[list][*] ① Premise. If the GM isn't doing something outlandish and clever with the setting, plot, and genre, then at the very least he handles them with reverence, and attempts to craft an RP which delivers all these things competently. It's OK to be derivative sometimes but then the RP needs to deliver the feels associated with those respective genres; people don't join Post-Apocalypses for the comedic relief.

[*] ② Depth. The world the GM delivers to us is not simply a gathering of characters; it is a place. Every DMPC/NPC has his own motivations, fears, and flaws, just like a good player-character. The PCs meanwhile are given special treatment for earning and deserving it IC, not just for [i]being[/i] PCs. Furthermore, characters are not put on a tour bus and driven from one location to the next simply to admire the architecture; these locations all feel like they live and breathe with the same spirit as the people who inhabit them.

[*] ③ [i]Literary[/i] realism. Dragons and magic and floating islands don't excuse characters who [url=http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/codegeass/images/a/a7/A_closeup_of_Mao%27s_face..png/revision/latest?cb=20111213093433]smirk all the time to prove how badass they are[/url]. People act like people, not like deranged power fantasies, and the GM enforces this philosophy both in the players' writing and in his own.

[*] ④ The other players. No matter how good a premise is for a thread, I always read the character roster before choosing to join, because Mary Sues, edgelords, and really, any players who don't understand the importance of tone and atmosphere to a group of characters, can ruin an RP as ruthlessly as can an incompetent GM himself. For example, the reasons for [i]LotGH[/i]'s supremacy over [i]Code Geass[/i] are many, but chief among them is that one is a serious military drama about adult men with realistic visual designs, while the other is a "serious military drama" about high school-aged children with green hair and purple eyes. Tone cannot be ignored in writing an RP which strives to be great.

[*] ⑤ Conflict. No good RP has ever arisen from an echo-chamber. A smart GM allows OOC debates to occur in order to test the strengths and merits of his players' ideas, and the players embrace IC conflict in order to test, harden, and develop their characters. The cowards who beg for the fighting to stop inevitably castrate an RP and consign it to mediocrity.

[*] ⑥ Strictness. A good GM cares about the sanctity of his world, and he is not afraid to refuse access to people whose ideas will dilute or damage his own, nor to punish those who damage it from within. Perhaps he will compromise with them, and help them to come up with better ideas which are apter for his thread; but regardless of method, he will have the spine to enforce rules, regulations, and standards over it. (There is no such thing as a good Multiverse RP.)

[*] ⑦ Intellectual equality. The GM doesn't "railroad," so the players are free to manipulate the world as they please. In turn the world (the GM) reacts to their actions in realistic ways, punishing their mistakes and rewarding their success. The characters are able to change this world, for better or worse, and the GM trusts his players to treat his world with respect. Ergo, the relationship between GM and players is not that of a shepherd guiding a flock along a perilous mountain pass; it is a symbiosis, like the algae and the fungi which together form a single colony of lichen. One cannot survive without the other, and in the RP everyone's ideas are weighed by merit, not by their "rank" in the colony.

[*] ⑧ Titties and ass.[/list]
Securing the RP's future is equally important for its success as is laying a strong and sturdy foundation upon its conception. If a thread boasts most or all these attributes, I am very likely to make room in my schedule so I can participate in it.

[b]TL;DR[/b] If you think snarky tumblr gifs, cute CS formatting, and knowledge of the difference between [i]their[/i] and [i]they're[/i] are the only things you need to make fantastic RP, you're kinda wrong.