Cracking Down... Again

[Deleted]

Okay, folks, here’s the thing. This is a literate RP, and in order to post here you have to be at least a fairly literate RP’er and an overall decent writer. And, no, being an avid, enthusiastic RP’er does not count as being literate. Also, just because you’ve been RP’ing for a long time that doesn’t necessarily make you a good RP’er.

We are not a chat RP.

We are not a MySpace RP – whatever the hell that is.

Now, we’ve been trying to be nice and not exclude anybody who may not be at the RP level we want. We tried to approve people anyway and hope for the best, we tried to give extensive feedback on applications, characterization, and the like. But, with this latest batch of applications, we’ve decided we’re going to have to start just flat out denying some.

In order to successfully RP on this board, you need to be able to throw a sentence together. You need to be able to do all of the following things without us holding your hand:

+Write a post longer than a paragraph.
+Check your own post for typos, spelling errors, and hideous punctuation.
+Write a detailed history on your character.
+Write more than a few sentences about your character’s personality.
+Understand the basics of RP etiquette:

• No pulling random weapons out of nowhere in the middle of an in-character battle.
  
• No jumping on any single character you see because you want your character to have a significant other.
  
• No god-modding.
  
• Don’t go overboard with any powers your character may have… The list goes on.

+Be out-going and plot with other members instead of waiting to be invited into a plot.
+Stick with a thread without getting bored and bailing on it.
And the list goes on.

If you do not have a basic understanding of these things, it is obvious to those of us that do even if it may not be obvious to you, and it makes it really difficult for literate members to post with you.

We’ve tried being nice, we’ve tried sugar coating it, but I’m going to give it to you straight: If your character application sucks, we’re just going to deny it. If you can’t write a decent, detailed character application, this is not the place for you. If you’re lazy and just don’t want to write a decent, detailed application and just half-ass it to get to the RP, this is not the place for you.

We’re tired of wasting our time wading through applications that are just plain awful. If you look at some of the new ones we got (not all of them because some of them are good! We just haven’t gotten to them yet) there is a clear difference in the quality of some of them and the quality of the approved applications.

If your application sucks, it will not be approved.

That said, a lot of the new applications may not be approved. (If you have not received a fail stamp, a detailed PM with extensive feedback, or your application has yet to receive any kind of response from an admin, yours is not currently in danger of being denied, just to set your minds at ease.) We’re sorry – we wish we could approve everyone, but some people’s applications are just not up to par and it’s not fair to the people who are literate RP’ers and have detailed character applications.

If you have questions or you’re concerned about the fate of your pending application, feel free to contact me. Or Sam, however I’m the one making the announcement, so if you have something nasty to say about it you probably shouldn’t take it out on poor Sam. He has to do enough eyerolling and facepalming for me as it is.

If you’d like to have an open discussion about this, you can also reply here.

Something I’ve seen done on other sites are things like RP classes, detailed character sheets to help people develop their character in a way the application doesn’t, Mary Sue/Gary Stu tests, etc. Do you guys think these types of things would be helpful, or a waste of time?

[Deleted]

I think that for those tests are a good idea as well as the classes. I've seen them too and I find that it helps people to develop their rp techniques as well as learn and understand their character more.

[ZZZ - Dean - RETIRED]

Glad you had the balls to bring this up lady, it was the right decision to make.

*gives Roobs a cookie*

I don't have anything helpful to add mind you, so I'll just go back to poking things with sticks....