Let's be honest, we don't have as many members as we used to...at least I think so. Looking back at the old 411fed there were way more active feuders.

So what I'm proposing is that we all come and brainstorm of a way to get more active feuders. Restore TCW to glory. I mean, you guys did it once before way back when 411 started. Let's do the same thing.

Any ideas guys?

Well what do you have in mind? Right now, recruitment is pretty low even in FWRFed, which is on a forum attached to a fairly large wrestling news site. In the past, FWRFed members have filtered through into TCW, but if FWRFed isn't getting lots of new members...

The 411fed started during a boom period in wrestling, when lots of clever people were hanging around wrestling forums. Lots of the guys who were feuding then were at school or college, and they've since grown up and gotten themselves proper lives. New members didn't drop out of the sky even back then - there has always been just a small core of dedicated feuders and lots of guys who came and went. When you look at some of the people we think of as legends, there's really only a couple of "generations". Some of those same guys - Bleeder, Lance, Jackrabbit, Dante - are still around in some form.

I guess what I'm getting at is that "recruitment" is not the issue. There hasn't ever been a continuous stream of newbies, to the best of my knowledge.

Advertising of some form. There has to be some way we can promote the fed.

Also, I think it's a problem that FWRFed is at the bottom of the 411 forum list. I didn't even know it -existed- until someone told me about it, and I went there all the time for the wrestling forums.

You never scrolled down? Didn't you ever wonder what was in the other forums?

Not really, all I went there for was wrestling...

Though everyone over there is an asshole and the mod team sucks.

Hey, I'm a mod

Then start banning some illiterate assholes.

It wouldn't be 411 without illiterate assholes!

Back on topic, is there a way we can pitch the fed to potential members? I've tried it before without success...I know lots of roleplayers and most of them go "I hate wrestling", even when I tell them about the vampire hunters and all.

It does require a peculiar combination of interests. Not many wrestling fans like writing, and not many writers are wrestling fans. That little overlap in the Venn diagram is our target demographic. In general, it's easier to convince a wrestling fan to become a writer than convince a writer to turn his talents to something as nerdy as wrestling. Of course, wrestling fans also look down on e-fedders, so it's kind of a paradox.

The place to advertise (and it's been discussed before) would be in e-fedding circles, but I think there's few enough of them now, and we've never been part of the wider community anyway - our style is a pretty significant departure from what most e-feds do, I believe (at least judging by guys from other feds who've come to FWRFed).

If TCW is to be revitalised, there's a lot to be said for getting vets to come back. We lost a lot of people in the '06 - '07 period when things were...not so great. Even I was on the verge of walking away a few times back then. We've also lost certain stalwarts who would almost always come back after a while (like Bruce) but haven't been heard from in years.

So, again, this goes back to what I said before. Recruitment is not especially low, so much as our core of vets has become depleted over time.

Any idea why Bruce vanished?

Nope. It's not necessarily my place to talk about efforts to track him down and stuff though, so I'll let Lance field those questions.

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.p ... opic=91947

I shilled our site here.

I have some ideas for bringing in some new people, but they're part of a larger group of changes that will be taking place over the next few months.

The issue with the old 411fed/ECF roleplaying style is this: What we consider normal (writing your character and the characters of others), most other place consider to be one of the worst things you can possibly do. So many places outright forbid you from writing a character other than your own.

On top of that, most wrestling roleplaying is not really about writing. It's more for the fantasy aspect, the guys who want to be a wrestler in the same way that you're a wrestler when you make your CAW on the Playstation. They do promos and are generally not very literate.

We fit in more with the smaller groups that are focused on writing and storytelling and, because we require a higher level of skill, our potential members are much more limited than a place that's made for everyone.

There are different takes on this but in the end, we're never going to have a huge community because there isn't a huge number of people whose interests cross over this much, as Thommy mentioned. And, as he also mentioned, these feds were created during a high point in pro wrestling and, just a pro wrestling will probably never again be as big, neither fed will likely be as big as they once were either.

That said, as I mentioned, I have some plans, but I want to get this place in perfect shape before we make any large attempt to attract people, because the more polished our product, the more attractive it is to potential members, etc.

Weird. I can't remember actually mentioning to move the RP forums up to the top...I was going to post it but I thought that would be too nitpicky.

Lance, did you read my mind?!

I'm just good like that.

*checks for computer chips in her head*