The good news is that I don't think any of this is necessarily new. If this were IPS (and I only make this reference because I'm most familiar with the IPS ecosystem), you would show the following widgets: topics I posted in, the guest login widget, and online users / recently online.
It's actually more complex than that in my world - as I discussed recently with some folk.
There's *definitely* a 'topics I posted in' but there's a factor of 'topics I'm meant to be posting in' which is a combination of 'topics I have replied to previously that are waiting for my reply' and 'topics I have been invited to post in' which (crucially) I haven't posted *yet*. Topic invites are an explicit feature I already have, and I already have a 'topic tracker' for this purpose which is a bit longer than widget-size because it's a function of 'for each persona I write as, show me which topic(s) I should post in where I am not the last person in the topic'. (It gets trickier if you have a topic where there are 3 participants of which 2 people are actually writing, but we make do currently)
As for online status, this is super fascinating in my world. It's actually really much of a deal in the RP world who is online and who has been online recently than you'd think. Partially in terms of 'are people other than the admin online' and for some particular cases (especially writing in cases of fandom-related storytelling), 'is there a character I am interesting in pairing with that is online/was recent online' as motivators for new joiners.
RP systems thrive on subaccounts, or some implementation of it. Jcink added someone's mod for IP Free back in the day whereby it just glues real accounts together, but this has its own sets of consequences later to deal with...
Going off on a little bit of a tangent: I think there's real value in showing who is online, when a post was recently updated, most recently updated, etc. On support communities, there are two velocity concept called "speed to contact" and "speed to solution." Users don't want to wait 24 hours for a solution, they want their answer in a few minutes. In your case, it sounds like users are eagerly awaiting for their partner to post and continue the story.
Who is online is definitely more important than normal; lots of places do have a function of cult of personality, particularly if you're in that space where you're waiting for a reply. It is no surprise that there is a subculture of 'stalking the online list' more than usual because they're not waiting for 'x y or z from the support team to reply' but specific individuals.
The timeframe is interesting; and this probably leads to one of the most fascinating aspects of RP subculture out there: 1-on1 communication, the ways this occurs and more importantly doesn't occur when it should. I don't always get to all my posts in as timely fashion as I would like, and neither do the people I write with - such is the nature of real life intrusions when you're expecting 300-500 (or more) words written basically just for you, and you write in return. It is considered good form to contact your writing partner if you're not going to get to it swiftly for whatever reason and most people will be OK with that. (Ghosting is, however, terribly common when you're 'not feeling the connection')
The usual metrics like time to reply and time to resolve don't really fit here, though there is some internal awareness of them from everyone's perspective - but since most things are 1-on-1, and it's very much everyone's spare-time hobby, lots of leeway gets filtered in.
What gets really interesting is if you have a side channel for discussion - typically but not always Discord - where you have bystanders discussing the storylines and characters. E.g. you get all of the discussions about the 'will they, won't they' for characters in what is presumed/hoped to be a planned as a romance plot, especially if the writers have planned it privately to be that way but the characters are compelling enough for others to read along and enjoy.
One feature that I ended up adding - again, not really widget sized - is the notion of timelines, where you can collate any two characters' shared topics into a timeline (and organise it chronologically if for whatever reason the topics were not posted in strict chronological order), plus add in related topics if relevant, e.g. A & B have (list of topics together) but a story between A & C is relevant to A & B's arc and comes mid-way through. What's also fun to watch is when either the writers or the wider community gives that pairing a name and refers to it as the pairing (or, sometimes, shipping; it's a long story).
Going back to your OP, my fundamental problem with the default forum index is that forum creators built it 15 - 20 years ago not because they had some relevatory insight about human behavior, but because ... they were mimicking the organization and categorization of a MySQL database.
I'm going to have to disagree with that statement somewhat.
Aside from the proliferation of systems that didn't use a database at all 20 years ago (e.g. YABB had no database, it was all text files on disk), one only has to look at the structure of newsgroups and what was going on with BBS systems before that to see that the structure of hierarchy - category -> board -> topic -> posts - was already there, long before databases were explicitly the tool for the job.
Mind you, SQL has been around since the 1950s so it's not impossible for that influence to have been around when people were constructing it, but I'm still far more inclined to push that particular line of thinking on the rails of 'form follows function' rather than 'driven by implementation'. No argument that the original implementers were technically minded, though.
There are strengths to this organized index, but my insight is that it only makes sense to returning power users who have mastered the organization. To new users or returning casual users, the default forum index presents very high barriers of access to content and interaction.
I find I agree with this a lot - and it's certainly common for RPers to have a lot of boards. How they lay them out, on the other hand, is a completely different story. There is a lot of form-follows-function thinking in there, though.
Specifically, if you've spent any time in the RP scene, the layouts will actually be more familiar than not because many of them have structurally the same requirements - areas for 'how the site functions', areas for 'character and plot development', areas for posting often segregated by format and then locality (because geography plays a part in who will be where for the purposes of storytelling if a given thread is a synchronous event that characters are performing in what passes for real time for them), and it's not uncommon to have boards for 'works in progress' and then 'approved' in lieu of better tools/workflows for some things.
But I think it might be interesting to give you some real examples of what phenomena are out there. I was going to go through and summarise my thoughts but I actually think it might be more interesting to present them pretty cold with about as much context as you'd actually get before visiting - so here's a slice through some of the recent ads from Inner Child (it's a Discord RP resource hub with several advertising Discord forums).
I have intentionally not curated; just picked the 3 most recently bumped in each channel. Ad text from the ads' own. Bold text is a link. Make of all this what you will. I'm merely trying to provide a 'this is what people are doing' and I'm happy to take questions once people have had a look (in case some of the shorthand in the ads is confusing/unexpected; there's a lot of expectation of familiarity of the scene conventions if not necessarily anything else). It is not really a coincidence that all of the examples given are Jcink sites.
"Real life" sites:
Lost Angels is a real life, jcink premium site. Set in the bustling city of Los Angeles, CA. From the hills to the beach to the hipster coffee shops; doctors, criminals, rockstars, rich kids and everything in between leave Los Angeles far from dull.
change of tides - a cozy little two year old jcink premium site set in a fictional mid-sized city located in the outer banks of north carolina.
Welcome to Oakley, Texas, a cute little town about forty minutes from Dallas. There are small town vibes, large sprawling ranches, and a close knit community. Come find everything that Oakley has to offer and play with us on
Emergency Contact.
"Fandom sites"
Revival ("18+ / PROFILE APP / SEMI-PRIVATE JCINK MARVEL AU RP" - It's been four years since the Decimation and society is finally starting to move forward. However, things haven't been easy for everyone. Crime in New York has become increasingly severe. Reports of never-before-seen powers and sightings of mutants and other extraordinary individuals have made their way onto the scene, making this an exciting and challenging time. With new heroes and villains emerging, the citizens caught in the middle just want things to go back to the way they were.
chaos theory - a 21+ highly AU Marauders era roleplay set in 1986, focusing on political intrigue and Tom M. Riddle's rise in the Wizengamot Parliament. There is no prophecy, no horcruxes, and no Chosen One to save us from the rapture.
Across the Stars - It's up to you to decide the fate of the Galaxy. Across the Stars is an intermediate level AU Star Wars role play set in 3 BBY • sixteen years since Order 66 and a few years before the film A New Hope. The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen.In the sixteen years since the fall of the Jedi Order and the end of the Clone Wars.
"Animanga"
horizon line ("survival panfandom") (18+ / mobile optimized everything / active and friendly / est. 2022) Rewrite your destiny in the maze. But don't stare too long at the horizon line...
axis mundi (sci-fi × fantasy original animanga roleplay, semi-private) - a semi-private jcink-based site nearing the 3-month mark and heading into our second major plot point. we invite potential members via interest form.
"Sci-fi / Fantasy sites"
Seeing Double (cw: abduction, stalking, human experimentation) despite what the news and scientific community might say, human cloning and genetic engineering are very much real. the proof, although they themselves don't know it, is walking the streets of seoul and living seemingly ordinary lives. but that is soon to change - a shadowy organization that created and then lost them wants these clones back and will go to great lengths to do so...
Golden Era (18+ | no wc | profile application | relaxed activity | lgbtq+ inclusive) a premium jcink original fantasy roleplay inspired by our favorites of the historical and fantasy genres. join us for court intrigue, magic, monsters, and adventure!
crack the sky (21 + • 333 • GRIMDARK FANTASY) aerion has been caught in a years-long war between the countries of prospemeria and stryla, while both sides are vying for power, all the while utilizing dragon riding in deadly sky combat, however the tides of war shifted when scouts discovered a large crystal brimming with devastating power.
"Supernatural sites"
NEW PARADIGM (MATURE 18+ | 3-3-3 RATING | JCINK PREMIUM | ACTIVE COMMUNITY | LARGE ABILITY STORE | ITEM & SPELL CRAFTING) is a mature, no-wordcount Supernatural RP forum set in an alternate Earth timeline with a spin on mythology and fantasy. We boast detailed lore, quests, site story lines and a cast of official NPCs that each come with their own interactable secrets.
Narrowsgate ("A dark academia supernatural roleplay") We are an open lore supernatural site based in modern day Dorset County, England. Members have tons of flexibility to explore their own plots, but we also feature a rich central mystery for anyone to explore!
GODLY BEHAVIOUR is a supernatural creatures RP set on the idyllic east coast of Canada. The existence of supernaturals first came to light in the 1980s and reactions have been, well, mixed. The world has spent the years since trying to adjust, but there are still extremists - those who would hunt supernaturals, as well as those who believe in supernatural supremacy. Where will you fall? We are a community-centric, character-driven site that values member contribution above all else! How will you help shape the future of our world?
invisioncommunity.com
I have asked the same question of other audiences with very different biases (though, even more hardcore insular than this audience is, if you can imagine it)
