Feel free to info dump paragraphs at me.

It's important to remember that in a world where there are a lot of variables and circumstances change constantly, the one constant in your life is you. Like when a League of Legends streamer complains they're always getting terrible teammates and having a 20% winrate because of it...you know, three guesses as to who is present in 100% of their games...

Like, for example, I am fully aware my issue is my overly serious demeanour. Having the charisma of an expired tomato doesn't help, but I know I'm rather outspoken and quick to lecture, so I can't imagine many are bursting with excitement to write with me, and I'm fine with that because that's who I am. It just makes me treasure those who do get on with me more, because I know it takes a certain type.

This kind of comes across as a false dilemma. There's lots of things you could do if you feel you are "constantly being thwarted" from succeeding. "Ghosting" or quietly quitting or however you want to call it is one option, but it's not the only one.

I firmly believe a majority of roleplayers do not intentionally and consciously exclude people. They may do so unintentionally (i.e. "Oh, so-and-so joined, but I'm at roleplay capacity so someone else can plot with her.") or subconsciously, where they already have so much fun with their friends it doesn't even register you're waving through the window. So at times, you want to grab a nice, shiny rock and hurl it through the window.

It's just whether you want the drama of pointing out you have two open threads and a plotter, and it's been three weeks, what gives?

Yeah, it's not like "write with everyone!" is a magic bullet solution that'll usher in an era of untold prosperity. But there are reasons people flake/ghost, and it's not always because they're wee cunts.

I have been on the side of "ghosting" a site. I'll join a site, write a character, invite people to plot with me, get three or four people to write with, and at some point coincidentally all of them get busy/in a rut and cannot reliably post anymore.

I don't want to take on more threads and wind up in a situation where I'm overwhelmed, because those threads haven't "ended". I also don't really feel like waiting two, three months for my writing partners to return. In those cases, I just quietly dip because I don't want to cause unnecessary drama either by calling them out for posting elsewhere, or by moving on with other threads and getting all those nasty "Traveller isn't interested in our thread anymore!" accusations behind closed doors.

At some point it is also going to be a self-feeding cycle:

Join a site, be excited to write, make a character and everything.
Other people assume you're going to flake, so they don't want to write with you.
No one writes with you despite you checking in daily, so your excitement fades.
You eventually flake from the site.

If I get one week of fun posting with someone, I consider it worth even if we don't finish the storyline. Because having fun for that one week is still fun for a week.

Uh, if it's just on Discord, you could ping them and tell 'em to get out because you don't want people cluttering your sidebars.

Isn't that the here and now already?

Speaking as someone who started roleplay in the early days of Proboards where 10 posts a day was considered normal, and posting once every day was already slow... Then at some point, someone came in and said there was this thing called "liquid time" where you could...not roleplay in real time.

Wild, man.

I wouldn't describe it as "run away" when you "don't [...] feel like you belong." If a site makes you feel like you don't belong, then leaving is the logical course of action. Especially because there's a stigma on confronting people about it, because that's drama and there's no war in Ba Sing Se.

“Hi everyone, what’re you up to?”

Most stories I've written over the past two decades have protagonists that are women dressed as men, women mistaken for men, women who wish to be men...

I probably shouldn't think too hard about it, there's nothing there.

He had me at

(spoilertagged for those playing HSR but who haven’t completed MSQ yet, read at own risk. )

At the end of the day, the grief is a sign you truly loved your dog, and if you feel such grief and guilt, then you've probably drawn out your very best to give your furry family all the love you have.

Find solace with your loved ones. Let yourself grieve.

It feels like the number of roleplay sites is declining.

I just write--sobbing and shaking with tears streaming down my face--as my inner critic leans over my shoulder and tells me to just delete that garbage.

Even if I try my best, it's not like people are going to queue up for a chance to get to write with my stoney-faced tomato self, so I try to go with the philosophy that the perfect post that exists only in imagination is never going to be as good as the broken and battered thing I submit to the internet.

EDIT: To be clear, I don't actually sob and shake. If you do, it's important to remember this is just a hobby, and it virtually doesn't happen that people give feedback on your writing, especially negative one. There will be some writers whose works get praised, but just because they get praise doesn't mean anything about your own writing.