anybody else suffers from the same problem.

Thanks for the response, just the fact this stuff is happening to others sortta ticks me off, but ya know, shouganai. Nothing can be done. I'll just have to be stricter.

TameTheBlackNeko said:

Thanks for the response, just the fact this stuff is happening to others sortta ticks me off, but ya know, shouganai. Nothing can be done. I'll just have to be stricter.

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It is really disheartening. Truth.

It's hard to sort of come to the realization that for a lot of people, this is like pouring hours into a video game. Yes, you get the boost from "achievements" in-game like quest completion, spell and weapon upgrades, level progression, etc. But then you save, turn it off, and walk away, and not only does nobody know about it but they don't really care. You can't print out your WoW stats and be like "look at what I did last night! level 80(or whatever)!" with the expectation of praise. So, for a lot of people, it feels like a time waster anyway, a game that nobody but the participants read and get enjoyment out of.

On the one hand, realizing this can be a bit freeing. I find that taking my own head out of my ass to enjoy an rp where I put "any ole shit down because this'll be hilarious/entertaining" rather than being high on my own genius and sophistication as a writer...I actually ended up producing better stuff, having more consistent inspiration, and the entire thing was a whole lot more fun. And, bonus: when my partner faded out, since I was legit pulling shit out of my ass the whole time and just winging it by the seat of my pants, it was easier to accept it and move on to the next thing.

On the other hand, realizing this can be freeing in the way that you realize you don't need other people to write and that for all your personal shortcomings and failures to motivate the self, you can bully yourself into writing a lot easier than someone else.

Damn. I suppose I have never really thought of it that way. I think I might have been trying far to hard to force things to work, and never really accepted the fact that some people might not care as much as I do about this. Quite a sobering moment if I do say so myself. But I think this might be helpful. We'll see. ^^ Thank you sir. You are a very well spoken gentleman.

TameTheBlackNeko said:

Damn. I suppose I have never really thought of it that way. I think I might have been trying far to hard to force things to work, and never really accepted the fact that some people might not care as much as I do about this. Quite a sobering moment if I do say so myself. But I think this might be helpful. We'll see. ^^ Thank you sir. You are a very well spoken gentleman.

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Thank you. Like I said, I made my own thread like this when I first came here, so, it's been a process discovering the quirks of the community and reaching acceptance. Good luck and happy hunting!

I work in advertising and want to share a few ideas with you.

We have something called a sales funnel in business. Like, if you see a banner ad, join a mailing list, talk to a salesperson, then give that person money...

At each level you're getting more interested in what we're trying to sell. I'm going to use super simplified numbers in this post, but hopefully you get the core idea.

So if I'm working for someone, and 50% of people who watch a banner ad call in, 50% of THOSE people talk sign up for emails, and then only 10% of that last level of people are convinced by a sales person...

I know there's something up with the sales guy and he needs to improve.

Not a perfect example because your numbers won't actually be even at every step and you have to get industry averages blah blah but... Follow me?

So no disrespect meant here, but it's possible that you're better at chatting and ideas than you are writing the roleplay. RPers are horrible and flaky and you need to work hard to find the right vibe and blah blah blah but yeah. you've got to make sure you're writing things with hooks. Every post you make needs to have some element that will tempt people to reply or even the nicest person will get bored with you.