Insanejournal Role-Play Guide

InsaneJournal

What are the pros and cons of role-playing on the blogging service, InsaneJournal?

Firstly, as a long-time user of InsaneJournal, the appeal is the Terms of Service. InsaneJournal allows members to post adult content, so long as their users are of age, and that they do not break their country's laws. The majority of the IJ community are adults; well above 18 years-old, and thus, such a community love to play in franchises whose target audience are adults. In other cases, players are naturally free to alter a fandom, so as to include adult scenarios: dark subjects, gore, violence, profanity, substance abuse, kinks, taboo subjects and the like. There are on occasion games that are R-rated, or in other words, NC-17: where smut is the point of the game.

For the most part, IJ is the place to go if one wants to play in a RP sandbox, on a server that does not prohibit adult content. This often covers profanity, strong violence, domestics, substance abuse, graphic detail, sexual content and others. However, do not think that the Insanejournal RP community is catered only to the 'PWP role-players, or that the IJ crowd are a bunch of raunchy, perverted individuals.

The term adult content does not just define sexual themes. There are, in fact, communities geared for certain themes, genres and user-content/story lines, but it is easy to find ads and new partners who share your interests.

As it is described on the site's index page, fringe-work is accepted: fanfiction, role-play, fan-art. InsaneJournal staff do not self-police their site: they will only take down user content if they are alerted to it, by the respective copyright owners.

Users are instructed to post 'adult content' under a members-only security setting, but not many players do it. Alternatively, some users simply hide such content under an LJ-Cut, which is an embedded tag that hides an entire entry (or a selected portion) behind a fake URL/tag-line. Clicking on it expands the entry.

As for the cons? The server has its good days and its bad days, when user-icons do not load, or the Captcha spambot system fails and does not allow users to create a new journal- but this is not an everyday occurrence. It does not prove to be such a hindrance, so that RPing is impossible. This is not the case.

Where do you start?

Of course, you begin by clicking on...

Create an Account: Think of a username, which can be made up of letters, numbers and underscores ' _ ', to a maximum of 15 characters. Next, choose if you want to friend any of the new-user asylums. You'll need a valid e-mail address in order to activate your account; fill in your birthdate; your password; fill in the Captcha correctly, agree to the site's ToS, and click on Create Journal!

The first steps to take after successfully creating an account, are the following:

Edit Profile: This step is provided to you straight away after creating an account. Here, you change your Display Name, Age, Default Icon, Interests, About Me, Website URL, Messenger screen names, Hide/Display e-mail address, your school(s), your Location (country, state).

All of that only takes 10 minutes or so, across two pages.

Usually, the only areas you will ever use on InsaneJournal are these: Manage Account, Edit Profile, Manage Pictures, Edit Friends & Custom Friend Groups. Manage Asylums, Post (entry), Comment Settings.

Navigation: The sidebar

The following list describes what all those nifty links do, in the side-bar.

View
My Writings
View your journal's latest entries.

My Diagnosis
View your user-info page.

My Friends
View your friends' recent entries.

My Archive
This takes you to your calendar.

My Memories
View and manage your colletion of Memories. At the top of the page for each thread across InsaneJournal, there is a row of buttons: Add as Friend, Edit Entry, Edit Tags, Add to Memories, Tell a Friend, Track This, Next/Previous Entry.
When you add a thread to your Memories, it acts as a bookmark; you can allow other users to view what threads you have favourited, or you can hide your Memories to everyone but yourself.

Notifications (#)
This is where you can view your recent, site-wide updates, according to what options you have enabled/disabled. This concerns New Comments, asylum invites, new friends, new icon uploads, site announcements, et cetera. The number of notifications you have are displayed in the brackets.

Private Messages
The on-site private message system. You can view your Inbox and your Trash, delete received messages and write new ones. You cannot view sent messages; you can only do this, when your partner has replied to your private message.

Journal
Post:
Start a thread; choose from a drop-down menu where your entry is posted to, i.e your own account, or to an asylum that you have joined. Journal entries work the same way as they do on forums, although free account users cannot modify their posted comments.

Edit Entries:
Edit your entries in your own account, and in asylums that you have posted to.

Customize Journal:
Change the appearance of your journal, and/or your asylum(s).

Click the following to view screencaps of the Customize Journal pages!

Customize Journal: Journal Style

Customize Journal: Look and Feel

Customize Journal: Custom

Comment Settings: Control who can comment on your threads all over IJ. The security settings are as follows:

Public : Allow both registered and (unregistered) anonymous guests
Registered Users Only : speaks for itself
Friends Only.

Click to view the Comment Security settings

Here, you choose wheter to log the IP addresses of users who comment on your threads, as well as reviewing a list of users you have blocked. Blocking users is done on an entirely different page.

Recent Comments:
Track your recent activity across the site, to a maximum of 50 recent comments. Comments are listed with an approximate time-stamp, i.e Posted 5 weeks ago.

Manage Tags:
Add, rename or delete your Tags, and review a list of what entries use which tag(s). Here, you can change who has access to your Tags; allow your friends to add or delete them, for instance, or restrict it to yourself.

Account
Manage Account: This page collects all the necessary links that are vital to controlling your account. Change your e-mail address validation, your password, your Mood Theme, your Schools, your Account Status, your user-info profile, etc.

Click this to view a screenshot of the Manage Account page

Viewing Options:
Change how IJ appears: the site's scheme. The best ones are any theme with a 'side-bar', in addition to Worksafe, and Lynx: Text Only. IJ's primary scheme uses such a theme, which provides access to all the vital links that an RPer uses.

Warning: Big picture ahead!

Click to view side-by-side previews of the various website themes.

Manage Profile:
Change the details that are displayed on your user-info page: display name (not your account's name), gender; hide/display your birthdate, schools, e-mail address, instant messenger screen names. You can choose to display Mutual Friends- users who have added your account to their friends-list, and vice versa; you can also display the names of users who have friended you, but you have not friended them back.

The Interests field box works like Tags, but they are very rarely used. The About Me field box is used for miniature profiles, game links, a game portal, affiliate banners, layout credit links, et cetera.

Manage Notifications:
Change how IJ alerts you for thread replies, asylum invitations, new friends, new user icon uploads, and others.

Some notifications are restricted to Paid Account users. Notifications may be sent as an e-mail message, or as a site-based message, in your account's inbox..Notifications do not work half the time; some may get sent a day late, some do not get sent at all.

At the present time, Private Messages do not have an e-mail alert available. That said, admins expect their members to log in regularly, and to check on threads they are engaged in. It is never a good idea, at any game, to rely solely on e-mail notifications.

Manage Pictures: Free account users have 100 free icon slots; icons are 100 x 100 pixels, and 100kb in file size, max. You can pay for additional user icon slots, if needed, but 100 is more than enough.

Click this to view a screenshot of the Manage Pictures page

Manage Schools: These are not used in games.

Account Status: Delete your account and or your asylums. Users have 30 days to reactivate their account from the time of deactivation, if they change their mind and want to keep their account. Once deleted, an account cannot be recovered.

Friends
Edit Friends: Add or remove a user from your friends-list. You cannot read or otherwise engage in another user's journal, if their journal is set to friends-only; or has individual entries that are flagged as Friends-Only.

Click to view a screenshot of the Edit Custom Friend Groups page

Edit Custom Groups:
Manage groups of friends, whom you want to give access to certain threads in your own account. Custom Friend Groups are not allowed for asylums. Asylum maintainers may only use the Public or Members-Only security setting. You can drag 'n' drop users in your friend-list to certain groups, and you must flag the group(s) as Public or Private, and save your settings afterwards.

Every time you start a new thread, or you wish to edit an old entry, you may change the Security Setting for the entry in question: change it to Friends-Only, change it to Private, change it to Public, and so on. You cannot mass-select entries and change the security.

A note on security settings: If you go to the Admin Console page, (you must be logged in) you can set a command so that all future threads in your asylum or your journal are marked as Public, or Friends/Members-only. This is handy, and saves time on having to change the security setting each time you start a new thread.
Click to view a screencap of the Admin Console reference page.

Friends Filter:
Choose which of your friend (groups) are displayed on your friends-list, publicly.

Nudge Friends:
If you are a Mutual Friend with another user and you have not heard from them in a while, you can Nudge them: this sends them a system message, detailing that their friend (you) has not heard from them, and could they please log in and post.

Invite: Send a invitation code to someone's e-mail address.

Create RSS Feed: Speaks for itself!

Asylums
Post: A short-cut link for the default Post link that's at the top of the webpage. The default link is easier to use, as it's, well, at the top of the page. This asylum post button is at the bottom of the webpage.

Asylum Invitations: Manage invitations that you have received from a maintainer, and approve or deny them.

Manage Asylums:
For asylum maintainers and moderators only, however this page is still accessible to users who do not own an asylum. Here, you control who's a member, who's a maintainer, who has permission to post, if members need approval before they can become a member, if new threads need approval, etc. A maintainer controls the core settings of the asylum, and all moderators has minor control over the asylum.

Maintainers can block users from their asylums; they may be alerted to new posts added to the queue, new membership requests, and so forth.

Asylums can be set as public; anyone can join and post to the asylum, without the maintainer's approval. Users do not need even need to join in order to post to the asylum, if the maintainer wishes.

Create Asylum:
This is the same process as the Create an Account page; except, of course, this is for an asylum- not a user account.

Site
Support: Submit a support ticket for any trouble you may have with the site.

Upgrade Account: Pay with Paypal or another means, and upgrade your account; or, send a gift token to another user. You can donate to the site, you can purchase a rename token for yourself or another user- an anonymous gift token is available. Extra User-Pics, Permanently Insane Accounts (permanent accounts), # icons for # of months, Paid Account Privileges for X time, etc.

FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions!

Search By Location: Search for other users in X city, state.

Search By Interest: Search for people who share your interests.

Posting an entry
Via the Post shortcut, usually at the top of the page (buttons change position according to which site theme you are using). When you have finished writing your entry, you can choose from different settings in multiple drop-down menus. You can use Rich Text mode, or use the raw HTML tab.

Regular web HTML is used. I.E <b*> bold</b*>, <i*>italic</i*>, <* href="url">text</url>, et cetera, minus the *'s.

Most games follow a standard posting format, and are always provided in the game's Rules. For example:

WHO:
WHERE:
WHEN:
RATING:
STATUS:

The thread comment settings are:

Allow Comments? : Click either Default, Disabled. Don't e-email. (Notifications)
Comment Screening: Choose which comments are screened, or in other words, hidden from public view: Journal default, Disabled, Anonymous Only, Non-Friends, All Comments.
Show this Entry to: Everyone (public), Friends-Only/Members-Only, Just Me (private), and Custom.

Click to view a screenshot of the Post Entry page, with the Rich Text bar

Click this to view a screenshot of the Show this Entry To... security choices

Finding Asylums

Asylums are communities, and user accounts are called patients. Not many people use 'patients', but 'asylum' is regularly used. InsaneJournal used to have a feature on the index page that listed the latest updated asylums, in a side-bar table. It was easiest to find asylums this way, but since its removal, users are left to search via Interests and by clicking on affiliates that are posted in an account's user-info.

The best place to start is RP_tutorials. This community collects everything you'll need to manage a game, to use for your own accounts, and to seek answers and feedback. This includes user-info tables, journal layouts, unique application forms, music player embellishments, templates and so on! Everything you need to set up a character profile, a journal, a layout, a community.

A very popular user, Lobelia, has coded journal and community layouts for people to use, for free. She provides simple 'n' short instructions for installing her layouts, which merely involves copy/pasting the CSS code into the Customize Journal > Advanced tab in your journal, and following her additional instructions. If you are good at making graphics, or know someone who does, you can change the look of your journal or asylum by just by replacing the graphics with your own. For instance, some layouts replicate a tabletop, a leather journal.

Everything is sorted by tags, I.E layouts: journal, layouts: media, images: forms, images: hosting, html, layouts: cdj. A collection of user-info tables and advertisements can be found at the Layout Directory page, in a simple thumbnail list.

There are many helpful communities that are linked in the RP_tutorial's user-info, but there are very little RP communities listed there- if you are looking for a game, this asylum is not the place to look for them.

Abbreviations & Slang
PSL - private story line. A roleplay that's between two people in a members-only asylum, or even between journals- no asylum needed! More and more players are taking PSLs to instant messengers, i.e AIM, so a PSL is no longer a threading-only roleplay.
1x1 - See above.
GPSL - a group private storyline, or a private group RP. Membership is usually 5-10 players, in a members-only asylum.
Slash - everyone's idea of what 'slash' means, differs. It often means homosexual relationships; it can also mean non-canon sexualities; gay, bi, etc.
Femmeslash - non-canon sexualities of the female persuasion.
Fluff - Plotless RP that doesn't go anywhere, often done just for fun, without having to worry about in-game technicalities.
PWP: Plot, what plot? Smut-orientated storyline.
Casual - Anything-goes, nothing is set in stone, it's just a relaxing, slice-of-life RP.
Freeform - You do not follow the staff's premise/plots; players develop their characters in their own storylines and plots.
Shipping - Playing a OTP, your crush, your fave couple. It is bad form to do this in a community, because a community is not to be used as a PSL. It defeats the purpose of playing in a community, if you are only going to play with your special partner/castmate.
Smut - This can be used to mean two entirely different things; PWP, and general 'naughty content'.
Custom - If you find someone asking"Want me to set up a custom?", it means a friends-locked thread in a user's CDJ, to talk in private.
Fandom-only - Fandom-only RP.
OCs - Original Characters, original worlds/storylines.
Dub-con, non-con, and other kinks/fetishes: Be warned. When someone says 'trigger-worthy', it ususally means what they are looking for/are interested in taboo kinks. It can range from vanilla BDSM, to rough sex, to out-right 'squick' material. It is recommended to be very clear in what you like and do not like, when it comes to sexual material, and explained in your CDJ. It does not matter whether you write FTB or play out the scenes in full, you should still make it clear what you are comfortable writing.

FTB - Fade to black, the player does not write sexual scenes.
PBs, play-bys- Celebrity face-claims, in addition to individuals who are not well-known; band members, singers, models. Some games are quite demanding and require members to have 10 different icons, # different emotes; use different icons for each RP tag, and so forth.
Short-term, long-term - as implied, these terms refer to the time-frame of a storyline. That is, how long the player(s) wishes to write the RP. There is no definite time-frame for either of these labels; long-term chould mean a few months, a few years; short-term could mean a couple weeks, a week, one night. For the latter, one-night stand is more accurate, although it is not considered polite, and has smutty undertones.

AIM - Having an RPer's AIM sn on your contact list is no guarantee they will hang around to actually role-play. They will flake as soon as they feel like it, as they do with journal accounts. A lot of people regularly SN hop between screen names: to avoid people, to start a new RP career, to avoid drama, to spread drama.

Anons - anonymous users. People who feel compelled to criticize another user's game or thread (with good intentions or not), but they want to hide behind an anonymous label. They are considered cowards, and most people refuse to talk to anons. If you want to speak your mind, say so with your journal. Do not hide as a guest, never to be traced to an individual user.

Journal hopping, sockpuppets - People who abandon their journal and move to a new journal, without telling their RP partners. They may keep a few partners, and naturally, this is a key trademark of a flaker. They ditch their journal, and move to another one in their collection. Sockpuppets are cowards, to put it nicely.

Flakers - People who disappear and never come back; if someone responds to your ad, or you comment on someone else's ad, do not get your hopes up.
People flake or disappear because they found something shiny; they flake because they legitimately forget about their RP; they flake because they got cold feet; they flake because they realize that they are juggling too many characters; they flake 'just because'. It is also common for people to never read your ad properly in the first place.

For instance, you are looking for Snarry RP. A person replies to your ad, and asks if you write Harry/Draco.

Character journal - your character's account, what you use to join a game, of course. Some people like to recycle their accounts and reuse them for a new character at a new game. Others prefer to create new journals for new characters, this is usually because character journal names are made up of character quotes or descriptions that cannot be passed off to a new character.I.E fandom-specific terms, quotes, descriptions, inside-jokes, slang.

CDJ - a character development journal. A journal that is used to host your role-play profile; preferences, likes, dislikes, want ads/requests, kinks, smut vs FTB, writing style, format (journals, AIM, Googledocs, e-mails). CDJs also serve to host your current memberships; links and/or mini-profile pics of your active characters, past characters, retired characters, characters/games on hiatus, etc.

There is no right or wrong way to set up your CDJ.

You can do whatever you want with it, when it comes to layout, embellishments, graphics, coding, # of entries, RP samples, public character profiles, active/past memberships. CDJs are often controversial, in the sense that a lot of people make it known that they are not impressed if another user merely has a profile, uses a table to sort their active characters, and so forth. Do not be discouraged by these players; if they do not wish to talk to you because of how you present your CDJ, it is not your loss.

Drop box - A pinned entry in your CDJ, this is where other users can contact you directly, whether it be an interest-check for one of your listed fandoms or open storylines, or just a way to see if you're still interested in the RP. You can only 'pin' a journal entry in your own account, by changing the date to an out-of-order date. I.E The date is changed to February 24th, 2030. Thus, any new entries you post will be 'behind' the 2030 entry.

If someone does not respond on their character account at a game, you can usually find them at their CDJ: a home-base, of sorts. CDJs are used for working out the details of an RP, musing and plotting before anyone creates their character journals and asylums.

Threading means that the player is interested in RPs that take place through journals and asylums: no AIM logs, no e-mails, etc. Some players only use IJ as an advertising community to look for RP- and so they only role-play over AIM messenger, MSN, e-mail, what have you.

Mods - Mods is a blanket term for all staff members. There is no administrator, maintainer, global-moderator label. Staff accounts are often named gamename_mods. Everything essential for the game is archived in this account, which includes Rules, Reserve a Character, Cast, Wanted Characters, FAQ, Contact Us/Dropbox, et cetera.

Add-Ons

Every now and then, public games go through a fad of 'add-ons'. This is my way of labelling it, to ease confusion; 'add-on' is not the term used amongst IJers, universally. Add-ons are additional asylums that serve little purpose to the game, and often are just for the members to waste time in, in between IC posts- they are also just a way to expand the game by separating 'areas' into extra communities. The forum equivalent are the categories and sub-boards; OOC, Absences, OOC Games, Artwork, Graphics, Intros.

Many games use a 'letter' system, and it changes according to the game's setting. E-mails, owl post, txt messages, letters. What this is, is that each character has their own diary/blog/cellphone/whathaveyou, and send each other messages. This is either done in a letters asylum, or to each individual character journal. Some games require that players post X threads each month- in addition to 'letters' or blog entries, in the character journal itself, which other characters comment on and generally respond to.

These asylums take up space, and distract from the main community ( the threading community itself).

crack - silly/gag content
logs - where users post their AIM logs/threads-
meme - 'nuff said
intros - OOC introductions, mostly
letters - often found in Potter games, aka owl post
texts - SMS, text messages to individual characters
emails - Clear enough
threads - A necessary asylum: the default method of roleplay. RPing through the community, via threads.

The only asylums that are essential to any game, is the IC asylum and the OOC asylum, aka OOC and threads. IC asylums are often registered with the game's name, OOC asylums differ; some are abbreviations of the game's name, others are simply gamename_OOC.

RP threads are posted to the IC asylum, often called by game_name, occasionally by gamename_threads, and everything OOC-related is posted to the OOC asylym; these are hiatuses/absence notices, returns, dropping characters, graphics, crack, introductions, plotting/musing.

Useful Asylums

It is considered bad form to post your RP request to multiple communities within a short time frame; basically, if you see the same character or story line ad in just about every community? It's spam. That said, it is acceptable to post to around four or so, in one day. It is not acceptable to post your ad, in every community that you can find, multiple times a week, so that your entry is always visible on the community's front page. Everyone x-posts their ads to multiple asylums, but it is better to cycle through asylums, rather than posting at ALL the communities in one go.

The popular asylums to join are the following ones. Be aware of the IJ slang and abbreviations, and take note of each community's rules- which are always posted in the user-info. Some communities only allow one ad per game a week, or once a day; some require a form, and others are anything-goes!

fandom_psls - for all fandom-based RPs.
darkersls - for RPs that revolve around dark themes.
find_a_writer - a general ad community for finding partners, castmates.
find_players
find_a_partner
pslads
storyline
comic_ads - comic-book based RPs
marvel_this
privatelines
checkthejournal - Let everyone know that you have recently updated your ads and requests within your CDJ, aka "read my journal, please and thank you!"
character_rpg
homelessplayers
privatelines
slashsls - slash-orientated RP requests.
wanna_psl
illustratedpsls - for RPs that are based on animated/illustrated fandoms, I.E cartoons, video games, anime & manga.

For general community advertisements, i.e public games, there are these:
wanna_rp
wannarp
fantasy_rpgs
ijrpg_games
oldschoolrp
multi_fandom
insane_games
darkerrpgads
oc_rpgs - Original character games.
oc_friendly_rpg - games that allow Original Characters
anythingbuthp - games that are not based exclusively in the Harry Potter world.
fluff - casual RP requests.
rpgondemand

Joining Asylums

On the asylum's user-info page there is a button that allows you to join. If the asylum is membership-by-approval, the site will tell you so, when you attempt to join. If you want to leave an asylum, there is also a link provided here, alongside the Join button.

As for etiquette, it is exceptionally rude to freeze a thread, to delete comments, to hide/screen a comment that you feel is drama-bait, and to flat-out ignore someone who has taken the time to respond to your ad. If you are not interested, you merely say so, and decline politely. Despite that, it is common practice to screen comments in your own journal's Drop Box; comments that you have already read and have replied to. This concerns threads in which you are figuring out a storyline with another user, and this is for privacy reasons. When you screen a comment, only you can access it; read it, unscreen it, delete it.

....And that is all there is to it! If you have any questions, you should seek help at the aforementioned RP_tutorials.

InsaneJournal User-Guide written by Archaic Cyborg of RPG-Directory!

Code: Select

[center][size=6][b]InsaneJournal[/b][/size][/center]
 
What are the pros and cons of role-playing on the blogging service,[i] InsaneJournal[/i]?
 
Firstly, as a long-time user of InsaneJournal, the appeal is the [i]Terms of Service[/i]. InsaneJournal allows members to post adult content, so long as their users are of age, and that they do not break their country's laws. The majority of the IJ community are adults; well above 18 years-old, and thus, such a community love to play in franchises whose target audience are adults. In other cases, players are naturally free to alter a fandom,  so as to include adult scenarios; dark subjects, gore, violence, profanity, substance abuse,  kinks, taboo subjects and the like. There are on occasion games that are R-rated, or in oher wirds, NC-17: where smut is the [i]point of the game.[/i]
 
For the most part, IJ is the place to go if one wants to play in a RP sandbox, on a server that does not prohibit adult content. This often covers profanity, strong violence, domestics, substance abuse, graphic detail, sexual content and others. However, do not think that the Insanejournal RP community is catered only to the 'PWP role-players, or that the IJ crowd are a bunch of raunchy, perverted individuals.
 
The term [i]adult content [/i] does not just define [i]sexual themes.[/i] There are, in fact, communities geared for certain themes, genres and user-content/storylines, but it is easy to find ads and new partners who share your interests.
 
As it is described on the site's index page,[b] fringe-work is accepted[/b]: fanfiction, role-play, fan-art. InsaneJournal staff do not self-police their site; they will only take down user content if they are alerted to it, by the respective copyright owners.
 
Users are instructed to post 'adult content' under a members-only security setting, but not many players do it. Alternatively, some users simply hide such content under an LJ-Cut, which is an embedded tag that hides an entire entry (or a selected portion) behind a fake URL/tag-line. Clicking on it expands the entry.
 
As for the cons? The server has its good days and its bad days, when user-icons do not load, or the Captcha spambot system fails and does not allow users to create a new journal- but this is not an everyday occurrence. It does not prove to be such a hindrance, so that RPing is impossible. This is not the case.
 
[center][size=6][b]Where do you start?[/b][/size][/center]
 
Of course, you begin by clicking on...
 
[b]Create an Account:[/b]  Think of a user name, which can be made up of letters, numbers and underscores ' _ ', to a maximum of 15 characters. Next, choose if you want to [i]friend [/i]any of the new-user asylyms. You'll need a valid e-mail address in order to activate your account; fill in your birthdate; your password; fill in the Captcha correctly, agree to the site's ToS, and click on[i] Create Journal![/i]
 
The first steps to take after successfully creating an account, are the following:
 
[b]Edit Profile[/b]: This step is provided to you straight away after creating an account. Here, you change your [i]Display Name, Age, Default Icon, Interests, About Me, Website URL, Messenger screen names, Hide/Display e-mail address, your school(s), your Location (country, state[/i]).
 
All of [i]that [/i]only takes 10 minutes or so, across two pages.
 
Usually, the only areas you will ever use on InsaneJournal are these: [i]Manage Account, Edit Profile, Manage Pictures, Edit Friends & Custom Friend Groups. Manage Asylums, Post (entry), Comment Settings.[/i]
 
[center][size=6][b]Navigation: The sidebar[/b][/size][/center]
 
The following list describes what all those nifty links do, in the side-bar.
 
[size=5][b]View[/b][/size]
[b]My Writings[/b]
View your journal's latest entries.
 
[b]My Diagnosis[/b]
View your user-info page.
 
[b]My Friends[/b]
View your friends' recent entries.
 
[b]My Archive[/b]
This takes you to your calendar.
 
[b]My Memories[/b]
View and manage your colletion of Memories. At the top of the page for each thread across InsaneJournal, there is a row of buttons: [i]Add as Friend, Edit Entry, Edit Tags, Add to Memories, Tell a Friend, Track This, Next/Previous Entry.[/i]
When you add a thread to your Memories, it acts as a bookmark; you can allow other users to view what threads you have favourited, or  you can hide your Memories  to everyone but yourself.
 
[b]Notifications (#)[/b]
This is where you can view your recent, site-wide updates, according to what options you have enabled/disabled. This concerns New Comments, asylum invites, new friends, new icon uploads, site announcements, et cetera. The number of notifications you have are displaed in the brackets, of course.
 
[b]Private Messages[/b]
The on-site private message system; here, you can view your Inbox and your Trash, delete received messages and write new ones. You cannot view sent messages; you can only do this, when your partner has replied to your private message.
 
[size=5][b]Journal[/b][/size]
[b]Post:[/b]
Start a thread; choose from a drop-down menu where your entry is posted to, i.e your own account, or to an asylum that you have joined. Journal entries  work the same way as they do on forums, although [i]free account [/i]users cannot modify their [i]posted comments.[/i]
 
[b]Edit Entries[/b]:
Edit your entries in your own account, and in asylums that you have posted to.
 
[b]Customize Journal[/b]:
Change the appearance of your journal, and/or your asylum(s).[center][i]Click the following to view screencaps of the Customize Journal pages![/i][/center]
 
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_RIder_CustomizeJournal.jpg"]Customize Journal: [b]Journal Style[/b][/url][/center]
 
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_RIder_CustomizeJournal_LookFeel.jpg"]Customize Journal: [b]Look and Feel[/b][/url][/center]
 
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_Rider_CustomizeJournal_Two.jpg"]Customize Journal: [b]Custom[/b][/url][/center]
 
 
[b]Comment Settings[/b]: Control who can comment on your threads all over IJ. The security settings are as follows:
[b]Public[/b] : Allow both registered and (unregistered) anonymous guests
[b]Registered Users Only [/b]: speaks for itself
[b]Friends Only.[/b][center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_Rider_CommentSecurity.jpg"]Click to view the Comment Security settings[/url][/center]
 
Here, you choose wheter to log the IP addresses of users who comment on your threads, as well as reviewing a list of users you have blocked. Blocking users is done on an entirely different page.
 
[b]Recent Comments[/b]:
Track your recent activity across the site, to a maximum of 50 recent comments. Comments are listed with an approximate time-stamp, i.e  [i]Posted 5 weeks ago.[/i]
 
[b]Manage Tags[/b]:
Add, rename or delete your Tags, and review a list of what entries use which tag(s). Here, you can change [i]who [/i]has access to your Tags; allow your friends to add or delete them, for instance, or restrict it to yourself.
 
[size=5][b]Account[/b][/size]
[b]Manage Account[/b]: This page collects all the necessary links that are vital to controlling your account. Change your e-mail address validation, your password, your Mood Theme, your Schools, your Account Status, your user-info profile, etc.[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Archaic-Cyborg-Manage-Account.gif"][i]Click this to view a screenshot of the Manage Account page[/i][/url][/center]
 
[b]Viewing Options[/b]:
Change how IJ appears: the site's scheme. The best ones are any theme with a 'side-bar', in addition to Worksafe, and Lynx: Text Only. IJ's primary scheme uses such a theme, which provides access to all the vital links that an IJer frequently uses.[center][b]Warning: Big picture ahead![/b][/center]
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_Rider_Site-Schemes.jpg"][i]Click to view side-by-side previews of the various website themes.[/i][/url][/center]
 
[b]Manage Profile[/b]:
Change the details that are displayed on your user-info page: your display name, your gender; hide/display your birthdate, schools, e-mail address, instant messenger screen names. You can choose to display Mutual Friends- users who have added your account to their friends-list, and vice versa; you can also display the names of users who have friended you, but you [i]have not[/i] friended them back.
 
The [i]Interests[/i] field box works like Tags, but they are very rarely used. The [i]About Me [/i]field box is used for miniature profiles, game links, a game portal, affiliate banners, layout credit links, et cetera.
 
[b]Manage Notifications[/b]:
Change how IJ alerts you for thread replies, asylum invitations, new friends, new user icon uploads, and others.
 
Some notifications are restricted to [i]Paid Account users[/i]. Notifications may be sent as an e-mail message, or as a site-based message, in your account's inbox..Notifications do not work half the time; some may get sent a day late, some do not get sent at all. At the present time, Private Messages do not have an e-mail alert available. That said, admins expect their members to log in regularly, and to check on threads they are engaged in. It is never a good idea, at any game, to rely solely on e-mail notifications.
 
[b]Manage Pictures[/b]: Free account users have 100 free icon slots; icons are 100 x 100 pixels, and 100kb in file size, max. You can pay for additional user icon slots, if needed, but 100 is more than enough.[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/IJ_ArchaicCyborg_ManagePics.gif"][i]Click this to view a screenshot of the Manage Pictures page[/i][/url][/center]
 
[b]Manage Schools[/b]: These are not used in games.
 
[b]Account Status[/b]: Delete your account and or your asylums. Users have 30 days to reactivate their account from the time of deactivation, if they change their mind and want to keep their account. Once deleted, an account cannot be recovered.
 
[size=5][b]Friends[/b][/size]
[b]Edit Friends[/b]: Add or remove a user from your friends-list. You cannot read or otherwise engage in another user's journal, if their journal is set to friends-only, or has individual entries that are flagged as Friends-Only.
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Archaic-Cyborg-Friends.gif"][i]Click to view a screenshot of the Edit Custom Friend Groups page[/i][/url][/center]
 
 
 
 
[b]Edit Custom Groups[/b]: Manage groups of friends, whom you want to give access to certain threads in your own account. [i]Custom Friend Groups are not allowed for asylums.[/i] Asylum maintainers may only use the Public or Members-Only security setting. You can drag 'n' drop users in your friend-list to certain groups, and you must flag the group(s) as Public or Private, and save your settings afterwards. Every time you start a new thread, or you wish to edit an old entry,  you may change the Security Setting for the entry in question: change it to Friends-Only, change it to Private, change it to Public, and so on. You cannot mass-select entries and change the security.
 
[b]A note on security settings:[/b] If you go to the [url="http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console/index.bml"]Admin Console[/url] page, (you must be logged in) you can set a command so that all future threads in your asylum or your journal are marked as Public, or Friends/Members-only. This is handy, and saves time on having to change the security setting each time you start a new thread.
 
[url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Dagron%20Rider%20Documentations/Dagron_Rider_AdminConsole.jpg"][i]Click to view a screencap of the Admin Console reference page.[/i][/url]
 
[b]Friends Filter[/b]:
Choose which of your friend (groups) are displayed on your friends-list, publicly.
 
[b]Nudge Friends[/b]:
If you are a Mutual Friend with another user and you have not heard from them in a while, you can Nudge them: this sends them a system message, detailing that their friend (you) has not heard from them, and could they please log in and post.
 
[b]Invite[/b]: Send a invitation code to someone's e-mail address.
 
[b]Create RSS Feed[/b]: Speaks for itself!
 
[size=5][b]Asylums[/b][/size]
[b]Post[/b]: A short-cut link for the default Post link that's at the top of the webpage. The default link is easier to use, as it's, well, at the top of the page. This asylum post button is at the bottom of the webpage.
 
[b]Asylum Invitations[/b]: Manage invitations that you have received from a maintainer, and approve or deny them.
 
[b]Manage Asylums[/b]:
For asylum maintainers and moderators only, however this page is still accessible to users who do not own an asylum. Here, you control who's a member, who's a maintainer, who has permission to post, if members need approval before they can become a member, if new threads need approval, etc. A maintainer controls the core settings of the asylum, and all moderators has minor control over the asylum.
 
Maintainers can block users from their asylums; they may be alerted to new posts added to the queue, new membership requests, and so forth.
 
Asylums can be set as [b]public[/b]; anyone can join and post to the asylum, without the maintainer's approval. Users do not need even need to [i]join[/i] in order to post to the asylum, if the maintainer wishes.
 
[b]Create Asylum[/b]:
This is the same process as the [i]Create an Account[/i] page; except, of course, this is for an asylum- not a user account.
 
[size=5][b]Site[/b][/size]
[b]Support[/b]: Submit a support ticket for any trouble you may have with the site.
 
[b]Upgrade Account[/b]: Pay with Paypal or another means, and upgrade your account; or, send a gift token to another user. You can donate to the site, you can purchase a rename token for yourself or another user- an anonymous gift token is available. Extra User-Pics, Permanently Insane Accounts (permanent accounts), # icons for # of months, Paid Account Privileges for ____ time, etc.
 
[b]FAQs[/b] - Frequently Asked Questions!
 
[b]Search By Location[/b]: Search for other users in X city, state.
 
[b]Search By Interest[/b]: Search for people who share your interests.
 
[b][size=6]Posting[/size][/b] [size=6][b]an entry[/b][/size]
Via the Post shortcut, usually at the top of the page (buttons change position according to which site theme you are using). When you have finished writing your entry, you can choose from different settings in multiple drop-down menus. You can use Rich Text mode, or use the raw HTML tab.
 
Regular web HTML is used. I.E <b*> bold</b*>, <i*>italic</8>, <* href="url">text</url>, et cetera, minus the *'s.
 
Most games follow a standard posting format, and are always provided in the game's Rules. For example:
 
[b]WHO:[/b]
[b]WHERE:[/b]
[b]WHEN:[/b]
[b]RATING[/b]:
[b]STATUS[/b]:
 
The Post (thread) comment settings are:
 
[b]Allow Comments?[/b] : Click either Default, Disabled. Don't e-email. (Notifications)
[size=4][b]Comment Screening[/b]: Choose which comments are screened, or in other words, hidden from public view: Journal default, Disabled, Anonymous Only,  Non-Friends, All Comments.[/size]
[size=6][size=4][b]Show this Entry to[/b]: Everyone (public), Friends-Only/Members-Only, Just Me (private), and Custom.[/size][/size]
 
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Archaic-Cyborg-Post-Entry.gif"][i]Click to view a screenshot of the [i]Post Entry[/i] page, with the Rich Text bar[/i][/url][/center]
 
[center][url="http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg344/a_chiropteran/Documentations/Archaic-Cyborg-Post2-1.gif"][i][size=4]Click this to view a screenshot of the [i]Show this Entry To...[/i] security choices[/size][/i][/url][/center]
 
[center][size=6][b]Finding Asylums[/b][/size][/center]
 
Asylums are communities, and user accounts are called patients. Not many people use 'patients', but 'asylum' is regularly used. InsaneJournal used to have a feature on the index page that listed the latest updated asylums, in a side-bar table. It was easiest to find asylums this way, but since its removal, users are left to search via Interests and by clicking on affiliates that are posted in an account's user-info.
 
The best place to start is [url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/rp_tutorials/profile"][b]RP_tutorials[/b][/url]. This community collects everything you'll need to manage a game, to use for your own accounts, and to seek answers and feedback. This includes user-info tables, journal layouts, unique application forms, music player embellishments, and so on! Everything you need to set up a character profile, a journal, a layout, a community,  administration guides...
 
A very popular user, [url="http://lobelia.insanejournal.com/1705.html#cutid1"]Lobelia[/url], has coded journal and community layouts for people to use, for free.  She provides simple 'n' short instructions for installing her layouts, which merely involves copy/pasting the CSS code into the [i]Customize Journal > Advanced tab[/i] in your journal, and following her additional instructions. If you are good at making graphics, or know someone who does, you can change the look of your journal or asylum by just by replacing the graphics with your own. For instance, some layouts replicate a tabletop, a leather journal.
 
Everything is sorted by [url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/rp_tutorials/tag/"][b]tags[/b][/url], I.E layouts: journal, layouts: media, images: forms, images: hosting, html, layouts: cdj. A collection of user-info tables and advertisements can be found at the [b][url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/rp_tutorials/11879.html"]Layout Directory page[/url], [/b]in a simple thumbnail list.
 
There are many helpful communities that are linked in the RP_tutorial's user-info, but there are very little RP communities listed there- if you are looking for a game, this asylum is not the place to look for them.
 
[size=6][b]Abbreviations[/b][/size] [size=6][b]& Slang[/b][/size]
[b]PSL [/b]- private story line. A roleplay that's between two people in a members-only asylum, or even between journals- no asylum needed! More and more players are taking PSLs to instant messengers, i.e AIM, so a PSL is no longer a threading-only roleplay.
[b]1x1[/b] - See above.
[b]GPSL[/b] - a group private storyline, or a private group RP. Membership is  usually 5-10 players, in a members-only asylum.
[b]Slash [/b]- everyone's idea of what 'slash' means, differs. It often means homosexual relationships; it can also mean non-canon sexualities; gay, bi, etc.
[b]Femmeslash [/b]- non-canon sexualities of the female persuasion.
[b]Fluff [/b]- Plotless RP that doesn't go anywhere, often done just for fun, without having to worry about in-game technicalities.
[b]PWP[/b]: Plot, what plot? Smut-orientated storyline.
[b]Casual[/b] - Anything-goes, nothing is set in stone, it's just a relaxing, slice-of-life RP.
[b]Freeform [/b]- You do not follow the staff's premise/plots; players develop their characters in their own storylines and plots.
[b]Shipping [/b]- Playing a OTP, your crush, your fave couple. It is bad form to do this in a community, because a community is not to be used as a PSL. It defeats the purpose of playing in a community, if you are only going to play with your special partner/castmate.
[b]Smut [/b]- This can be used to mean two entirely different things; PWP, and general 'naughty content'.
[b]Custom [/b]- If you find someone asking"[i]Want me to set up a custom?[/i]", it means a  friends-locked thread in a user's CDJ, to talk in private.
[b]Fandom-only[/b] - Fandom-only RP.
[b]OCs[/b] - Original Characters, original worlds/storylines.
[b]Dub-con[/b], [b]non-con, and other kinks/fetishes[/b]: [size=5][b][u]Be warned[/u].[/b][/size] When someone says 'trigger-worthy', it ususally means what they are looking for/are interested in taboo kinks. It can range from vanilla BDSM, to rough sex, to out-right 'squick' material. It is recommended to be very clear in what you like and do not like, when it comes to sexual material,  and explained in your CDJ. It does not matter whether you write FTB or play out the scenes in full, you should still make it clear that you are not interested.
[b]FTB [/b]- Fade to black, the player does not write sexual scenes.
[b]PBs, play-bys[/b]- Celebrity face-claims, in addition to individuals who are not well-known; band members, singers, models. Some games are quite demanding and require members to have 10 different icons, # different emotes; use different icons for each RP tag, and so forth.
[b]Short-term, long-term[/b] - as implied, these terms refer to the time-frame of a storyline. That is, how long the player(s) wishes to write the RP. There is no definite time-frame for either of these labels; long-term chould mean a few months, a few years; short-term could mean a couple weeks, a week, one night. For the latter, [i]one-night stand[/i] is more accurate, although it is not considered polite, and has smutty undertones.
 
[b]AIM[/b] - Having an RPer's AIM sn on your contact list is no guarantee they will hang around to actually role-play. They will flake as soon as they feel like it, as they do with journal accounts. A lot of people regularly SN hop between screen names: to avoid people, to start a new RP career, to avoid drama, to spread drama.
 
[b]Anons [/b]- anonymous users. People who feel compelled to criticize another user's game or thread (with good intentions or not), but they  want to hide behind an anonymous label. They are considered cowards, and most people refuse to talk to anons. If you want to speak your mind, say so with your journal. Do not hide as a guest, never to be traced to an individual user.
 
[b]Journal hopping, sockpuppets [/b]- People who abandon their journal and move to a new journal, without telling their RP partners. They may keep a few partners, and naturally, this is a key trademark of a flaker. They ditch their journal, and move to another one in their collection. Sockpuppets are cowards, to put it nicely.
 
[b]Flakers [/b]- People who disappear and never come back; if someone responds to your ad, or you comment on someone else's ad, do not get your hopes up.
People flake or disappear because they found something shiny; they flake because they legitimately forget about their RP; they flake because they got cold feet; they flake because they realize that they are juggling too many characters; they flake 'just because'. It is also common for people to [i]never read your ad[/i] properly in the first place.
 
For instance, you are looking for [i]Snarry RP[/i]. A person replies to your ad, and asks if you write [i]Harry/Draco[/i].
 
[b]Character journal [/b]- your character's account, what you use to join a game, of course. Some people like to recycle their accounts and reuse them for a new character at a new game. Others prefer to create new journals for new characters, this is usually because character journal names are made up of character quotes or descriptions that cannot be passed off to a new character.I.E fandom-specific terms, quotes, descriptions, inside-jokes, slang.
 
[b]CDJ[/b] - a [b]character development journal[/b]. A journal that is used to host your [b]role-play profile[/b]; [i]preferences, likes, dislikes, want ads/requests, kinks, smut vs FTB, writing style, format [/i](journals, AIM, Googledocs, e-mails).  CDJs also serve to host your current memberships; links and/or mini-profile pics of your active characters, past characters, retired characters, characters/games on hiatus, etc.
 
[i]There is no right or wrong way to set up your CDJ.[/i] You can do whatever you want with it, when it comes to layout, embellishments, graphics, coding, # of entries, RP samples, public character profiles, active/past memberships. CDJs are often controversial, in the sense that a lot of people make it known that they are not impressed if another user merely has a profile, uses a table to sort their active characters, and so forth. Do not be discouraged by these players; if they do not wish to talk to you because of how you present your CDJ, it is not your loss.
 
[b]Drop box[/b] - A pinned entry in your CDJ, this is where other users can contact you directly, whether it be an interest-check for one of your listed fandoms or open storylines, or just a way to see if you're still interested in the RP.  You can only 'pin' a journal entry in your own account, by changing the date to an out-of-order date. I.E The date is changed to February 24th, 2030. Thus, any new entries you post will be 'behind' the 2030 entry.
 
If someone does not respond on their character account at a game, you can usually find them at their CDJ: a home-base, of sorts. CDJs are used for working out the details of an RP,  musing and plotting before anyone creates their character journals and asylums.
 
[b]Threading[/b] means that the player is interested in RPs that take place through journals and asylums: no AIM logs, no e-mails, etc. Some players only use IJ as an advertising community to look for RP- and so they only role-play over AIM messenger, MSN,  e-mail, what have you.
 
[b]Mods[/b] - [i]Mods [/i]is a blanket term for [i]all staff members[/i]. There is no administrator, maintainer, global-moderator label. Staff accounts are often named gamename_mods. Everything essential for the game is archived in this account, which includes Rules, Reserve a Character, Cast, Wanted Characters, FAQ, Contact Us/Dropbox, et cetera.
 
[center][b][size=6]Add-Ons[/size][/b][/center]
 
Every now and then, public games go through a fad of 'add-ons'. This is my way of labelling it, to ease confusion; 'add-on' is not the term used amongst IJers, universally. Add-ons are additional asylums that serve little purpose to the game, and often are just for the members to waste time in, in between IC posts- they are also just a way to expand the game by separating 'areas' into extra communities.  The forum equivalent are the categories and sub-boards; OOC, Absences, OOC Games, Artwork, Graphics, Intros.
 
Many games use a 'letter' system, and it changes according to the game's setting. E-mails, owl post, txt messages, letters. What this is, is that each character has their own diary/blog/cellphone/whathaveyou, and send each other messages. This is either done in a letters asylum, or to each individual character journal. Some games require that players post X threads each month- in addition to 'letters' or blog entries, in the character journal itself, which other characters comment on and generally respond to.
 
These asylums take up space, and distract from the main community ( the threading community itself).
 
[b]crack [/b]- silly/gag content
[b]logs[/b] - where users post their AIM logs/threads-
[b]meme[/b] - 'nuff said
[b]intros [/b]- OOC introductions, mostly
[b]letters [/b]- often found in Potter games, aka owl post
[b]texts[/b] - SMS, text messages to individual characters
[b]emails[/b] - Clear enough
[b]threads[/b] - A necessary asylum: the default method of roleplay. RPing through the community, via threads.
 
The only asylums that are essential to any game, is the [b]IC asylum[/b] and the [b]OOC asylum[/b], aka OOC and threads. IC asylums are often registered with the game's name, OOC asylums differ; some are abbreviations of the game's name, others are simply gamename_OOC.
 
RP threads are posted to the IC asylum, often called by game_name, occasionally by gamename_threads, and everything OOC-related is posted to the OOC asylym; these are hiatuses/absence notices, returns, dropping characters, graphics, crack, introductions, plotting/musing.
 
[center][size=6][b]Useful Asylums[/b][/size][/center]
 
It is considered bad form to post your RP request to multiple communities within a short time frame; basically, if you see the same character or story line ad in just about every community? It's spam. That said, it is acceptable to post to around four or so, in one day. It is not acceptable to post your ad, in every community that you can find, multiple times a week, so that your entry is always visible on the community's front page. Everyone x-posts their ads to multiple asylums, but it is better to cycle through asylums, rather than posting at ALL the communities in one go.
 
The popular asylums to join are the following ones. Be aware of the IJ slang and abbreviations, and take note of each community's rules- which are always posted in the user-info. Some communities only allow one ad per game  a week, or once a day; some require a form, and others are anything-goes!
 
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/fandom_psls/"][b]fandom_psls[/b][/url] - for all fandom-based RPs.
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/darkersls"][b]darkersls[/b] [/url]- for RPs that revolve around dark themes.
[b][url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/find_a_writer"]find_a_writer [/url][/b]- a general ad community for finding partners, castmates.
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/find_players"][b]find_players[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/find_a_partner"][b]find_a_partner[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/pslads"][b]pslads[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/storyline"][b]storyline[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/comic_ads"][b]comic_ads[/b][/url] - comic-book based RPs
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/marvel_this"][b]marvel_this[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/privatelines"][b]privatelines[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/checkthejournal"][b]checkthejournal [/b][/url]- Let everyone know that you have recently updated your ads and requests within your CDJ, aka  "[i]read my journal, please and thank you![/i]"
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/character_rpg"][b]character_rpg[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/homelessplayers"][b]homelessplayers[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/privatelines"][b]privatelines[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/slashsls"][b]slashsls[/b][/url] - slash-orientated RP requests.
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/wanna_psl"][b]wanna_psl[/b][/url]
[b][url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/illustratedpsls/profile"]illustratedpsls[/url][/b] - for RPs that are based on animated/illustrated fandoms, I.E cartoons, video games, anime & manga.
 
For general community advertisements, i.e public games, there are these:
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/wanna_rp"][b]wanna_rp[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/wannarp"][b]wannarp[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/fantasy_rpgs"][b]fantasy_rpgs[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/ijrpg_games"][b]ijrpg_games[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/oldschoolrp"][b]oldschoolrp[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/multi_fandom"][b]multi_fandom[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/insane_games"][b]insane_games[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/darkerrpgads"][b]darkerrpgads[/b][/url]
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/oc_rpgs"][b]oc_rpgs[/b][/url] - Original character games.
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/oc_friendly_rpg"][b]oc_friendly_rpg[/b][/url] - games that allow Original Characters
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/anythingbuthp"][b]anythingbuthp [/b][/url]- games that are not based in the Harry Potter fandom.
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/fluff"][b]fluff[/b][/url] - casual RP requests.
 
[url="http://asylums.insanejournal.com/rpgondemand"][b]rpgondemand[/b][/url][center][size=6][b]Joining Asylums[/b][/size][/center]
 
 
On the asylum's user-info page, there is a button that allows you to join. If the asylum is membership-by-approval, the site will tell you so, when you attempt to join. If you want to leave an asylum, there is also a link provided here, alongside the Join button.
 
As for etiquette, it is exceptionally rude to freeze a thread, to delete comments, to hide/screen a comment that you feel is drama-bait, and to flat-out ignore someone who has taken the time to respond to your ad. If you are not interested, you merely say so, and decline politely. Despite that, it is common practice to screen comments in your own journal's Drop Box, comments that you have already read and have replied to. This concerns threads in which you are figuring out a storyline with another user, and this is for privacy reasons. When you screen a comment, only you can access it; read it, unscreen it, delete it.
 
....And that is all there is to it! If you have any questions, you should seek help at the aforementioned RP_tutorials.
[center]InsaneJournal User-Guide written by [url="http://www.rpg-directory.com/index.php?/user/33593-archaic-cyborg/"][b]Archaic Cyborg[/b][/url] of [url="http://www.rpg-directory.com/"]RPG-Directory[/url]![/center]