"Guests can't post external links or emails."

.-. the bane of my existence. Like really. Especially doing link backs. If you require me to log in to post my ad as a link back, yours is getting deleted. I'm not sorry.

I can't remember how I put this code in the header for jcink... time to search until I figure it out.

what do you do when you feel disconnected from / struggling to mesh with your own community?

What's your favorite and least favorite thing as a staff member?

My favorite is creating a place where others can feel safe, welcomed and let their creativity run wild. In short, I like knowing I've made a place that others consider home, even if it's not forever, good roleplay memories can be really powerful.

My least favorite thing, is when people leave. It's such a sad feeling. Nothing against people who leave or the reasons why, it just sucks getting to know someone, reading their characters, and then losing the continuation of that. 

I am really struggling getting activity back up, but honestly it might just be my own inactivity from it all that's the problem. I knew it would happen once I started playing games again, but I'm hoping it will pick back up soon enough. My own mood being awful as hell only makes things worse for everyone I guess. Can't be the glue if I'm not around. But at the same time, I only have 3 replies to do out of the 40 some threads I'm in, so I can't be entirely to blame either, even if I feel like it's all my fault. I'm the admin so I have to be responsible for the decline, right? Maybe I'm not in discord enough or playing in the ic as much... But almost all of my replies are still done so... -sigh- I dunno. Easier to blame myself than it is to blame my member base I guess.

My favorite thing about staffing is how much my members appreciate me, and how much they appreciate each other and the site they're on.

My least favorite thing is updating lists, honestly.

I love reading all of the replies that are still coming about my posed questions lol. But I am gonna ask a new one because I like sparking things like that.

More of a would you rather/what are you more comfortable with tbh.

Staffing, or being a member?

Like, what's the line you draw. Do you keep your staffing entirely separate from being a member, or do you cross that line from time to time?

Personally, I have an exceptionally hard time joining sites that other people have made. I've been kicked off of some for "going too far away" from the plot that's set. And that's fine. I've always got my own ideas and kind of run rampant with them, and only join sites that I know people on. I've had a lot of trouble keeping my ideas to myself and sometimes people really don't like that. So now, I am more than happy just being my own admin. I do miss it sometimes though, not having the responsibility of being the staff. I am trying to learn to get better at that though, to where maybe I could just join elsewhere and just be a regular member. It's not like I'm disrespectful to the staff of other sites or something, and I always reach out to get my ideas approved, or tell people I can change my posts.

As such, as an admin, if people come around with a ton of ideas, I often try to incorporate them to the best of my ability. Probably why I have so many options on my own site now. It helps the community grow in its own way if you take your members and their ideas into consideration. You still have to turn some down every now and then, but at least be open to listening to them, right?

With how far we've come in the role play community I can't help but wonder if it is time for me to put aside advertising for good and just focus on affiliates or simply to create a site that is private instead of public just because I'd rather spend my time on the site instead of going onto other sites to ensure my advertisement has been placed on theirs. I mean I already have to do that for affiliates and having to check advertisements gets so tiring when there is other stuff to do.

Moving forward, my strategy is to just set aside one day a week to do bumps on resource sites, check affiliates, and do link backs. I really don't have the energy to go out and do advertising pushes. I get a pretty steady stream of first time adverts just doing link backs so the advert is still getting around.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I got a bit of an impression that maybe you are doing link backs as the first links come instead of when you want to advertise? I wouldn't worry about making sure you link back right away. I think it is generally better to let the first link simmer a little bit before linking back because those newer sites need time to accumulate members to see your ad anyways.

Hitting up first links takes the site searching part out of advertising and you don't have to worry about your board getting filled up with a bunch of ads all at once when you are linking back.

I'd be curious to see public sites using resource forums only in the animanga sphere to see what the results would be. I still don't think we are quite there structurally myself but I think sites that advertise early and then rely on affiliates/resources after they have a base are pretty feasible.

Beetle well I mean if that is what you'd like to do, by all means. I simply was making the confession that after so many years of relying on advertising I've grown tired of doing it and meant to imply that focusing on affiliates would simply be easier because than I could dodge those first links who didn't follow my rules of having their site set up for me to link back and stuff.

Sharp so currently I don't own a site. I've gone back and forth on the idea of making one however and was just simply making the comment that I feel like with how long I used to focus on advertising and affiliates I think it would simply be fine to skip advertising and just focus on gaining affiliates with other sites. But in answer to your question, I simply am just tired of searching out sites I haven't posted my advertisement on as well as trying to make it fancy to begin with. I wasn't never really good with graphics to begin with so creating affiliate banners is by far easier than making a banner on my advertisement just because I think that is how everybody is doing it now and having to find a size that is easy to crop in case I decide to change the advertisement banner. I don't believe advertising on resource forums alone would be enough but we'll have to see what happens once I get a site up and try it out to see how well it pans out.

Do you all think I should add a policy on animangads against affiliating/advertising from sites that monetize their content (like buying things with real money for character options). I'm sure some of you will say "not really a widespread issue", but let's just say it started to become more prevelant. Would you want sites like that to be excluded from being listed on a directory?