I love Itto's design soooo much, but can't afford to wish on his banner and get a guaranteed Ganyu (for when she eventually does return).

i have a character in my vault perfect for this.

I understand this feeling as well. I think it's even harder when you have had a forum running for so long.
[break][break]Think about yourself, though; is it making you happy? Is it still fun? If it's bringing you the opposite, it might be best to let it go. Close or pass it on to someone else you trust. There's also the option of keeping the site but letting someone you trust continue the story on another site they can create and manage. [break][break]The main goal is to enjoy and have fun with a pastime we choose, forum roleplay. As mentioned above, if you still have members there, even if it's just a handful, as long as you're all enjoying it, keep at it.

I wish I could like this more. So much me.

I feel terrible. I had somebody apply and had to say no. I feel bad for not accepting them, especially knowing they had been denied from joining other roleplaying communities before. I had done my best to be supportive, helpful and even went out of my way to show them resources that could help them and examples to follow. They just refused any help at all. I'm sorry, but if you don't want the help, there's not much I can do.
[break][break]
My friends told me not to feel bad that I did more than most would ever do, but it's hard. I hope they can eventually learn and grow to be better. I have a feeling they have a difficult time with life in general.

I had no idea that was an issue until a member brought it up. Thankfully Jcink's support was super nice, and they gave me a code that helped with that issue. I plugged it in, and it works all fine now. ^^[break][break]
I enjoy trying to make things as user-friendly as possible, and using the profile page as an app/profile for a character has been great in my experience. [break][break] I agree with Kuroya when it comes to having members freely edit their profiles after approval. It's especially worrisome on forums that use stat systems. Since I don't have a system on mine, I just trust members will leave their profiles as is. So far, it's been great. ❤

[break][break]Edit: I forgot to add, I also am not a fan of deleting profiles, so for activity check sake, I have groups like so: Validating, Member, Character, Inactive.
[break][break] People that are applying remain in Validating. I have it, so when they register, they go directly to that group. Once I review their accounts, I move them to either Member (for OOC accounts) or Character.
[break][break] When people leave, I move them to inactive. I filter the member list to show members when I want to see how many active members we have. I have that info shown on our Boardstats as well.

[break][break]In case anyone is curious about that script for the apostrophe issue.

Bits: 150[break][break]
Link: https://sh00tingstar.jcink.net[break][break]
Description: <b>Shooting Star</b> is a Genshin Impact roleplay set in an alternate world of Teyvat, where original and canon characters are welcome. We follow Genshin Impact's current storyline, from both game and manga, yet our world is shaped differently by our unique travelers.[break][break]
Image: https://files.jcink.net/uploads2/sh00tingstar/shootingstar_pixelperfect_animated_ad.gif

Wait, how should I count the time the forum's been open? Do I just celebrate on the 12th of every month that a month has passed? Do I count every 31 days? Why am I wracking my brain over this?

I wouldn't have come back to the RP community if not for Pixel Perfect. Thanks, guys <3

I'm also a fan of the OOC accounts for a lot of the things that's been mentioned above. All alerts in one place, knowing that you're talking to the one member, in particular, keeping count of how many actual members you have on-site. I definitely find it useful, especially when I'm doing activity checks. I just go through the member list. I use a group for the OOC account and a group for characters and so easy to filter.

I want to do so much but brain fog isn't allowing it.

I'm so happy with the people that have joined Shooting Star. They've all been super nice, encouraging all, and understanding.