i'm aware of your other poll (which, just fyi, i'd put more stock in the poll here than on the other site if i were you, if only because p2 is an animanga-focused resource, so it's going to be more of your potential member pool than the other one). but tbeh, i can understand the mentality of getting rid of both site-to-site ads (or at least, massively scaling them back) and getting rid of affiliates both, at least for real life. on the vast majority of sites, you're lucky to actually get any serious members (and i don't mean traffic, i mean members) from normal site-to-site ads, whether first links or return links. it's not impossible, ofc, and there are ways to stack the deck (ie, dropping ads on sites in your genre), but for the most part, it's a whole lot of time and effort put forward into precious little actual return, especially now that the jcink captchas have gone from 6 alphanumerics to full on captchas that are the bane of everyone's existence. while affiliates are more effective than site-to-site (to the point where they're still relevant in animanga), it tends to be more effective if you're advertising with similar sites (as an example, i try to hit up other superhero-style sites with my marvel + dc sites), if only for the logic of "oh no, my claims are taken on this site, let's check this other site instead" or something similar. plus a lot of coders just. have stopped including them. but it's still something you have to consider more or less if the maintenance of them (adding, checking, etc) is worth the potential traffic and members.

while a simple "establish the brand" mentality might work well for a more niche site like kd or even more limited pools like animanga, i honestly don't think it's as effective, if only because at the end of the day, there's only going to be so many people interested in the site concept and that number will whittle down the more they investigate the site for more nuanced details (essentially, that number's your site demographic, if you will). there's no real way to fluff that number up too much, just because there's only so many people who want to rp pokemon or panfandom stuff, and while volume will make it a lot easier to find those people who do fall into a given demographic, to a certain extent, most of them tend to either be in the genre already (or at least, vaguely aware of it) and/or active enough on resource sites to browse to find one. plus i mean. to me, establishing your brand usually comes off more as your attitude as a staffer or your site's community / feel (ie, ideal world's is kind of "i'm in charge, for better or for worse" and "we're a marvel + dc site that's fairly laidback, friendly, and focused more towards a social aspect than a combat or world-saving aspect"), which is all more stuff you pick up either from reading through stuff on the site itself or observing posts that the admins make on common sites like resource sites.

basically tl;dr because there's only x amount of people interested in any site from the get go, you should carefully evaluate where you're getting the bulk of your traffic and the bulk of your members since that's where it's gonna be worth your while investing your time and energy to cultivating more potential members. (google analytics is a great tool for this tbeh, as is a google form for an informal anonymous survey.) while you are still building out your brand so to speak, you do that through the site's community, policy, and reputation (which is tied closely to perceptions of staffers + members that are formed on resource sites + through word of mouth).


re: sandbox stuff, that's under the spoiler, since i'm rambling enough.

SPOILER: Click to show

okay, i'm just gonna. politely breeze past the topic of activity here because i strongly disagree with your opinions on activity 90% of the time, and while it's fine for you to have a preference on activity and i can respect that, even if it differs from my own, i also don't want to derail this into a debate on activity standards.

but on point... i actually don't think it would be worth splintering the community like that. to be entirely honest, i think that it should be organized more as a resource site than an rp site in the sense that it's meant to be a common watering ground for people to gather at rather than something you join with a specific limitation in mind. the community would benefit from having a wider potential audience since i mean, the entire purpose of it is to be a static site for the community to fall back on - a "resource" if you will (ha, i made a joke).

if i made the sandbox, for example, i'd actually be aiming for that general community feeling. basic ooc category for plotters + trackers + development; general rp category separated by a few organizational things like real life, fantasy, fandom, etc with subdivisions as needed for like pokemon, superhero, etc; group rp category for sites-that-aren't like all of your suggestions. basically the site is just. if you're only here to thread out 1 thing with 1 friend you don't rp with anyone, and you just want to stay in your corner, that's fine! if you want to get a group together to go rp out some intense ffxiv side plot thing, that's cool too, go for it! if all you want to do is smut threads because i'd do jcink premium, hey, i am not here to stop you as long as it's hidden away in the mature board.

like... it's less of a daunting project in realizing that the largest thing stopping me would be 1) actually setting it up and writing it all out (and skinning it because ho nelly i am not wanting to skin) and 2) getting together a staff team to more or less make sure there's no drama, add new boards on request, and archive stuff that's been sitting for more than 6 months or on request.

on a non-spoiler related confession, i honestly don't enjoy advertising anymore. it's just a pain for me to drop 20+ ads on different sites, never mind the 200+ i used to be able to do in a regular sitting. i'd much rather use that time to do just about anything else, whether it's skinning or reviewing apps or just posting to other members.