Simultanious 1x1 Interest Checks

[datadogie]

On many occasions, I've found myself wanting to go into the 1x1 Interest Check section and look for an appealing 1x1 partner. For each of those occasions, I find myself faced with this:

Well, not hiders, but the image that is inside the hider.

What's the problem with the interest checks with green highlight, some of you may ask?

No, it's not that they have hiders. Try again.

More often than I really should, when I look at the 1x1 Interest Check section I am faced with this situation. Someone (or multiple people) creating different interest checks to separate out fandoms, original pairings, you get the idea.

It's not just the separation of many threads that's the problem - it's the content inside of them. Sure, I understand people posting a small thread with two lines saying what they want to do, but when they have both a list of fandoms in one thread and the idea for the fandom in a different thread, isn't that a bit too much? Oh, and there's also this:

These are from two different checks, made by the same person. The first one was a list of different pairings from different eras, and the second one was a list of pairings in a thread made specifically for the Tudor era. Could list two not have easily been merged into list one, instead of the creation of a completely separate thread for it? This isn't a one-time thing, either. I've seen this many times.

I find it ridiculous that people have to make that many threads, pushing other people to the bottom, when you can instead do what I and others have done on their threads:

Yes, this time I'm talking about hiders. And the example inside of this hider.

"Oh, but Data, what if we want to express our craving for a particular fandom/pairing?" Is a question I've been asked. And legitimately in that way. Don't ask.

You can easily state cravings in the title.

It's ridiculous how often I find all these interest checks from the same person being bumped at the same time. It means that other people trying to fit their checks in get shoved to the bottom or even to the next page, and I find this happening quite a lot. It makes it harder both for the posters and viewers to find partners.

So, I ask: What's everyone's opinions on this?

[Carlyle]

I'll say my point again as I did on Discord. I don't see the point in having multiple interest checks when you could have a central one for all your pairings and plots, which seems to be the opposite right now (and the point of this topic). If you have a central interest check, just put the other ideas in their own section of the central interest check instead of bloating up a section with multiple threads.

Reminds me of people who put their interest check in General, Casual AND Advanced so they can attract people to their RP. Sounds good on paper, but it doesn't help people looking for a brand new RP when the latest checks section is 100% "Game of Thrones" or something by whoever instead of various different RPs to check out.

[NuttsnBolts]

When it comes to regularly occuring 1x1 interest checks the most that anyone would, in theory, need is perhaps 2. One for regular roleplays and another that may cater for 18+ material. Occasionally you may get an extra couple around the place with the odd, one off request or specific... which is fine as not everyone wants to make a profile/bio page for finding a partner.

Strictly speaking, the Guild doesn't have a rule about excessive checks (seen with how some people may post the same check in the General Interest Check sub-forum), but it does have a rule about spamming the site, and even these in this situation are more guidelines for keeping the peace than actual hard rules (unless you ignore a moderator's request multiple times). As it is, this kinda thing, especially with 3 users doing it at once, is pretty rare.

For this situation, we'd probably message the user and request that they would condense up some of their checks or limit the bumping to one thread as opposed to (the seen higher number of) four. Just a reminder that other people are trying to find partners too.

[datadogie]

Yeah, I have nothing against people making specific interest checks for things such as if they have a sudden want to do, for example, a Fallout: Last Vegas roleplay, but it's when it adds to a total of simultaneously-bumped RPs that it gets quite bad. If one of those also receive a potential partner who writes on the post, the post is then again bumped to the top. I've seen it happen several times.

And of course, not everyone does this, and this particular scenario (three users doing it at the same time) is, I agree, quite rare. A very small amount of people do this, but enough people have done it and it's happened enough times that I've taken note of it and it's becoming just a tad annoying to see - I find most people don't bother to go to the second page of the forum, most of the highlights are on the first page, as well as the fact it's a lot more recent and less risk of people saying "Sorry, I already found a partner for that." It's just a point I wanted to raise, and see people's thoughts on. :P

[NuttsnBolts]

If one of those also receive a potential partner who writes on the post, the post is then again bumped to the top.

@datadogie

A very good point too and one that does have the impact of affecting the experience of others.

Also remember that you, and anyone else for that matter, is more than welcome to message a member of staff if they happen to notice anything peculiar like this in the future. We do get messages about this kinda stuff all the time so it's not really a bother to us.

[BrokenPromise]

Yes, it's silly to have more than 2 1x1 interest checks. Even if you have a "niche interest" There's really nothing to be gained by splitting up your interests over a series of topics, especially since most of these interest checks are nothing more than a list of ships or a story you'd like to do.

Example of typical list:

Burger king X Wendy

Slime bunny girl X Brad Pitt

Gender-bend Voldermort X Kratos

Example of typical plot pitch:

My gym teacher/cafeteria chef sees your vampire hunter (read:chuunibyou) tearing their way through tokyo. Because my parents have recently passed down a pair of golden chopsticks, my family's cherished family heirloom, it's my job to keep Akihabara safe from annoying otaku like you. But there's an otaku convention coming up, and now your otaku isn't so annoying anymore. In fact, my chef finds you kinda cute...

And there's actually a pretty good reason to keep the RP end of things pretty light in your interest checks. Because chances are you're going to end up reworking a lot of that to suit your partners tastes. Like maybe someone wants to chase Brad Pitt as a slime koala girl, or maybe they'd prefer to be Mc Donald instead of the King. Maybe the example in the plot pitch only really works if the other player gets to be the gym chef, or maybe they'd rather the story take place in America.

People who make interest checks may have a craving* or idea in mind, but people who search them are more interested in picking a player they are going to click with. Things like your age, interests, desired writing level, posting speed, personality, those are the things people are more interested in. And while it may help to have a plot or pairing that grabs people's attention, those are the details that are going to make someone actually message you.

Not that I look at 1x1 interest checks. I'm more likely to hit up a friend if I have the desire to do something like that.

*Craving is the most cringetastic word in roleplaying ever, and I suggest everyone stops using it ASAP.

[Dervish]

*Craving is the most cringetastic word in roleplaying ever, and I suggest everyone stops using it ASAP.

@BrokenPromise

Petitioning to have this replace the description text for the 1x1 forum.

[Dion]

When it comes to regularly occuring 1x1 interest checks the most that anyone would, in theory, need is perhaps 2. One for regular roleplays and another that may cater for 18+ material. Occasionally you may get an extra couple around the place with the odd, one off request or specific... which is fine as not everyone wants to make a profile/bio page for finding a partner.

Strictly speaking, the Guild doesn't have a rule about excessive checks (seen with how some people may post the same check in the General Interest Check sub-forum), but it does have a rule about spamming the site, and even these in this situation are more guidelines for keeping the peace than actual hard rules (unless you ignore a moderator's request multiple times). As it is, this kinda thing, especially with 3 users doing it at once, is pretty rare.

For this situation, we'd probably message the user and request that they would condense up some of their checks or limit the bumping to one thread as opposed to (the seen higher number of) four. Just a reminder that other people are trying to find partners too.

@NuttsnBolts

Agreed with what you say, though I had one thing that made me think.

As it is, this kinda thing, especially with 3 users doing it at once, is pretty rare.

All it takes is 3 people posting 3 threads each and bumping them daily to already take up 9 slots where only 3 were needed. I think it can easily be excused for 1x1 (though admittedly I'd like to see less threads by the same people to give the people who don't bump their thread daily a chance too) because it moves... slower than most other subforums but if this were to happen with casual, or worse, free roleplay we'd have a different scenario (I don't intend to point fingers but the most vivid example that comes to mind are either the threads that move at 1 post per second, or the threads posted by ms. Winter who at some point held over 50% of the threads on the front page of free roleplay).

I'm not sure what the actual impact of this would be or if it's an actual problem, seems rather limited beyond causing a frustration, but it might be an idea to nip this in the bud before it might get a bit more out of hand. But that really depends on how big the problem is. Maybe Datadogie just checked at a bad time because I just checked now and besides seeing the same name once or twice, I saw no real blatant super-bumper people with 30 threads.

EDIT: also his point that a lot of the threads are the same pairings in different wordings really hits home. IMHO that's a far bigger problem.

[RabidRabbit]

I tend to restrict myself to a maximum of two active 1x1 threads. For example, I've got two going right now but they are for fully fleshed out, vastly different rps. I understand the frustration though. Especially when there are people who might not be getting attention, because someone with 3-4 interest checks is bumping them all at once. I prefer one or two devoted ideas to build on, while other people prefer the shotgun method.

[SleepingSilence]

@datadogie I thought you may have been being selective and just found the perfect amalgamation of people who post separately. But after seeing at least 7 other users with at least two roleplay checks. (not even made that long ago yet separated.) I'm now just as perplexed at their existence...

[Dion]

I tend to restrict myself to a maximum of two active 1x1 threads. For example, I've got two going right now but they are for fully fleshed out, vastly different rps. I understand the frustration though. Especially when there are people who might not be getting attention, because someone with 3-4 interest checks is bumping them all at once. I prefer one or two devoted ideas to build on, while other people prefer the shotgun method.

@RabidRabbit

Yeah, but the shotgun method is more disruptive and bothersome to other players. I can see some point in having two threads, especially if bumped within reason, but having 3? 4? Why?

[datadogie]

@SleepingSilence
No, this is something I've seen over a course of several months, with numbers of 2, 3 and 4 checks all being bumped simultaneously by whichever user created them, different users doing it. I wouldn't have written a post about it if it was just this one occurrence.

[LunarMist]

Not gonna lie, I'm new to the site and as I've been trying to find a comfortable place to step in and get back into the swing of a text based roleplay I have already run into these problems. This has me more than a little disheartened and in all truth has me wondering about really committing to the site at all, afraid mostly about just not living up to a partner's ideas or plans because everything is so disorganized that it never seems clear as to what they are asking for.