I did some rooting around
a certain other RP forum and looked around to see how long it took them to get so large. Apparently, they've been around for just over a year. Now, they do have the benefit of being THE RP forum for the Star Wars franchise, which leads to a lot of hits on Google, but if they can make it that large in a year I think we'd be grateful to get even half of the community they've got.
Now, of course, they've got a centralized universe, a forum-wide canon, and a lot of other things that doesn't make that forum a reliable benchmark to our own, but what it did have all the way back then was a new users forum. Somewhere for new users to post just a buncha stuff that new users feel like posting. Our interface right now makes it a little awkward for new users to figure out what kind of posting style we have going on here, or even where to post in the first place.
If we want to grow to be big an strong, we gotta
eat our veggies make an effort to make this forum more new user friendly.
Ooh, that reminds me. Forum welcome wagon. My
P̥͎͂̓̐́̽̿A̝͒ͤ̈ͯ͛G̘̲͙͚̞͓ͪ̾̓̾̂ͤ̏A̹͔̠͓ͤͤ͋N̗͚̯ ̥͖̰̰̃̄Ǧ͔̞͇͈̣̃̽͑O̜̞̜̽D̳̞͍̪̰̓̑̔ͅ ̮ͦT̙͎͙̦͙̼͛͊̿̒̾E̽̂X̩͉̘̬̥̗̞͒ͪͨT͖̘̣͈̟ could probably do with getting rid of. As fun as it is for me to throw at new users, I don't think it's really going to keep people around unless they're like our dear friend Lurker. And let's face it, people like Lurker are one of a kind. We ought be more welcoming to a wider audience starting at the moment they log in to when they become "one of the guys". (Or gals.) That means our most friendly members giving their best attention to these new peeps to make them feel welcome in this new-to-them forum. Not everybody should bum rush the first new person we get, though. That miiiiight be too much. Just some warm "Hi! Hello!"s to get the ball rolling and somebody suggesting some stuff to do around the place to get started.
We could expand the introduction thread to an introduction forum. Have people make their own threads, keep a sticky on the forum that tells them the rules and what they can post. We could even have the introduction forum be pretty free range. Post what you want, how you want it to tell us who you are and what you do. It could be fun.
@Perigrin Those changes sound great. Take it easy, though. Depression is just like any other illness; if you push yourself too hard you might end up sicker.