Storyteller’s Circle Highlights: February 2017
Special Thanks
Foremost are as usual our users who (holy crap there's a lot of you this month!) continue to make a conserted effort to engage our introduction forum. These individuals are always the first to be highlighted in our monthly recaps for the simple reason that they all go to show through action - not just words - that we as a community genuinely value each and every new arrival. Our site has been up and running for four months now, and in that four month span not a single introduction thread has gone unanswered. Amazing work! @Gwazi Magnum, @Marcsun, @Kian, @GoddessLuna, @Draco Shadowdragon, @Dareth, @Meliodas, @Ethereal, @Cream, @DifferentStrawhat, @Sean E., @Kiowa, @Imperator Semper Rex, and many more!
In addition, special thanks are also afforded for @kalon, @Risha, @Aevar, @Ethereal, @Pokc for taking the time to recommend our website to others. Nothing says 'I support this community' like giving your personal recommendation to friends.
We also have continued our streak of maintaining a second place position on the Top RP Sites listings. Thanks are in order for each and every user who took the time to vote for our website. Keep up the good work! The vast majority of our traffic comes through TopRPSites, and keeping us at the top of the listings ensures a steady flow of new arrivals! The votes reset today as well, so remember to get those votes in! The first week of the vote reset is key to getting into a top position as the other sites fall back. As usual we'll send out alert reminders for everyone for the first week to snag our position swiftly.
New Roleplay Content
We have two new Epic Roleplays that have opened up their door this month including Oz GMed by @Eternal, and Isn't it Grimm GMed by @ConquerorFox. With our site growing so swiftly, these Epic Roleplays continue to offer a home for large numbers of roleplayers and have been a key component to keeping large numbers of players engaged while we continue to work to improve our selection of single-thread play-by-post roleplays. Keep them coming!
We had no new Multi-Thread Roleplays kick off this month, but we had a surprising burst of activity in our single thread play-by-post forums. In particular our fantasy forum boasts sixteen new roleplays, with twenty-two threads with active posts during the month of February. Across all of our play-by-post forums we had a total of thirty-six threads with posts, twenty-five of which were newly opened! Given the sheer quantity of new arrivals we have been getting, this rush of new roleplays was much needed! Keep up the good work.
New Miscellaneous Content
Our creative forums continue to be a big hotspot of activity with new content regularly churning out in both out art and creative writing forums. Within the Creative Writing forum we have new threads by @Monster the Vamelfaer, @Rikki, @Kbeligratis, @StellaLuna4, @JeopardyJack, @Marley, @Mercy, @missgalaxythoughts, @StarryGuts, @MJK2431, @ForestDivinity, @Risha, @HypocycloidStraightline, @WiZ, @Ahrima. Definitely worth checking them all out. Within the Artwork forum we have new threads up by @Commander Vox, @EvrinKai, @Desert_Rose, @Ysolde, @CeruleanRaindrops, @Imperator Semper Rex, @Astaroth, @Raging Glowworm, @Sean E., @The Son of Malfurion, @Monster the Vamelfaer, @Focusedheart, @That Poppy, @Deido256, @Marley, @Meka, @That Guy, @Joshua Raxter, @kookyGremlin, @WiZ, @Gypsy, @Kadaeux, @DamianWinther, @Draco Shadowdragon, @EvrinKai. Think I got everyone!
New Contests! February saw the addition of our new Contests forum in our creative forums. To kick things off where @Cream with her monthly artistic and writing competitions. In addition a photography/scavenger hunt contests was kicked off.
New Debate Forum! As many have no doubt already discovered, we opened up a Discussions & Debates forum this month.
Cream's second edition of Storyteller's Circle Comic Strip was posted up yesterday! Make sure you check it out if you haven't already. She'll be posting a new strip up once a month.
Lastly we have made available the aforementioned blog and media gallery features from last months recap. I encourage everyone to check them out if they haven't already! The Media Gallery in particular seems to be garnering the most interest, allowing people to upload their roleplay/character images directly to the website rather than using an external image hosting site. In addition to these new feature we also released a Dark theme.
Summary
What we're doing right: Going through the Introduction Forums, Writer's Circle, Main Lobby, Help Forum, and other community areas of our website, I will say our strongest asset remains our sheer level of interaction. Threads don't go unanswered - even in areas I admittedly anticipated a decline in activity after the novelty wore off. Much to my pleasure, that has not been the case. In fact our lineup of regular participants in our Introduction Forum has been growing larger every month rather than smaller!
What we need to work on: Chatroom public perception. Within the forums our interactions may be our strongest asset, but I feel that our chatroom interactions are our weakest point at this time. In the forums it's easy to ignore threads that don't interest any specific individual(s), or to think over a reply thoroughly before posting. Chat is real-time and as such more prone to impulse posts and impulse responses. As the chatroom is one of the first places many new users peak into, I would urge people to be mindful of how their actions and words might reflect upon the community if we as a whole wish to maintain the image we've all been striving so hard to uphold.
Sneak peak for March: We don't have anything big planned for March, but that doesn't mean we plan to nap on the job! We instead want to focus attentions on the smaller aspects of the site to polish out areas that need it the most. What does this mean? Be on the lookout for the small things! We'll be pushing to generate content in areas of the site that need it the most, and organizing small community projects and activities. We're also getting a new site logo!