hi i'm new here AMA

[naptime]

a stranger on a certain social music streaming site - which shall remain unnamed - mentioned this site to me, and i figured i would come over and check it out.

i, uh, guess i don't really know what else to say. feel free to ask me anything. Any sort of advice or tips for newcomers would be helpful as well.

[Hank]

There's plenty of advice for newcomers in the care package PM you ought to have received when you signed up. If you have any specific questions, feel free to hit me up.

What is your favorite color and why is it blue?

[naptime]

for instance, you could ask me what sorts of music i enjoy listening to (though i wouldn't recommend it, as you'll likely never hear the end of it), or you could start spouting memes at me, which is fine, or you could ask me RP related things - also fine - or you could press that handy back button at the top left of your browser, and i'll never have to know you were here at all.

[naptime]

There's plenty of advice for newcomers in the care package PM you ought to have received when you signed up. If you have any specific questions, feel free to hit me up.

What is your favorite color and why is it blue?

@Hank

I guess I'm mainly wondering about the more implicit things, such as reply culture - am i supposed to quote someone when i reply? does this include @ing OP, or is that frowned upon? things like that

my favorite color? it's, uh...
i love all colors equally. Give me all the colors
@hank
@hank
@hank
@hank

[naptime]

oh ok yeah i see the PM

i already read all of that but it was pretty basic

nvm the articles section is pretty comprehensive, guess i'm in for some light reading

[Hank]

There's no unified reply culture, @naptime. Some people, like me, don't feel like using the quote function if the post we're replying to is (one of the) last post(s) in the thread. Others will quote everything they reply to. Some people won't even use the @mention feature and just reply as they see fit.

Speaking of, that feature works like this: [@mention]. The brackets are essential.

[naptime]

ah, thanks much, @Hank! I appreciate you taking the time to reply to this thread : )

is the community here very big? Would you say people are accustomed to newcomers, or can it be a little cliquey?

[Hank]

There are many different cliques in the community. The community itself isn't one. I encounter someone I haven't met before in practically every roleplay that I join and I've been here for nine years. We're all very accustomed to dealing with newcomers and willing to do so. If someone gives you the cold shoulder, that'll be the exception to the rule.

[Cyndyr]

Welcome to the Guild, naptime! What is your favorite musical artist(s)?

[naptime]

Welcome to the Guild, naptime! What is your favorite musical artist(s)?

@Cyndyr

oh, thank you! i'm still sort of getting my bearings, but you seem like nice people. :)

yikes, my FAVORITE musical artist? you mean, like, overall?
that's a real toughie... i listen to a really wide variety of music. i'd go so far as to say that my taste is pretty undiscerning.
Well, statistically speaking, this year my most listened albums are probably Velocity : Design : Comfort by Sweet Trip and Stratosphere by Duster. Stratosphere in particular is just an incredible experience to listen to in one full sitting. They're both "zoner" albums - a passive listening experience, the sort of thing you'd have playing while you're stoned or writing something. That's how i consume most of what i listen to, actually.

beyond that, I guess i feel pretty strongly about Mac Demarco and Stereolab right now?? It definitely changes from day to day, but there's a lot of music i love. This is probably a question you could ask me every day and you'd get a different answer (with the same preface)

[Mae]

They're groups of friends here but I wouldn't say it's cliquey from what I've seen :D I'm pretty oblivious to social stuff though :3

People are very used to newcomers (in alot of threads I've been in there's always one or two, so you're in good company) The best thing to do is just jump in, find a roleplay you like or dive into some of the discussion threads. With the roleplays the formatting and etiquette expectations are usually explained in the thread. Reading a thread's requirements, having a quick look at what others in the thread are doing, and even just letting people know you're new will go a long way to helping you get comfortable.

So! Some generic roleplay questions! What's your favourite genre? How long have you been roleplaying and what got you into it? Do you have any particular fond memories or experiences you'd like to share?

[Cyndyr]

It definitely changes from day to day, but there's a lot of music i love. This is probably a question you could ask me every day and you'd get a different answer (with the same preface)

@naptime

I relate to this on so many different levels.

oh, thank you! i'm still sort of getting my bearings, but you seem like nice people. :)

@naptime

We are (or at least we try to be)! If you have any questions regarding the site, I would be more than happy to help!

[naptime]

So! Some generic roleplay questions! What's your favourite genre? How long have you been roleplaying and what got you into it? Do you have any particular fond memories or experiences you'd like to share?

@Mae

my favorite genre? hm... if i'll be honest, i'm not sure. I tend to prefer RPs with a high level of one-on-one interaction, because i enjoy that dynamic and find that introducing too many RPers in to a single scene rarely works out well. I've never done a 1x1 before, but that might be fun. I haven't successfully RP'd for more than a week or so at a time in something like five years - people /always/ flake - so i can't really say for sure where i'm at now.
There are definitely some marked preferences i have, but they're not genre related. I really hate using face-claims, and prefer instead to describe the appearance of my characters. I'm willing to bend on this if i really want to join the RP, but it hurts.
I also have no patience for fancy posting formats, because i feel like it's a lot of effort to go to and then i have this expectation to write something that fits the overblown nature of the format, but... well, i'm just uncomfy about it, you know? It feels very...presumptuous. The quality of my writing isn't so great that it deserves a crazy format.

How long have i been roleplaying? Well, i joined gaia in i think '06, and i'm pretty sure i started RPing there almost as soon as i found the forum. I don't remember what originally got me in to it, except that i guess the idea of it must have appealed to me. My early writing and characters are - as i'm sure you can imagine - something of an embarrassment to me now...

particular fond memories or experiences? Well, one time i joined a walk-in with this grody antagonist character I'd made up - they looked all nasty and ugly and wore a hood, their arms and face were covered in bandages, and they talked like a creepy old aged man and ate people. Anyways, she was a fun character to play, and went over remarkably well with the other RPers, for some reason. But what i didn't realise at the time was that the mainstays of the thread were all playing characters from the original My Little Pony show. by some miracle, i had never watched or seen any of that so much as once up to that point (though i knew, of course, of its existence), so here i was, for over a month interacting with these strange, childish characters (and people) who had put me and my character on this pedestal as some kind of literary genius, until eventually all the clues sort of clicked together and i was like "wait... are megan and tirek from something?" and they were all like "watch this" and linked me, like, the entirety of this bizarre little show from the 80s or 90s - in german - with magical technicolored ponies...

so that was fun!