I currently have APP because I think it works better for animal roleplays. There are no play-bys to use as avatars for animal accounts and I feel that APP builds a better sense of community.

Which did you choose for your board, and why? Do you feel that APC is more attractive to propective members? Would APP turn them off entirely?

I use both.

SotE/RotE use APP.

OW uses APC.

They both function inherently the same way, except APC uses more accounts. I still prefer APP for its simplicity, from an admin and member viewpoint, but find both enjoyable. My APP games have had no problems gaining members.

I personally prefer APC.

APP can be confusing if you're writing with a certain player who posts a lot but you're only interested in some of the characters they have.

Meh... My rationale is if you're paying attention to a roleplay thread that you're in anyway, you'll known which character they're using. And then you know who they are in OOC threads.

Exactly. xD

APC GAME!

APP GAME!

...They're really not that different. >__> And I should hope there's no confusion as to what character people are using in the APP game. xP

If you're paying attention, neither one should be confusing. Personally, I tend to remember what characters are in what thread just...automatically on both games. And on both, I remember who plays what character. *shrug*

That pretty much goes beyond saying.

But how about you wanting to read other threads that specific character appears in? Especially when it's not a main character we're discussing, it can get pretty annoying.

I dunno, I don't often have that desire. I do encourage people to use thread trackers though.

APC.

I despise APP. Personal preference really.

Oh dear. I hope I'm not turning away potential members because of that. :(

You likely will turn away a lot because of it, but you need to decide if that's what works best for your site.

Personally, I can do either one. I think I prefer APC better, but mostly I like hosting myself so I can put in subaccounts and have both. Having each account as a character kinda helps me visualize each character separately, plus, I don't always like letting everyone know who all of my characters are. There's a certain freedom in keeping them separate.

Hmm. Would you recommend instituting APC then? My board is still new enough that that's doable.

Also, how does this affect figuring out who all the characters belong to? Like, a member may post IC with any three of their character accounts and it may get confusing to figure out who's who...

I don't know what would work best. People on Proboards might be more willing to use APP, but I know there are a lot of people on RPGD who would avoid it. But with your genre, I'm not sure it will matter a whole lot anyway. Not being a fan of animal roleplays, I can't really say what people will do or not.

EDIT: The admin can always tell by IP addresses. Personally, I'm not a fan of requiring people to say what other accounts they have, but many sites do. I think that should be up to the player to choose if they want to be anonymous or not.

Ah well I meant like, people participating in the community, in contests, in the cbox, etc.

I've done both, and I don't really have a preference, especially for boards where you can't search for all posts by member. If you can search for all posts by member, APC becomes quite useful.

I prefer APC because that's what I'm used to. APP games confuse me a bit, but I usually only see them on animal RPGs.

ACK! Delete this please, I posted twice by accident. -_-

I kinda sorta hate APC unless they're linked to sub-accounts. It's so annoying. I know it's only one or two clicks away, but once you get used to just choosing from a drop-down menu, you get a little spoiled. So for me, I prefer APP unless there happens to be sub-accounts.

I'm with a lot of others on the APC thing. It's a personal preference.

I like a separation of IC and OoC.
I don't like to see weird numbered account names when I'm playing with a person.
While I won't forget who I'm playing with I get a better sense of character when I know which character posted it before I go back to the thread.

All of those are regardless of PBs or not. I just don't much care for a APP site. If I found a site I adored that was an APP would it turn me away? Unlikely although I'd probably only be making one character personally.

I have an animal RPG and I use APC.
It gives it a special touch I feel...you can really see the actions play out nicer on a glance.
Also, all the cannons on my game have PBs so it's pretty to see them all separate and their own.
I like the way it helps game flow...and keeps the board less confusing and cluttered looking.

Odd— I feel that APP makes the board less confusing and cluttered-looking.

I'm a big fan of APC, that's what I use on my current site, that's my preference.

HOWEVER

My old old site was APP, I've played on it, I don't mind it. Having APP would certainly not drive me away from a site at all. I'm well versed in APP. I just prefer APC

While it may seem neater most people prefer it to be APC because APC is neater to them. A lot of people link names to posters pretty well. I know that if I were on a site and I saw "Jack" post to everything but "Jack" has five characters I'm going to be like, "Which character did Jack post with?" I also think that finding posts by "members" is deceiving because you won't just find posts for Character 1 but Character 2, 3, 4 and 5. It would be obnoxious if you were only looking for a post from one character.

What it comes down to is that you should build your game whatever way you want to run it. If you prefer APP, run it that way. If you prefer APC, run it that way. If you try to make a game all things to all people, you'll just go insane. XD

I usually use per character because i found it confusing on a site with per player. Although I recently found a code that allows a person to create multiple templates, and i would suggest this for an APP site just because it will give the character name at the top of it.

I allow members to chose either one based on their personal preferences. The two groups are both made to list their previously-made characters in the OOC section of the character's profile, so finding out who plays who isn't hard. I don't care if it looks messy later on as long as people can go with their preference and enjoy the game.

Generally, though, I prefer APP because I associate avatars with names. On most forums, I hardly ever look at the username and usually identify them by their avatar. (Inefficient when they change avatars, I know, but I'm weird like that.)

I use APP on my site, simply because I think that it makes it a lot easier to reply. When I'm on the computer I forget which account I'm on, so I'd always accidentally post using the wrong account in an APC game, and that can get annoying. Although it is just a few clicks away, it seems like such a hassle. When it comes to looking for threads, It never really bothers me. An easy solution to people who have this difficulty is to put in each character's biography the threads that that specific character have been in. In Character, my group always says the characters name in each post at least once, it's not that hard to keep track of.

I don't really see a problem with APP sites, and although APC sites make the site look larger and therefor more attractive, people should be able to see through the pretty colors and realize that there is probably only a handful of actual people making those accounts. One of my old sites that had nearly 150 members had only 6 active people, and it died from being so chaotic and disorganized. I also must comment that being in a APP game I believe does give one a better sense of community and simplicity to a game that makes it that much more enjoyable.

Personal preference here, but APC is the way I go. You can put a place at the bottom of character bios where players can fill out what other characters they play. But I wouldn't make that required either. Some people like the anonymity. Some people like to immerse themselves in the community.

I also so find that people coming up with avatars and signatures for each character they play.

I'm an APC person. I like being able to personalise a signature and avvie for each character. I include a little tag in the signature of each of my characters 'Played by Sharpie' and in the signature of my OOC account I list the characters I play, which most other players do, too. I also have linked in the sidebar the list of who's who, which is which player has which character/s. There have been times when someone's posted with the wrong account, but it doesn't happen all that often, and with our particular board software and host, it's really easy to delete own posts and repost using the right account.

I haven't noticed that APC aversely affects OOC interactions, or the community feeling of the board as a whole.

i've personally decided to stick with APP for the sites i create. Why?

these are the things i hate about APC (for invisionfree, which most use, and zetaboards, which i use):
01: i find myself constantly signing in and out, switching accounts. that frustrates me... ESPECIALLY when my computer is running a little slower that usual.
02: maybe you guys are okay with it, but i have a lot of issues finding out who is who. and as a newer member, that makes me feel left out and newbish. if it's my site, i don't want my members to feel that way.
03: i get extremely confused about OOC interactions. which account do you PM when you have an issue? and what if that person doesn't jump onto that account for a while? and when posting in threads... it's still annoying to try and figure everyone out, because not everybody writes their names.
04: i have to make a huge fuss over my character's name before i can even register. i'm picky enough as it is, but unless i plan on nagging the admins (from a member perspective) i'm going to have to find something i live with before i even make an account.
05: having that many accounts is messy and can be very difficult to manage, from an admin perspective. somebody breaks the rules? you gotta track down every single account and change preferences, etc... no thank you.

these are some things i love about APP:
01: there's no question about who's who. unless, for some reason, they use different names in the cbox than their username. but then, at least, you only need to make ONE association.
02: there's only one point of contact. if a member comes online, it doesn't matter what thread they're in, what character they're playing, the like -- they'll get their PMs the next time they come on. no worrying about which account they'll be on.
03: sign in only once every visit. or even say, "remember me."
04: i can personalize myself AND my character. (there's no rule against images inside the post, is there? why do i have to have an avatar and signature represent my character?)
05: the member count more accurately represents activity. if you've got 50 members, and only 20 are really active, it's still closer than having 250 characters among those 50 people, 150 of those characters are from inactive members, and another 50 just are rarely used. it's just a mess.
06: post counts? for sites where this is an area of interest, the player can proudly accumulate all their posts in one place -- not among their characters.

if you think a little outside the box, it helps. for example, even WITHOUT doHTML, i can still have personalized posts for my characters. instead of using a permanent signature, i can copy and paste a different signature myself for each different character. there are thread trackers. not everybody uses them, but it can still be encouraged. sure, there's a few trade-offs for both. but unless you have sub-accounts (which aren't even a solution to every problem, anyway)

I agree, I think the telling which character is in which thread argument is poor. I just found a script for my board which allows members to easily make and save post templates to use.

I prefer APP myself. It's easier to me. I know who is who, and it's easier to keep track of my own account. LimeSkzzXx pretty much gave the right list in how I feel. :) Another thing is I don't have to worry about having a couple inactive characters. I also don't have to worry about how to deal with minor characters or NPCs.

I much prefer APC. You get to put each character in its own box, and for me that helps quite a lot when visualising and conceptualising that character. When I have a set of graphics made for that character, its own specific usergroup with a particular colour and a thread full of posts I find it a lot easier to write for a character. It's as if I'm now in "John mode" rather than "Liz mode", and I find that separating my characters into discrete entities is very helpful in keeping everything organised for me.

It's also easier to find all of the threads you've posted with that character or to find all the threads you've played in with another character. If you've been threading for a long time or you're posting with a prolific poster and it's APP, you're going to have to trawl through possibly hundreds of threads just to find the one you want. APC cuts that down drastically.

I was on APP board once and didn't like it. In my mind its confusing and messy looked from new member point of view. Sure you can give character name as subtitle in a post or use different color but it's just not the same. When there are more of your characters in a thread it just seems...odd to me to see either sudden switches or two or three colors each for different character in a single post.

APC is my preference. It's not a fuss to me to change accounts, after all I only have couple of characters I use per board. It gives the member more freedom to explore, maybe search threads of that character to get idea, be anonymous if he or she decides it and personilize their character with details [signature, avatar] without a clutter in posts or tamplets.

That's however just my personal opinion. I haven't seen many PB sites use APP though I know it can work well in an animal roleplay. Anycase, don't worry. Can't please the world so just choose what you're comfortable with.

APC!

The mystery behind who plays who is always alluring to me. I love that I can play one character, then play another, and people have no idea I play both. Not only do I play characters differently, I write differently, not just font or color, but everything. It's just fun. I believe.