RPG Help, Suggestions

Hi everyone, thank you in advance for reading this.
So right now I am having a huge problem with activity on my rpg site. Currently I am the only admin as the other people helping originally have vanished, so things are getting very hard. I do not want the site to die off as there are not many other sites similar but I'm really not sure what to do anymore.
I need to find some help to run the site and get it back active again, I just don't know how to go about doing it. There is still the odd person who logs in daily but other then that many people will not join due to the activity level being down. The site is advertised as many places as I can manage but still things are not working out so well.
My forum is a fantasy horse rpg loosely based around a set plot. There are not many rules and members are free to post their characters and rpg wherever they wish.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice that might be able to help me out?
Or is anyone willing to help me out with getting the site back up and active, I am desperate for help.
Thanks

 

I hear ya, m'dear. Lack of activity is a plague. Not sure what else to offer either. I have to switch over some RPs from one host to another. But more in all, I've begun to ask people who join or are thinking about joining, looking at the site... to challenge them with joining to help keep the place active! I know activity is usually what attracts people to join. But it's hard to get people active. It's a catch 22 conundrum.

I'd like to see it. Maybe I could bring my ponies over. They are getting restless.
I was part of a horse RP for a while, too, until it just.. went inactive. The Admins went silent, too. I guess so long as you do what you can to keep threads and the place up-to-date, might be some filler crap, too, or just what you are doing to keep it going... that might help.

Again, I look for sites that are indeed active. Even if it's one person who is posting regularly. or two. That means that if I join, there's someone there to interact with. So long as the last post was within the last week or perhaps a few of them were no later than a week old.


~Lady B

 

Let me think outside the box.

Team up with another horse rp that is slowly losing momentum. Combine the members into one bigger site. If you can find a site that kinda matches your setting and rules, and has great members that would love more activity too, this could be an option. Especially if you find a site with an active non-absent admn. I do admit that this is tricky, but if you don't look, you will never know.

If you enjoy running contests, why not have a contest that increases posting and activity? For instance, mark current post counts, then offer an OOC or IC reward for making it to 25 posts more within a week. An OOC reward could be a signature, or a new user title. An IC reward could be whatever you think is appropriate in the setting. Maybe offer a 'herd leader' position for a short term if that is approrpriate.

But most of all: be active yourself. Post, post with yourself if you have to. Create npcs so you always can tell a story even if other characters are not responding.

 

RP more yourself. That's the only way to ensure activity, start open threads even if no one replies one of them might spark the muse of a potential player. If you have more than one character, RP with yourself a few times, it doesn't must make your board 'look' more active, it IS more active. If you look like you're having fun, it will attract more people.

 

Daenelia and Swooping have good points. Collaborating with another game owner and posting more on your own website are great ideas. I'll add to that to consider submitting your website to more specific topsites or directories, and keep in mind that these are all games and many people are just here to play around. It's difficult to surface serious-minded people willing to volunteer their time at a staff level out of a pool of people who just want to have fun. Consider what incentives you can give to mods for being mods, put up an application process, see who bites