I'm torn. On my previous RPs, I let up to three people apply for one character at a time, and chose between the best applications which to accept. However, I've realized that that's unfair, because on my other RPs, the canons have all been open to interpretation. We usually would not include any personality requirements - at most, we'd give the basic information: Name, age, gender, and family members. The characters were open to anyone's interpretation.

However, because of this, we'd sometimes get up to two or three applications for the same character, where the character was described in a totally different way in each application. John A would be a sadistic creep, John B would be a confused cynic, and John C would be a depressed playboy. In many cases, we couldn't accept one application on technical things like grammar; it had to come down to which character the admins just liked better. That brings bias to what should be a more or less rational, objective judging process. We were basically telling people that their depiction of a totally original character was not what we had in mind -- even though they had free reign of the character and it was open to their interpretation; that's not fair.

So, I decided in my newest RP, only one person could apply for each character at a time. However, it gets difficult because we also let people post unfinished applications... and that means someone could half-heartedly fill out just a few sections of the application, post it, and then have the character reserved for three days. And that isn't fair to the other people who would like to be that character as well.

Any thoughts or ideas on how I could rectify this situation?

I don't want to make it so people can only post completed applications. But is limiting it to one applicant per character a bad idea?

let another forum be made and put polls up. let the members decide. :)

What about making people reserve the canon, and if they didn't finish the application (to an acceptable level, or at least nearly) within x amount of time, they forfeit the canon and then cannot apply/reserve again for x amount of time?

Then, it gives more people a chance to get the canon they want, and you can still have uncompleted applications posted.

It's not open yet and I don't want something that important to be left up in the air.

pathogenicoma -- I forgot to mention! Our reservation system, as it is, is only for people with really extenuating circumstances... Like, their internet is out or they're going on vacation. Half the people who reserve characters never come back, which is why we've never allowed reservations in the past. But I will keep your suggestion in mind. Thanks for your input. =]

maybe have people reserve the character and then the person who finishes the application first gets the character? o.O

I just joined a site with a system where only one person is allowed to apply for a character at a time, but if somebody really wants a reserved character they can make a secondary reservation of sorts for in case the first person doesn't end up getting accepted or doesn't finish the app.

Wow, great idea!