[quote=@Aeonumbra]
<Snipped quote by Ellri>

I know absolutely nothing about coding, but could it be possible to apply something like an [old] tag based off the most recent activity of the topic?
[/quote]
I have a rough idea outline for a system that can solve a variety of problems.

- A user can mark a roleplay as one of their "Active Roleplays". There are various ways of enforcing this that I don't want to ponder right now, but it can include things like: you can only post in roleplays on your "Active" list, a GM with a roleplay open to applications must manually add players to the "Active" list before they can post IC, etc.
- As a roleplay dies or comes to a conclusion, users remove the roleplay from the list of active roleplays.
- Roleplays are considered inactive/dead/concluded when the last person removes the roleplays from their list of active roleplays.
- Inactive roleplays simply don't show up in searches by default unless user opts in to viewing them.
- Before a GM can remove a roleplay from their list of active roleplays, if there are any active players, they either must elect one of them as a co-GM (so the roleplay can continue) or they must wait until there are no more active users. There will be some system to demote a roleplay from someone's active roleplays list if the user themself is inactive.

Some features that follow from the above system:

- You can see the roleplays someone is currently in and manage this list yourself.
- You can view the players currently participating in a roleplay.
- GMs of application-only roleplays can gatekeep users from posting IC until they are approved.
- The system overall now has a concept of active roleplays and inactive roleplays which can be used to reduce clutter in search results and the forums altogether.
- You can easily tell when a roleplay is dead or not, or if anyone is going to be posting in it anytime soon. 
- Users are more likely to be upfront with other players -- instead of silently slinking away never to be seen again, they now may deliberately remove the roleplay from their active roleplays list. 

I'm not really ready to brainstorm this feature yet, but those are some ideas.