Problems with the site, as I see it

I'm going to be frank here, and let you guys deal with that. But you're all mature, responsible people, or else you wouldn't be here, so I'm going to trust you can handle this without throwing a hissy fit.

The be perfectly honest, the site is going downhill, and fast. We're losing members, not gaining active new ones, and everything has hit kind of a stall, at least in my opinion.

The main reason for this is that the site as a whole is NOT NEW USER FRIENDLY.

There. I said it.

Sure, the people are nice and all, but that doesn't mean diddly when you've just joined. Take it from me, I suffered through this. There is no overarching plot, there is no place to insert yourself. The main attitude of the staff, and by extension the entire site seems to be: Let them do what they want. I'll be standing over here, developing my character, you can be there, developing yours, and everyone can just do whatever they want.

This had to change.

When you first join, you look for a group you can assert yourself with. You can see the plot, clearly outlined, or at least see where the plot is and the possible directions it might go. Unfortunately, to me, it appears that most of what goes on on the IC side of PA is limited to a small group of people, which makes it very hard to be inclusive. No matter how nice you are, people will be intimidated. It's the way they'll react. It's they way I reacted, and it's the way people are acting now.

Seriously guys. How many times have you seen someone pop up, post a lot in the OOC places, and then disappear? Because I've seen it TONS. Very rarely do people do this. Usually it's because they feel a lack of connection. There's nothing pulling them in. They leave and never come back before they've gotten a chance to ingrain themselves in the site.

Here's my suggestion:

We, the privvy people, sit down, and bang out a plot. A real PLOT, not the half planned out kind of things I've been seeing here. We need to plan how it's going to go, from start to finish, and how it's going to end. Maybe even come up with multiple endings depending on how the rest of the site acts. We need to make something major happen, and then make the rest of the site TALK ABOUT IT. REACT TO IT.

I mean, think about when Matt became minister. Big deal right? New minister? Like the president being elected, for all you american folks. But outside the ministerial ball and threads where Matt himself appears, nobody seems to be talking about it. It's like it never happened.

I'm sorry - this is quickly devolving into a rant, albite a needed rant (at least in my mind) but things get muddled. Now that I've got the plot thing out of the way, let me go back to being new user friendly.

I remember when I first came onto the site. It went something like this:

ME: Whoohoo! New RP site! Harry Potter! Yeah! Let's go! Alright, I wanna RP with someone! Hmmmm.....let's check this person out! What is their character like...

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION: Random was just a normal girl before she went to Hogwarts, where she met LOVE INTEREST. But LOVE INTEREST dumped her, she got depressed, went goth, became best friends with Susie Q and Sally B, and then tried to kill herself, but LOVE INTEREST turned out to be a vampire, and turned her into a vampire. But then it all turned out to be a dream and....

NOTE: That was not intending to replicate any specific character. Just my impressions.

ME:.....wait what the hell? *Looks at recent threads* Oh...she only RPs with like 2 different people...never mind. Next!

And so on.

Anyway, that was basically what it was like. Until I stumbled upon....*drumroll* CHARACTER PLOTS!

Have I mentioned how worthless I think character plots are? Sorry if I haven't, but they're worthless.

See, I find these things, and it goes like this:

ME: Ah. Character plots. Places where people can sign up for important positions in other people's lives. Neat. *walks into somebody's plot* Uh, yes? Hello? Got a position open?

PERSON: Oh yeah! You can be "Like family". Let's say we met when...

ME: Waitwaitwait. We're on an RP site. Shouldn't we just...RP our characters meeting?

PERSON:.....Whaaaaaaa?

And so on.

Anyway, my hands are tired, and my point is drifting farther and farther away, so I'll wrap this up. Something needs to be done, and fast. Basic line is:

1. Plot is not inclusive
2. Character plots are useless - they simply encourage NOT rping.

Yeah, i'm of that opinion too, you'll notice i don't have a character plot, nor do i look at them, or include myself in them. I remember my first RP topic on this site, real RP i mean, memorable. It was the Hogwarts express. Got on the train, made friends on the train, bada-bing, bada-boom, and i'm into the RPing with friends, i have myself involved in the plot, and it was all fine and dandy. Do we have any massed new people topics? No. I think we should. A dedicated Newbie place.

And as the admins'll tell you, first thing i've done is encouraged us to stop thinking about another theme, and really think about a plot. we'll get back to you on that, i think it's an idea to stop complaining about things not working, and actually starting to sort this out.

A.N. If you've been doing all the the stuff aforementioned while i was gone, please forgive me, I've not been around