Here's an idea to deal with the RP issue

[Alastor]

I have an idea that I think should be employed.

Set up some rules (sticky the rules thread) that everyone who wants to start an RP must read. Might be good for those who join to read as well.

Everyone who wants to create an RP must first ask for permission to start an RP. Permission is given by the moderators of the appropriate subforum.

Set up some rules to give RP's a structure. Since the RP's are posted in the Member Art & Creativity subforum, I think by all means people should be a little more creative with their RP stuff. By this I mean, more structure with posting, more structure when submitting character profiles, and more structure with the actual RP.

Have 1 week where people who wants to join may join. If the RP creator wants, he or she can set up a limit to how many can join.

SUGGESTION: Create a Roleplaying subforum. This way, you can have moderators that specifically have the job of monitoring and managing all that is RP'ing in JapanForum.

To promote more proper RP'ing, you can have one 'official' RP running, one that is created by and moderated by the moderators themselves.


So, what do you guys think? Please try to state why you think whatever it is you think. Elaborate and such, so we can make progress ^_^

[MissMisa]

I think this is probably the best way to deal with it. Putting all the roleplays into one thread like some have suggested would just be chaos. But getting permission and limiting the number and types or roleplay would stop people getting so annoyed about it. A roleplay subforum would also be good, so that if people don't want to look at them they don't have to. Maybe a way to stop them getting on the front page? I've seen about 4-5 roleplays on the front page at the same time which may annoy some people.

[Darkeyes34]

I agree, many other sites and forums have a place set aside for rp that works very well. Putting all of it on one single thread would be....well...MADNESS!!!!

[Alastor]

I don't know how you guys look at roleplaying, but in most sites that have roleplaying, they all end up dead because they're chaotic and because there are several roleplayers who aren't putting effort at all. I think we need clear, distinct ruleson roleplaying, and need to see to it that the rules are followed to some degree, at least.

To me, roleplaying is fun and an excellent way to practise my writing skills and writing authentic, interesting characters and character dialogues.

But, returning to topic: I think this is really needed because right now, it's all chaos either way.

[Slykaz1]

Yes I see what you mean.....But the problem will be that the mods will be swamped with RP startups......in their PMs. Why don't they suggest this.

Everyone who wants to create an RP must first ask for permission to start an RP. Permission is given by the moderators of the appropriate subforum.To submit a permission go to ALL Story RP or All Anime/MANGA RP and submit an idea. There you will be notified if it has been approved.

[Alastor]

Regardless of where you submit it, the moderators of the forum will still be busy looking through these requests. I know a forum where they use this system and it's working perfectly.

If you couple my idea of PMing requests along with having set rules, you'll find that the number of random pass-time RP's will be reduced, leaving us with fewer RP's with better quality.

This: "We're gonna have an RP about europe in 15th century ok here's my profile:" is, to me, not sufficient for an actual RP. It's VERY vague and as such, can become easily chaotic and confusing.

I have about 5 years of experience with RP's, including those where you post between 1 and 5 pages of word per post (which is more like collaborative writing anyway, but w/e). We've had extensive topics where we've discussed time and time again about what makes a good RP, etc. etc. and I am confident my idea could very well work.

[Slykaz1]

just curious here.....are you a mod somewhere else?

[Alastor]

Me, a mod? Hehe, nope. Close friends with someone who used to mod an RP subforum, but then she stopped coming to the site ^_^

I don't want to come off as some mean jerk or anything, I mean, I welcome most RP's, but what bugs me is that soon, someone is gonna come with this REALLY awesome idea and he or she will want to just get on with it that this person will start the RP right away without having put some extra thought into it, and then it fails

[MissMisa]

Maybe they should pick a member of Japan Forum who has actively been in roleplay responsibly for a long time, and who knows the people and community to be a mod especially for roleplay? To be honest, with all the chaos surrounding roleplay it looks like they need a new mod to deal with roleplays alone.

Btw, I always wanted to know this, - how do you know if someones a mod? On most forums they have a diff colour name or a sign or something, here I can't work it out >.<

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

I can try and have a sub-section created for the soul purpose of roleplaying and game threads.

At the moment, we have 6 roleplay threads. This is more then sufficient. A lot of you may not realize it, but this is a forum based on Japan. Not a random/general forum for everyday talk and discussion.

This forum is based for the purpose of finding out information on Japan, and things related to it.

I am not trying to be rude in saying this, but if you just want to play games online, then go to a forum that specializes in those fields.


As to finding out who a Moderator is. Go to any sub-section. Anime&Manga, Japanese Movies and TV, J-Music etc. and then scroll to the bottom of the screen where the option is to go to page 2 and so on. Just below there is a list of moderators. Here is an example: