Well, I've been playing the same character almost exclusively since around 2002 or so, within a group framework with other players who do the same thing. We've always just jumped from thread to thread/forum to forum and adapted to the rules accordingly. Players have come and gone, but the core members of my group are still around and active. In between "adventure" or "battle" (lots of those) threads, we'd often have kind of intermission type threads where we'd kind of just take a load off and take stock IC for the next round of whatever we had in mind at the time. We've also always had a larger overarching plot to fall back on whenever there wasn't anything going on for us to get involved in.

Typically, any of the threads that we posted ourselves were considered to be "open" for other random people to jump in on as well. It's pretty much been one huge ongoing interconnected saga. Hasn't always been perfect (nothing is), but I personally find it to be the most fun and interesting.

We're currently in the midst of one of our own plot threads elsewhere at the moment, but once that's over with, we're planning on creating one of our trademark open-adventure style threads here. Probably in the Advanced section. No timeline on exactly when that'll happen. Maybe Spring? I dunno. I'll be advertising it when the time comes.