> I have a question I've been trying to find an answer to for the last four 
> years, almost.  It seems like nearly every player to apply to my game always 
> either never posts at all, or sends a few posts and then stops.  I think 
> I've sacked about 10 players for every 1 who's stayed around.  Does anyone 
> know of any ways to better retain players, or to at least be able to spot 
> the ones who aren't serious before they join?
> Any suggestions would be helpful :)  Thanks.

The way that worked the best for me was in one game I run
(http://www.sonic.net/~rknop/Omar/phoenix) which was populated with
players entirely by-invitation... all were people with whom I'd played
in other games.  Three of them had been GMs of games I'd played in
before, a few had been in games I'd GM'ed before, and a couple I'd been
co-players with.  That has worked swimmingly well.

The game I've just started on the Phoenyx only has two people I've
played in games with before, although I sort of knew one other.  So far,
so good, although there was the usual "Rob doesn't post for two weeks
during the winter holidays" effect.

I think what somebody else said, asking for a good character background,
is a good idea.  I also asked for a little *player* background.  Some
people wouldn't play in a face-to-face game without people who were
their friends outside of the game, so I don't think it's too extreme to
want to know a little bit about the people you play in a PBEM game with,
just on the "friendly curiosity" level.  (When people ask about me, I
just point 'em to my web homepage and/or my gaming homepage.)

-Rob

-=-=-= Rob Knop =-= rknop@pobox.com =-= http://www.pobox.com/~rknop =-=-=-
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