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Deltaslug

Deltaslug

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YuBiusk Ink said :
Is there context to that, Deltaslug, or just some unrelated advice?

There are complaints about a lack of activity in the sub-forum, yet all of you limit your posts to 1-3 threads.

While not necessarily stating that you should try to single-handedly try to revive the forum, you can contribute the appearance of life in the forum by doing something .

Even then, why simply wait for someone else to post on the 1 thread?

You can just post something on a standalone thread even if it is a short/simple thing. It doesn't need to be a novel. It doesn't need to be a 20 post epic poem. And it doesn't need to be ... dare I say it ... a RP thread.

10-May-2023 00:41:30

Azi Demonica

Azi Demonica

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I've been preoccupied with yardwork, there's so much work I gotta do.

I could make an RP, but I'm not sure if anyone's interested. I usually am available for such work, it's just nobody joins them, so there's not much I can do. I do agree that 'doing something' is better than nothing, but if doing something doesn't work, I'm out of ideas on what else to do. As for an RS-related RP, I'm so far behind in RS lore I don't even know what's going on XD I think my account is twenty years old by now, which is impressive, but I literally did basically nothing--I'm a slowpoke. Har har.

Actually, the only idea I have for an RP would be something kiddy and funny, somewhat a cartoony adventure where we don't take anything seriously and have a fun adventure. However, I don't know if anyone's interested.

10-May-2023 03:15:13

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Deltaslug said :
YuBiusk Ink said :
Is there context to that, Deltaslug, or just some unrelated advice?

There are complaints about a lack of activity in the sub-forum, yet all of you limit your posts to 1-3 threads.

While not necessarily stating that you should try to single-handedly try to revive the forum, you can contribute the appearance of life in the forum by doing something .

Even then, why simply wait for someone else to post on the 1 thread?

You can just post something on a standalone thread even if it is a short/simple thing. It doesn't need to be a novel. It doesn't need to be a 20 post epic poem. And it doesn't need to be ... dare I say it ... a RP thread. So, I post to my two story threads once every one or two weeks. Doing so is a lot of work for pretty much zero extrinsic reward, so yeah, I don't have the time I'd like to read and review other stories on top of it. There's also not a lot of benefit to posting to inactive one-shots from two years ago. Honestly, I think bumping ten inactive threads can run the risk of smothering the threads that are active. I know I feel dispirited whenever I spend a day writing and uploading a new chapter of Wild Girls only for my thread to get pushed to Page 2 by a bunch of necromancy bumps to stories whose authors haven't been online in years.

I try to read stories when the author is active, if it looks like the author put more than ten minutes into them. There just aren't a lot of stories active right now. This subforum has a deficit of both active readers and active writers, and that's just how it is.

I have thought about starting a playful "review thread" examining every single story on this subforum, one or two a week, but I'm not sure I have it in me, even for the bit.

(Also, I don't really RP, so that last bit doesn't apply to me. Tried it once, had fun, but I'm mainly in town for Runescape fanfic. :P )

10-May-2023 21:03:52 - Last edited on 10-May-2023 21:14:46 by YuBiusk Ink

NotFishing

NotFishing

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I'd say YuBiusk more or less summed up the issue.

This forum just isn't a good place for stories anymore. You're more likely to get people to read your stories if you post them on Fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own, or literally anywhere else.

If I post a story, people won't read it, and then it'll be vanish because some random guy who never engages with the community or contributes anything decides to bump a bunch of threads that haven't seen activity in several years, which nobody is going to read either. That's always been the problem with the Story Forum, to be completely frank. The way the RuneScape forums are designed simply doesn't mesh well here.

I can write one story, or I can write ten, or I can write a hundred - that won't matter, because it'll still just be me posting them and only me and maybe two or three others who are reading them. Even if they do decide to leave feedback, it'll just be a one-sided interaction.

Now, I can write an RP, and sure, maybe only a handful of people will engage with it, but these are people I have known for years. People who are my friends. People who are not only witnessing my work, but are responding to it with their own, which in turn influences my own. Fundamentally, that is always what RPing was meant to be about. Roleplaying simply offers a greater means to communicate and engage with others that stories do not.

The main reason any of us still RP here is mostly out of nostalgia. A lot of the people here basically grew up on this forum. We've all known each other for years. At the end of the day, Roleplaying allows us to engage with each other more meaningfully with each other than we can through stories. At this point it's less about creating and more about just hanging out with friends, and doing something that used to be a huge part of our lives. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-May-2023 02:45:04 - Last edited on 12-May-2023 02:49:27 by NotFishing

NotFishing

NotFishing

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None of us seriously expect this forum to recover and to be quite frank, I'm not sure most of us even want that - we're all adults with jobs and other hobbies. The glory days when the roleplay forum had 30+ active users at any given moment are long gone, and if they miraculously did return, none of us would be able to keep up with that.

We just have to face reality - this forum is on its deathbed. It's not dead but it's not going to get better. We all have our own reasons for being here and there's nothing inherently bad about choosing to only focus on either stories or roleplay or both. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-May-2023 02:48:56

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Mind you, the Stories forum did used to be thriving, back when the community was less divided between two timelines and the company showed more interest in encouraging this kind of community involvement. It wasn't always like this. A lot of factors contributed to our half of this subforum's steady decline.

I really am posting my stories here out of pure stubborn grit, spit and gumption at this point. I wrote my first novel and made some of my first friends on here. Neither are still around, but, well. I like it here.

12-May-2023 02:50:07

Azi Demonica

Azi Demonica

Posts: 5,601 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Your loyalty is admirable, Yu. I've been around for two decades with this account thus far, and I won't be leaving anytime soon. However, I'm very bad at short stories/RPing, so I'm just not able to provide much useful insight reading them.

I noticed in Wattpad, FanFiction.net, and even critique partnerships, people are now unwilling to communicate. When I read something, I don't just do it to babble or post mindless comments. I want to interact with the work, engage with the writer, discuss what could be improved and what I misinterpreted, and develop an experience. Starting since around 2020, everything nowadays is just 'ohai kthnxbi'.

I will admit I remain burned out, I just don't have energy anymore. When I was younger, I could read an entire story on Wattpad, post a review, then interact with the author over the next few weeks and just enjoy watching them develop into something so much better. Nowadays, people just don't seem to care, it's like everyone's in sandbox mode and want to stay sitting in their sandbox.

Since I clearly can't make a difference, I don't really know what to do for this forum, or writing in general.

I'm starting to consider abandoning art altogether then going back into trucking (I kinda miss bouncing around in a big rig tbh), or maybe I should go into heavy forest equipment operating training, there's currently a massive demand for log processor operator and some for feller buncher.

13-May-2023 06:17:28 - Last edited on 13-May-2023 06:18:25 by Azi Demonica

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