sorry if this has already been made. <3

Out of curiousity, what makes you decide not to join a forum? What're your biggest pet peeves or tun-offs on a forum?

Mine...

i. When the forum is over-run with "scene kids". There's just something about scene queens and whatnot, particularly when excessively used as playbys, that really irks me. I feel like I can't go out wearing tight jeans now without being labelled as it and every scene kid I've ever met is... urgh. So when I see a million of them a board (playbys or members, either) I am out of there.

ii. Clashing skins. I will never ever join a site where it's neon yellow against a white background or red against brown. I'm very iffy when it comes to skins.

There aren't too many things that will really prevent me from joining a forum if I initially decide I want to... but there are a couple.

First if they have ridiculous expectations regarding post length. I will NOT post 3000 words each time I post. That just gets tedious to me and then I get tired of going to the board because the RPing isn't fun... it's brain-wracking. D: A couple of paragraphs moving the plot along are just as efficient (if not more so) as forty thousand words describing the cotton clouds floating lowly in the sky, reflecting the bright sun, making everything look like a luminescent dream world as she took seven steps towards the tall, winding tree that had to have been more than three hundred years old...etc. Screw that. XD

The only other thing that REALLY pisses me off is when I post as a guest in the cbox, asking any sort of question regarding what kind of character they'd like to have, or if there is any specific role I could fill.... only to be COMPLETELY ignored. Not ignored like no one else posts in the cbox, but that they talk over me. Even when I ask again. It's just rude. If you're a member, and you don't know the answer, AT LEAST suggest that a guest wait until an admin comes back, or perhaps point me in the direction of some indicator thread or something. It's worse when admins are the ones doing the ignoring, but the members should be just as friendly as the staff in accepting new or potential members.

Also, I probably won't join if it's a board overrun with people ages 17-25... Because then there's pretty much no way any of the types of characters I like to play will be integrated well into their society. And that's just no fun, so I steer clear.

- There being a disproportionate amount of femmes to guys. (Never actually came across the reverse).
- Not having one character per account.
- Anime PBs.
- Canon's only (though not if it's fandom).

It's more of a combination than any one thing though.

- No contrast skins will make me close the window without even reading the plot. Likewise, if all of the font is super tiny, I won't bother- my eyesight is bad enough as it is, I don't need to be straining them to read posts on a daily basis.

- Canons only, when the canons are highly specific and detailed. Either let me pick the name, or the face, or characteristics, or something. I mean, what's the point of doing an application if I'm just following someone else's script anyway?

- Way more female characters than males, and no notes or anything from the mods to encourage applying with a guy.

- Strictly enforced word counts for posts. A general guideline is one thing, but sometimes the muse just isn't chatty, and I don't like to force another 200 words just because someone prefers quantity over quality.

- Harping in the rules about proper spelling, punctuation and grammar, and then finding rampant disregard for spelling, punctuation and grammar in the rules and throughout the site.

I think those are the major points, but I'm incredibly picky, so there's a lot more where that came from depending on my mood! :pink:

Wearing tight jeans is considered scene in US? Lol. [Or at least, I guess scene is more of an American thing.]

But I'm not a fan of forums saturated with scene kids as pbs, either. Then again, I don't actually play on school/real life roleplays where such pbs are most common from what I've seen. Board generally overrun by teenage characters are most likely to turn me off, because I simply don't find the age group appealing to play it myself.

Clashing/blinding skins can also make me decide not to join a board. Layout doesn't have to be stellar whatsoever, but I don't want to go cross-eyed every time I drop by.

Holier-than-though staff is a major turn off as well, so are boards overflowing with ooc drama. I neither have patience nor time to deal with those things, so I tend to give such forums a wide berth.

scene kids roleplay? :/

No, kids who wish they were scene roleplay. :sweat:

i'd imagine most kids on computers all the time consider regular fit jeans to be skinnies

Um I wouldn't know, I'm British xD

Canons are ok if flexible and/or originals are ok too.

This is what I avoid when looking for a new RP:

1) Teeny tiny font, with an emphasis on sparkly header and sidebar graphics and general form over function.

2) Enforced PBs, especially enforced PBs that tell me that the admins have never seen a movie, watched a television show, or listened to any music made before 2005.

3) Excessive required word count. I hate what I consider useless pointless boring fluff in posts, especially when that means that respondents break the following post into quote after quote after quote. I read RP threads to make sure this isn't happening, because it makes me nuts. XD

4) More posts in the 'plotting pages' or 'relationships threads' than in the actual IC areas.

5) A billion different micromanaged IC areas, like 'Homeroom 1' 'Homeroom 2' 'First Floor Bathroom' and suchlike.

Games that use 'canon' when their game has no basis in pre-existing, publicly recognised material of any kind. Ie, pulling a premade out their butt and calling it 'canon'.

Staff or members on power-trips that smear the board like they're proud of the fact. Boards having hoity-toity attitudes will send me screaming and running into the hills.

Games with ridiculously divided applications. Ie, too many sections which end up being 'summarised' at the end of each section, rendering everything else moot point.

Games that place emphasis on 'advanced' and then gripe about how it's all to do with stylistic choices and presentation while producing mediocre crud and palming it off as acceptable. If you're going to enforce a writing standard, the admins should at least maintain it.

Games that store denied applications in publically viewable forums. There is no acceptable reason for this and only leaves these applications open to mockery and scorn. This is not a reflection on the admin's unreasonable standards. It's a reflection of that player's ability at the time.

The common use of tiny font that is unsuitable for 1280x1024 and over.

Games that demand that I advertise for them.

A lack of planning or plotting or thread request forums, with only template based plot-page type areas available.

Games where the admin does not make an IM of theirs available in their profile for guests to use.

Well, there are only a few things that make it so I simply will not join a site.

1) Minimum post lengths of like, 1234875937589375 words. A few simple paragraphs can be just as influential on the story as a huge post. many times one paragraph is fine too.

2) Super strict rules regarding everything that there ever could be. I think it is more enjoyable to have rules that are lax, this allows members more room to have a little bit of input and a say in things when Out-of_character arguments break out.

3) Boards with far more OOC topics and discussions about 'my awesome weekend' than actual Roleplaying.

4) Admins and mods who have a superiority complex.

BAHAHA! xD I guess my games are the exception. Both of my games have TWICE the amount of males to females.

It really, really amuses me. :B I didn't even realize that was so until I actually did a quick count, but it is indeed the case.

Funny how that works sometimes isn't it?

is frustrated since that's how my boards USUALLY are... until my recent one.
GRR ARGH.

When I look at new forums, first my eyes have to like it. It's OK if it's bland with the colors, but if it's put together, it will work. But I've seen some boards where my eyes tried to run off my face. lol. I'm going to be sitting here, looking at this screen for a long time.

Required word counts, yeah I'd rather go by paragraph length. A paragraph respectively is at least 5 sentences. So 2-3 to me is a decent post. That's fine, I can actually tell by looking how many sentences I've written. But if I have to copy/paste what I wrote into something else to know how many words I wrote, then that's just too much. I'm not writing a term paper for school, ok? Besides, I've read some posts where it just went on and on, like a page long, and I actually skimmed it. You get to the point where you have to fluff it, and what good is that?

I have to be interested. This means you have got to hook me in. You've got to have good informative posts that will sell themselves. Whenever I advertise, I always try to open it with this zinger tagline that just makes you want to know more. And then I break it up into manageable pieces. I hate it when it's just like, read this never ending paragraph! You'll love it!!!11!!!11 If the first sentence doesn't catch my attention, I generally don't read further unless I really want to know.

I try to steer clear of places that have plot pages. I hate them with a passion, but in this day and age, it's hard to avoid. When did this trend start? Bah! But if I must endure the plot pages, I look at the ones with the most replies and see what kind of relationships they've wrote down. If they've got 15 good friends and such but no roleplays, I tend to walk away. I've never understood the point of forming a relationship but never actually reinforcing it. It's more like, hey let's see how many friends I can accumulate? This isn't myspace, k? lol

I must admit, I've got a large romantic bone in my body. So yes, when I roleplay, I want at least one of my characters to have some romance. Can't resist it, so cliche. But if I can't get anyone to thread with me in the first week, then I usually bounce. And I don't mean one lonesome post that they never reply to again. I want you to want me here. The point is to roleplay, so why don't you want to roleplay with me? I'm open here, willing to do whatever. But alas...

Can't really think of much else. If I notice that the PB's are overrun with the same type of person, I try to walk away. Overpopulation kills.

Any site that has a 'popular' look is a major turn-off for me. I can get a pretty good idea of the quality of the plots and roleplays if I look at the skin and what sort of forums the site has. (I'm prejudiced and think that new school RPers are more concerned with looks than content.) A trendy skin that's in bright colors and impossible to read? Not going to happen. A gazillion forums which aren't for roleplaying, but are for supplements, OOC, or different categories of applications? Forget it. On the same note, really cruddy default/neon/etc. skins annoy the heck out of me as well.

ILLEGIBLE TEXT. GAH.*shoots silver bullets at such sites*

I like to pick roleplays at random and skim them. A few sentences is usually enough to give me an idea of how 'advanced' a site really is.

Basically, any roleplay that clearly revolves around graphics rather than roleplays will make me go running in the opposite direction.

Says the person who is creating a new skin so that her site can look nice and compete x.x

Oh lordy, these are legion.

1. Unreadable site. If reading/seeing your site hurts my eyes, I move on.

2. Enforced playbys. I've already ranted about this, but I can't play anywhere that requires an avatar.

3. No character balance. Been burned way too many times by god-characters, thank you.

4. Stompin' on humies. I like humans. I like being human. I don't like it when many, many boards either treat them as insignifigant or pure evil.

5. Too much required detail. Some boards demand that you pick out the make and model of your car, and every single class and club you belong to. Yeah, no. Barely revent to drama, not at all relevent to plot.

6. Huge word requirements. The length of a post rarely determines quality. A few well-placed words are more effective then pages of purple prose.

I happen to hate:

1. Sites that require a certain amount of words per post - I find it unfair if you have writer's block

2.If the site is readable or not

3.Plot, if I find it nice

4.Strictness of spam, like everyone else, I hate spam.

--I think that's about it. :)

1. I hate sites that focus on appearances rather than plot.

2. I particularly hate sites where the members seem to be only interested in playing with their buddies and their friends rather than being open to RPing with new characters. I find sites like that to have immature members and that usually scream to me that such sites are filled with people who fail to RP properly or with any real skill.

Ohh, peeves!

1. Those sassy uppercrust RPGs that demands every new member to fill out an application with word count limits on useless parts such as history, personality, etc. Unless it was to justify the character possessing something that might give it an advantage in the game, I don't really see the point of having to go through the pains to appeal to a minimum limit. If it was to demonstrate good roleplaying, then the site wouldn't know what good roleplaying was if it requires endless rambling of words exceeding what would be adequate and necessary in fewer than what they presume is ideal.

2. Garish appearances. First impressions last, and a forum's skin says a lot of how much work and interest the owners and people are willing to put into it. Not all the time, but the ones who just slap on a half-assed skin usually suffer when people take a glance and lose interest because of poor layout.

3. Uhh...I guess when you, like, try to introduce yourself in a pretty active forum, and the topic derails from greeting the new person to other random topics that only members would be savvy with and the newb in question wouldn't know a thing about (Thus being the main cause of newb death in 56 countries and states, not including Alaskan fatalities and the Soviet Union).

4. Fansite RPGs with uber nerds (read: elitists) for staff, mocking and criticizing your every failing and blatant ignorance of the game they represent. Or unwaveringly steadfast with their cannon to consider fresh, new approaches (its heresy!)

5. Uh...sites with members who don't have a sense of humor (Okay, maybe in my case, what I consider 'humor' might be grossly crass to everyone else. But as long as the intent wasn't to purposely attack someone, I don't see a reason to have a fit over someone else's attitude or opinion, disgusting as it might be).

6. PROBOARDS. No offense. My dial up and Proboards…they just don’t click.

1. Poor grammar in the rules/plot--especially if the rules ask for everyone to speak with proper grammar
2. Cliquishness
3. Playbys of the month (like flavor of the month)
4. Canon-only for a non-something-based RPG
5. 500+ word minimum
6. Paragraph minimum at all
7. "Advanced" sites which are obviously run by 14 year olds
8. Condescending language

You know there isn't much that turns me off from an rp. But if I had to pick a few things

1) Overly complex apps. The kind that make you want to tear your hair out because they ask for your pet cat's name.

2) Ones that ask for a lot of OOC information. There are sometimes I just don't want people to know what characters I play.

3) "Your skin is too bright!" yes... neon colors hurt my poor eyes. Along with that goes skins that have animated gifs everywhere. I feel like I'm about to have a seizure.

4) Sites that ask for a minimum post count but don't enforce it. I hate joining what is supposed to be a multi-para RPG and find people onelining or writing two sentences.

• If I can't read it, I leave. It's NOT that ****ing hard to get a basic skin that looks good, and spell checking your work is NOT A COMPLICATED CONCEPT. REALLY. IT'S EASY AND FREE. DO IT. I can't even -count- how many boards I've seen that fail pathetically on account of horrendous spelling, and I take unreasonable pleasure in watching them fail.
  
• Admins with the rough IQ of a head of cabbage. This isn't the rants forum, so that's as far as I'll go. I do try to gauge the admin's overall intelligence, though, and if they seem like a vapid halfwit, I'm out.
  
• Admins that regularly talk down to members or set immensely differing standards for people they like as compared to people they don't. I understand the pull of wanting to give your friends cooler stuff - it's human nature. Using that as an excuse to give them a neverending stream of unpossibly* cool powers and privileges is nothing but abuse of mod power and a giant middle finger to the rest of the board.
  
• Slavish adherence to imaginary rules contradictory to the site's rules. If the site rules say I can post anything PG13 in a random forum, don't yell at me for starting a loli catgirl forum. They were all SFW, dammit! No one else had a problem with it! We'd already gone through 12 pages of another thread of the stuff, and I still had more loli catgirls! Dickweeds. Knock your own damn rules before you call me on them.

{Unpossibly is now a word. SUCK IT.}

Hmmm... My pet peeves would be...

• Really stupid rules like no posting OOC comments in an IC thread at all, or not posting more than a certain amount of OOC posts in a day.
• Really strict rules with 800 conditions (such as you MUST have this, this, that, that, that over there, and this over here plus 30 other things just to join and be accepted - and even then, only a maybe).
• Skins that make my eyes bleed. Anything that I can't properly read the text on, or that I have to highlight doesn't work for me. I'm not uber picky, but if I can't read what I'm typing or it hurts to read it, I won't join.
• Outrageous rules such as having to be the same gender as your character.
• When the admin fails to spell things properly/use proper grammar on their forums.
• Applications that demand you do this or that, and not do something else, and ask you for a million fields to be filled in, PLUS that sample on top that you have to write. I don't mind samples - I don't like forums that want me to fill out this 6 page application and then do a three page Rp example to boot.

I'm sure there are more. I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

I really should have added that as its own bullet to my list, as well.

I completely agree. The moment I get on a new board the first thing I do is check the descriptions. If they've been done improperly, or yanno, they're done like this: "dis da shit, dis wear it at" I usually run screaming.

When people are rude in the cbox or when admins/mods are rude in profile applications. There is just no reason for it and its not an atmosphere I would be happy RPing in.

I hate sites that:
- have RPers that post posts that take forever to scoll down on. They're like 2000 words each and full of junk that I don't care to read (ex. the shininess of her shoes).
- have really weird, annoying, dorky RPers. Sorry and no offense but people who go and type all this random stuff into the C-box will just make me quit the site because they're annoying and stupid and I don't want to RP with them. (ex. OMFG you are a booma. A sexy booma. LOLZ i'm bored.)
- have elitists. You know, with the required word count and stuff and they absolutely won't like you at all unless you prove you can type longer posts than their older members.
- have ugly neon default layouts. It's so ugly. =_=
- have names like "sora_xx3"

i. illegible text/clashing boards

honestly, it doestn't make sense. you WANT people to read what you have posted, you want them to join, yet you make their eyes burn the moment the board loads. the same goes for brightly obnoxious colors, especially on a black background. it makes it almost impossible to read.

ii. sexpot boards

one of the first things i always do when i consider a board is browse through a couple of the admin's character's threads, along with the plot pages (if the board has them), along with the canon list. i hate sites where everyone's main concern is 'omg! my character needs a bf/gf/fwb!' i'm sorry, i like to roleplay more than 'susie likes joey but joey likes molly and molly's secretly sleeping with susie's brother' types of plots on a board.

iii. horrible admins

either in the sense that they throw around the word 'advanced' yet run a board that is riddled with grammar and spelling errors, can't keep up with the board mantainance (if they can't do this, they shouldn't be running a board in the first place), have a seriously 'cliquey' nature, etc. i hate to say it, but i look at an admin to see how the mood is going to be set for the board. chances are if i don't like the way the admin runs the place or handles themself, i'm not going to join.

iv. plot pages

they're hardly realistic. almost every plot page i've glanced through is filled with friends, friends with benefits and flings, and a token enemy for the heck of it. plus having a million differen ways to describe the same relationship is a pain in the rear. i mean, come on...if you're characters are like family & attached at the hip, do you really think you need to add that their best friends/partners in crime/other half/etc? plus, half of these relationships are so strange. i've actually posted on boards where a member and i decided that our characters had some common ground and would get along well, we posted in one another's plot pages and started to actually play out the relationship, but it started slowly going down the road of arguments and dislike. but according to the other member 'omg! it says friends in their plot page, so they HAVE to be friends!' yuck![/lize]
v. sexpot playbys
[list]if somebody can find me a board where there's not a character using a pb from a cw show, keira knightley, johnny depp, or james mcavoy, alexis bledel, or eva green, you'll be my hero for life. out of the millions of people to use there's always the same handful of faces on every board. major irritation points if a character is in a relationship with another character because said character's play-bys have been romantic interests in a film/tv show.

vi. word counts

i'm sorry, if i have a post that's 650 words long and your mandated minumum, there's no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that i'm going to churn out 50 extra words of fluff just to make you happy. most of the time, i'd just to adding in small words that are useless anyways. and you want to hear something funny? i like word maximums better (in my mind) sometimes because you have to make every word COUNT, not fill up a bunch of space with verbal garbage.

vii. the drama llama

yes, i am a compassionate person and i do care about people's issues, but when i look in the c-box and see somebody ranting about who crappy their day was or how their bf is cheating on them or how horrible their home life is, i usually run in the opposite direction screaming. first off, i'm not a therapist - if you want to rant to me excessively about your problems you can pay me the standard therapist's fee. secondly, everyone has their problems and they deal with them - if you're complaining like that in the c-box or ooc forum it makes me think you're an attention whore. and lyssa hates attention whores.

haha pet peeves huh?

well for me I love when the site has an original, professional look to it. I despise when people try to get the most updated look and then through all sorts of things together so it looks like crap >< color clashing too. I like things to be rather color coordinated, but some colors just don't mix x.x

I also hate when I see one to two sentence posts, or really anything under 200 words. longer posts are much more interesting to me, and show me the person is interested in what their doing. Short posts make the person look like a slacker.

It really annoys me when a site consists like, entirely of girls. Guys are just as cool as girls.

I also hate when there's ooc fighting on a board. It makes me feel really uncomfortable, especially when people are arguing in cbox or what have you. and then when other people join in, it can become like world war III x.x

I love seeing creative boards, and good descriptions. Sites with no descriptions rather bore me. Having the description there helps me imagine where I'm roleplaying. I think its fun.

Neh another thing is names. I hate seeing the same name used over and over, just with a different last name or a slightly different way of spelling. I like people being original with their names.

:: when the skin hurts my eyes or annoys me

:: when the people on said site talk like a bunch of 10 year olds, and then I mean spelling mostly

:: admins that don't seem all that adminny, but they're just there like the others, letting everything slide and paying no or very little attention to things

Hehe I like this post :)
The basic layout of the main page with the tiny script, no capitals, side tables with pictures of CW actors and actresses (faces that you already get tired of seeing in the magazines) and then sometimes there's that 'cutest couple' mess. What the hell? How could you seriously put that there with the intention to fill out? I don't get it...is it really there for a reason?

Also, has anyone else noticed the lack of ethnic diversity in canons? Every site I've been to in the past couple of years I've only seen a small number of minorities on the canon list and it's kind of sad. Even when it's based on a book, Angelina Johnson turned blond! I'm always kind of hesitant to let anyone know because I don't want to
offend them or make them think I'm implying anything but I'm sort of tired of always having to make my own character if I want a PB that's different.

All my other pet peeves are pretty similar to those that have already been mentioned and I don't want to repeat them a fourth or fifth time. :p

I hate sites that don't capitalize anything.

And if I see that the administrators have taken over-used PB's and done nothing to encourage diveristy.

If there is no place for older characters. Like... late twenties or thirties.

And if the board has a set of twins/triplets who use Rachel Bilson, I am OUT.

Recently, I just developed a new one. I hate forums where you click on anything and in brings you to the log-in screen. I'm not going to register just to poke around the site, especially with validation on... I think it's one particular style of skin but I hate it.

i am a very picky person and the things about a board that make me not join are:

1. WAY to many forums for like places, not every location in the town needs its own forum, it just clutters up the board!

2. plot pages all being in different sub forums too, its like yes it keeps it organized but its harder to post in them if you have to go through every group of people.

3. ugly skins that are too bright or too dark, i dont want to loose my eyesight

4. SCENE KIDS, its okay if its one or two but im glad im not the only one who finds them annoying i mean most people dont have pink hair and take pics of themselves all the time, most people look normal.

5. admins who reserve all the good pbs for a rainy day

Most of these have to do with my first impression of a board. I know that cosmetics are a little shallow, but I'd be lying if I said that these little things didn't make me turn away from a site almost immediately.

1. Admins that take ALL of the cool positions. Yeah, it's good to have responsible people play powerful characters, but leave some fun for the rest of us! (Good ex. I play a deity at Meliora, but there are 7 other positions of the same ranking and you don't need to be an admin to get one. All of the royal family is open for other members to play.)

2. An obscene amount of young lady characters. Really, I have nothing against this type of character, but most of them are flat as heck and there's very little diversity in these large mobs of 18-22-year-old pretties.

3. Confusing layouts. It's important to be as simple as possible without skimping on the essentials. If I get to a site, even if the graphics are gorgeous, and it's too crowded. . . I leave.

4. "Canons" that are almost completely pre-made. I understand the importance of defining an important character prior to having someone apply to play them, but I would find it really irritating if I had to take all of someone else's work just to play a powerful character that has a significant impact on the plot. Really, if I'm capable of handling that position, I should be trusted with creating a realistic, well-rounded character.

5. Obnocious colors. Really, this is a given. If my eyes want to bleed when I look at the index, I'm not sticking around for even 2 minutes.

6. Layouts that don't suit the genre of a board. If I go to a classic fantasy RP site, I don't want to see a layout that makes it look like a futuristic wonderland. This is really redundant, I know, but it does bother me. It isn't THAT tough to find a skin that is neutral if you can't find one that's perfect for your site.

7. Really ridiculously detailed character applications. I don't want to deal with codes that are miles long just to submit my character. Filling simple criteria is tough enough most of the time. I don't want to search through sizes, colors, alignments, underlines, images and useless punctuation just to find the place where I need to put my characters favorite brand of pre-made spaghetti sauce. X_X

Omg. |:

• Layouts. Skins that do not match the header image. It looks gross. Edit the colours for goodness sake! |: Using skins made by other people is generally a turn off as well. Yes, I know, not everyone can code. But you can at least try to learn enough to edit the skin a bit (change the greens to reds maybe? x__x; ). Unreadable text (tiny, tiny text) is also a major no-no. I use a large resolution, so a lot of the time, I can't read it.
• Sidebars. A lot of the time, I see them look bad or just HUGE. If the sidebar is big and the width of the forum is small... it looks really, really bad.
• Username specifications. When you are required to type your characters name in lower case (GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT AT A BOARD OF WRITING HSGDJSGF), specify a middle name (not everyone has one) or add silly things to it. sdfjkhsdkfjhsd.
• Too many forums/ subforums. Urgh. It just... looks bad and inactive. D: Condense!
• Bad grammar/ spelling. Obvious, but I totally agree!
• Bad coding. As in it doesn't work in FireFox. Don't use deprecated codes, please. Or bad codes.
• When doHTML is not allowed. It makes me cry. I don't know why people don't enable it when they can. You can prettyfy your official threads and make them look more professional. If you're worried a guest will spam, just make it so guests cannot post in your forums. I like HTML. ;; I loathe BBcode. D:
• Being required to join with ____. I only see this at certain types of forums. They require you to play a canon, a girl, or a guy ONLY. Gross.
• Long joining applications. If I have a new character, there's a good chance I don't KNOW their personality yet. I like to provide a few rp samples, quick character details, and off I go to rolelplay! An application should ONLY be used to ascertain the member's level (ie: ensure that the joiner is at the board level of advanced, intermediate, etc).
• Cboxes that don't match the layout colour. A default green cbox on a pink layout? No thanks. >__<;

Grawhr.

• Non-contrasting skins and/or tiny fonts. I shouldn't need to put my face two inches from my monitor simply to read the site
• Over abundance of forums on the main page....especially if the majority of them are empty.
• Requiring member names be all in lower case and/or requiring middle names
• Over-abundance of Mary Sues
• Forums based on movies/tv where the main plot of the board centers around an original character who is involved with a canon. This is especially annoying if that female character is the admin.

<sub>i'll give my main reasons:

-more work is done on the board [graphics-wise] than on the actual plot or plot-related info.
-too many forums and not nearly enough ic posts to match.
-more plottage than roleplaying.
-admins who pop on once a day and simply DO NOT post ic. if it's your board and you've really worked so damn hard on it then why not enjoy it too? a lack of admin roleplaying is probably the BIGGEST turn off for me. if they're not going to put in the time then neither am i.

...that's about it i suppose. everything else has been repeated.</sub>