When you do your job right but it’s ruined cuz someone else did their job wrong. And yet you have to field the misstep. I scream into the void.

How the hell did I go so long without knowing Warrior Cats was a thing. I feel like I missed out on a crucial part of the early 2000s.

This is gonna be an emotional roller coaster of a week, I feel it in my bones. Clinging to my muse for dear life.

Lmao the way I found out recently this is my label. I am still not sure how to take it.

Oh I really like this distinction! You're right, it does sound more inclusive to say 'yield' sign or 'road work ahead' sign, than a barrier which sounds exclusive. And it's always better to be inclusive, I think, when you're a public RP community.

When I did staffing, I always tried to remember that my community belonged to everyone in it, and that made it easier to interact with the people who tried my patience. Sometimes people are ESL, sometimes people are just confused by rules that don't make sense, and I realized for me doing what I could to clarify confusing things for people helped get rid of those headaches faster.

This doesn't only apply to basic etiquette and expectations, but even just in putting together basic RP events and mechanics, I think.

An example: The community I staffed for a few years had a custom crafting system that had very slow approvals, due to people regularly being unfamiliar with the rules that had changed over the years with mods. I took over this project and became extremely frustrated with how slow and tedious mod-approvals for members were, so I investigated how well this process was documented externally.

The answer? Not at all. We had a very sparse list of guidelines to follow on the member-side, but admin-side, the mods remembered all these very archaic rules that they assumed everyone else had remembered slowly amassing over time. I was baffled why anyone thought old members would remember any of this and magically teach the new members our expectations.

I decided to make a master page explaining the crafting process, step by step, and organized all the rules by category. It was tedious to do, but universally well-received and the complaints/delays we got lessened SO much. Having the resources there for people to educate themselves is such a helpful thing, honestly, across the board.

To kinda build off @marmie -- what makes it difficult to bring in new members?

I think there are two versions of this, right.

1) It takes a lot of time and effort to teach someone how to follow basic roleplay etiquette, and you aren't able to give the time or energy.

Or:

2) Your site handles a lot of dark/difficult/potentially triggering subject matter, and you require a high level of maturity from your members to do this effectively and safely.

When addressing #1, something I've seen that I like is having an 'on-boarding' sort of resources channel. Basically, making an on-boarding library.

There's plenty of stuff out there explaining roleplay basics and expectations, and it takes a load off your shoulders to just point to a link and say "If you're new to roleplay, read this, it'll explain a lot to you." Quick google search brought up this link, for example.

I think it's also useful to include resources that help with things like muse/navigating mental health in roleplay/etc., because that's just as important in getting your bearings in this creative and collaborative hobby. One resource my current community shared that I like is this one.

In the case of addressing #2, I think having a barrier to entry is wise. A blurb discussing your site culture (something that's been mentioned earlier) seems like a smart move here, and maybe indicating certain expectations to have in roleplaying in this forum. Something to the effect of, "If XYZ makes you uncomfortable, or if you cannot navigate XYZ boundaries safely and effectively, then our forum is most likely not the forum for you."

Just my two cents, curious if other people have other insights.

I don't have an answer, but I just want to say you're not the only one with this experience. <3 People-pleasing was the hardest part of staffing for me too, and in the end I realized I'm happier in a non-moderator role. Burning out on satisfying other people eventually just leaves you dissatisfied most of all.

That doesn't mean the things you've built weren't appreciated in the moment, though. It's painfully easy to remember all the times something didn't go your way, but I guarantee you there were moments your creativity made someone's day. For every person who leaves, there's someone who stayed and enjoyed themselves. I hope you let yourself dwell on those moments, too.

Shout-out to good managers. They make all the difference in a job, honestly.

Man, that last bit is so essential to remember. If you're not hurting anyone and it's giving you joy, who is anyone else to judge what makes you happy?

Life is way too short to live it for other people.

Fatigue is the worst. I feel like I get half the things done that I want to.

I feel this. People are imperfect, we all screw up and make mistakes. The important thing is learning from those mistakes. Way easier to forgive someone who owns up to their faults, than someone who doubles down and ignores their wrongdoing.

Idk I feel when I was in college I had way too much free time to roleplay and… I look back at the plots I finished in my first year and they feel so dramatic and wild they should have taken way longer to complete than they did.

I also had no idea what I was doing. It was all very chaotic and winged.

Highlights include probably burning through no joke like six or seven ill-advised ships before accidentally stumbling on The One True Ship which became an endgame so powerful it outlasted several year-long hiatuses, ascending to a role of power I had absolutely no business having given my newness, using that role to mend a long standing feud between two powerful cliques, sneakily forming a game-changing alliance with as little OOC discussion as possible, and backstabbing a deity who Did Not Take It Well.

It was my first year of roleplay ever and I don’t think anything I’ve done had ever topped it in terms of high stakes drama since.

Something I've always been curious about is the way other people design forum roleplay events. So here goes!

What forum events have you run that felt successful to you, and what are general practices that have proven effective for you when running events overall?

This can be anything from sharing types of events that have gone well, basic dos and don'ts in event running, etc.