I feel the need to address this.

[Jaredthefox92]

For the way I go about doing things, I feel that people are confused as to why I want people to post their CS in the Characters section. I'd just rather have a "database" of sorts with your character in the CS section and if there is an issue, I can just contact you in the OOC section. I know it's not common, but I prefer to keep CS in the character tab. I may also contact you in that tab, but I feel having to write it all in one tab just to write it all again in another is a bit redundant and clogs up the proverbial "drain" if you will.

[ArenaSnow]

Allow me to quote my status bar reply,

Jared, it would be best if you addressed the matter in the threads in question, as there is zero certainty for people in your roleplays to see a status about it.

Different roleplays have different standards, yes. The most prevalent standard on RPG is to submit characters by OOC first, and then place them into the Char tab upon being accepted. This allows a GM to easily say 'yes', 'no' or 'fix it' before saying 'no' and 'fix it' when the character is already in the tab even if the GM doesn't want that character there yet or ever. Char is indeed a database. On the guild, it is very, very common for it to be a database of what will be, not what everyone thinks should be in there, which may run totally contradictory to what the GM wants, forming the primary reason why GMs usually like characters to be posted OOC first. Another way is indeed uncommon, and that's probably why in your games people are prone to missing that.

Your style is fine, but complaining about it here and in the status bar achieves absolutely nothing. It is a standard you must create and enforce in the first post of your roleplays, at which point, it is the fault of the player to do it wrong. However, a massive portion of the guild cannot and will not be held accountable to posts made outside of the roleplays. They don't know/care about your statuses, and a huge portion of the guild I am certain never even looks in this forum. If you already do this and are venting, then I can certainly understand frustration at the common lack of reading comprehension, but it will still achieve nothing because your standards are actually in the minority. Your thread, your rules; it is up to you to create and enforce them, and if people are jackasses, then it is your power to boot them or bring in staff if they don't bother to leave.

I can't say much more about how to go about it unless there's a practical example of what's going on posted here.

[PrinceAlexus]

@Jaredthefox92

The thing is most people here work on basis of finals only in CS to save have to ask for x deletion requests and failed bids.

Then it's alot easier as OOC is wip and submission, the CS is solely aoecpeted and you can see a record of those apcepted, and those writing them can see charceter and things that work. Ooc also tends to be for general chat and questions so it first perfectly well often with applications.

If you want people to do somthong, state it clearly in your OOC how you want someone to do the process.

[Jaredthefox92]

@Jaredthefox92

The thing is most people here work on basis of finals only in CS to save have to ask for x deletion requests and failed bids.

Then it's alot easier as OOC is wip and submission, the CS is solely aoecpeted and you can see a record of those apcepted, and those writing them can see charceter and things that work. Ooc also tends to be for general chat and questions so it first perfectly well often with applications.

If you want people to do somthong, state it clearly in your OOC how you want someone to do the process.

@PrinceAlexus

I'm sorry, I sort of don't understand what you're saying.

[PrinceAlexus]

<Snipped quote by PrinceAlexus>

I'm sorry, I sort of don't understand what you're saying.

@Jaredthefox92

OOC = applications, questions and updates etc.

Cs = Finished sheets and passed.

This is because you do not have to ask for deletions, and also then CS is the standard, and theme oft the RP, not just any old stuff gives. Now you Don, t have too get x posts deleted when you start up.

Makes it easier for applications to know standards for the RP and get examples of what kind of charceters your writing with.

[Jaredthefox92]

Allow me to quote my status bar reply,<Snipped quote>

Different roleplays have different standards, yes. The most prevalent standard on RPG is to submit characters by OOC first, and then place them into the Char tab upon being accepted. This allows a GM to easily say 'yes', 'no' or 'fix it' before saying 'no' and 'fix it' when the character is already in the tab even if the GM doesn't want that character there yet or ever. Char is indeed a database. On the guild, it is very, very common for it to be a database of what will be, not what everyone thinks should be in there, which may run totally contradictory to what the GM wants, forming the primary reason why GMs usually like characters to be posted OOC first. Another way is indeed uncommon, and that's probably why in your games people are prone to missing that.

Your style is fine, but complaining about it here and in the status bar achieves absolutely nothing. It is a standard you must create and enforce in the first post of your roleplays, at which point, it is the fault of the player to do it wrong. However, a massive portion of the guild cannot and will not be held accountable to posts made outside of the roleplays. They don't know/care about your statuses, and a huge portion of the guild I am certain never even looks in this forum. If you already do this and are venting, then I can certainly understand frustration at the common lack of reading comprehension, but it will still achieve nothing because your standards are actually in the minority. Your thread, your rules; it is up to you to create and enforce them, and if people are jackasses, then it is your power to boot them or bring in staff if they don't bother to leave.

I can't say much more about how to go about it unless there's a practical example of what's going on posted here.

@ArenaSnow

I see, well actually I just posted on my status as I'm not familiar with what would be a "journal" entry on this forum. I mostly wanted to advise this as I felt it becoming an issue. Sorry, I just wanted to really address why I did things a certain way in my starters.

The reason I wanted to do it out of OOC is because I feel that it's cleaner that way, and I'm sort of versatile on how you create a character. Characters to me are not set in stone and they adapt and become better overtime. At least, in my past experience abroad and off this forum. Thus I didn't really want to force people into a final draft that could potentially just be edited and corrected instead. It's sort of my lenient roleplaying nature, but I believe a character can be better if they're just adjusted to the RP instead of just outright saying 'no'. Another thing is I feel OOC was supposed to be reserved for discussions and not just about characters, but plots and information as well. Thus I wanted to keep it as the lifeline of the roleplay and have characters just edited as we went along in the character section. I mean, I guess I could switch but I feel like for me to just go flat "no" and force others to a final draft of a character that may well just need some tweaking to be a bit of a disservice to my participants. I'd rather just have characters adjusted than just have to go "no" and shut off my players.

[Dervish]

<Snipped quote by ArenaSnow>

I see, well actually I just posted on my status as I'm not familiar with what would be a "journal" entry on this forum. I mostly wanted to advise this as I felt it becoming an issue. Sorry, I just wanted to really address why I did things a certain way in my starters.

The reason I wanted to do it out of OOC is because I feel that it's cleaner that way, and I'm sort of versatile on how you create a character. Characters to me are not set in stone and they adapt and become better overtime. At least, in my past experience abroad and off this forum. Thus I didn't really want to force people into a final draft that could potentially just be edited and corrected instead. It's sort of my lenient roleplaying nature, but I believe a character can be better if they're just adjusted to the RP instead of just outright saying 'no'. Another thing is I feel OOC was supposed to be reserved for discussions and not just about characters, but plots and information as well. Thus I wanted to keep it as the lifeline of the roleplay and have characters just edited as we went along in the character section. I mean, I guess I could switch but I feel like for me to just go flat "no" and force others to a final draft of a character that may well just need some tweaking to be a bit of a disservice to my participants. I'd rather just have characters adjusted than just have to go "no" and shut off my players.

@Jaredthefox92

The whole point about requiring a character sheet is to act as a guide and resource for players, including the character's owner, so details can be kept consistent after months (e.g. knowing what their skills and powers are, recalling parts of their history that are now plot pertinent) and for GMs to have something to work off of for determining what applicants will work best for their game; RPs that just take anyone that walks in the door are the ones that are inviting a lot of problems and player dissatisfaction. If someone follows rules when making their character, then it's a good sign they are cooperative and good team players who have solid reading comprehension. Someone doesn't and puts things that are contradictory to the rules, lore, or GM's dictation, and it shows that the player is problematic and may be prone to arguments and is more interested in pushing their own ideas rather than subscribing to the ones the GM has established.

Look, you're going to get people apply to your games that won't be a good fit to an RP, it's just a fact of life. I've seen things like people arguing that their character wouldn't go to the location an entire RP is centered around and fight everyone about it, others apply with ridiculous stuff like respawning characters or dragon-werewolf hybrids in a Skyrim setting, writing extremely tropey and edgy backstories that goes against the tone of the game itself, making their character far more powerful than the setting allows, trying to fight to have characters involved in factions that do not or no longer exist or are adversarial in nature, and a billion other permutations that aren't even touching writing quality. When you take half an hour and dump a sheet that's half-baked, it shows, and since I'm not the kind of guy who wants to manage more players than I'm comfortable with, I'm going to go with the sheet with more effort and the players with better attitudes over all.

A good rule of thumb is if you want to try an idea that isn't standard, run it by the GM first and if they say no, don't press it. Their game, their rules. Joining a game means you agree to follow what the GM establishes.

In regards to the character sheet submission thing, keep in mind that virtually everyone follows the same etiquette of posting the sheets in the OOC for review before transferring it to the CS tab. If you're finding you're running into problems with that, maybe it's worth changing your own approach to match the flow of the majority of players. Worst case scenario, you could always just request someone reposts their finished sheet because the OOC thread past the introductory post/posts is supposed to be informal.

[ArenaSnow]

<Snipped quote by ArenaSnow>

I see, well actually I just posted on my status as I'm not familiar with what would be a "journal" entry on this forum. I mostly wanted to advise this as I felt it becoming an issue. Sorry, I just wanted to really address why I did things a certain way in my starters.

The reason I wanted to do it out of OOC is because I feel that it's cleaner that way, and I'm sort of versatile on how you create a character. Characters to me are not set in stone and they adapt and become better overtime. At least, in my past experience abroad and off this forum. Thus I didn't really want to force people into a final draft that could potentially just be edited and corrected instead. It's sort of my lenient roleplaying nature, but I believe a character can be better if they're just adjusted to the RP instead of just outright saying 'no'. Another thing is I feel OOC was supposed to be reserved for discussions and not just about characters, but plots and information as well. Thus I wanted to keep it as the lifeline of the roleplay and have characters just edited as we went along in the character section. I mean, I guess I could switch but I feel like for me to just go flat "no" and force others to a final draft of a character that may well just need some tweaking to be a bit of a disservice to my participants. I'd rather just have characters adjusted than just have to go "no" and shut off my players.

@Jaredthefox92

And that is a perfectly viable system. I believe there are people on the outer fringes of my memory who have done systems like that, and they are both perfectly valid and supported in the system.

But that is the key here. They are both supported, neither is truly correct, which leaves one area to post your system - right into your roleplay, in the first post you expect people to read when starting off, so it is (theoretically) clear immediately what your expectations are. If you do that, any issue (ideally) goes away, and if people still miss it despite you explicitly stating what you want in your main post that people should read to understand anything about your roleplay, then it is on them, and it is your right to deride/correct them for it as you see fit. It's really no biggie. People aren't even entitled to an explanation why you do it because it's really such a minor change that it should simply be respected, as long as you make it clear in your main post. If people fail to follow your post after you've done that (is that the case here?), then you are the victim of the guild's widespread reading comprehension blindness. Little to be done about that I'm afraid.

In short, my points in this thread are these;
- Your system is perfectly valid, despite the alternative being more widespread and thus probably why people are using it by default instead
- I'd like to know if you've already made it explicit what you want in the roleplays themselves, or just now started saying something

To go further, it would be good to clarify how much you've done beforehand, as the final answer to this thread changes based on what you did. If you've done nothing else besides make a status and make this thread, then it is simply not good enough - you must state what you want in your roleplay threads from the beginning if you want it to be done. If you've already done that, I don't accuse the guild of being collectively bright. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You'll either need to put your foot down or be accustomed to gently guiding people into doing the things they should have been doing in the first place. It's an individual problem with no clear solution, and I don't think you'd see any cultural changes by trying to get the guild to collectively understand things better if you've already done your part in the threads - which, as noted above, is your first and last line for seeing progress.

As far as the status bar goes, it's unique in that it's basically the place where most people just throw little tidbits that are usually pointless or slightly humorous. There's not much unity as far as the role of the status bar (and several times there's been petitions for it being outright deleted). Back on topic, the only context I can think of where people will actually look into your profile for a status/information is
- if they're a 1x1 player trying to learn your darkest secrets
- if you've been gone for a month and they go 'did he say something about leaving?'
- if they're a magical unicorn that is actually interested in following profiles, believe me, very uncommon here >.>

It's a fair assumption to think that a profile might have more merits to players in your games, but generally speaking, what appears on your profile is highly unreliable for reaching your players, even if you are a GM, unless you actually tell people in your OOC to stalk your profile (in which case I'd suggest putting whatever you want to say into the OOC in the first place so people can get the information directly). I'm not even counting the status bar itself, the real place where your messages are displayed in the 'public arena' so to speak. I'll out on a limb and say a good portion of the active guild just never sees what you post in time, another portion ignores it, and comparatively a few people actively pay attention to it for the comedic value or random curiosity.

I'm afraid there's no real mechanic built in for a personal blog of any kind, though depending on what you want to post, other mechanics can try to fill that role. I suppose if anything, what you posted would technically be most appropriate for the status bar - unfortunately, I don't think that's too effective, as compared to simply stating what you want in the roleplay itself.

Blimey I'm wordy today.

[mickilennial]

The standard practice is for people to put character applications in the OOC and GM-approved sheets in the Characters tab. If you intend to have a different policy from the norm you should clearly and concisely mention it in your rules section.