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How to improve

comicwolf

What is your deepest desire
Joined
Aug 25, 2021
Hello there,

So lately i been looking through some of my threads and one thing i was curious about is there a way to increase chances of rps Or whats everyones opinion on how to improve?
 
Many users opt to create a thread, here, in the Constructive Criticism Subforum.

There, other members can view your thread, your ideas, or even examples of your writing and offer advice, tips or otherwise to help you improve.

Check it out 😁
Can this be moved there then?
 
Sure!

Though, you may want to elaborate a bit more. Offering as many examples of your work as possible can help others get a better understanding of what it is you're looking for and hoping to improve upon.
 
Without specifics it's hard to say, so I'll offer two generalities.

First: read. Try to read a variety of authors and genres, don't just stick to one. Expose yourself to different prose styles and etc. When you find yourself enjoying the writing--not the plot, not the characters, but just the words--stop, note it, and see if you can't figure out why.

Second: For play-by-post RPing, there's a sort of template I've lifted from cognitive-behavioral therapy that's a useful starting point:
  • What happened
  • How does it make you feel?
  • How do you react?
In short: summarize the current situation. Don't go overboard, nobody wants you to re-write their post, just give them a sense of things as your character sees it. Then get into your character's head. How are they feeling about the situation? What are they thinking? Then describe what your character does. Note: in general this should change the situation, or at least give your partner something to react to.

Note that this pattern is just a starting point, and it's one of many possible patterns. But I find it's useful if when I'm feeling stuck.
 
I think what a lot of people are drawn to in the request threads are hints at where you're interests lie in writing. It's one thing to include a list of fandoms or pairings that you want to roleplay, but pick out a couple of them and come up with a little snippet of what excites you about those roles. It could be the something about where they start up and/or where they end up, a scene that you'd really like to work towards, or some details about those characters or archetypes that gives you the itch to write smut and/or stories about them.

For instance, take "College student x coach" and toss in some goodies like "Coach holds them late in the locker room after practice. Binds their wrists to the shower head with a towel. They keep showing up to practice needing new uniforms because theirs keeps getting ripped mysteriously."

People like to see hints of your creativity and the ideas you'll bring to writing. Maybe they will see an idea and want to take you up on it, or maybe it will inspire them to reach out to you about a different pairing or idea.
 
If you're interested in getting more RPs, there are a few things that can help:
-Be open to approaching someone else for RP! I know subs and those that identify as female can have a lot of cultural baggage related to being assertive, but we're online here and not in your society or community. Nobody is going to call you names or ostracize you for approaching them about an RP. And if they do, ignoring them is easy, as is seeking help from the mods. The rules appear to disallow harassment, so you really have nothing to lose by approaching someone for RP. And honestly, most of those that identify as male get approached so rarely that they're much more agreeable to RPing with someone that has the confidence to approach them. What you want very well could be in the male or nonbinary request threads.
-Be flexible. If something is a limit, by all means ban it. However, if something is acceptable but not sexy, you might consider roleplaying it along with one of your known cravings. You might find something new that you like, or at least you got a chance to meet your craving. Creativity is all about mixing and matching. Maybe they want a western RP, while you want a vampire RP. Make a vampire western, and now you have something that is more unique and interesting than the two separately. Like superhero, but they want an academic or university RP? Well, I wonder what Tony Stark was like in college...
-Focus on quality rather than quantity. Spend more time building backstory for your characters for those RPs that you already have, or settings like their homes, workplaces, etc.

Those are some general tips, for yours in particular:
-Maybe include some detail in your pairings. What about them intrigues you? What situations would you like to see them in? Do you have a scene that you'd love to play out? This is far less daunting than just two characters listed together. I generally work to come up with something that I believe any potential partners will like. If you provide some of that up front, it makes it easier to skip straight to the PM. It also makes it easier to know how we'll fit.
-It looks like you have some OCs that you want to play. Share them or link them!

These are the biggest things that I saw. I know it can get frustrating to wait, but I'm sure you'll find some people that you like to RP with!
 
One other thing that I forgot is to read other request threads that are like yours. Pick out the parts that you like and add them to yours!
 
for me, i improved drastically when i stopped letting my partners play for me. if she plays for me, i stop responding.

i stopped letting them play for me in the early 2000s. and i've never relented since.
 
You have very inconcistent capitalisation and syntax in your post. Sometimes items in lists start with capital letter, sometimes with lower-case. Your "i" are mostly lower case. I thinkin fixing grammar in threads could help a lot, this particular thing puts me off. It's ok to make typos – but since request thread is something we are working on constantly, it's surprising to see typos and inconsistencies there.
 
You mean request threads or RP threads?

As for RPing, I should think it's similar to improving your tennis game. Playing with someone "better" could help you hone your skills, narrative, and such as a fellow RPer.

On RTs, personally I find myself drawn more towards requests that makes me feel like the poster really knows what they want. And being friendly always helps as well =)
 
updating five months later,
ive taken few suggestions and it has helped get more smut rps. What i am now looking for is there anyway to get more fandom rps? 🤔
 
I feel fandoms can be a bit tricky, mainly for the fact that you have to find someone in your specific fandom then of course, the pairing.
Personally, I try and be extremely specific with my pairings for fandoms and a very concise plot (if I have one). There are some I am more flexible with and others I am very strict with what I wan and expect from a partner.

I think the best way to increase your chances is to make a separate RT (if you haven't already) for just your fandoms and be as specific as you can be. Also, I would stick to your guns with what you want so you get your ideal fandom partner.
 
I feel fandoms can be a bit tricky, mainly for the fact that you have to find someone in your specific fandom then of course, the pairing.
Personally, I try and be extremely specific with my pairings for fandoms and a very concise plot (if I have one). There are some I am more flexible with and others I am very strict with what I wan and expect from a partner.

I think the best way to increase your chances is to make a separate RT (if you haven't already) for just your fandoms and be as specific as you can be. Also, I would stick to your guns with what you want so you get your ideal fandom partner.
Fandom thread: Fx M or F - Lets fufill both our desires (Open)
I offered doubling when i first started the thread to help see if that would attract more rpers but idk if i should add more options to doubling or add plots, with those i have plots of romance and platonic but my main fear is which to add that doesnt turn rpers off
 
Personally, I would rearrange your title to include that it's a Fandom thread.

I think what I notice most about your post is that with your reformat with specific pairings it's all tossed together. That's just me though. Reading it I find it a bit difficult to decipher what you're actually looking for other than what characters you'd like to play, maybe change the color od the characters you’re looking for instead of adding hearts. Or at least perhaps clean it up a bit by putting things in columns if that makes sense. It's extra work but it might be worth it. I would add some plots if you have any in mind.
 
Creating a search thread is a very personalized experience. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that will achieve success. The very notion is determined exactly by what your goals are. Some people are only looking for one or two role-plays, while others aren't satisfied unless they have two or three hits a day. You have to consider what kind of role-player you are looking to attract and at what rate you'd want to attract them. Only once you figure this out, can you really look to tailor your thread to your needs. There are, of course, road blocks that will get in your way if you are looking for highly specific role-plays, especially if they are not particularly popular or well-known ideas, genre or fandom.

Keep in mind that there are exceptions to everything here, as outliers are an inevitability.

These are generally the three factors I think attribute most to the success of a search thread:

How popular your listed topics of writing are
This is the most obvious factor on this list. If you list popular genre or fandom, then you are going to get more hits on your request thread. Anything Slice of Life is super popular, and you'll also get plenty of hits on whatever is the pop culture zeitgeist at the moment. You can't expect plenty of people to ask you for role-plays if you have a ton of esoteric genre or fandom listed in your thread. People can't play what they don't know, or rather few people are willing to go into something so blind.

---
How casually your thread reads
Most writers consider themselves within some range of skill. This range of skill generally corelates to how proficient they are at writing, and how much they like to actually write. Skill at role-playing is an entirely different conversation, but you can generally think that it's common for it to be broken down in that way. Better role-players will write with more lush detail and explore their ideas with more words on the page. Weaker role-players will seek to limit their descriptive detail and explore their ideas in fewer words.

What does this have to do with a search thread?

Consider, if you will, the same mentality applied to what people look for in a search thread. Stronger role-players will seek out threads with more detail and specificity, with more words and features, and with a more beautiful appearance. This kind of thread tells them that the person behind the screen will be more willing to apply effort and is more capable of doing so. Weaker role-players will want a thread that is more simple, to the point and without a lot nagging rules and exhausting chunks of paragraphs to read through. This kind of thread isn't as intimidating and will allow them to feel at ease, let them know that the thread is made by someone that isn't going to type two-thousand word replies at them. I'm sure, from there, you can extrapolate the inverse for why those two groups would pass over the opposite type of thread.

So, essentially, you have to figure the ratio of stronger to weaker role-players, and the gradient of "levels" within those vague classifications. Do you reckon there are more stronger or weaker ones? This will, of course, affect how many hits you get.

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How much of a slut you come across as
Unfortunately, many people on this website take the "adult" classification of the site to mean sex and porn. While this website very clearly permits that sort of writing, it is not the end-all of what the site is supposed to be. It's simply a space for adults to write with other adults, where sexual activity and other mature themes may take place. At a certain point, you can't really hang around websites intended for children anymore. Blue Moon Role-Playing is just one answer to the problem of: where do I write with people that aren't children?

However, there are many that flock to a website like this with one thing in mind, and in the immortal words of Filthy Frank, "let's get some pussy tonight!"

I'm only half joking, of course. A big factor in how attractive or unattractive your thread will be is how sexually aggressive you are with it's contents. This can range anywhere from simply using text to express how badly you need that cock or pussy, or outright using pornographic images and gifs to set the mood. A bouncing pair of tits at the top of your thread will attract a great deal of attention from the people that are looking to role-play with a pair of tits. You are very directly advertising for exactly what they are looking for, and those people are in no short supply on this website.

On the other hand, you can come across as more business oriented. You write and structure your thread in such a way where sex and kink are not the main priority. This will turn away people looking for smut, and attract people that are primarily looking for plot, character development and all the things that actually create a story.

Somewhere in-between is a balance, where you can use sexual imagery (written or otherwise) in a tasteful and alluring manner to get your point across. This will certainly attract erotic writers looking for a skilled partner. However, you should still keep in mind that appearances matter and the content of your thread will set some level of expectations.

---
You want to keep these three things in mind. You then create your thread with the "type" of partner you have in mind, and do so by adjusting the "how" of those three things. If you are looking for a bunch of fuckboi role-players looking for "gud fuk bb big cawk i have" then you'll want to really lean heavily into the thread being written in a very sexually aggressive manner. Don't complicate it or list too many rules either. This will likely get you the most clicks from the hoard of horny, lonely men that frequent the site.

You'll find that if you want a more story oriented partner, those that aren't looking primarily for smut and quick fuck, then you'll want the "how much" of those things to slide in the direction of "not very". Generally more "advanced" role-players will seek out threads with more care put into them, and threads that don't advertise strictly for smut. If you're looking for the real snobs that inhale their own farts like whip-its, then you want to go heavy with the BBcode, long-winded rules, paragraphs about who you are, and a whole lotta plots and highly-specific pairings. This route will get you far fewer requests, but generally a higher quality or role-play (arguably).

If you take my search thread for example, I get almost no requests. I've built it with that strictly in mind to sort out certain types of role-players. I don't want smutty role-players, so I specifically made my thread unsexy. I decided to make it very visually based to maybe make it somewhat intimidating. I decided to use very little text to keep it vague, to make a viewer pay attention and use their brain to figure out the gist of what I'm looking for. Essentially, if someone cannot figure out the bulk of what I'm looking for based on my thread, then I'm not interested in playing with them.

The type of role-player I'm looking for is the type that likes to think. They ingest information and then take the time to process it. This is important for me, because I want creative and engaging writing, where I feel as though my partner fully understands the situation and stakes. Where they can conjure up a reply that responds appropriately in a dynamic way. Now, surely, I can't insure that my thread will provide me with such a partner, but I tried to design it in a way that would get me that. I don't get very many hits on it, very nearly none, but I still think of it as a success for that reason. I really don't have to deal with disappointing requests from people that aren't to a standard I would like to enjoy.

So, to make your thread a success, you have to first understand, "what is it you really want?" At the time of posting, the gif at the top of your thread, comicwolf, expresses that sentiment quite well.

Ultimately, though, you are at the whim of other people's desires. Even if your thread is designed perfectly, there's nothing you can do if someone doesn't want to play with you. There are numerous factors, far more than I've listed, that determine if someone wants to role-play. My advice is to just understand what you want, and design the thread in a way that gets you what you want and advertises it. That way, when you do get a hit, it'll most likely be the kind of hit you want.
 
Personally, I would rearrange your title to include that it's a Fandom thread.

I think what I notice most about your post is that with your reformat with specific pairings it's all tossed together. That's just me though. Reading it I find it a bit difficult to decipher what you're actually looking for other than what characters you'd like to play, maybe change the color od the characters you’re looking for instead of adding hearts. Or at least perhaps clean it up a bit by putting things in columns if that makes sense. It's extra work but it might be worth it. I would add some plots if you have any in mind.
i dont know how to make codes and i use mobile :confused:
but i will try to add some plots and see what happens along with color adding to keep things seperate
 
You don't necessarily need any coding, perhaps just some bullet points to organize things.
 
I'd focus on the pairings, that was really the area I had difficulty focusing on.
 
Its been almost five months since last checking back on this, so far the fandom thread isnt getting much partners.
I have added in smut and normal plots in it to try to get partners but im not sure if theres something thats chasing people off.

Other than that im also wondering how do you gather partners for certain pairing cravings?
 
You don't. People need to come to you with the cravings, because it's not just about what you want, it's about what they want as well, because they're coming to you.

For example, you can crave Batman-related stories all you'd like but if no one else wants it, that's it, you're forced to wait until someone does. The best you can do is try to make your ideas and concepts, no matter how developed or brief, appeal to them. A lot of your plots involve your character receiving a canon. It might serve you better to add plotlines featuring stories where someone else's character can become involved, and make it clear that you will only do this in exchange for an OC x Canon experience of your own.

Playing a Canon with an OC isn't that rewarding to some folks, so you could try adding more Canon x Canon plotlines. Or OC x OC based plotlines. You can still play Bruce Wayne's long-lost daughter, but be open to playing against someone else's creation at the same time. Add some more variety to your plotlines. If you don't want to do that, you may simply need to keep your thread updated and wait. I would also keep working on the grammar in your thread (capitalize, punctuation, etc) and maybe a liiiiiittle bit of color would be cool, but it's not necessary.

Good luck!
 
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There's some incredible feedback here already, but one thing I haven't yet seen mentioned are your threads' titles. I wouldn't call them bad, but I feel like they could be more descriptive: you're looking for a few specific fandoms, so I'd recommend putting some of them (ones you're most interested in at the moment or the most niche ones) directly in the title. Someone who's, say, looking for a Marvel RP, is much more likely to click on a title that literally mentions Marvel, than to click on a generic fandom request thread in the hopes it might list Marvel.

Similarly, "My kinky requests" is pretty generic; perhaps add some of the kinks or pairings you're particularly craving. Mentioning that you like fantasy settings is good, but what do you mean with "normal"?

In my experience, my threads with nondescript titles like "Siph's request thread" got far fewer responses than to-the-point ones like "Looking for kink X, Y and Z".

Of course, don't overdo it; be descriptive, but concise. And when your interests change, make sure your title (and of course the thread as a whole) reflect that.
 
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