So yeah... I've been looking through the RP forum. I don't know about you guys, but I think it looks too messy and unorganised, not to mention out-dated. I also noticed that it has very little activity, so it may not matter all that much. However, as an avid forum RP-er (Well, not so much these days, but I like to make a bit of time for it.) I feel that this should be brought to attention, and I do have a few suggestions to make. I would like to think this would draw more activity back to the RP section, but then that all depends on members interest in it, so in that respect I think it would be worth setting up a poll.

But anyways...

1. Archiving out-dated topics: I think it may be worth having a sub-forum for these or, if you would prefer, just to delete them. I know you already have a "Noteworthy Topics" section in The Tavern, so maybe shift them over there? I think this alone would clear up a lot of the mess.

2. Pinned Topics: There are a fair few of these in the section. I think the pinned topics should only be limited to the rules for the forum and any announcements.

3. Active RPs and Sign-up/Discussion Topics: To make things a lot more organised, I think a sub-forum for any RP Sign-Up and Discussion topics would be worth making. That way it keeps them seperate from the main RP topics, which would be made in the main section, thus making things look neater. Also, the Sign-ups/Discussion sub-forum would also provide a place for those who wish to put up their character bios in the forum, in their own topic.

By no means are these demands or anything, because I know the focus of thise forum as a whole isn't RPing. It's just that if the forum is gonna be there, it may as well be done good, right?

Personally I like these ideas. I also thought the RP forum is a bit crowded, especially since there is really only two active RPs going on at the moment.

Yeah, I may get one up and running myself soon. Got a bunch of ideas for quite an epic.

Oh and might I add to those interested in keeping the RP forum going. If you have any ideas for any way to keep the place more interesting, share them here!

Ah- we used to have all the subforums you mention - however the RP section had been quiet for a long time so we compressed everything to make room for the new design sections on the forum.

It needs a tidy up in there - I can't promise the subforum but will take a look today and maybe persuade Shadowval to help moderate it!

No worries! I'd be up for moderating it if you guys are a bit too stretched at the moment. I'm online almost every day for at least an hour, so. I've had plenty of experience either running an RP forum, or helping mod one, yada yada. But yeah, that's obviously if needed!

The archive is now returned to view and is in use-

I have had a tidy up - and only current sign up threads and the rules are at the top- pinned.

Should be better.

Shaddowval will monitor ALL the forums!

I've been meaning to organize RP for a while (It's one of my areas...) so yeah, I kinda dropped the ball on this one.

The RP section used to be rather active... one of the most active areas of the forum actually. I remember days when I could rack up 30-40 posts between different RPs I was involved in.
The last RP I was involved in maybe got one post a day.

I'll think of ways to maybe revive the RP forum... It used to be beautiful.
Actually, how would everyone feel about introducing forum adventures? They're ridiculously popular on MSPA forums, but I've seen them in other places too.
We could probably find a way to mix RM with Forum Adventures. I've seen this done with games such as Dwarf Fortress and Simcity.
It's a thought.

I came here upon the mention of Dwarf Fortress. (And also because I was checking on the fact that the Archives were back, yay.)

I've never done Forum Adventures before, nor do I know what it is, but if it helps boost activity, i'm willing to help as much as I can.

A forum adventure is basically a second-person narrative (usually with pictures, sometimes without.)

MSPA forum holds the monopoly on them, but I have seen other forums use them to some effect.
Prequel is an adventure that reached such popularity it now hosts on its own site. However, it started on MSPA, and all of the commands come from either there or from the website it is no hosted on. The character's name, personality, and adventure is mostly decided by the reader.
Rubyquest is an example of a forum adventure, it was hosted on 4chan and is actually pretty damned good.

Most adventures however look more like This They're wacky, almost unintelligible at times, and just good fun.
They'd probably be better to run in the Fun and Games section of the forum, but some of them are a Higher Standard than others.

They're pretty fun. I actually run one on MSPA.
This is the only dwarf fortress adventure I could find, but I'm sure there are more... somewhere.

So yeah, probably more suited for Fun and Games, but there could be some crossover.

Edit: Found another Sort of Dwarf Fortress Adventure.

...Huh...

Isn't that sort of what I did with The Watchers RP though? (Even though it failed epicly because it ended up being too much work for me.)

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, Watchers would have been a perfect example.

In any case, I might try launching an RM version of a forum adventure in fun and games. We can see how it goes down, and if it works we could encourage other people to do something similar.