Poll: Do you think AFW has too many issues detrimental to your enjoyment of the site?

Please elaborate on what you feel those issues are, we on the mod team would like to have your opinion. Helps us know if we are focusing on the right things.

My biggest issue is probably people dropping your threads without noticing you, while still actively posting in their other stuffs. At least inactive people equally not posting in all of their threads. Yes, there's not much you can't do about it, but if even the mods doing it then it kinda feels like, I don't know, double bummer? It's not like it takes a lot of time to say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, this thread no longer interest me so let's drop it".

I mostly play Tension and mostly male characters that end up being ragdolled by their female opponents, so I wouldn't say I have many issues aside from the alarming lack of female counterparts to match my rp likings ;p

But jokes apart (and limiting my observations to Tension), I have the impression that the mixed wrestling thing is quite going adrift.
I see few events in general. And when there's one, I feel stranger to them, unsure if I'd be welcome, if I'd be really interested. Like they weren't meant for me to participate to start with.

Now you may say: your characters keep losing and losing, and you want to star in a tournement? Maybe a title match so you can ruin it with a one-sided squash?

No, I'm not being grumpy because I want a title chance for my jobbers. (Though, creating a Jobber Champion belt might be a fun idea XD).
I always saught to play my kind of threads with my kind of RP pals here, and I like it that way. But, is it a good thing for the forum that I won't expect more?
As an old time member, AFW used to give me the sense of pleasantness of a friendly community. But now I tend to just login and check if my occasional rp pal has posted back.

So, I don't know: Creating events meant to involve a larger number of members maybe? Actively encouraging them to participate too? That might be a starting step to change that mood, I think.

Sorry if that sounded like negative criticism, it wasn't meant like that. Honestly I would have kept it to myself, thinking that it was my problem, that I'm getting old for this etc etc.
So, it's your fault for opening a poll ;p

wrestleryu wrote:

So, I don't know: Creating events meant to involve a larger number of members maybe? Actively encouraging them to participate  too? That might be a starting step to change that mood, I think.

Sorry if that sounded like negative criticism, it wasn't meant like that. Honestly I would have kept it to myself, thinking that it was my problem, that I'm getting old for this etc etc.
So, it's your fault for opening a poll ;p

All feedback is welcome

I would just like to point out that while they haven't all been in Tension, we HAVE created more events, without restrictions on the card, and encouraged more players to be active on them. We had to cancel one such PPV last year because in all time we promoted it, nobody bothered setting anything up for it, so we canceled it at the last minute.

I'm not making excuses, I just wanted to make it clear that we HAVE been trying to encourage user activity for some time around here. Perhaps more of the events should have been Tension ones, perhaps the ones we've tried just having struck the right chord with the audience.

We will continue to try though, and hopefully will create events more people feel welcome to participate in.

Old_Man_Tai wrote:
I would just like to point out that while they haven't all been in Tension, we HAVE created more events, without restrictions on the card, and encouraged more players to be active on them. We had to cancel one such PPV last year because in all time we promoted it, nobody bothered setting anything up for it, so we canceled it at the last minute.

I'm not making excuses, I just wanted to make it clear that we HAVE been trying to encourage user activity for some time around here. Perhaps more of the events should have been Tension ones, perhaps the ones we've tried just having struck the right chord with the audience.

We will continue to try though, and hopefully will create events more people feel welcome to participate in.

Maybe it's just me, like I said. Maybe there was a period when I was not much interested in the forum, favoring other sites and other things to do, and when I got back into being more active, the forum seemed to be less interested in me XD
I wonder why didn't those latest events attract much interest too. I have no idea myself, apart from expressing my limited and very personal sensation.
Also thanks for your answer pal!

I guess I'll add my two cents, this might just be a bit of a long winded rant but since all feedback is welcomed I'll type away.

I've tended to have a bittersweet feel with this site, when I started way back when I was hella bullied and didn't really get any help with improving myself as an RP'er. It got to the point where I mostly only stayed to spite the folks that did that and try to help newcomers if need be and the mods back then didn't really do anything to help allay the situation. It wasn't until I made Eliza that people suddenly wanted to work with me. 

I'm not sure on if I should have worked with them but out of a desire to fit in I did because I seemed to have created a gold mine. I try to not let that experience colour my view point but I have formed the opinion that its best to simply just roll over and agree to whatever my partner wants, I'm trying to take steps to being more assertive in this regard. Its also why I'll often stand up and argue in the case of newcomers and try to work with them because I want them to feel accepted and know that I'm in their corner if they ever feel oppressed. 

I can't rack my brain about a better way to do this besides perhaps a mod just dropping a PM occasionally saying 'Hi we hope your enjoying the site, message us if you have any questions or concerns.' I know you guys are busy irl and probably won't be able to implement this all the time the thought just came to my mind stemming from working in retail.

Things were okay overtime on the site for me after making Eliza and I actually felt like I was making headway into improving my craft and my experience on the site and even helped revive Tension's tag team division in a big way, until I tried to RP with someone in particular and it derailed and became one of the worst experiences I'd ever had on the site and that was saying something considering the bullying I went through. It was so bad I actually remember taking a hiatus from RP-ing in general later that year after another RP blew up on me and I chalked it to burnout after too many negative experiences. 

Said person in the former case later went on to become a current mod of the site, which did make me quite nervous I will admit as I believed that I would be stonewalled in any further attempts to do more indepth site stuff plus I couldn't understand how they made it there with the attitude and experience that I had been given but given my very passive nature thanks to getting the spirit knocked out of me I kept my mouth shut. Thankfully I have spoken to them in private prior to typing this after plucking up the courage to approach them, I want the mods to like me and in turn I want to be able to trust them with the future of this site. Something like this is a great first step forward already, makes me feel like a door is actually opened for me to sit down and express what I think. Mods need to be approachable at the end of the day and feeling like one can't is probably just going to turn them away unless they've made friends amongst the community with other RP-ers.

This post is already pretty long and winding already, but I do have one thing that we might want to suggest. Back with the old mods someone made a homophobic remark in regards to yaoi wrestling being a thing on the site and said individual wasn't really told off for it. Now I myself don't do hentai matches although I do M vs M stuff and believe in being able to express one self, I feel that we may want to create a more LGBTQ friendly atmosphere, the nature of the site alone supports this but perhaps say when pride month rolls around we could idk change the site colours to try and match the flag? Or at least promote it in some way?

Sorry if its a hard post to sift through and if there was nothing worth gleaming from it, I've been up since 5am and wanted to get my opinions in. Thankfully I feel that I'm in a renaissance period of RP-ing, I'm here and I've made new wrestlers, had really fun RP's, buried the hatchet at last with most of those that have done me wrong and tried to improve myself. Least I can do is try and help the site as a whole and the people that work to keep a sense of welcome authority and thanks for letting me rant.

Thank you for sharing.

I'm sorry for your past experiences, I hope you were able to resolve those issues.

I've heard a LOT about how the current mods are considered Unapproachable, and I've spent the last couple of years trying to reverse that image with these polls and constantly doing threads to try and answer questions and get peoples opinions and get them to come to us with their concerns and requests.

Clearly that's not working, so I am open to any and all suggestions that might help people feel more comfortable coming to us. Part of the entire reason FOR this thread is so I and the other mods can learn what issues people are having that we can attempt to make better. I can't promise it'll be a FAST process, but we are here and trying and willing to help if people are willing to come to us.

As for your comments on the LGBTQ stuff, I agree that, historically, there has been some issues regarding a stigma around M/M matches, especially Yaoi ones, in the past and with past mods and past members.

Let me be clear that while, obviously, nobody is required to do an M/M match if they do not want to or it does not interest them, the mods, and the site, is pro-LGBTQ and want this to be a safe place for members of the community. For those looking to engage in yaoi and M/M, I can't guarantee success because it IS a niche interest amongst our members, but there ARE members, myself included, who are willing to do M/M and yaoi matches if that is where your interest lies.

As for changing the site colors during pride month or advertising it in some way, I think that would be perfectly fine, so unless anyone has any objections to it, we'll probably start doing that.

Speaking from personal experience, the reason I left 5 years ago was for the exact reasons Deus already brought up re: homophobia and general negative atmosphere for m/m activity from both other members and mods/staff. The chatbox was notorious for snide comments and toxicity, and with that attitude also coming from the people who ran the site itself, I thought 'why bother with speaking up?' Overall the negativity outweighed the many positive interactions I did have doing mixed and m/m stuff, and I felt unwelcome enough that I just left rather than try to change anything.

Now skip 5 years to the present and I haven't been back long enough to tell if that atmosphere has changed or not. As was stated m/m is still a niche interest here and that's perfectly fine. I came back because someone asked me to, and I haven't really made an effort to look at the site at large because I plan to stay in my own lane and keep doing my own thing and enjoying my time however I like -- m/f, m/m, whatever.

On an entirely separate note - mods being deemed 'unapproachable' is something I've run into many, many times over my years on the internet both as a mod myself and a regular member. Sometimes this stems from mods interacting with their friends and people just assume preferential treatment or unwillingness to expand their clique/friend group. It can be really hard to break into a setting where there are a lot of established friendships going on, and you often feel like you have to compete to stand out or be noticed. The 'Mod' title can also be intimidating to new members sometimes, and the anxiety and uncomfortable feelings that come with messaging someone for the first time can be a lot to deal with, so people need an excuse or reason to talk themselves out of it. Granted, sometimes you do just have clique-ish behavior going on, but imo and from my experience, it's often more of the former.

Just my two cents. Cheers?

Does my opinion really matter if I've been dead here? .....And late af with a response?

I fell the problem is, there is no...Timeline. No cannon connectivity aside from rps centered around or near the yearly Splash and Avalanche and champion events. Now, AFW is Wayyyyyyy too big to try and archive all of that, however, having some sort of loose timeline would do wonders. Or having some way to understand the connectivity between some (cause not every rp is connected) major events that have happened. As a writer I CRAVE cannon an d there used to be that, and now things feel disjointed.

I also feel that absolvation of tension and friction has happened. In a sense that anyone can fight anyone with no special reasoning behind it. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that, but does dilute the meaning behind the two franchises and the reason they exist. Further into that and also speaking on M/M in a more...Comical way but still serious...I am a lady and I would love to see m/m content on here even if its separate. But it feels like that it is niche or frowned upon a bit as opposed to hentai being the norm which is OK but not everyone here wants that. Again, I crave story and the build up rp to an actual match is just as good as an actual match.

Lastly, I don't deem the mods unapproachable entirely...However, I don't really know anymore who the mods are aside from Tai. Not that they aren't standouts or anything but, even back a decade ago, I never understood fully what a mod does or what they are capable to do.

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Part of the reason I left the site is because how it felt like it fell apart a bit when some people left over the course of a year or so. HOWEVER, it has been looking good when I do drop in and read this site like its a fuckin manga lol. It just, hard to bounce around if members haven't archived their char's stories right and I have to search for the next part in their story and there is no unifying way to follow a story (which again I know is 99.9% impossible to do now with how big the site is)

Another reason I left is because it felt like things were becoming a bit...Closed off? Hard to explain but there wasn't a way really for me to break back in to rp-ing because I had no idea sometimes what the newest thing s happening were? But that one may just more be me...