Something other than advertising has been bugging me lately.

Roleplayers seeking games.

Stop being lazy.

Stop flooding the Requesting RPG forum with WIDE open requests for 'almost anything' or, 'Anything advanced!' Wwhen you could put aside some time to actually look through the very handy Roleplay Directory.

That is what it is there for. The Requesting Roleplay forum is not a shortcut. Do you even look in the directory, or do you just look at the first page (if that) and insist there is absolutely nothing that will suit your tastes.

If you can't spare, say, an hour, to flick through roleplays, then you shouldn't be applying to play on one because they require a lot more time than an hour out of your life. Quit the fast-track bull, slow it down and actually look for something.

Let those people who are looking for something more specific stand a chance instead of being flooded out by lazy people. When I say specific by the way, I mean certain allowances you're struggling to find, or requests that aren't, 'anything, anything anything! butnothighschool.' Or worse, 'advanced, rated mature, active game, but everything else I will try!!' because all of those things, yes, all of those things are listed in the first few lines of every single game's directory listing. There's even a handy 'green for go' button next to every post for boards that are active.

I can understand why those things are in the form but for the love of God at least be specific enough to demonstrate that you've bothered to look in the directory.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

I kinda have a small rant about the Requesting RPG forum as well, and that is I see the same people requesting RPGs over and over again. I hate to say it, but many of those seem to declare themselves 'picky' somewhere in the title or post. I dunno about anyone else, but that just tells me they will probably up and leave, and isn't a player I want to advertise for. I've always thought a lot of people who put so many requirements in their looking for threads are the ones I could do without on my sites.

I keep seeing the same request, but from different people. Why not look at their thread, instead of making your own? Much less hassle and space taken up. Good for all!

But, yeah, the "anythings" take the trophy I think. If you'll wake anything, why not just start browsing everywhere? The Directory forum, advertisement forums, listings. It's really funny when they want "anything and everything" but then tell people that their site isn't what they are looking for. [giggle]

I love people. They're so crazy.

I use the RPG request board, but that's only because I have a specific idea of what I want, and most of the sites I've looked at in the directory have been dead or at least close to it, or have a member count that scares me.

I can understand, for others, why its annoying and at times, I do agree.

Ahahaha, I so agree Panda. I noticed that as well. I understand if there's something very specific someone is looking for that they can't find in the Directory that they already looked for, but gah! xD

I would add HP RPGs to the list. When people go, "ANYTHING HP!" it makes me headdesk because there's an entire section dedicated to nothing but HP RPGs! If you'll go for "ANYTHING HP!", then start looking THERE. *flails*

Ditto. I don't typically reply to those threads for that reason. xD;;

I think it's a really good idea for a forum, but I'll agree that in a lot of cases it's not being used right. You'd think the people saying "I want a fantasy RPG but one with vampires and werewolves" would look first. And as it was said about Harry Potter, not only is there an entire category for Harry Potter RPGs, they are all over the place.

I get annoyed by some of the replies, myself. Something about seeing the same ad in five threads in a row and the "Well our site doesn't have [insert part of listed criteria here] but will you look anyway?" comes off as irksome. I try to reply there whenever I can because my site really needs active members, but I've been having a harder time lately because nobody's into that kind of thing anymore. I'll admit I'm guilty of saying "Well my board isn't exactly the genre you said but I have a few places where you're more than welcome to try it."

Not to mention this isn't the only site out there with a directory of role-playing boards. Certainly you'd be able to find that one Twilight RPG that's just right by looking through, maybe, other Twilight RPGs and their affiliates and ad boards? Yeah, this is a big site, and there's a lot of listings, but the purpose of a directory is to list things for people to find by looking.

Don't even get me started on people who are "picky". I have no idea why they don't just make their own board if nobody else's is going to work.

Finally, someone speaks out! :D I was getting so annoyed about that. I think people need to stop being lazy - what Admin wants a lazy member (well, maybe a really desperate Admin)? I use the Directory all the time, and I've found some great sites in there. Sure, some are dead & inactive, but the Directory Checkers are working on that at the moment. Patience, my young padawan. Anywho, I would like to see people stop making so many HP & Twilight requests, because other people have already requested those so just check out those OR MAYBE YOU COULD DO THE OBVIOUS THING and look for yourself! (OMG, IT'S ROCKET SCIENCE! *dies*)

The forum is such a great idea, but it's being used in the wrong way, unfortunately.

I just hate it when people will request an RP and totally smash and rip up the RPs presented to them. It's never happened to me, but I've seen it and I find it insanely rude. It goes hand in hand with this wave of RP elitism. And it's even more amusing when it's passed off as constructive criticism. Sorry, while I understand wanting a more 'advanced' board with no one liners, I can't help but find it grotesque that you'd disrespect the admin that offered their board to you as in invite and all you do is question their member's writing abilities, or even down right say it's not up to your standards.

Again, while this might be a rare sighting, its infuriating to know end that people actually think their writing is just THAT much better than, say, 99% of the boards out there.

I'm annoyed by those who go "I want anything!" Then a group of lovely sites are presented and they answer "Except that. Or that. Or that. Or that. Anything else?"

I hate people who go in and are so stupidly picky about the sites that they get. They bitch and moan about the sites presented to them, but yet can't find anything.

And then they wonder why they can never find a game...xD

Couldn't be because their *~standards~* are ridiculous. Which is fine by me. I'm a laid back person with laid back games so I wouldn't really want a super high strung player that's gonna be critical about everything. P:

I also hate the criticisms. Unless someone posting their game specifically asks for feedback and a reason why their site was declined, It's unnecessary. It's the Requesting RPG section, nor a section for critique. xD But seriously, most of those critiques aren't asked for at all. And some of the ones I've seen are unnecessarily cruel. O_o

I scan through the requests and reply to the ones that look promising. That's it. After that, I don't bother looking at the thread again. I mean, why bother? If they're interested, they'll show up at my board and app. If they're not, they won't. I'm not going to change my board to suit them, so their reasons for not showing up are irrelevant to me.

Rhi-Rhi, love you for this post! I absolutely agree! HP requests are my biggest annoyance at the Request forum! Seriously! There is a whole section for it and if you browse the affiliates section you cannot avoid them! Browse the boards before making that darn request. There are soooo many HP boards that I do not understand why people wont just browse around a bit but post and expect people to come to them with their ads. I could throw a stone at any direction and hit 50 HP boards.

Yes, this is bile, but it doesn't just happen in the Request forum. People throw their unnecessary criticisms around like monkeys throwing faeces. I pray to God it'll go to the appropriate forum when we get a review section.

I do not mind people with precise requirements. That is why the forum is there. Regardless of how realistic those requirements are, the forum is there to help them narrow down their choices and find a game to play on. For example, you may want a high fantasy game that allows for a certain form of magic--voodoo--for example--and has accounts per player with no word minimums and a brief application form. The game may not state in the information that voodoo is allowed because it'sa minor strain of the game that they hadn't thought about yet.

That irritates me is when people give no indication of what they want beyond a wide open selection and then go, 'no...no...no...no...no...' and all the while refuse to update their original post with things the rejected games had or lacked that they don't want. By that, I don't mean a name and shame list of each forum and a list of why they won't join. I mean 6 people reply with games that are APP, word limits, huge applications and the OP says no to them all.

They should then update their original post to say, 'I'd prefer APC, no word limits, a brief application, if any at all.'

That is useful.

I don't care if you have high expectations. That's your problem as a player. What I care about is not being given more specific guidance as an admin posting her board for you and having you reject it despite it meeting your WIDE open requirements because you think I can read your mind.

Dumbass.

That was a huuuuuuuuuuge sentence.

Well, there were two caveats in my post: lots of requirements AND they post in that forum repeatedly. They shows me they are not just willing to have fun, but want a site to conform to their every expectation, and either 1) regularly leave sites immediately after joining, and 2) can't or won't start a site of their own that does meet their stringent requirements. Those players aren't worth inviting to a site, in my opinion.

Yeah, the requesting forum is definitely flawed in that people ask for too much or too little. What makes it even worse is that the people responding show them sites that have absolutely nothing to do with the request! I tried requesting something there once, and it phailed, miserably. Partly because I had a specific sort of site in mind, and partly because they didn't understand what I was asking for. (I realize now, that since I'd looked through the directory, and seen over a thousand sites while on advertising sprees, I really shouldn't have expected to see what I was looking for. *headdesk*)

I think another problem with it is supply and demand. There are soooo many cookie cutter sites out there, and so many people looking for that, that when someone posts a request looking for something in particular, their chances of finding it are slim to none. RPers are forced to either join a site they don't really like, and subsequently drop out of it when they're not happy there, or make their own and pray that it survives.

While advertising, I've run into some who blow my mind on each end of the spectrum and everywhere in between. I had one woman who (no kidding) bitched me out because I suggested (shock and awe!) that she might try joining a forum game when she'd advertised for IMs. Well, ok, it's true it's not what you advertised, but being bitchy when someone asks if you'd consider something else is not the way to go. "No thanks" works just fine. Other people say "Oooh, that site looks interesting! Why didn't you mention it before?!?!" when they hadn't advertised for anything at all like my site. So yeah, I can see both sides, but it often helps if you stretch your mind a bit.