Games ending before they begin

I believe the public/private setting can be toggled, so in hindsight, if you think a game you ran was successful and a good representation of how you would run a game again in the future, then you can make it public later. Although, I would double check with the players to make sure it's okay with them too.

In my experience, it's difficult enough to get someone to read a game they're joining, much less one they have no connection to whatsoever.

I wouldn't expect anyone to read through it in full. But browse through. Read a post here and there to get an idea of style. See how long the game lasted and how often they posted. It would give a player confidence that the game continued beyond chargen. It would sort of a function as a "Badge" that isn't bestowed by anyone. Everyone has their own tastes, so this way you can show what you're like and members who like it can join. But there's no obligation to read through it, it's just there for reference.

This applies to mobile users, but not desktop users? I guess I'm not understanding what purpose this serves. And I agree with oddtrails. I'm not likely to be giving this website my phone number.

Back in high school I was apart of a forum community that had a rep system and I actually loved how it worked.

Essentially there was +reps and -reps you can do to other posters. The more positive your rating the more impact your rep has on someone else.

Rep was represented by titles that match rep ranges.

There was a maximum/minimum rep. Over time you would see that most regulars on the most popular subforums would reach the maximum rep. People who would mainly post in the less popular subforums or did more creeping than posting would fall in the middle or low ranges. The people who did more trolling than helpful community posts would often then fall into the negative/very low ranges.

Obviously this can be gamed and/or manipulated but this also would do a few things:

1. promote posting in the "non-game" forums thus promoting joining the community in a broader sense
2. Allow the community to self regulate, if you as a GM WANT to encourage newer players to join by all means take a lower rep'd user. If you feel like you have been burned too much, limit it to certain rep ranges or require further application questions for lower ranges.
3. Gives some power to respected/consistent users on this site.

Obviously this isn't perfect but my two cents.

Disclaimer: I know I don't post a lot on the community forums like this post is encouraging something I hope to change

Can we put a sticky in the tavern to let new people know that there's a problem with some new GMs? Perhaps include *insert name here*'s excellent post about how to politely bow out of a game too?

Of course, since the serial ghost-GM often uses old accounts, that won't be a very helpful system.

...let new players know there's a problem anyway.

I don't give out my cell number nor do I give it to any site I do not have to for security reasons. I don't doubt your intentions but I would be concerned how this site could be hacked. Forcing me to give a cell number I would have to consider leaving even though I love this site.

I think Adam's suggestion of informing newbies of the potential for ghosts would help address the issue without changing too much about the site itself, or deter new players.

This was my comment earlier. Have volunteers post in each Interest Check thread a kindly worded warning about investing in resources for new GMs, just like Bowlofspinach posts advice in introduction threads.

Yeah, I like this website too, but when I joined and made this account, I gave them my garbage email address that I give when I expect a company will spam me or sell out my info. I don't ever check that email.
I wasn't going to give them my serious business email, and I'm definitely not about to start giving this website my phone number.

I could probably come up with a post for Interest Checks as well, partially based on Chal's suggestion earlier together with other points brough tup in this thread

I think we have some really god suggestions. As I said with the 2FA idea, if it were to ever be implemented, I'd be encrypting any info with the same security I take on passwords and emails. That said, it seems clear requiring 2FA isn't worth the security it could potentially (not even definitely) bring.

I definitely like the sound of having an endorsement subforum. Sharing samples of gming (the public game links) sounds like a good idea in general, not just to protect people from ghosts.

I don't know if an endorsement subforum will get any more attention than the public games index, but maybe user profiles could be clearer about which public games a user has run and offer links to their forums?

Well, the idea would be to link your endorsement thread when you advertise or apply to a game, I guess. The user themselves could also keep an up to date list of their public games in that thread

After surfing around user profiles of members I've played with or are active on the public forums, I noticed their total posts seem to fall into broad logarithmic categories:
1-10: visitor
10-100: newbie
100-1000: junior
1k-10k: estsblished
10k+: master/moderator
Edges are fuzzy and there are of course exceptions.

I looked up all games that I could remember being ghosted. They were all GMs with less than 650, most were less than 150. These were games that had some amount of progress post chargen, but then the GM abruptedly disappeared with no notice. I've only had one game that disappeared immediately after chargen. That GM had less than 30 posts.
I will also add that I have had successful games with GMs from all categories, except master ... I've never been in a master's game 😥😭😜

In fact, my current longest running game is with a GM who had less than 10 posts. I welcomed them in the Introductions forum. They said they wanted to run a game that I hadn't tried before, I said I'd join and the game is still running!

So, I guess if i was recommending games to newbies based solely on the numbers, I might suggest GMs in the 1k+ category for best chance of a game that doesn't end abruptly. Although, I wouldn't discourage joining GMs with less, just that they should be aware that ghosting happens sometimes with inexperienced GMs.

I'm curious if others have had similar experiences or if they'd have different recommendations.

I’m fairly new - I joined last fall.

As a new player I would have absolutely looked at post history had the information been available to me. Being new, I would prefer to work with a GM that knows the ropes, the potential for ghosting notwithstanding. As I become more seasoned I would care about this less, and also be less flummoxed by a ghosting. From a functional standpoint, I think it makes sense to allow new players to pair themselves up with seasoned GMs if that’s what a new player wants, and this shouldn’t really hurt new GMs who have an established post history as a player. It might be nice for people to see post counts per game, although just the simple overall post count is a useful piece of information. It’s an indicator of investment. I would hope that a low post count on a new account wouldn’t stop people from letting them into a game... but I wouldn’t think that’s an issue. The culture here already seems quite welcoming and more data made available shouldn’t change that.

I also add my vote to having a PSA type post saying effectively "ghosting happens, don’t let it get to you, just join another game" in places a new person would see it. Forewarned is forearmed and all that, and good communication goes miles towards mitigating irritation or surprise. I like the word of mouth idea, but I’ve seen sock puppets vouch for sock puppets on other specialty social media before, and it takes a new person awhile to learn who can provide a reliable testimonial. Once again, overall post count information can help people corroborate.

I too was ghosted once after quite some time of character building and a very short game thread. But I could see it coming as the GM was new to the site and started three games simultaniously. So the registration date helped me to gauge the risk of getting ghosted and I think the post count or some kind of rank like Chalrytharendir suggested is certainly a useful tool.
Therefore I'm quite in favour of the idea to display the post count in the profile. Maybe split into the post count as player, the post count as a GM and the post count in the general forums.