The roleplays are Random so they can make the story up as they go along, like life, you make it up as you go along. But, I have a friend who I have a Roleplay that has lasted over a year on. [Still not finished.]You could still make it up as you go even if it has a background story or summary, and its a pain in the neck to follow random 'themed' roleplays, or any 'themed' roleplays for that matter, unless you've been there from the beginning. You need some guidelines for what can or cannot happen, and as for most of the roleplays that I've been in that has some kind of story, the creators are very leaniant on what happens and how you create your character.
I agree, a few friends and I have gone to a different site to RP because of the RPs here, and we have a RP that has been going on for more than 10 months. Thats how you make a good RP, but there's more to it.Yea, you need to advertise, which is way harder than it looks. There is probably more to it, but at the moment I can't come up with anything.