I have a few objections, qualms, and suggestions. Please note, even if I disagree with you, I hold everyone here in the highest regard and mean no offense by it.
1) "Events are a good place to meet people."
I haven't found this to be generally accurate. As someone who has attended ~20 events in the last few months, the only one that resulted in me making more contacts for RP was the Starlight Ball. This is because most events are so focused on some kind of performative centerpiece that the participants in the event interact with each other very little and/or because of the aforementioned chatspam.
2) The Quicksand is the one place to consistently find RP and the community derides it.
Nearly every one of my positive interactions with people outside of my RP partner have started in the Quicksand. I generally can't find people anywhere else with any regularity. And yet the community makes fun of Quicksand RP constantly by mentioning the supposed rampant ERP there (it happens, I've seen the roots of it, but it's not anywhere near as constant as people say it is).
Because of this a lot of the more established people avoid the place, leaving RP noobs to interact with a smaller, less connected pool of people. And everyone there kind of feels like a pariah when they see the jokes flying even if they weren't there for anything having to do with ERP. It sucks.
3) The lack of a central RP hub is especially damaging to new people.
This site/open RP/every RP LS I've been in has tons of people I have never seen RP. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they do, which just tells you that I don't have access to the areas/events in which they choose to RP. That in and of itself makes you feel like you're excluded from the clique.
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Events largely benefit people who are established. It gives them something novel to react to around friends they've already made. They're a point of diversity for their character. Those who are new are just looking to make those friends to begin with.
I think what's really needed is a strong, central RP hub that everyone agrees on. It would need to be a large enough area so that the problem of chat spam can be addressed spatially. Ideally there would be multiple buildings with different themes to include diverse people (bar only wouldn't work).
Sadly, I'm not sure if such a place even exists and doubly that people would support it.
1) "Events are a good place to meet people."
I haven't found this to be generally accurate. As someone who has attended ~20 events in the last few months, the only one that resulted in me making more contacts for RP was the Starlight Ball. This is because most events are so focused on some kind of performative centerpiece that the participants in the event interact with each other very little and/or because of the aforementioned chatspam.
2) The Quicksand is the one place to consistently find RP and the community derides it.
Nearly every one of my positive interactions with people outside of my RP partner have started in the Quicksand. I generally can't find people anywhere else with any regularity. And yet the community makes fun of Quicksand RP constantly by mentioning the supposed rampant ERP there (it happens, I've seen the roots of it, but it's not anywhere near as constant as people say it is).
Because of this a lot of the more established people avoid the place, leaving RP noobs to interact with a smaller, less connected pool of people. And everyone there kind of feels like a pariah when they see the jokes flying even if they weren't there for anything having to do with ERP. It sucks.
3) The lack of a central RP hub is especially damaging to new people.
This site/open RP/every RP LS I've been in has tons of people I have never seen RP. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they do, which just tells you that I don't have access to the areas/events in which they choose to RP. That in and of itself makes you feel like you're excluded from the clique.
***
Events largely benefit people who are established. It gives them something novel to react to around friends they've already made. They're a point of diversity for their character. Those who are new are just looking to make those friends to begin with.
I think what's really needed is a strong, central RP hub that everyone agrees on. It would need to be a large enough area so that the problem of chat spam can be addressed spatially. Ideally there would be multiple buildings with different themes to include diverse people (bar only wouldn't work).
Sadly, I'm not sure if such a place even exists and doubly that people would support it.
