An application I made at an RP site got refused because my "appearance" section wasn't long enough. The admin wanted THREE PARAGRAPHS, describing my character. I'm hardly gonna be like: "*name* has long flowing dreamy silky soft smooth wavy to-die-for awesome shiny platinum blonde hair"

I mean for god's sake. I already had like 50 words describing her.
How much more do you bloody NEED?!

Oh the madness.

I feel your pain. Haha. It's been a big gripe of mine--these long applications and the expectation that you write three to five-hundred and twenty-six paragraphs to describe how stinking hot you are.

I can't do it-- or more, I won't do it.

Anyway, I do know what you are talking about. In our attempt to deconstruct the application process, we have created one on our brand new board that allows you to write only five words to describe your appearance. Five single words. We did the same for personality and history.You get three words for personality and five for history. It's actually harder than it seems.

lol, I've seen at least one example of that on almost every RPG I've visited.

I absolutely hate it when I see character application sheets with little side notes as to the length of the text inserted. It seems to be quite popular among some people to write gazillions of pages on their characters but it's not really my thing. I'd rather outline the basics in the application sheet, add some details to give him/her depth but let it at the same time loose so if I get a really good idea later I can use it - as long as it doesn't go 'headbutt' against an already written one. And, let's face it, if you start writing a novel on a character's personality it's not exactly hard to forget some of those things when roleplaying and then you end up making him/her act OOC.

There shouldn't be length indications in the character application sheet. If the descriptions or explanations are too brief, the mod/admin should ask the applicant to elaborate, add a little more detail, and even suggest things. I'd like to see mods explaining to the applicants what they wanted them to do and even offering suggestions - haven't seen that for quite some time.

I had one application say that my description was too short because I didn't state what the hands and neck looked like. I never finished that application.

Honestly, on many of those sites, all they do is describe their playby and add in a lot of unnecessary adjectives. That really doesn't scream "Oh I'm an AWESOME writer" to me.

Ah, the long appearance section: the bane of players who have normal looking characters. It's so easy to go on forever about "glistening, flowing blonde locks that dance in the wind and shine with the brightness of a thousand suns," but it's a lot harder to do it when it's "dirty blonde hair that gets a little frizzy when it's humid."

Well, if you really want to be a part of that site, you can always fill up the appearance requirement with less traditional things. Instead of agonizing forever on how to write more on hair and eyes, describe how she carries herself (does she slouch all the time?), how she walks (fast with long strides/bouncy/dragging her feet?), hand gestures and mannerisms (is she a hand talker/does she chew on pen caps?), and such. Does she blush easily? Is she quick to smile? Does she like to lean against things when talking to people? Does she play wither her hair when nervous? All these things are definitely part of her appearance and can help it look longer. An added plus is now you know these things about her too, so you can create a better visual of her while RPing.

And, of course, you can always go on about clothes. What she normally wears in winter, what she normally wears in summer, how much time she spends on clothes or hair or makeup, a particular article of clothing she wears a lot, etc. Most of the time it ends up being pointless fluff, but admins who require long appearances usually love this sort of thing.

Speaking as an admin who yes, would ask very nicely for more appearance if given fifty words...

It's not about shoving as many describing words in as possible. That actually tends to annoy me... but as Shadow off the Rain said - it's about realising there's more to appearance than face, hair, eyes and body type. What your character typically wears is always interesting, jewellery, how they present themselves - how they think they look... you could quite effectively write pages and pages on any given character.

Without the fluff.

It really does help to give a good visual... not just of their basic appearance, but also of the character in motion, which is what a lot of people forget to consider.

You guys have to understand that so many of these admins are 7th graders who know nothing of honest to goodness good grammar and writing skill/style, so to them, its quantity, not quality. They unfortunately won't learn that for another few years.

Another unfortunate circumstance is that young admins (or admins in general, I suppose) aren't very open to suggestion. Some admins are, and some young admins will follow advice of older members, but that's just plain rare. I looked at a site that advertised on my graphics site and saw that an application was denied. When I skimmed through it then read the reply from the admin, it turned out that the admin denied the app because the prospective member's idea of James (it was a marauders rpg) was different from what the admin(s) felt he ought to be. I kindly left a note encouraging the admins to write a general outline of how they expect certain main characters to behave instead of denying good writers on the basis of creative differences.

I haven't gone back to check the response because I don't think it will be a nice one.

A lot of the time, I get crap that has nothing to do with the character's appearance, mannerisms, or even really the character as a whole. They go on and on about a character's upbringing and how much OMGSEX they have had, and after four paragraphs, you start to realize that all they have said is that the person is attractive. I would love appearance sections if I got something like Mousie said, with presentation and clothing and such, instead of basically nothing.

The worst thing about a lot of appearance sections is that they require 3+ sentences describing everything most people put in the overall appearance (hair, eyes, clothing, etc.) and then another four or five paragraphs on top of that. By that point, even Nathaniel Hawthorne would have nothing to talk about but the weather in Hong Kong.

On the subject of people waxing poetic about attractive characters, I once picked a PB I loathe because the admin talked constantly about her crush on him and how hot he is, and then spent five huge paragraphs talking about why I find him unattractive. I am a very bad person, it's true. Hearing about him constantly from everyone I know was driving me insane. I still don't understand the hype.

I can write a lot and sometimes I do, but if I don't have three million paragraphs to write, I'm not going to force something out. But that's just me.

Yes, indeed. The longer I've had a character or the better I know him/her, the longer the appearance section is. It's not cuz I spend more time on hair or facial features, but there are more subtleties to their appearance, more mannerisms, more detail in how they move, and other things that I add. Still, my appearance section always looks so measly compared to personality and history. But I consider those two way more important than how a char looks, so of course they'll be longer.

I said that going into detail about clothing was fluff, but I kinda take that back. Most of my characters could care less about clothing and simply saying, "He makes sure his clothes are always clean and wrinkle free" or, "She's rarely seen wearing anything other than t-shirts and jeans" is enough. Going on and on about clothes is silly for such characters. However, when it comes to more fashion conscious or chars with a distinctive "look" much more detail is a given.

Awesome. Just awesome. (happy)

Unfortunately, many admins just want people to describe their character in these utterly obnoxious terms and they don't realize that--as Mousie said--there are more ways to describe appearance than simply the shape of the face and the curl of the hair and the way the dimple appears at approximately 2-thirty on your character's right cheek when the sun hits it just right.

I completely agree with you. Those are the only things we ask for in the appearance section. I want to know stuff like: Do they storm right into the middle of a room or slink in along the side? Do they hunch and avoid eye contact frequently or do they like to stare people down? Are their movements exaggerated or understated? Clumsy or graceful? Easy-going or serious?

There is definitely a lot that can be said about appearance without ever going into hair and eyes, etc. But I've noticed that people don't naturally think this way. They tend to fill out the appearance section mostly with the traditional stuff even though we've asked them to skip it.

The problem I have with that approach is that people tend to be more complex than that, and those things aren't always the same for real people. Do you always have the same mannerisms? Do all of you always enter a room the same? Do you always act happy or dejectedly? Do you always either look people in the eye or avoid them? I dunno, maybe other people do but I don't, and the people I know don't. Everything is much more dependent on the circumstance. Real people have more depth than that, and they change those things quite often.

I also tend to define mannerisms in personality, not in appearance, and I don't think they belong in the appearance section. Plus, I think this still ends up to be writing stuff for the sake of meeting some length requirement.

What I don't get is why if it's not 50 words, then it's obviously 300-million. Do you know that 50 words is roughly 3 sentences? It irritates me when 'more' is taken to mean way more. It's like, in the past, I've asked players to clear up their appearance section because it's cluttered or disorganised or generally gives a very bad idea of what the character looks like. Instead of re-writing it, they tag on three or four extra paragraphs and expect it to be an improvement. They do that because they think that admin wants them to just make it longer. I mean hey, if they thought it was going to make it better then they'd have made it all long in the first place. I haaaaate with a fiery vengeance when people assume that writing more down is a) what the admin wants or b) will make it better.

I mean hey, getting them to stick a bit more down because the admin doesn't think the character's been very well depicted is one thing--that's useful--it's completely another to assume that this means they want lots and lots of flowery garbage.

Finding a writer that can successfully summarise their character in just 50 words is extremely rare so I see no problem with them asking you to write more. In fact, I can see nothing about asking for more than 50 words that is outrageous. Slap down 75 to 100 and they'd probably be happy bunnies. Not because you increased your word count but because you improved upon the character's appearance so they had a decent idea of what they looked like. If you're applying for a character and you don't know what they look like beyond just 50 words, then I really doubt that character is ready to be auditioned.

oh gosh, I know I am going to be in the minority here, but I just can't find the relevance of the appearance section in roleplaying in light of the fact the most use play-bys. I can see if one was making a totally original character, to offer a brief description so people had a visual. But, you know, I just don't care to read what they wear or the tone of their skin or even their mannerisms. I want that to come out in the roleplaying.

Like I said, it's not a majority opinion and I am not saying I am right. I just think that way too many boards get carried away on a lot of aspects of the applications. I think the roleplay sample is the most important and revealing part. I want to see that they can handle that. If they can, I think I can trust them to be able to bring a character to life.
It might not always be true, but most of the time it is.

We asked for a particular roleplay sample on the new board because we are looking for certain things. If the person can write that short roleplay sample, we are good with having them on the board.

I know our board will not be appealing to everyone and that's okay. I just think that real writing and character development should happen within the roleplay and it seems to be taking a backseat in a lot of roleplays. Too much emphasis is going to how people look, board graphics and such. We want everything upfront--the appearance, the plots, the romantic links. I don't know...I think it's dull. I want to learn about characters as I write with them. I want the characters to learn about themselves as they write.

Okay, so that's my two and half cents.

Um, the original poster said three paragraphs was the issue. I don't think everyone was saying it had to be 50 or 1000. The person who mentioned 3 sentences/50 words was talking per appearance feature (hair, eyes, etc), not for the whole appearance section. I also still think mannerisms belong in personality, not appearance.

I'm with RyanA as well in that I don't really see the point of appearance sections with the dependence on playbys, and I think a lot of admins require them just because that's "what you're supposed to do". Everyone on most any site now has a "decent" idea of what the character looks like because everyone bases their character on the pics they are going to use. There is also quite a bit of "my profile is bigger than your profile" competition going on, and then the whole process ends up being for the wrong reasons.

I don't think appearance should make a character, so I have a kind of list like thing and if people want to write more they can.

But honestly, my problem was when I had a paragraph thing on previous sites is the only things that are ever described are eyes, hair and body type. There's more to a person then those. My appearance things are usually like 500-1000 words when I'm given "write three paragraphs min please". I can't help myself. Give me a keyboard and a person I want to describe and there you have it; ridiculously large appearance. My personalities are huge honestly lol.

I'm a huge supporter of asking for a revision if someone's appearance was three sentences long. My ten paragraph ones don't have that many adjectives, but I like to think if anyone wanted to read more then hair, eye and body type (top two paragraphs) they can, if not they can just read that.

I know it's kind of excessive and I could probably summarize those 10 into 5 or 4, which I usually do, but I despise appearance sections under about two paragraphs. It makes me feel as is the face claim is their character; which makes me think back to any movie I've seen with them in it and always consider that that character is theirs.

I'm in the super minority though lol.

I feel your heartache.

Only once have I spent my time doing one of those long, ridiculous applications. And it was denied with no reason given. I've never been more disgusted or turned off of an RP in my life.

Therefore I stick to my own forums. Pffffffflt on the others.

Honestly, I'm not particularly fond of applications that require you to write tons of extraneous information period, whether it's in the appearance section or not. While yes, it is nice to have a developped idea of who your character is when you set down to write their application, it's another whole thing entirely to be asked to write a novel on them. Hyperbole, I know, but I really feel it defeats the purpose of playing a character when quite frequently that character is going to change and develop in so many ways.

While yes, I will consent to give a short blurb on personality, appearance, etc., I don't see the point of requiring '3 solid paragraphs of at least 6 sentences each' for something as simple as appearance. I frankly thought that was the purpose of character faces.

RyanA's comment that his board's now restricting these sections to 3 or 5 words total is being shamefully overlooked in my opinion. To me, those 3 or 5 words could say more than a rambling 500+ word drawl about a character's appearance or personality ever could, because if chosen carefully, they can be the quintessential form of a character's being. Obviously if they pick something like 'smart, pretty, cheerful, outgoing, athletic' it doesn't tell you very much, but choosing the right combination of words could provide a great basis for what the character is like.

Agreeing with RyanA again, those sections aren't really even the most important part of a character application. I know at the board I admin, what usually makes or breaks an application for our canon characters is the sample role-play more than anything else, because that demonstrates most clearly what ability as a writer a player has.

[/end rant]
Short and sweet: this administrator finds such sections far too lengthy and quite redundant. (tongue)

Wow; I actually counted my original appearance thing (that got rejected) before I edited it, and it was something like.. 134 words :| (not 50 like I had estimated.. I'm bad at estimation okay!?)

I also think that the roleplaying is way more important than appearance. Exactly - that's why you use people as your character faces; so people will know what they look like without reading a novel on "What my character looks like".

Hey Elliot, thanks for this. You are the first person to respond to it and you totally get what we are doing. When you have to think of only a set of certain words, you have to pause and really think about both the words and your character. Both me and the person I admin with have backgrounds in poetry. This is where this idea came from. Poetry is a compact way of writing. Every word is weighed in the balance. It is something that all writers should learn--condensed writing.

We let them offer optional histories about their characters in another area. This is where they can spread out and expand. But when they apply, even the history is only five words. And honestly, it's really hard to choose those five words.

But anyway, thanks for offering your understanding and support. We are tyring to explore different approaches and see what happens.

Let's not forget there are still some old-fashioned boards out there where the PB isn't everything.

We started using PBs simply because it was fun... most characters don't have one until the player sees someone who fits, and this can be well after application (in the case of both my characters, six months AFTER...).

That way the PB is chosen by the Character, not the Character by the PB... which is how it should be. Yes, we're now at that point where some members will choose the PB before deciding what character they want to play, but we keep appearance as a main section for those who prefer not to.

I don't like the idea that a celebrities' appearance is identical to a character's. I just... don't. Eva Green is a good representation of Adele... but they're not the same.

Photoshop does wonders for that, but still. We ask for 1-200 words, which I don't think is unreasonable... and quite enough to spend on the basics, without bringing mannerisms into it at all, we've had quite a few go beyond that... and that's fine as well.

I agree wholeheartedly. :(

Uhh I was going to say more, but it died in my head. Well, I guess I'll leave you all unenlightened.

Shame on people for writing long applications!
And shame on people for writing short ones!

Pffft. >_<

I, personally, have quite a few characters who don't have PBs, so an appearance section, and one that goes into some detail explaining what they look like, and such, is needed in my case. Actually, I think I'm currently playing 5 characters that have no facial representative. (i come up with the character before the pb, obviously, lol)

I don't see what the problem is with having to type up 3 paragraphs on the appearance of a character. Its really not that hard, and like others have said, there is more to it than body type (and weight doesn't count because everyone carries their weight differently), face, hair and eyes. And I don't see extras as fluff. They're extras, and if someone wants to add them, its okay by me.

But then, my application lengths and detail vary (especially depending on the game and what they expect). I've written anything from 1 page to 10 pages. So, yeah, you want to be a part of a game that asks for 3 paragraphs of appearance, that's what you have to produce to get in the game, and I don't see the point of whining about it.

Obviously, we all have different opinions on how apps should be done, and I don't think any of us are wrong. Getting pissy about it does nothing. If that is what admin asks for, its what you have to provide, simple as that. Take it or leave it.

I swear I had a point to make (beside all the crap above) but I've forgotten now. Maybe I'll remember later and come back and post some more... stuff.

AHA! Also. I don't think an application restricts a character in any way shape or form. No matter how detailed you are in the application, there is always room for growth, and character development still happens. Maybe a sticky note or something could be tagged onto the application (or character page, or whatever have you) or the application itself could be altered later on to detail the changes, not to mention update what has happened to the character since joining the game.

Epiphany's happen every day. Whee.

I pretty much agree with the last three posters. A picture of some celebrity shouldn't replace a written description of a character because that character does not look exactly like that celeb.

I like having detailed apps because I keep a copy of it up while RPing to reference. I get really distracted while typing, spacing out or going off and doing other things. Having that app helps me focus on that character and allows me to quickly get back into the right mindset when I snap back into reality. Yeah, I know I have a short attention span. (sweat)

To each his own I guess.

The necessity of a Physical Description/Appearance section would also depend on the manner of the board and the level of quality that board wants. If it's a board based on history, the Physical Description section can give the admin the first insight into what this applicant knows about how people dressed in that time period. Not even just what they know, but what they've researched. Some historical boards are more lenient with this stuff than others, so it depends.

For those historical boards, lookalikes are also only semi-important. More often than not you won't find someone wearing the proper costume, so it becomes important to explain what sort of ensemble that person would wear. Then again, the level of that importance all depends on the player and the administrator of that board. Some are strict; some won't care if you say your character wears "jeans" in 17th century England.

Pleti Pie makes a really good point! An appearance section was actually one of my first tip offs that an applicant at the board I used to own wasn't exactly sure what was going, because of what he stated the character wore almost constantly. Due to the time.. period/era of the game, his character obviously could not be wearing a jean.. vest? with a number on it.

... I actually had a fondness for that player, because he was the first "difficult" member I had to deal with as an admin at my very own game. He was great. On a different level than all the other players I had dealt with so far on that game, all of us at the time were advanced writers, and girls, and he was an intermediate writer (in how i view things) and male. It taught me a lot. But he was easy to deal with. Just difficult in that he was so different from what I'd dealt with before.

er... end random tangent.

I'm really failing to see why people are complaining about having to write three paragraphs about their character's appearance. Most people in this thread wrote more than that just complaining about it or explaining other things!

There are so many things you can write in appearance which can't be conveyed by a picture. The way they walk, how they look at people, whether they talk out the side of their mouth or tend to yell at people - how they change in different situations (as Roswenth was saying). They can be talked about in personality too, but if you've got a paragraph that has one sentence explaining why your character does what they do and the rest of it is describing it that sounds to me like it belongs in appearance.

On the other note, I disagree with the idea that PBs are only a representation of character. With one exception (because my character now smiles more than he did when I picked his PB) all of my character's PBs are EXACTLY how my character is. Sarra Jane is Laoise Casey. She's not a representation of her, she is exactly how Laoise would look and smile and stand were I meeting her in real life. Because I treat my PBs like this I spend hours and hours finding PBs for my characters. Using popular people is out of the question, because they are never anything like my characters.

Pleti Pie does make a good point. Very good indication of whether people know what they're talking about setting-wise. If you've just a plain old high school in America thing it's less so, but if it's a high school in New Zealand or a historical thing it's way different.

I'm just going to butt back in and support Emma on this one. I do the exact same thing she does: spend hours looking for THE right face. I will not settle on one until I'm 100% happy that that face is my character, which is why everyone I tend to use is obscure. No baggage.

Roswenth: I know people are never that easy to place but isn't it understood in a profile that you're generalizing. People might not always act in certain ways but they tend towards trends. I know people who I expect to act serious all the time and people who I expect to be more laid-back. People don't up and change the way they carry themselves. Happy or dejected are emotional states; they change but something like being pessimistic vs. optimistic doesn't. I agree with you that mannerisms are definitely rooted in personality, but they are the outward part that every other character can see so I put them under appearance.

No, that's not always true. On at least 3 sites I've been on, I've seen admins come down real hard on people who didn't react exactly the way that was stated in the profile. And there's a lot of people who don't do character development; their characters are one-sided, always react the same way in every situation, and don't change over time. No one said that people who write long profiles don't develop their characters, but that there is a tendency on a lot of players' parts to make one-dimensional characters because they get this view that the application is law.

And it's been mentioned, but no one ever really effectively refuted, that many admins are not looking for different things like mannerisms - often they want a paragraph on hair or eyes alone and they are looking for a lot of flowy, unnecessary verbage. Like I said, one site rejected my application because I didn't describe the hands (and it was like a 5-paragraph appearance section).

The point a lot of people are trying to make is that there are a lot of sites who put too much emphasis on things that really shouldn't be that important. At least one person hinted that it's also hard to tell what the admin is looking for sometimes (and just rejects something without commenting on it). We've had threads before about admins who are rather cruel in critiquing applications with mistakes that they didn't correct in their own profiles. Just because people don't like that trend doesn't mean they don't want to write about appearance at all.

I see some comments about the celebs being used not being a representation of the character. If that were the case, why use an image at all? Why not simply rely on words to describe them? When you put that image up, you trump any words you wrote down. No one is going to see your character for anything but the celebrity.

How many people can think of Harry Potter and not have the visual of Dan Radcliffe pop into their heads. Even if you try hard, it would be difficult to separate them at this point. Before I saw the movies, I had an entirely different picture of who Harry Potter was in my mind (and Ron and Hermione as well).

While I can acknowledge a need in an historical roleplay, those would be the exception. And those could be guided, such as asking for particulars of the costume. They could still be brief.

These are all things that could be offered and revealed via roleplaying with others. What exactly is the hurry to have it all revealed before the character is put into play? People will often behave differently depending on a situation. Why not let them show that through their actual roleplaying? Why is everyone so hesitant to allow people to explore and reveal their characters as they play the game?

I am in agreement with Roswenth. I have actually heard from other roleplayers that after they wrote one of those epic applications, they sort of lost their drive. They felt like they had already written the character and didn’t really have anywhere else to go with them. I think it’s more that they just didn’t know where to go since they had been asked to cover so much ground. It kills a lot of the spontaneity and the fun of discovering a character.

And I wouldn't entirely agree with this either. Of course people can change. One could begin a story as a total pessimist due to where they are at in their life as a story begins. Events can occur in a story (or in this case, via roleplaying with others) that cause the character to reflect on his life and his situation and his relation to things. His view could change. To say people don't change is to lack the essential reason we tell stories.

Still, I know the point where we began at was about appearance. I still hold to the fact that it isn't something that needs to be written up in three paragraphs. I think it barely deserves more than a few words. If you need to know my character's mannerisms or the clothes he is wearing or how his smile is just a little bit crooked on one side, then write with me and discover it there.

psh, I write what I want to write; I couldn't care less for 'requirements' - QUALITY OVER QUANTITY, I SAY!
loads of role-plays I've been on have been obsessed with length and it's completely unnecessary - surely if the person is a good roleplayer then that is all that matters?

You obviously weren't talking about me or RomanHK.

They can but in my case at least they have to be written down at some point, or I'll forget and contradict myself. Also I find quite often that writing these things down earlier helps me to know my character more. Most people aren't in RPing for the real long term, either, so if you wait for maybe a year before you know your character properly you'll most likely have moved on.

I disagree (as you may have noticed :p) appearance, in my opinion, is inseparable from everything else about a person. You wouldn't describe someone's personality in only a few words, would you? That would be very unfair on other people whose characters are supposed to know about yours, because 'blunt' could mean 'doesn't care who they hurt when they say things' or it could mean 'doesn't pretty their words', which can result in two different actions. Like I said before, most people aren't in their character or site for the long run and having to wait for maybe three threads to find out something their character should've known off the bat (because you decided they've been best friends for twelve years) is asking a bit much.

It can be difficult to tell if a person IS a good roleplayer from just a few words. For example, if I wrote 'Tall, blue eyes, light brown hair' on an application, you'd never be able to tell if I could roleplay properly or not. However, if I tried to write three paragraphs and I was a bad writer, you would be able to tell.

Yes, but the point people are trying to make is that is the point of the rest of the application. You don't need the appearance section to show that. After two days everyone's going to associate your character with your playby and graphics and not what you wrote on your application. No one reads the appearance section of an application past the application process! And even you depend on playbys, whether you want to admit it or not. Therefore, I submit that on a site that depends on playbys, appearance is not really necessary for a good application.

If you really want to find out if people are good writers, give them a situation to write about for the roleplay sample (so they can't just copy and paste).

Hah, what you say isn't true Roswenth. I periodically look at an application to see how the character looks, mostly to see how he/she wears his/her hair or what clothing the character wears. I can't see this by their pb graphics. I especially do this when my character first meets that other character.


But it is quite ... rude for an admin to dismiss an application because the appearance isn't big enough. I don't care if the appearance is one paragraph or ten paragraphs, as long as it gets the general point of your characters appearance across. I rather read it in one then ten paragraphs :clown:

And that admin just denied itwithout even asking for changes? If so that is really rude.

Perhaps on hair, but I expect people to write what they are wearing into their posts many times, which is why I don't like clothing in appearance either, except in period genres or when they have some sort of uniform (like in sci fi). However, I'm not a teenager, and my wardrobe varies widely by my mood and the situation because I've gone past the point of wearing what everyone else in my group wears. I think even most teenagers would agree, especially girls, that they don't dress the same way every day.

But that just goes back to the point that many sites go so hardline on applications that no one writes things like that into posts anymore and just leaves it to the application.

Haha. I'm agreeing with you again Emma. Amazing how often that happens.


And just to clarify, I wasn't saying that the admin's demands were right or that they could have been looking for mannerisms etc. I was just stating how you could go about approaching the quota and how I go about doing it.

I do agree that approving or denying an application on the basis of the appearance is pretty silly.

But! I agree with ShinLi. I always, always look at the application of people I'm RPing with, including and maybe moreso the appearance. I don't want to base things off PBs! PBs help me visualise them in my head but I don't assume that's what they look like. I believe PBs should be a complement to the appearance section in profiles, not a substitute (or a related good! XD Economics)

I think the same way with profiles and roleplay posts. They should be complements, not substitutes. Just like you could have pate and a grape. They can go instead of each other, but (according to some) they work best when they go together. So why bother pulling them apart? Just as people put effort into their roleplaying, they should also put effort into their profiles.

EDIT: Wa ha. Of course you are Dave - you are my b***ch!

My friend and co-admin on my site is never fond of writing out large amounts for appearance for a few reasons. First off is because of who we commonly use for playbys. Since we all use actors, singers or models, the general description of the females on the board can basically be summed up in "tall, slender with *insert hair and eye colour*' Not to mention that there are only so many ways you can describe the modern wardrobe of jeans, tee shirts and tank tops. I myself don't mind writing out appearances, but anything over two and a half paragraphs i find a little ridiculous unless I'm describing ethnic or period wear.

In our application, instead of writing out what your character looks like, we have a list of generic stats (height, weight, body type, hair and eye color) for people to fill in instead. What we lack for appearance, we certainly make up for in personality and history, however those are our personal areas of expertise and out template naturally reflects our bias.

*Tacklestabs Emma* Moving on...

To Sara: I think it's just as well. If you try to get overly fancy in your appearance description, then people start calling you Mary Sue. I wouldn't worry about it.