So as you might know, or not know, I made a website called "Pony Roleplay" which was a website that offered MLP Themed roleplaying. It is closed for now though.

It didn't pan out as I expected it to happen and this is why, and the things that will change in the new iteration ( more about that later ):

I had no direction

Halfway trough the second iteration of the website ( which added a few new features and changed the database relations ) I had a greater ( and frankly better idea ) of what the website should have been. But the problem was that it was impossible to do that without a full re-haul of everything! Which was obviously not an option. So this kind of killed my motivation. I was constantly thinking about how badly I designed the models ( the data used in the application ) and their relations. This added a lot of problems when programming, opened up a lot of different security holes. ( People could submit other's characters! ) You had to tinker with the data though, but still. Worst code I have ever written. Not going to repeat it though though as I learned a lot since Mai ( when I wrote that code ).

My conclusion:

Think ahead, and really far ahead. If you think "I can fix that later on" then you probably already lost. Don't. Ever. Do Things. You. Have. To. Fix. Later.

This might sound obvious, but it isn't when you are the one programming.

No engaging user experience

When you arrived on the website it pretty much assumed that you knew how to use it and what exactly roleplaying is. Which is obviously quite bad, but at the time I just thought "People will try out stuff! They will discover how to use it!". I based that on my own experience where when I found something new I would just try to check out everything I could.

Turns out I was wrong, really wrong. People are lazy. ( Sadly... ) If you don't spoon feed them instructions how everything works they will just drop it and quit the website.

I made a topic in the forums ( not here, but there ) where people could ask questions about the site. Yeah, well it had one question in about two months, and it was if they could use a certain character in a roleplay.

So yeah, another lesson:

Be creative! Except no-one to care about your side and make them care! Also be sure that your user always has something to check out if you don't want them to get bored.

Advertisement

I actually hated this topic, and not because I didn't want to buy ads ( I actually wanted to! ) but because I once again didn't realize that the internet is stone hard. And not just any stone. No it's like Diamonds. At least when talking about how to get known. The rules are simple. Either you do, or you don't.

The main reason I couldn't get advertisement was funding though. ( And a mix of the first point. I didn't want to 'waste' money. )

Conclusion:

Well, I did get some ads, but couldn't sustain them longer than a few days. Which seemed okay though.

Final Conclusion:

When making a project know exactly how it will work. That is, the core. Features can change, but they shouldn't interfere with the core.

My core was "fun MLP FiM roleplaying". But I didn't manage the fun part so I lay down to rest the website.

PS: I didn't want to take it off because of finanical problems. My server's cheap(er) now and I can easily pay it. But I found it to be a disgrace to roleplaying and insulting to my users.

In the end I had around 500 registered users in ~3 months. Only 2% were active though. And I am sorry for them. Their roleplays seemed to be fun. I hope I didn't break their will to roleplay.

Now something else. The birth of a new website. It will be about roleplaying. ( Not specifically mlp though. ) and it will have more traditional elements. More info will be coming soon I guess!