Ladies and gentlemen of JvS...we need to talk.

What we had running before were Spontaneous RP events. Which are a little different than say Side Wide events.

But getting caught up in the details there is pointless. I think the issue with the Spont RP events after the first couple, was that people felt pressured to finish it in a weekend... or we just ran out of ideas and the last one or two were more like D&D sessions with a DM. From what I remember anyway.

I think the first couple worked well cause there was a location to go to, and people just made shit up as to why they were there. It was spontaneous and people had some fun with it.


I think maybe instead of say, posting frequency. Some people have come up with good work arounds where if you don’t post for a week, you agree to allow your character to be NPC’ed moving forward with everyone else.
Alternatively, try not to fall in with people posting faster than you.

Having something on the profile that might show up beneath say, your faction alignment, might be nice too. Just to indicate how often you post on a average basis.

Just to put a pin in it, there are a few other things I'd like to revisit from 1.5.

The Galactic Directory - A list of active planets and controlling factions
Photo Alterations - We used to have a thread where people could request photo alterations, it was a great way for the community to work together and it allowed those with the appropriate software the chance to show off their skills. It isn't necessary but there was some great stuff there.
Player of the Month - Great idea, no follow through.
Post/SL sharing thread - It was a place where we could highlight things that we thought were awesome around the site, probably not a lot of people remember it but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Stories we read or even were a part of that we wanted to share with everyone.
The HNN - I always enjoyed it and if we could get people doing it again it would be fantastic.

Like I said, we don't have to talk about those things now, but I do want to at least mention them while I'm thinking about it.

It was a pain in the arse and damn near a full time job to maintain. Of course, that was back in the day, when the site was still thriving enough that managing any part of it was a pain in the arse and damn near a full time job.

Sorry for butting in, someone mentioned something happening so I decided to take a look at the old place and see what it looked like these days. I'll go bugger off and leave you guys alone shortly.

Anyway, I've traveled far and wide since last I called JvS home, and I've seen enough of the RP community to get some perspective on what went wrong, what should have been done differently, and what can be done to reverse course. Not going to dwell too much on the past, because a frankly embarrassing percentage of the mistakes belong firmly to the original cast of Whills, myself included. Too late to do much about them now anyway.

With that in mind, a few ideas:

Conflict: In the early days, there was a conscious effort to curtail the wild conflicts that were the hallmarks of 1.0. Unfortunately, things went too far in the other direction, which led to stagnation. Healthy competition breeds interest and activity. Get your major factions together, decide on a goal, and start working on a story that pits them against each other. The trick is not to overthink it, and to try to keep up a healthy posting pace. You really don't need the Whills to come up with site-wide events. There's a decade of history and lore here to draw upon if you look hard enough.

Ease of Use: As much as I like fixed location threads, they're a bit intimidating, especially for folks coming from a place that doesn't use them. My only real suggestions here are to take them off the front page, so they're not staring newcomers in the face, and the creation of a Quick RP forum, where two or more writers can quickly post up a thread without having to go through the hassle of trying to figure out where in the entirety of the Star Wars galaxy they want to go. So, basically, on the front page have a link to Universe and to Quick RP. This one's a long shot, but hey, I'm probably not gonna be around to see the results one way or another.

Archive Unused Locations: Obviously, you want to keep the big planets like Coruscant, but if you've got a place that hasn't seen activity since 2016, maybe it's time to put it in the archives. If enough people want to use a place, you can always pull it out again. Think of it like the circle of death thingy in PUBG or Fortnite or whatever the cool kids are playing these days. The tighter the play area, the more people are forced to interact. Find a happy medium between forcing people out of their comfort zone and pissing them all off and you should be good.

Advertising, Partnerships: I know this one's been touched on, but there are a lot of RP directories out there, and I've seen the sort of draw they can bring in if you know how to use them. These last few months, I've had the pleasure of watching an Expanse themed RP board nearly double in size thanks to clever use of advertising and directories on behalf of the owner. While I realize that sounds like the hook for a bad advert for male enhancement, I wouldn't bring it up unless I thought it could work. Also, look into partnerships with other RP sites. There are plenty of them out there willing to partner up, and that can also be a source of fresh blood. I can think of one site in particular that has a sizable community of JvS ex-pats who frequently reminisce over the glory days, enough so that just about everyone there has heard some wild stories about this place. You may or may not be able to work out something there.

Introduction Forum: Have a place for newcomers to introduce themselves, and work together as a community to integrate them. On sites where that's a thing, newcomers almost always have someone greeting them within a day and helping them get their feet planted. Make it one of the first places anyone creating an account sees, and as a community, monitor that shit.

Play To Your Strengths: This place has over a decade of history. Sure, a lot of that history is coated in a thick layer of salt, but the glory is in the retelling anyway. When you're out recruiting, play up that history. And then, once they're here, try not to disappoint by living up to the stories of the past.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I'll bugger off now.

I tried to join a couple of years ago but couldn't get anyone to write with me (a different account that I lost the email for). I'm still happy to try and write here if welcome. I have written on jvs before and I love writing and writers here.

boards.jedivsith.com/thread/3437/restrictive-rules-jvs

Feel free to drop on by and leave a comment or two.

Just a quick reminder guys, drop on by this thread and let us know what you feel are the most restrictive things about JvS: boards.jedivsith.com/thread/3437/restrictive-rules-jvs

So far the general theme has been fleet regulations and custom ships/tech. While I would like it to be that easy, I get the feeling that there is some areas we have not hit upon yet. So please, drop on by and let us know what you think.

Hi Ade! Long time no chat! Great to hear from you!

I wanted to touch on the lack of excitement/enthusiasm part of your post, at least from my perspective. From approximately May of 2008 through some point in 2011, I was constantly over the moon excited about JvS every time I logged on. In fact I think I could probably say I was properly addicted at that point in time. Haha.

Now around 2012 something changed, and I felt the enthusiasm was just hard to find. I ended up gradually logging on less and less as SLs got stuck in limbo, etc, and just not having the motivation to seek out new RPs. I got busy with life and got hooked onto other things. Looking back on it, I might have simply burned myself out a bit there, because literally a couple of days ago I logged back on and talked in chat and I got bitten by the JvS RP bug again. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. *shot* Back to the point though, I think the extended break I've had for the last four years probably has a lot to do with my ability to find enthusiasm again now. I'm effectively feeling zero burnout now.

Now, do I expect to be nearly as active as I was during my first four years? Certainly not, as I am far busier now than then IRL. But I will also definitely expect to be more active than I was in the last four years.

As for site activity, I do think it is a legitimate concern. One I think I've brought up a few times on 1.5 when we were lagging. I don't think we are necessarily anywhere near the brink of dying, but the consistent slowing of activity is a trend that we should take seriously, as it could ultimately lead to that down the road. And nobody wants that.

When it comes to vets we need to keep in mind that for the majority of them now inactive, it could very well just be self burnout or life getting busy. Not much we can do but give them time to come back if they decide to. However, if vets have left in anger, then we could try to reach out and make amends.

I think the most important thing is retaining new members. That is the key to vitality.