Membership A roleplayers peeve moments

[Seravian 50]

16 hours ago, Death Kitten said:

 

The other side of the coin from people whining that they need rp fix every day and you better damn well reply to them right now? The people who insist that because RP is a hobby, that RP is literally the least important thing ever.

 

 

Thankfully, I have not come across someone who feels that way about rping. Me, personally? I've had falling outs, sure, and I know people who vanish for some time and put rping on the back burner but passion never dies off completely or become so routine: write a post, wait for partner, reply to post.

 

I did, however, come across someone saying that they hated rping and only did it to hone their abilities as a writer. They were so arrogant and powerplayed everything, even went so far as to flaunt their threads as great 'masterfully crafted narratives' showing human interaction... When they were pretty bland -he only seemed to play one thing: dominance- and obvious that he did not like writing with other people unless they did everything he wanted them to, filled with fetishes. Yeah, he was mainly a smut writer. It was a damn shame, because he was a talented writer underneath. His arrogance, thinking everyone was beneath him just because he went to a writing school and refusal to recognize any talent that was not what little credit he deserves ruined it.

 

Thankfully, he did not stay. In fact, he was skating on thin ice and probably would have been banned if he did decide to stick around. Nobody needs that kind of attitude. 

 

2 hours ago, Corinthian said:

Mmm, you've reminded me of another one. I really don't mind the occasional mistake, especially if the player is bilingual; hell, I make enough mistakes myself, and I'm a native English speaker. But on one board I frequented, everyone wrote in past tense...

 

Except this one chick. Who always wrote in present tense. For years. At that point, it's not a mistake, it's a personal decision... and it's so jarring, in the middle of the thread, to be thrown for a loop by a totally different tense. Completely breaks your immersion. Do not like.

I know that feeling.

 

I used to write in past tense a lot, because I thought that was a good way to get backstory in and such. Boy, was I wrong. I think I've since gotten better... But I know it throws people off when I show them some of my older writing and they see past tense, instead of being more 'in the moment' so to speak.

[Honorem 219]

6 hours ago, Corinthian said:

 

Mmm, you've reminded me of another one. I really don't mind the occasional mistake, especially if the player is bilingual; hell, I make enough mistakes myself, and I'm a native English speaker. But on one board I frequented, everyone wrote in past tense...

 

Except this one chick. Who always wrote in present tense. For years. At that point, it's not a mistake, it's a personal decision... and it's so jarring, in the middle of the thread, to be thrown for a loop by a totally different tense. Completely breaks your immersion. Do not like.

Agreed. I don't like present tense, or first person either. Not just in RP, if I see a book I might like, open it and realize it is written from the main character's perspective (I did this, I did that), I nope the hell out of buying it. It's what you're used to I guess.

 

EDIT: Formatting.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Honorem

[Rune 1,099]

On this note... Mixing up the words "dominant" and "dominate" annoys me to no end.

[Honorem 219]

A few more.

 

- Wanted ads (especially with new members). Member wants to make a new character, but needs a pal for them. So you work on a new character to play with them, and then they drop off the face of the earth. Why did I bother?

- When people retcon what you write. Example, landscape described as flat as far as the horizon. Next player comes in and says they found a hill. I'm all for filling in the blanks, but if it has been explicitly stated, I don't see why it's so hard to not crap all over the picture someone has painted. Granted most of this can be let be and doesn't really effect the story, but does make me wonder if they even cared enough to read my post properly. Kind of disheartening.

- Control freaks. Here's a good example. Once roleplayed with a guy who wanted me to send him my posts via PM before I posted them, so he could see if they worked with the plot. The first few times I obliged, because he had worded it in such a way that he just wanted to innocently check them out. But once he'd sucked me in he started telling me to change my character's dialogue, citing reasons such as 'my character wouldn't respond well to that'. Seriously? Well this is what my character would say, so your character can deal with it. He started throwing tantrums when I stopped sending him posts to pre-approve. This was when I was admin and he was a member. I needed to grow a spine back in those days.

[Anonymous 234]

Those people who will treat you like a friend and act excited about plots, threads, etc. but then insult you behind your back... If you have a problem, let me know? I'm not a stone wall that can't be moved, if something's wrong, say so and I'll try to talk it out to fix it.

Anonymous poster hash: 0c289...ec6

[VirusZero 176]

Another thing that bugs me is when a new person shows up in the chatbox and not only wants to roleplay right there, but they want it to be smut. Like woah, back up there. I mean really, the chatbox is not really for roleplay to begin with (I mean every once in a while sure, I don't care. But just don't make it a habit or something that affects the site.) But on top of that keep it PG-13. I mean our site can have mature content... but just because the site can doesn't mean:

1- the chatbox can. (The chatbox is a service provided by another group with their own terms of service. They state they don't want mature content in the chatbox. ) 

2- I want mature content posted publicly. (I have mature content in a members only / mature section. Where access is only given to those who either list their age as over 18 or who I know to be over 18.)

 

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

Players who don't follow through with commitment.

 

This isn't rocket science! Why offer all this input and literally say such things as offering help and plots and whatnot.. before flaking. I don't get it. If you don't have time for another character or an entire game, don't sign up for it. It's quite disheartening to get worked up over a new character, plot, or game, only to be left floundering and second-guessing what happened.

 

On that note, as others have said already: communication doesn't hurt anybody. it's perfectly fine if people don't agree on something; I've seen one too many instances of great plots and so forth being abandoned because one person thought there was no hope of 'fixing' something. What the. Is dropping an entire rp over a typo or a minor disagreement really worth it? Mad rpers are mad. 

[Auroxtra 7]

I didn't see this said before, but for me it's when someone bugs and bugs for posts despite having just replied to the thread, and once you reply... they don't post for an extended period of time.

 

I really don't mind waiting for replies at all, but to be bothered after only a day, and constantly, then to have to wait two weeks for a reply? Drives me a bit bonkers!

[Orchid 12]

On 7/8/2016 at 9:17 PM, Blackjack Bart said:

Players who don't follow through with commitment.

 

This isn't rocket science! Why offer all this input and literally say such things as offering help and plots and whatnot.. before flaking. I don't get it. If you don't have time for another character or an entire game, don't sign up for it. It's quite disheartening to get worked up over a new character, plot, or game, only to be left floundering and second-guessing what happened.

 

On that note, as others have said already: communication doesn't hurt anybody. it's perfectly fine if people don't agree on something; I've seen one too many instances of great plots and so forth being abandoned because one person thought there was no hope of 'fixing' something. What the. Is dropping an entire rp over a typo or a minor disagreement really worth it? Mad rpers are mad. 

This is especially killer when the person develops an entire mini-plot and ropes the ENTIRE BOARD into being excited for it. We worked some things out to make it properly fit, we involved the entire board, and really we were just shy of having actual sign ups for a board wide plot altering thing when the player just.... poofed. With this plot revolving around a particular character that this player was responsible for... well, there isn't really much of a way to salvage that plot now. It's seriously become a damper on the board, and has killed some of the activity.

 

As an admin, it really kinda hurts. It's like, I wrote and established the awesome mega plot for the site, and you had an idea. I am all game for ideas, but don't get everyone hyped for it, get the ball rolling... and then take off. It's hard as hell to pick that up if someone picks up the character, as that might not be the direction they want to take them. 

 

 

21 hours ago, Namari said:

I didn't see this said before, but for me it's when someone bugs and bugs for posts despite having just replied to the thread, and once you reply... they don't post for an extended period of time.

 

I really don't mind waiting for replies at all, but to be bothered after only a day, and constantly, then to have to wait two weeks for a reply? Drives me a bit bonkers!

 

I had this. Someone kept pestering me "[character 1] and [character 2] need to have a thread! I want them in a thread!" The only catch was, #2, my character, was in an entirely different country, and couldn't be where #1 could meet them. I explained this. Multiple times. It wouldn't happen for a while, but that was all I heard for weeks. Then same person wanted a thread with a different character of theirs, so I got one up, and it sat. It sat for over a week while the player did other things with other people. Didn't bother me, until they asked again for the thread and I pointed it out to them. I got one reply out of them before they just....stopping coming to the site. No notice, or anything.

[Jacob 58]

I must resound the need of proper communication on sites.  It affected me in a very unexpected, very negative way recently which caused a fight or flight response.

 

Though nothing can be done about the latter now, I do think people should take time to carefully read.  If they do not understand something, they should kindly ask for clarification.  Goodness gracious, a mere search through an engine like Google could provide them the answer.  I write in a rather formal style that bewilders some outside the historical fiction genre I possess ties to.  Rather than heckle - threaten - me, the sorts implied might just inquire, or, might just avoid my presence for men and women whose approaches more align with theirs'.

 

I do not know people I encounter online on any offline bases.  They need process the problems resulting from that, especially in this postmodern era of collaborative writing.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Jacob

[Elena 546]

@Jacob, it has happened to me too. Ask, don't assume and take wrong steps!

[Marcella 2]

When someone joins a site and makes a bunch of characters JUST to plot with you and the other admins. Then Refuses to plot with other people and tries to monopolize all your posting time. Hello, I have to post for other people too and I don't want to listen to you whine in the cbox because it's taken me a few days to respond.

 

Or when someone gives three paragraphs of inner dialogue and then ONE LINE of interaction. Make me want to facepalm and is a sure-fire way to make me lose muse for the thread.

[Honorem 219]

On 7/9/2016 at 0:17 PM, Blackjack Bart said:

Players who don't follow through with commitment.

 

This isn't rocket science! Why offer all this input and literally say such things as offering help and plots and whatnot.. before flaking. I don't get it. If you don't have time for another character or an entire game, don't sign up for it. It's quite disheartening to get worked up over a new character, plot, or game, only to be left floundering and second-guessing what happened.

Agreed! This was an ongoing thing for me over the past year with one in particular. A player (well, can't even call them a player since they've never even made a character yet) has returned no less than four times. Each time they stick around the cbox for a few weeks, apologizing far too much for disappearing (dead giveaway right there), promising the WIP is in progress, and worst of all ... making grand plot plans with other members who are actually active. Naturally most of these grand ideas require a new character from the active members as well. So like the good members they are, they go off and make this new character specifically for the flake. Then the flake disappears, again. Leaving the good member's newly created character alone.

 

It's one thing for a flake to constantly pop back up in the cbox and make false promises, but when their bullshit starts effecting members who actually do want to write? Oh hell no, they can get out and stay out.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

16 hours ago, Honorem said:

Agreed! This was an ongoing thing for me over the past year with one in particular. A player (well, can't even call them a player since they've never even made a character yet) has returned no less than four times. Each time they stick around the cbox for a few weeks, apologizing far too much for disappearing (dead giveaway right there), promising the WIP is in progress, and worst of all ... making grand plot plans with other members who are actually active. Naturally most of these grand ideas require a new character from the active members as well. So like the good members they are, they go off and make this new character specifically for the flake. Then the flake disappears, again. Leaving the good member's newly created character alone.

 

It's one thing for a flake to constantly pop back up in the cbox and make false promises, but when their bullshit starts effecting members who actually do want to write? Oh hell no, they can get out and stay out.

 I had someone like that! Their character was ridiculously important, and they kept.. disappearing. The game was put on hold indefinitely, until we just got sick of waiting and did something about it.

 

If people just want to chat, that's all well and good. Just.. you know. Say so at the start, that they won't be getting involved with playing, but they have plot ideas! 

[Orchid 12]

19 hours ago, Honorem said:

Agreed! This was an ongoing thing for me over the past year with one in particular. A player (well, can't even call them a player since they've never even made a character yet) has returned no less than four times. Each time they stick around the cbox for a few weeks, apologizing far too much for disappearing (dead giveaway right there), promising the WIP is in progress, and worst of all ... making grand plot plans with other members who are actually active. Naturally most of these grand ideas require a new character from the active members as well. So like the good members they are, they go off and make this new character specifically for the flake. Then the flake disappears, again. Leaving the good member's newly created character alone.

 

It's one thing for a flake to constantly pop back up in the cbox and make false promises, but when their bullshit starts effecting members who actually do want to write? Oh hell no, they can get out and stay out.

 

I have one of these currently. What's worse is they're a good buddy of a very active writer on the site, but the person keeps... not following through. I clear out old registered accounts every week, from all these drive by joiners that never do anything, and I've deleted an account for this person twice now. They keep promising to return... so we'll see. I don't mind people hanging in our chat box, but don't say you're going to join if you're not.