RIP General

[WhiteLightHeart]

I really, REALLY don't support this decision. I mean, I tried to be open-minded about it, but... At the time you guys removed it I was just going to start a new rp, and now it's nearly impossible to effectively recruit. I used to be able to find four or five people within two-four hours, but now it's an all day effort.

We understand where you're coming from, Longjump, but I don't think it's good for RPs to rely solely on General to advertise. I do know of other roleplays (some of my own friends, and also some who have posted here in this thread) who are still recruiting successfully, and they've done this by using different recruiting tactics.
For one thing, I suggest utilizing movie clips every now and then, while also even sending out your current members into different public maps (especially hotspots like SP or the clumps of activity in Ficho) so you can spread word about your RP across FH. And then, of course, your current members can send any RP samples, etc., to you so you can give it the yes or no.
And also, you said you were recruiting for hours on end? O.O
I've found in the experience I had in my two year-old wolf RP that you don't want to recruit for more than an hour, or an hour and a half, maximum. When you do any more than this, any new members you might've had will get bored while sitting around for hours, and won't even get the chance to RP before they have to go to bed, or lose interest altogether. I'd suggest recruiting at least 2 or 3 new members (or until you've reached an hour of recruiting), and then going to your map/RP spot and roleplaying together for a while, this way your new members will get to know your group, get into the story, and want to come back. Always keep them interested, and they'll always want to come back. :3 "Keep the show going," if you will.

Those are just some tidbits, but it's still very possible to keep your RPs going, and started. I hope yours picks up, too. c:

[longjump]

Oh, believe me, I've been using Movies as a main source of advertising. And the thing about starting up an RP is that I am the ONLY member in it, I don't have anyone to send to other maps, and when I do, the results are usually the same as mine. As for recruiting hours on end, I would happily return to the map with only two or three people, but the problem is is that even that small of a number has become hard to reach. This is my main issue with General chat, is you could catch people's attention with it. Now it's just Movieclip movieclip movieclip movieclip Local argument that so and so is stealing members and making lag movie clip movieclip movieclip.

[Silvertide]

Oh, believe me, I've been using Movies as a main source of advertising. And the thing about starting up an RP is that I am the ONLY member in it, I don't have anyone to send to other maps, and when I do, the results are usually the same as mine. As for recruiting hours on end, I would happily return to the map with only two or three people, but the problem is is that even that small of a number has become hard to reach. This is my main issue with General chat, is you could catch people's attention with it. Now it's just Movieclip movieclip movieclip movieclip Local argument that so and so is stealing members and making lag movie clip movieclip movieclip.

If you are the only member that is where you first went wrong. In order to have a group you need a few friends to be active RPers and helpers in your RP. Whisper some of your friends and ask if they are interested. Without the extra backbone for the RP it just won't wok out no matter how much you advertise.

[kiaz1st]

I must agree with longjump. Its so much harder for people to really realise your rp when there are so many movie clips that yours is hardly notice. They cant quickly scan it like on general chat, and also, there is just not enough space to put in all the details.
I do like the idea of RPing with people to get members, I've always agreed with it. But its so hard to find cheetahs all alone for my new, cheetah rp. And even harder to find ones interested in a tribal cheetah rp. And then even harder to find ones that can download maps.
Are you starting to get the idea now? I really appreciate that the mods are trying to help, and I have seen many good points to this, I really do appreciate the mods, I just trying to express how hard it is for rper's now.

[longjump]

Oh, believe me, I've been using Movies as a main source of advertising. And the thing about starting up an RP is that I am the ONLY member in it, I don't have anyone to send to other maps, and when I do, the results are usually the same as mine. As for recruiting hours on end, I would happily return to the map with only two or three people, but the problem is is that even that small of a number has become hard to reach. This is my main issue with General chat, is you could catch people's attention with it. Now it's just Movieclip movieclip movieclip movieclip Local argument that so and so is stealing members and making lag movie clip movieclip movieclip.

If you are the only member that is where you first went wrong. In order to have a group you need a few friends to be active RPers and helpers in your RP. Whisper some of your friends and ask if they are interested. Without the extra backbone for the RP it just won't wok out no matter how much you advertise.

Most of my friends, despite being active, have their own roleplays to tend to, the others either aren't active at all, or simply had no interest in the type of rp I'm starting. The point is: If I can't make my ad stand out, and it's constantly being spammed away from the chat, no  one is ever going to see it. In general people used beautiful group titles to catch attention, or they cracked jokes, or parodied songs, but now it's just movieclip, and unless you have a spectacular Username, then goodluck catching someone's eye.

[Azielle]

I really, REALLY don't support this decision. I mean, I tried to be open-minded about it, but... At the time you guys removed it I was just going to start a new rp, and now it's nearly impossible to effectively recruit. I used to be able to find four or five people within two-four hours, but now it's an all day effort.

We understand where you're coming from, Longjump, but I don't think it's good for RPs to rely solely on General to advertise. I do know of other roleplays (some of my own friends, and also some who have posted here in this thread) who are still recruiting successfully, and they've done this by using different recruiting tactics.
For one thing, I suggest utilizing movie clips every now and then, while also even sending out your current members into different public maps (especially hotspots like SP or the clumps of activity in Ficho) so you can spread word about your RP across FH. And then, of course, your current members can send any RP samples, etc., to you so you can give it the yes or no.
And also, you said you were recruiting for hours on end? O.O
I've found in the experience I had in my two year-old wolf RP that you don't want to recruit for more than an hour, or an hour and a half, maximum. When you do any more than this, any new members you might've had will get bored while sitting around for hours, and won't even get the chance to RP before they have to go to bed, or lose interest altogether. I'd suggest recruiting at least 2 or 3 new members (or until you've reached an hour of recruiting), and then going to your map/RP spot and roleplaying together for a while, this way your new members will get to know your group, get into the story, and want to come back. Always keep them interested, and they'll always want to come back. :3 "Keep the show going," if you will.

Those are just some tidbits, but it's still very possible to keep your RPs going, and started. I hope yours picks up, too. c:

This doesn't mean remove General all together, to be honest, when General was open as a channel, I saw plenty of people posting movies to advertise, the thing was that both General and Movies stood out from each other. As of right now, Movie spam does nothing but make half of us lag out of the game and it isn't really accomplishing anything, yes, it's still a way to advertise. But it definitely does not do as good of a job as General did, mods should have consulted with the community before doing something so hasty.

[Woofley]

Exactly what longjump said owo

I've been trying to start up a rp which I've been looking kinda forward to for a while (I was looking for another person to be alpha since I'm so bad at having a lead char, but finally decided to give it a go just before gen was removed) Anyway, I haven't been able to get ONE person when recruiting. Two hours. No-one. Bam. ;^; Something that had the potential of fun gone down the drain. And friends... none of my friends have been on lately (and I'm beginning to think that this update is to blame >.>) so that won't work :x So yeah. I just.. wish there was some alternative, since this is becoming a real problem for me. (Yeah, I'm advertising with movies and sometimes, when I f3 and there's a bunch of wolves at SB, I go to stone bridge & local adv. But, the latter doesn't even work usually, since when I'm on, stone bridge is empty save for a few people >.< usually cats, lions or foxes)

So R.I.P general. I don't know why they decided to kill you, but I'll sure miss ya ;w;

[DarkNightCrystal]

*Has never realized General was removed*

[AmaltheaArts]

I guess I am a bit sad to see General go, but I can see the reason why now. It's just so hard to find roleplays and advertise for your own. I recently started my own mapped roleplay (ANW), and it's so hard to advertise. I have hardly any members. But I'm glad that we can chat in General in private maps, so I guess that's a bit better. Just hope it'll come back sometime soon, and that the people that have caused all the trouble in the first place to cause it to be shut down will learn their lesson.

[Murrphilia]

I -do- in fact agree with the removal of General chat in some ways. As Delay has said - it was an idea to be able to RP with each other form any point of the map; and that because of this is pretty much useless when it comes to role playing in local maps. I don't agree - though; because of the fact that it is much harder to advertise in maps. Sure in FP you can go to the stone bridge - but what about in other maps? Or what if FP crashed FH for you? Movies tend to be "not found" when some people create them and if you think about it; for most people it almost /never/ shows some people's movies as found. I do have ideas for FH for when it comes to advertising though Find my posts on the forum in the idea topics and vote for a few of them will yah? Thanks! ~Gircutie