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Post by Verse on Mar 15, 2015 10:49:07 GMT -8
The way I look at personality sections(depending on certain sites) is it's kind of how they are personality wise up until that point, the rest? She's subject to change depending on what she encounters and is forced to deal with, etc. The personality I put on apps bases off the lore the site has, and what's she's experienced(in my head) up until the app/starting point.
Like real life, everyone is subject to change personality traits depending on situations they are in/dealt with. But as I make this application code, I've made two and am letting everyone decide for the personality section whether they wanna write, or would rather just do bullets.
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gloria luciferis in excelsis
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Post by THE LEVIATHAN on Mar 15, 2015 10:57:31 GMT -8
The way I look at personality sections(depending on certain sites) is it's kind of how they are personality wise up until that point, the rest? She's subject to change depending on what she encounters and is forced to deal with, etc. The personality I put on apps bases off the lore the site has, and what's she's experienced(in my head) up until the app/starting point.
Like real life, everyone is subject to change personality traits depending on situations they are in/dealt with. But as I make this application code, I've made two and am letting everyone decide for the personality section whether they wanna write, or would rather just do bullets. Exactly. Thank you for writing what I had in my head a bit more eloquently Verse. On the site I help mod (BRSW), we offer a personality amendment section for purchase in the site shop (it's dirt cheap). If your character's personality does not change at all even during the course of the role play, I'm pretty surprised by that? Doesn't matter what the genre is - whether post-apocalyptic evangelical or slice of life, people naturally experience things in role play and change. I have never met anyone who has a static character (as in, they do not experience some change in personality). The profile is just the "beginning" of that character.
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Post by zerohour on Mar 15, 2015 11:45:55 GMT -8
Personally, my characters tend to surprise me. I throw them in a thread with a different character and they react in a way I wasn't expecting, a way that maybe wasn't fully expressed in the profile before hand. I take it as a sign that I'm finding their voice and their evolving to become something of their own- the best kind of growth for me isn't something that I plot but something that happens organically, when you look back and think "oh, I had no idea they'd gotten so -insert trait-." For that reason I don't like to put too much into personality just because it seems like a lot of wasted effort, and as the rp goes on it may no longer be accurate.
That's just my experience though, I have a hard time fully picturing a character until I've already put them in several situations. Frankly I'm quite jealous of those that can sit down and write huge, wonderfully detailed biographies and stick to them. Just never worked out that way for me.
So if you want an application that makes everyone happy (lol), you're best bet is probably to provide two versions. One that's a little more structured- clear appearance, personality, history- and then another that's more freeform. You don't necessarily have to have one size fit all, I've seen sites have two different but similarly formated applications and that's worked pretty well. The most important part from my experience is to be flexible with the word counts. Let people write less, let people write more, give them an etc section to get out everything they need to say. Some people love writing apps and that's great, but that's not all there is to rping and the best you can do for the others is keep the app from being so intimidating that it's a chore.
On a side note, I don't tend to see too many people edit their applications as the rp progresses, and I think maybe that should be encouraged more. One rp I was on had a time skip and I had an opportunity to rewrite the application to include all the threads and such that had happened since I'd joined the rp, and that was one of the more rewarding experiences I've had. Some places frown upon changing already accepted apps, and I guess in the case of naruto/bleach/power play type situations I see the point, but. Characters certainly don't have to stay set in stone, and it would be nice to see more people acknowledge that.
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A seadog looking for crewmates
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Post by Elena on Mar 15, 2015 13:50:26 GMT -8
I don't tend to see too many people edit their applications as the rp progresses, and I think maybe that should be encouraged more. One rp I was on had a time skip and I had an opportunity to rewrite the application to include all the threads and such that had happened since I'd joined the rp, and that was one of the more rewarding experiences I've had. Some places frown upon changing already accepted apps, and I guess in the case of naruto/bleach/power play type situations I see the point, but. Characters certainly don't have to stay set in stone, and it would be nice to see more people acknowledge that. I do it periodically and I encourage all my members to update their bios at a few story months to incorporate all the meaningful changes. Because the bio is a living instrument, not a static one, exactly how the character isn't static.
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the greatest general under the heavens
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Post by Egao, Egao Everywhere on Mar 15, 2015 16:19:09 GMT -8
Because i haven't ad the time to read through everything, I'm quoting things pretty late. And a question for all of you who are in favour of short, vague bios: how do you know if you are writing your character correctly in the story if you don't take time, in the bio, to structure him properly, to get acquainted with everything that can make him tick? My bios are usually average to detailed, exactly because I need to know them. And afterwards I do the "character extra" things that could be encountered in a freeform application as well (surveys, interviews, etc.) i don't know if i'm writing my character 'correctly' - in fact, my character will probably be very different from the way they are in their first application, and that's fine. i don't see why the only 'proper' way to develop a character is through their application. to me, it's not so much about creating a character as much as getting to know one and i find writing a detailed application is isolated and dry. how do you write about someone's personality if you've never seen them interact with anyone? how do you write a history before they've actually been immersed in the setting? [...] tbh i used to feel like i was a bad rper because i had trouble sticking to what i wrote in the app, but i've just come to terms with it - different strokes for different folks. taking a organic, open-minded approach to character making has been good for me. so i might not have any idea of what my character is really like on my apps and i may completely change things later, but i've had characters who started out as very flat, stereotypes & tropes become some of my most popular/developed. My apps are vague and short too, actually. But I'm the opposite of Laika and I work to stick to my app. It's by rping that I end up interpreting what I wrote in my app. I had a character named Brendan, a 12-year-old kid genius who I didn't want to fall under any tropes (being a kid genius somehow always endangers your char.) While writing a post for him, questions would pop in my mind on how he'd act and I would look back at the app. My answer is sometimes not the same as I've written in the app, but I try to connect/relate it and it works out. I think it's great because I get to work on what I have, flesh it out, and discover something new. Characters also tend to grow and develop on their own. So being vague about the app can make room for space. I don't like some really vague apps though because they're a tad unhelpful to me when I try to rp and plot with them xD but that's another topic. For now, I gotta poop.
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Post by SEADRA on Mar 23, 2015 14:06:17 GMT -8
When I'm filling out a application, I like being relatively vague when creating my characters and tend to list traits because it gives them room to grow. It's not that I haven't properly thought a character out or am just creating them on a whim - it's that there are certain aspects that highlight them that can't ever be discussed in a bio because you could never list them all based on every situation. So I personally feel that fleshing them out too much could be even more restricting than keeping it short & sweet. HOWEVER - when I create an application template I almost never ever limit anything aside from a minimum number of traits (around 5-7) for the sake of making sure you have thought out a character enough to properly roleplay them and give guidelines for the staff who look over them, but if you want to write a novella on their personality be my guest. Want to turn in a 22 page word doc on their history? Sure! Flesh out your character as much as you want to, just be considerate and maybe leave a tl;dr for the admins who maybe got busy and have 10+ apps to accept, because accepting bios is tedious and time-consuming and it's not that the admin doesn't love reading bios. Like - I live for stalking bios. Frfr. It's just kinda nice when you don't have to spend days reading over apps and can focus on your plots too, yanno? Whoops, got on a tangent - basically for my forums I leave the apps pretty freeform with a low minimum, so people who want to write can and if they want to just do a bullet point they can. People function in different ways and I like to accommodate for that. And Elena - I feel the people who are expressing that they like keeping their bios short and sweet are the generation that is a part of the group who entered the rp world with super strict word count minimums so they look at a 7 personality trait bullet point list and shout for joy because they don't have to stress about all this stuff just to start a character on a really cool rp site. (;
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Post by KOI KOI on Mar 24, 2015 0:33:11 GMT -8
i'm old as shit and impatient af. personally, i like the bare mininum to get my shit ready and go. attention is fickle, sites die left and right, muse initially comes out in full swing. i got no time to dwell on an app.
name: golex-chan age: old enough gender: female personality: impatient, terrible, shitter history: shitty green text tl;dr of important things etc: i'm gangster or teacher or something important enough for others to know fc: some guy from some animu ooc: revocs
ideally i should be able to finish the app within an hour or so. generally, i look at the app as just a super basic guideline for others around me. i know my character (lol i only play one type) and i don't break it. the app doesn't even matter as long as i play the character properly in my own eyes. just get that shit down so i can get ITP-- in to posting.
anything that's covered in a large app is usually covered in either my plotter, plot post in other people's plotters, or in the actual roleplay. if i want to be really honest when i rp idgaf about the other person's app either. i bring my character and i go face to face with what the other player presents to me. just work off that. sometimes things hit it off, sometimes it crumbles, as with IRL. i just think of it as realism ;'P
i can see why staff may want a more precise thing but i don't bother with that trouble anymore l0l. the only real problem i can see from it is that if all you have is your profile (no plotter, no post yet, etc) and it's super bare then people trying to go out of their way to think up plots with you may be hard but that's rarely the case.
of course to those that want to add more np. just gimme a tl;dr pls.
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Post by sairri on Mar 24, 2015 10:35:33 GMT -8
Imo, applications shouldn't be for the writer so much as the reader. As such, I like them to be treated as character overviews, precise and to the point. Reading "Anne's dad left when she was six. He never looked back and honestly Anne still resents him for it" is way more helpful than reading a detailed paragraph narrating annes' dad leaving when she was six. If i had to be brutally honest, I see it as kinda rude to write super long, narrating apps without an honest tl;dr or spoilers or bolding key sentences or something to help people get the key points. Admins have more to do than just review long apps and readers shouldn't have to weed through thousands of words to get a gist of what your character was at the start of the roleplay. But the opposite holds true. I honestly don't like rps where freeform apps are super abstract and I can't do rps where there is no place to write a history (if there's a misc section that's ok, and honestly like zero i love misc sections they're great). Imo history is the most important part of the profile, it's a huge factor to why a character is what they are (I've always been in the nurture > nature camp) and its also a good way to fit a plot in with someone else "hey I saw dave was in the military, well anne was also in the military, maybe they were in the same squad?" However I will admit as an apper, I'm a bit impatient and lazy. I don't want to spend forever on an app i wanna finish it quickly and get rping because that's where the fun is yaknow? And a question for all of you who are in favour of short, vague bios: how do you know if you are writing your character correctly in the story if you don't take time, in the bio, to structure him properly, to get acquainted with everything that can make him tick? My bios are usually average to detailed, exactly because I need to know them. And afterwards I do the "character extra" things that could be encountered in a freeform application as well (surveys, interviews, etc.) Super late woops, but just because I haven't included something in the app doesn't mean I haven't thought it through. If my character needs it (ngl sometimes they don't), I spend days sometimes weeks ruminating on details about them and honestly part of the reason i write short, vague apps is because it takes this while. I don't want to accidentally sell my character somewhere i don't want to take them, I don't want to rush this process and I don't want to wait for the process to be completely over because it takes forever and because I want to take advantage of all the muse that comes during it. The second part is because I don't like to include bits that aren't necessary for the reader to know and the third part is I'm a bit impatient and want to get to the roleplay. **** However, honestly I'd really like to see a site where profiles aren't really necessary? One of my favorite things about being a pokemon moderator was coming up with npcs on the spot. It's a lot of fun creating a character literally in the roleplay and ngl i miss it. Also sometimes I get short-term muse for a new character or plot, I really wanna roleplay it but its not enough to actually sustain the character after the plot is done or even after the time it takes to go through the app process. Furthermore it'd be great for actually roleplaying climatic threads. I'd honestly love to roleplay a death scene and im sure im not alone, its just I don't want to kill the characters I have profiled and plotted out.
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A seadog looking for crewmates
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Post by Elena on Mar 24, 2015 12:34:50 GMT -8
sairri: We have NPCs, but for the reocurring ones, we have a small profile, so that everyone writing them in a thread can write them correctly. But there are also the ones meant for 1-2 threads only, who have no profile. And an application should be in equal measure for the writer to build up the character and keep there for further reminding anything needed, in order to keep consistence in writing, for the staff to assess if the character is appropriate for the setting and not breaking lore/ overpowered/ etc. and for the writing partners in order to get ideas for new plots or for past common points.
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Post by Jacob on Mar 24, 2015 13:09:34 GMT -8
Having recently mentioned this in a private conversation here, I do not think administrators are required to necessarily review applications immediately. It may be partly why I endured so much dismission in the past, a contributing factor to my withdrawal from the ani-manga community.
Should a prospective member place up a greatly detailed sheet, they must possess the virtue of patience; an owner shall likely go over conciser outlines before their's. Complaining apropos that fact needs to be met with a polite message explaining how the administrator will require extra time to read the lengthier work.
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Post by SEADRA on Mar 24, 2015 15:00:16 GMT -8
Having recently mentioned this in a private conversation here, I do not think administrators are required to necessarily review applications immediately. It may be partly why I endured so much dismission in the past, a contributing factor to my withdrawal from the ani-manga community. Should a prospective member place up a greatly detailed sheet, they must possess the virtue of patience; an owner shall likely go over conciser outlines before their's. Complaining apropos that fact needs to be met with a polite message explaining how the administrator will require extra time to read the lengthier work. it's just that the anime community is so damn fickle if you don't review it within 48 hours they either a) pester you at every turn or b) leave your site altogether. and no, that shouldn't be the reason and you can tell me "then you don't want that member on your site anyway" all you want but the fact is if you're not speedy with app review for the member to get to start posting, they'll get annoyed and leave. and that's just frustrating, especially for someone who's so eager that maybe if you did approve their app earlier they might've stayed for years.
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gloria luciferis in excelsis
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Post by THE LEVIATHAN on Mar 24, 2015 15:06:17 GMT -8
Having recently mentioned this in a private conversation here, I do not think administrators are required to necessarily review applications immediately. It may be partly why I endured so much dismission in the past, a contributing factor to my withdrawal from the ani-manga community. Should a prospective member place up a greatly detailed sheet, they must possess the virtue of patience; an owner shall likely go over conciser outlines before their's. Complaining apropos that fact needs to be met with a polite message explaining how the administrator will require extra time to read the lengthier work. it's just that the anime community is so damn fickle if you don't review it within 48 hours they either a) pester you at every turn or b) leave your site altogether. and no, that shouldn't be the reason and you can tell me "then you don't want that member on your site anyway" all you want but the fact is if you're not speedy with app review for the member to get to start posting, they'll get annoyed and leave. and that's just frustrating, especially for someone who's so eager that maybe if you did approve their app earlier they might've stayed for years. I don't think sweeping generalizations of the anime community is really the best way to approach a thread like this and I think everyone has a decision of what is "speedy". For me, it's a week; for some people who are "fickle", it's 48 hours. Admins are real people, often adults with real lives and jobs, and sometimes are busy. It's best to approach an admin and ask when they are the most available to get to your application or ask if it can be delegated to another staff member (mods are best for this).
It helps if the admin has a rule stating when they review applications. When you're on sites ran by grown ass people who have careers and families, they're not gonna always be able to review in 48 hours to appease the youngins' who just go to high school (or uni) and have a lot of free time.
It's best to just be flexible - for both the admin and the member.
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Post by minnie on Mar 24, 2015 15:21:50 GMT -8
Having recently mentioned this in a private conversation here, I do not think administrators are required to necessarily review applications immediately. It may be partly why I endured so much dismission in the past, a contributing factor to my withdrawal from the ani-manga community. Should a prospective member place up a greatly detailed sheet, they must possess the virtue of patience; an owner shall likely go over conciser outlines before their's. Complaining apropos that fact needs to be met with a polite message explaining how the administrator will require extra time to read the lengthier work. it's just that the anime community is so damn fickle if you don't review it within 48 hours they either a) pester you at every turn or b) leave your site altogether. and no, that shouldn't be the reason and you can tell me "then you don't want that member on your site anyway" all you want but the fact is if you're not speedy with app review for the member to get to start posting, they'll get annoyed and leave. and that's just frustrating, especially for someone who's so eager that maybe if you did approve their app earlier they might've stayed for years. preach #queenofficklemuses
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Post by Jacob on Mar 24, 2015 15:39:49 GMT -8
Having recently mentioned this in a private conversation here, I do not think administrators are required to necessarily review applications immediately. It may be partly why I endured so much dismission in the past, a contributing factor to my withdrawal from the ani-manga community. Should a prospective member place up a greatly detailed sheet, they must possess the virtue of patience; an owner shall likely go over conciser outlines before their's. Complaining apropos that fact needs to be met with a polite message explaining how the administrator will require extra time to read the lengthier work. it's just that the anime community is so damn fickle if you don't review it within 48 hours they either a) pester you at every turn or b) leave your site altogether. and no, that shouldn't be the reason and you can tell me "then you don't want that member on your site anyway" all you want but the fact is if you're not speedy with app review for the member to get to start posting, they'll get annoyed and leave. and that's just frustrating, especially for someone who's so eager that maybe if you did approve their app earlier they might've stayed for years. I feel bothering an owner incessantly, especially when said administrator is under much offline stress for varying reasons, then it needs to be addressed however the latter decides to do so. Considering the majority of the circuit is adolescent or young adult age wise, I watched many applicants often ignore staff teams' offline schedules (id est school, jobs, and such) as well. I wholeheartedly concur how unfortunate that was, and is. Maturity may play a factor, too, given several people I encountered changed after, several months or even a couple of years passed, "bucking up." They became at least approachable, and their administrating improved. I have known some groups around the ani-manga and/or video game based nook of the role-playing world to be cliques in the negative sense. The groups fashion locale upon locale, losing interest quickly and moving on elsewhere which expires within, let us say, a month. One method I know an online friend used was to divide work among several staff members; reviewing applications was, and is, speedily handled in two to three days. This encompasses florid applications like mine always are. The man's place generally draws numerous people about the ani-manga community, so I enjoy seeing them go through processing and finally get approved. I no longer staff for reason of physical disabilities, but when I ran games myself, I and several lost friends decided the parts we would manage. THE LEVIATHAN best sums my thoughts here.
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Post by Zozma on Apr 1, 2015 11:52:18 GMT -8
Optional fields for the win!
I hate writing giant apps for new characters. I tend to get to know my characters by actually writing them, not filling out an application. I usually just make a character, write them, and then add in information in their profile as I get to know them. (Plus it helps me remember if I said my dude likes jellyfish in one thread, I can consult the profile and see that and remember to use it again.)
So for me, having the fields but making them optional is my favorite.
Or as others said, freeform.
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