Publicity Team Project: Y! Group Recruitment
The Y!Group Recruitment Team Project is an ongoing resource which aims to entice prospective members by the posting of announcements that give a brief overview of the UFOP (sometimes at a maximum of 300 word advertisement blurbs). What it does is put active members in the field of publicity to give/create a good impression of who we are as a community.
Yahoogroups Advertising Hubs
YGroups houses it's own set of RPG lists, compromised of various RPG/PBEM sim groups that are active in recruiting more players. Some Advertisement lists are public, some are member only one must sign up for. What follows is a compilation of the YGroups Adlists where the UFOP has been promoted to date:
YGroups Adlists
- RPG_Want_Ads: Announce list for RPG's needing players
- STARS_INDEX: Science Fiction Game Recruiting Hub
- RPGannouncement: rpg announcement list.Want to find a good roleplaying game to join but don't want to search through thousands of descriptions?
- RPG_Want_Ads: Announce list for RPG's needing players
- RPG_Player_Sanctuary
- GreatRPGs
- PBeM_Network: A network set up to announce rpg's in need of players or players looking for games
- rpg-plug
- RPG_Classified_ads: RPG classified ads
- UFP Recruitment Center: The Star Trek Hub to Find Valuable Crew Members
- Universal_RPG_Recruiting_Network : Announce list for RPG's needing players
Picking Groups
The easiest and most effect way is to do a YGroups search on RPG advertisement, which will generate hits. What to look for is RPG adlists that allow for Star Trek RPG posts. As you'll learn by reading other announcements, you'll find other places/groups where recruitment is going on as several Owners/GMs are promoting their respective advertisements across several lists.
Tips
Be respectful. Some lists have specific requirements to how many times/when you can post again. One thing which becomes evident is you'll note there are several RPGs who post multiple times during a given week. While the practice may seem tempting, we want to present ourselves in a manner that suggests our community is both strong and active. We do not want to "flood" our advertisement. A practical approach would be to set up a schedule (one member posts to the YGroups adlists every two weeks) that is workable and demonstrates we welcome one and all, but does not become ostentaneous.
What Kind of Publicity Ad to Use
We have pre-designed publicity advertisements here on the Wiki Publicity page you can use. If neither of them suit the needs of where you're planning to post, contact FltAm Wolf for something, or if you plan to create an advertising blurb, it is best to get permission and other pairs of eyes on it to fine-tune/edit points. And do upload/edit the advertisement here on the Wiki's Publicity pages so other publicity members can use it for recruitement purposes as well. :)
Dealing with Other RPG Owners/GMs
Be respectful, be polite. ;-) It may or may not crop up on occasion. The UFOP doesn't affiliate with our ST sim groups generally, and we've ceased webrings. If you happen to get an email from another RPG sim group owner, the best bet is to thank them for responding to your advertisement, if it is a topic you have knowledge of/know how to answer, by all means. However, any topics that deal with possible mergers or are requests to team up, inform FltAdm Wolf on the best way to politely disencourage subjects on that nature while still remaining polite and friendly. A good way to view publicity/advertisement is you are, in short, acting as a Diplomat for the UFOP.
Avatars
Some groups allow avatars, some do not. Please be sure to review each YGroups terms and conditions before adding an Avatar (see Publicity Team Project: Forum Recruitment for pre-made Avatars).