Etiquette to join games

Hi Everyone!

I am curious about etiquette for joining a game. I have been trying to join games since I became a member a few weeks ago and have had no luck. A week or so goes by and my request to join is still "waiting for approval". So my question is what is a good way to get into a game?
Should I PM the GM to show interest?
Withdraw from games that seem to be slow to respond and just keep applying to new games?
Or is the code messed up and won't work on my computer's web browser (safari on mac os 10.9.5 and on iPhone 4)?
Show patience and fortitude and just wait?
Something else?

I am running a game right now and it filled up within a day. So I know players are interested to get games going.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!!

I'd either PM the GM or find the thread they advertised the game in over at the Games Tavern and ask if they're interested in a new player :)

That's what I usually do at least. Most of the time, when a game needs a new player they will advertise it over there. I've found that GMs are more likely to accept you if you talk to them first.

I think it's a question of which game. Are the GMs of those games active? It's possible they're no longer part of the site.

I definitely recommend checking out the Games Tavern forum; I'd say most game and player soliciting happens there. Otherwise, PMing the GM doesn't hurt (after a few days).

Ok that is helpful. Will follow your advice. Thanks!!!

Also, once a game has been set up I rarely check the game screen, so I would never know if somebody had applied (I don't check my emails much either). So, as Nastkinson said, better to PM the GM or ask in their Games Tavern thread.

Just to add to what has already been mentioned, another possible reason for a DM not accepting you is if they set up the game for a particular group, such as their RL gaming group. Although if it were me I'd say so in the game's description.

I'll just add my two cents that several months back I had the same experience....get an email notification of a new game, apply to join, wait and wait for approval/rejection only to see if fill up without receiving any sort of response. At the time I wasn't subscribed to the Games Tavern, so I don't know what sort of conversations were taking place there, but in those 6 games I tried joining, I had no idea what was going on....if it was a RL game porting over, if the GM was seeing my application, if I was supposed to create a char first, if my application was rejected, etc.

I ended up finding my way to the Games Tavern and have been able to join some games since then, but the application process might need some tweaking. As a player, it's like tossing a rock into a deep pit. You hope you'll hear it hit bottom at some point, but until it does, you're left waiting with no indicator of where things are at.

And until @fluglichkeiten's comment just now, I had assumed that GMs received some sort of notification of a new player application. Perhaps the question of etiquette falls on the GM side too....if there's a conversation taking place in the Games Tavern about a game, link to it in the description perhaps? Or indicate if the game is open to random applicants or if a PM is necessary, etc.

Good idea! This would also help if a player drops out and you want to recruit a replacement; it would be easy to bump the old thread as opposed to creating a new one.

I'm going to do this with my games right now!

...Except, I don't know how to put a link into the text box in the Game Description!

[url=http://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/2511/]Gamest Tavern recruitment thread[/url

The above code doesn't work (I have removed the end bracket so it shows up), can anyone tell me how to do it?

Yeah, I don't think formatting works in that text box.

Interesting to know that others have had similar challenges. I think I need to PM all the GMs of all the games I attempted to join!

Even if it's not possible to create a working hyperlink you could just insert the URL as text that anyone can copy and paste into their browser.

Yeah, I ended up doing that. Thanks Jabes.

I think you simply forgot the last bracket.
Gamest Tavern recruitment thread

This is for the Game Description field in the Game Details page.

I can add BB formatting to both text boxes.