Recently, I stumbled upon an unfinished rpg that was going to be opening soon; the premise sounded interesting, so I took a look at the premade list (which they call canons; it irritated me, but I decided to let it slide). I found one character who was just adorable and I thought she'd be a lot of fun to play. Okay, so they picked the full name and the pb; whatever. I didn't hate the nickname, and the pb, while not who I would have picked for the character, was good enough. I mention to the admin that I'm interested in the site when it opens, the character gets reserved for me, and I decide to start on my application.

The application has lots of colors and sizes and lyrics all over the place. Fine, I can handle filling it out once. I get everything done except for several lists, like likes, dislikes, strengths, etcetera, because I hate lists. I don't go back to the site for a few days because I know it isn't open yet, so I still have some time. I see the ad here on RPG-D one day and realize they're open, so I swing over and finish that section of the app, and get a simple open thread.

And then I start looking around. There are almost no threads on the board, but the forums with plotting pages and forum games have both been hopping. The reply I get to my thread, from an admin, has altered the font down so that it's almost unreadable, and the damn post gives me one action and two words to respond to; the rest is all fluff. The more I look around the site, the less I am pleased to be there- the rules were changed after I joined, adding things like "don't use crappy graphics" and the like.

I know how I got myself into this- I ignored several little warning bells that should have sent me running for the hills- but now I don't know what to do. Do I stick it out since it's new, and things might get better, especially since I got myself into this mess in the first place? Do I stick around since it's turning out to be one of those sites that only lasts two months anyway? Or do I bail? I don't know what to do... x.x

Leave notice (ya, don't forget this part) and bail. Suffering in silence is a surefire way to kill your will to RP. It's not worth it and you shouldn't be punishing yourself for giving them a chance anyway.

Sounds like a bum site - I'd leave notice and hightail. You can always use that character again in a incarnation of herself for another site...

If you really really feel like it, then I'd say give it another week maybe? I don't know how big these warning bells were, so I can't say for certain if sticking it out would yield anything. However, newly opened sites tend to attract a lot of hullahbaloo and not-so-great-RPers before things drop off and 'ooh shiny!' people get bored and leave. Then maybe you might find a diamond in the rough or two.

But if it's really terrible and you can't stand it, yeah, I'd post notice and leave. RPing is supposed to be fun and easy, not like some kind of obligation. And RPing at a place one hates usually causes their own quality of RP to go down as well.

I hate those kind of sites as well. They are for me the exact opposite of the kinds I tend to like, expecially when the owner conveniently forgets to post a code box of their hyper-elaborate, eye hemorrhaging format, making all the characters' profiles look like something out of hell as they try to copy it. I prefer simple bolded, underlined, or italicized formats myself. Leave the pictures to the forum banner.

P.S. I also hate when people think a picture is a character description...seems to go hand in hand with this as people don't want to bother trying to write a decent paragraph in those messy formats. Write a paragraph outlining clothing and mental description, at least.

If you aren't enjoying it, there's no sense in staying. Really, we all share the goal of having a quality RPing experience that we can have fun with. If this site isn't giving you the experience that you want, you shouldn't waste your time. There are sites out there that will suit you better. I agree with everyone who has suggested that you write up a post to explain that you no longer wish to participate in the game and are leaving the site.

I'd be really sad as an admin if someone lost interest in my site (it happens), but I also wouldn't want someone sticking around if they weren't enjoying themself. I'm not running a site just to make myself look like a roleplaying goddess. If people didn't enjoy Meliora, I wouldn't keep putting so much effort into it. ;)

Bottom line- do what makes you happy.

I've decided to take everyone's advice- I sent the admin a pm explaining that I was leaving and why.

Thanks, everyone!

You did the right thing. Those boards are really annoying, unless you're a certain type of person. I applaud you. ^_^

A lesson in this! Don't settle for just checking out board info. Look at the threads--dip into the archives at random and read something, see if it's a game you want to get involved in.

That way you won't get anyone's hopes up by taking a canon characters and then leaving because you realise it's made of fail.

Always bail if a game is not to your liking, but do always tell them. It's only fair; you made the mistake, you got over-excited, so you should bite the bullet.

Unfortunately, there were no threads or archives to look at in this case- it was a brand new game.

I made a mistake like this just last week, however the forum wasn't knew but you had to sign up to look, usually a site I steer clear of but a friend as on it and told me it was good. I read the rules and it was so bizarre, to make sure you read it there were several links to go to read MORE rules. But I wasn't going to judge them for that, they obviously wanted to make sure people kept to standards. I was noticed by the members and after they greeted me in the cbox I felt obliged to introduce myself in turn and say hello back. They all seemed friendly enough...

I go to the app and there a three different types of history to fill out. History at Hogwarts, childhood history and your family history. There are several sections for personality. I have by this point lost interest but I figure. Heck, maybe the rpers good. I take a browse at a few of the applications and they seem somewhat decent. They were well written, clear and some were quite amusing in places. I start to think maybe I can bare to do there ridiculously long application and their staggering amount of codes, images and the number of 112x120 pics you had to post ((Alongside a description and the name of your celeb). I also thought I could handle the long winded names, most having two middle names.

I decide then to do the last of my exploring. I'm almost persuaded to stay on, the app is only a one time thing. I fill it out and never have to think about it again. Now, you'd thought after the trouble of making that stupid application, the many rules, links and several other important notices you HAD to read, that the admins would be able weed out such members as Miss _____ ______ _____ _____ Who's ancestors somehow seemed to have gone from being muggleborn in her application to the direct descendent of Godric Gryffindor. You'd also have thought that they'd have weeded out Lucas Eugene Scott (OTH character including the pb of Chad Michael Murray) you'd also have thought that they'd manage to make sure if they couldn't keep out the Mary Sue's and Gary Stu's all involved in Death Eater attacks which they single handedly survived. If they couldn't get rid of them surely they'd have manage to get rid of the people who post ONE WORD replies. Yeah. I'm serious! One reply was, "Yeah." In answer to someone asking him if he liked a certain sweet...

AH! I posted in the cbox that I was very sorry I couldn't join and left, ignoring their "Why join if you aren't going to apply?" the simple reason was... YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE PEOPLE LOG IN YOU IDIOTS. So I deleted the account and fled. lol

Anyway, you did the right thing getting out. That site sounded horrid.

I would love a one-liner site. I really must find one where I don't feel bad because those I'm posting with write heaps.

I could see the warning signs as you explained, stormy. Leaving was definitely the right thing to do. Things like silly applications and choosing names/PBs for 'canons' (IE pre-mades) are usually pretty good warnings of a shallow, poor quality site. Not always, but usually.