Massively frustrated! Have you had this issue?

I've been trying for the past two years to get anything off the ground on this site, and I seem to be failing miserably at it. I have taken every suggestion I have received and attempted to work with it. I have even tried to fix problems that might be with me! It all just seems to die, even what I join dies. I've been working on trying to be active like people suggest, but it also depends on other people here too you know! I learned this art the old and hard way, by diving into the old yahoo chat rooms and hoping that someone would pick up on your character introduction/profile and maybe interact with you for a scene or two. Not whatever the system here on gateway is now, it confuses me.

I am also tired of people bailing on me or promising rp only to not deliver.
Honest guys I'm at my wits end here and would appreciate a bit of help. I left and came back. I'm wanting to give the site another chance, really! I'm just so massively frustrated. I'm not the type to just jump into someone elses' plot unannounced or without permission, I also do not appreciate being blatantly ignored and kicked out of my own plots or things I'm involved with either.

It's often jested that some people are "cursed" to never find an RP that they can take an active part in, but the people that are booting you out of your own plots need to be the recipients of rabid Tasmanian devils in their trousers, or failing that, boots to the head. Still, I've managed to find a steady partner in BBClock, and these are the three main ingredients to forming such a bond.

The first thing I find is important is finding potential partners that are genuinely interested in some of the same things you are. Take your husband Barney Fife, for example. He's big into the whole sci-fi and Nation RP bit, and this is why he gets along famously with Ottoman and AzricanRepublic because they have similar bents. Find out what sorts of plots and characters you really like to do, then PM people after careful observation who you think are good matches. I'm not going to lie here: If people ask out in the open "Anyone want to roleplay with me?", it just looks pathetic and their chances of arranging a partner that way have just taken a nose dive. If they by some miracle do manage to get someone to accompany them, it's likely not going to last.

Second, get to know your "partner" on a personal level and not just what they like to be and do when they go in character. If your personalities are compatible, you can serve as each other's sounding boards for new plot twists and avenues for development. Also, you can get to know their typical schedule, and thus can more easily block out time for your play dates.

Finally, once you do find a partner, see if you can't find a villain that will give your character and your partner's character a reason to stick with each other through thick and thin to bring him to whatever form of justice your characters prefer. (It helps if your characters have some form of professional relationship.) The IC motivation to defeat this guy will spill over into your OOC life, and it will keep you two coming back as your respective schedules permit to advance whatever plot you guys have going.

That's probably the best advice I've gotten. Barney told me, "Just go sit in Gambits and make a pest of yourself." or "Just ask someone to roleplay with you." then he tried to make people include me. That bombed famously, I think people resent me even more now.
You have a very good point, just asking someone makes you seem pathetic and well... desperate. Neither of which I am, I'm just frustrated and running out of what very little patience I possess.

The few rp partners I have had last through a good deal off the site I do know personally to a extent. I am just having a heck of a time with this site, and trying to understand how it works I guess politically for gathering up people for roleplays.