I never understood why a person joins a site and than ghosts it? I mean I guess for jcink it makes sense because you can't delete the account but what about the ones that join proboards or discord? I mean I always find myself wondering if you got busy or if you aren't coming back and feel like the bad guy when I end up removing you for not being on just because I attempted to reach out and didn't get a message in return. I mean it has always been like this, you join, decide not to stay, but is it really too much to ask to make it clear that you don't plan on staying instead of just ghosting us?

People are waiting on me to do event threads oh no.

I never know when a good time to poke a new member is. I want to take the initiative and help people if they are confused and whatnot, but I never know when I should message them with a little "Hey, I see you online and wanted to know how you're doing?". I did it once, but my insecurity issues casually making me paranoid people might take it the wrong way or feel rushed or something when in reality I just want to be helpful. ;-; Then I end up sitting here, contemplating and trying to figure out if I should message or not.

^ I always just bombard them right off the bat. well on discord anyways. it's hard to avoid me on discord. just. "Hi welcome feel free to ask questions we like questions haha" all... the time.

I haven't been much of an admin at all lately

in fact, i just haven't been doing much at all with role play and i don't even know anymore

tfw you delete the wrong account. 🤡 perhaps... i am just a bad admin

I mostly on-site only members, since sometimes they are not a big fan of chats. c: So I never know when to send them a quick PM checking up on them.

When is there too much lore/content? How much do people read or does a lot of it get lost on them? Do we need maps of places that aren't real places? Of course I love doing all these things but will it turn off new members for having too much?

Also I learned something new yesterday...

If you have more than 250 boards/subboards on your proboards site, the Nav tree will stop functioning hahahaha.

I keep playing around with jcink with the hope of becoming familiar with how to code. It is still confusing to me but I'm getting there.

Some thoughts I have as ex-staff who ran 2 sites lasting 6+ months and 3 sites lasting ~3 months during the GS/WW era (an era not known for site longevity). These are my general observations, and sites have changed a lot since my heyday. Make adjustments according to your own personal experiences.

1. Ideally, being an admin should feel less fun than being a member. It’s the inevitable result of needing to be the “bad guy” sometimes and making decisions for the good of the community, rather than your personal wants and needs. Set your expectations accordingly. Running a site that centers member-driven plots should feel disempowering most of the time.
2. That being said, being staff absolutely means you have to prioritize your own plots. If you don’t think your own site is fun to RP on, then you’re much more likely to burn out and quit. Posting once a week is healthy, posting once every two weeks is a sign that you probably need more staff to delegate tasks (and maybe take a break).
3. I’ve run faction-based sites before. To ensure fairness in how I treated members, I made sure to play an equal number of characters in each major faction. If you can’t do that, then at least make sure that there’s an equal number of staff members with a specific faction bias on your team. I've seen members being promoted to staff on the basis of "they were really active on a faction that the staff team currently lacked characters on."
   
4. If you’re admin, then there is no such thing as neutrality (yeah… I know). You have to take sides OOCly before drama inevitably spirals out of control. Take it from the person who once had to pull apart 8 of my feuding friends over site mechanics. People will feel burnt no matter what you do (and if you take no action at all). It’s better to take control of a situation, rather than let a situation take control of you. Carefully observe, collect information, and decide on a best course of action. But don’t let things simmer for too long, because they will boil over.
5. Assuming you want a decentralized site with huge sprawling member driven plots, your job shouldn’t be to figure out how to say “no” when someone comes up with an outlandish plot. Your job should be to figure out how to help other members say ‘yes.’ If someone wants to do a pirate plot, then offer to introduce them to the navy canons. If someone’s crime spirals into some bigger implication, then try to incorporate that implication into the next site plot. Sometimes, the bare minimum you can do is just giving your adminly approval and encouragement at something that a member wants to do, because that goes a long way.

As people I’ve staffed with can attest, I love making feedback forms. On top of being helpful, it’s fun to read what comes in.

That is all.

For the first time in a long time I am making up a name for a species and while I used to do this all the time with locations and such, I find myself ridiculously nervous about picking a good name. I just want to give the new species a good a name. ;-;