Just gently throwing my two cents in from a different perspective. When we want to discuss advertisement, I believe there are two sides to consider; from the staff's perspective and from the member's perspective. From the staff's perspective, I fully understand why advertising can be a massive hassle; from spamming sites that aren't very similar to yours to gain very little results in return, or feeling exhausted because it can easily chunk out a few hours of your time doing menial work that has little do to with your site. It's natural to feel like you would much prefer to dedicate the time wasted on advertising on your members, plots, etc.

However, I feel that from a member's perspective, well- I'm pretty lazy as a member. That is to say that I might not know I like a site, or that I might not know such a site exist that just so happen to fall into a genre of interest, which is why site to site advertising may be effective. Instead of digging through resource sites for a new site to join, ads are brought to me just by staying on whatever site I'm on, or even just looking through the affiliates. A pretty image and an interesting premise will make me go "I'll give it a try!" but I do believe it's not entirely true that rpers will actively look for a site.

Secondly, I believe that rpers may not necessarily know what exactly they are looking for. Let's bring real life advertising into this scenario, you see pop up ads everywhere, youtube ads, etc. You don't go actively searching for a certain product unless you really want/need it at that point in time, but I'm sure ads that is directly brought in front of you may sway you to give said product a second thought. Now, applying this back to rping, I, as a member, may not know that I would want a studio ghibli rp fantasy site (winks), but once I see the advertisement image, I suddenly realize that it's something I'm interested in and therefore wants to take part in!

The reason why I personally don't think site to site advertising will really die down is because it seems like if you push your ad in front of other people's members- you can see ads through recent posts/recent threads, etc. you're engaging with a wider audience than people that will go looking for some niche site they're interested in. Just a thought!

Of course, I do feel conflicted over this because as a member, I've found fascinating sites primarily through affiliate buttons and site to site advertising. As a staff, I freaking hate advertising. It's a conundrum, but generally, maybe staff members may not want to pass up a chance to engage more people with their site than allowing their ad to lay in the depths of a solely advertising site and hoping someone will be smart enough to find it one day.

And finally, I would also like to say that rpers have many (varied) interests in what they want to write about. Perhaps I love marvel, but I also love slice of life anime. However, I'm less likely to click through an advertising site actively looking for a website, because that's more work on my end, compared to chancing upon an ad that happens to be on the site I'm on. If we proceed with the "centralizing all ads into a single site" idea, I do not think that I, as an rper, would really sift through all these ads to just happen to find something that may spark my interest- and I may not even know what to look for because all my interests are varied, and it all depends on what falls on my doorsteps first.

Just a different perspective to consider! I wanted to bring up the member's side because I don't think it was discussed very thoroughly, but as advertisement always have two aspects, it's always good to discuss both.

Mizo the thing is that the proposed "new way" also actually acts like an affiliate. Like a site or a webpage with JUST affiliate with functionality such as tags wherein if you click "fantasy" it'll show fantasy sites, or something like that. With these, instead of clicking "first links > post" u can just reserve that for a page that will ACTUALLY introduce your site thoroughly outside of posters, slogans, or a few paragraphs that we are using right now.

It's convenient for BOTH members and staff.

Also @sharply dressed man, did someone say it? I believe what people mentioned was that this "new" way is GAINING popularity amongst them, and that it WORKS. also pretty much at this point, these are all just hypotheses, let's not get emotionally attached, okay? 😭 It's not like people are gonna abandon their plug boards immediately 😶

Yes, in the previous 2 pages it has been stated. My problem is with saying things like "It worked for the real life community", which is pretty much making an assertion that the majority of sites have adopted hub only (given the majority are using RL face claims). "It has worked for several real life communities" is cool.

You might not find the distinction important, but I do. It misleads people into buying in to the idea (the idea itself is fine by the way, I think it is a cool idea that I think has some flaws), but I digress, i've had my fill of being down talked to.

If you all do open a main hub, we could work to transfer the affiliates from animangads into it.

Just a gentle reminder- not directing this to you personally, Von, because I tagged you below, but this is just a discussion on what we can do to improve advertising, or if we feel that the old method of site to site may be more advantageous. Because it really isn't that deep- though fun to discuss, we should all refrain from passive aggressive comments and any demeaning implications, regardless of whether we might mean it or not. Let's be a bit more mindful of our words and how they may be interpreted, especially since I do think a misunderstanding/fight in a public forum is both harmful and hurtful to everyone involved. This discussion is spurred by good intentions, I say this to hope that we may return to good intentions, because we shouldn't dig into each other for having different opinions on this, or resort to any personal remarks.



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von , I fully understand what is the proposed method. However, I was trying to say two things.

From your perspective, I can see why you would say it's convenient for both members and staff. I do agree with that; but only if you look at it from the perspective of a member that is actively searching for a site. What I'm trying to suggest is that there may be another type of member- those that are comfortable on the sites they are on, and therefore isn't actively searching. For those members, and I personally think that's quite a lot of people because many members I've had (we're talking about around a hundred here if you count all my sites together) mentioned that they found my sites through affiliate buttons and advertisements posted on the sites they are rping on.

That says one very simple thing; that rpers might not be actively searching for a site, but will be willing to give another site a try if the pictures/premises piques their interest. That means that these rpers - me included - will not really be going to another site to click through categories, etc. to find a site that "suits our taste".

Another point I brought up was that rpers may not know exactly what rp they want because they likely have a varied amount of interests in genres that may not mesh together. That means that even when they are looking for sites, they won't exactly know what they are looking for. In this case as well, it would be logical to assume that whatever site that lands on their doorsteps- ie. if they are clicking through recent posts on their site, whatever ad they see next that pique their interest will be a site they will join.

I fully agree that it's convenient for members- members that are actively looking for a site. However, I personally just don't think that a lot of rpers are out there proactively searching. Sites that thrive and get a decent amount of members will find their members coming from a) an ad they posts on another site they were previously on, b) an ad posted on a site they frequent, like pixel perfect, and c) a pretty affiliate button on a site they were previously on.


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This is another thing I would like to further elaborate on. Pixel perfect provides a lot of things outside of just advertising for your site. It provides discussion, resources, etc. Those are the main reasons why people stick around on pixel perfect, browse through it, and chance upon sites they like, but looking through advertisements are not the main reason why they are around. When it comes to advertising sites- members that are not actively searching, much like myself, will never frequent that site, nor look around, because, as I said, we're not actively searching.

Take animanga ads for example- that's an excellent step in the right direction, but I personally don't think people that are just chilling around will really go there to browse frequently unless they suddenly want to join something. A lot of rpers are comfortable in whatever site they may be, including resource sites like pixel perfect. A site dedicated to advertising, however, will largely differ from that case, because there's really no reason for a casual net surfer with no idea what they want (totally not making a self deprecating comment here at myself btw) to go to such a site.

While I understand your point, I don't think you really understood mine. I wasn't referring to the convenience of accessing something in fewer clicks because the rper knows exactly what they are looking for (which is rarely the case)- I was questioning if people will bother to take those few clicks, instead of just happening to see something on a site they frequent, and going for it, even if it meant them clicking more often.

Another thing I do wonder is that if we all pulled the plug and deleted all advertising boards from our site, what will happen? Well, yes, you're essentially suggesting a more radical change, but as a member, I would feel only discomfort and forced to have to "pick one interest" and try to somehow hope I can chance upon this very specific site, when in reality, I may have been perfectly okay with other sites that adhere to my other interests, except the said advertising site is telling me to pick one interest and go. This kind of proactive searching differs largely from casual net surfing, and as expected, there are always going to be different groups of people for both.

A pretty advertisement graphic isn't enough to tell me enough about a site aside from the general genre it offers and that maybe it might have good graphics.

9/10 I click on a site advert on a forum, it leads me to a site that is just lacking in what I want to know about it to convince me to join. An image is not enough to tell me what I want. It sure does do the job of making me visit the site, out of curiosity, sure.

Let's extend that over to a resource/directory with a tags system in place. Every submission has a detailed outline of what it offers. The hosting forum. Any word count requirements. If a mixture of claims is allowed. THAT is what I'm advocating for. Just a nicer system for those who most definitely know what they're looking for. And if I'm bored and I really want to be surprised, it delivers the same function, with the added bonus of allowing me to filter through things that I want.

it'd also be really helpful for just being able to narrow down things that you don't want too since i mean...... imo it'd be a whole lot easier for me to just start out right off the bat going "jcink host + animanga faces + no word count + freeform app + lighter activity standards" and then browsing from there, just because i'd have already filtered out all my dealbreakers right out of the gate so i don't have to go through and open up each site and pick through the lore trying to find those dealbreakers.

and like. imo for those systems, if you wanna browse, you can still just. site surf, browse through, call it a day. it would just. also be a whole heck of a lot more helpful for people who either know what they want or at least know what they don't want.



on a related confession, i've honestly debated doing an animanga-focused tumblr blog with a sortable ad directory, i just.... never actually went through with it because i don't know how to code an actual tumblr theme (and i only recently learned how to do multilayered filters) and i'm just.... too lazy to set it up on the back end even if i'd have negative problems actively maintaining it once it was all together.

I haven't read everything above but I still think it is incredibly tough to find sites. I said it before on the thread that asked if there are less RP sites but I think navigating here, affiliate hopping or looking at ads that are posted on other sites is just not intuitive enough. There are like, no sites with proper filtering and it's just a chore to find one.

Hence why I have nowhere I write in and am contemplating just making my own site at this point. I think tumblrs are the first place I go to since tagging system is so convenient and you can even chain search tags, then resource places like ATF but I find the latter to be much less efficient.

In animanga, it's just a struggle through and through. Like, affiliate hopping is so timeconsuming, we don't have tumblr, animangads lacks the chain-search for tags, hopping through link backs is not really efficient and again, I feel like PP's directory is also very time consuming, especially cause it gives space for all FCs in every category. Like, the top 4 paid affiliates on top of my page are the only ones I check nowadays.

That's why I dread looking for a site in animanga as someone who is looking at them from a potential member side of things. So I'm in the group of people Mizo talked as the minority, but I really don't think we are because I met quite a few people waiting for the next-big-thing because they couldn't find their site.

Also very very minor note but thomas smith's theory was what mizo described and i think it holds some merit here on how to capture an audience for your site + perhaps even have RL folk try animanga as well. My thesis was on that and I think it's a fun read give it a read imo.

A few days ago, we decided to host a poll to decide on the possibility of a new feature. It was tied, so we reannounced it in hope the tie will get broken. Several more voters later and we are praying our members will save us so we know what to do. XD CURSE YOU TIE POLLS!

re: advertising... if anyone wants to use the page i've recently made for tutorialists with the filters and such to make a tumblr blog dedicated to that sort of all-encompassing advertising directory, i would certainly be willing to share it and help out with tweaking it and running it! it sounds like it would be kind of useful ? von's mockup for a jcink based animanga one is also really cool. i think either way something like that would be really neat

and a staffing confession... i'm not a staff yet but i dread the character pending process. i know with the genre of rp i'll be making (west marches-style 5e game) i will have to do it a lot because character sheets are terrible u__u but i don't like it! i dislike the confrontation... either being told no or telling someone no. it sucks. it's the worst... but a necessary evil i think

i was just thinking today that i feel as though, with all this advertisement discussion, no one has really brought up the fact that there's not really a dedicated tumblr blog allowing animanga sites to advertise. off the top of my head there is the jcink tinder blog, but that only caters to jcink hosted sites and primarily seems to be based on RL faceclaim sites.

i think it would be worth gathering a team to set up the blog + tags, and maybe an affiliates section, as from personal experience in running ZZ we have a lot of transplants from tumblr who have gotten to the forum by word-of-mouth on twitter. imagine if there was a dedicated ad space there! i think it would hold true for OC rp as well.

So about this advertisement talk, I'm not ready to give up on it yet but when the time comes where people stop using it, I tend to go with the flow, you know? Though I do wish other sites or at least I haven't seen it on other hosts had a place to bump the ad, like proboard support does as well as a thread allowing one to say their interests so that members on that host could pm them about their site. I'm here on Pixel Perfect because my friend mentioned it as a great place to post my wanted ad, granted it isn't up anymore but I got hooked and know that I can search for sites on here but I for one am not searching to join other sites, just to dodge advertising when it most likely will just flop later. It has in the past and the day it isn't, I'll eat my words. We can agree on this, okay?

Before my trip I forgot to do link backs so I put it on my friend's to due list.... She was nice enough to do them for me and I feel like I haven't done staff work in a while even though it was only a few days ago. Time to search around on the site to see if I can become more helpful.

We just tried server partnerships ... 2/2 we had to ban the owners of the other servers for being downright nasty.