Membership That's a deal breaker...

[peregyr 10]

It's always word counts for me. I don't want to be stressing out over whether my post is exactly at least 200 words. I get enough of that with university essays DX

[nyx 164]

The site's layout is the biggest for me. When I get to a board I want to be able to find the important stuff right off the bat. Your rules, lore, and plot are what I'm looking for and if I can't find it then I'm out and onto the next.

 

I've never dealt with a word count but I know without a doubt this would annoy me to no end. It sends the message to me that they are about quantity over quality and that's not for me. On a side note, I run challenges on my board where I have a word count in a thread but it's always 200 words or less type of situation to keep it light and fun.

 

Activity rules that make you post once a week to prove you're there or else you're going to be deleted. 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by wicked

[Morpheus 14]

• Extreme Activity Requirements - for me that would be mandatory daily logins on any/all accounts and/or post requirements that expect more than one post every week with heavy policing and archiving.
• "Don't be a @!&%" rules - it might be meant in jest but rarely does it ever read as such.
• Any sort of rule that seems 'tacked on' after a problem has arisen in the past. They're always so, so obvious and hint at drama behind the scenes or not so great management, especially as they're typically worded in super passive aggressive fashion.

Sure there might be other rules that make me release my inner Marge Simpson, but yano, for a good site there's always going to be some level of compromise with, be it rules, lore, skin etc... so other quirks I could probably just deal with. Mostly I use rules just to gage expectations and the sort of community the staff are striving for.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Morpheus

[August 7]

For me the biggest turn off when it comes to a site is 'can I find the site information without diving down the rabbit hole'. Chances are if there isn't a clear line of clicks (ie 'general info' 'species' 'groups' sub-forums) ...I'm out. I'm easily distracted and I feel like if people can't find what they need from go, they're gone.  Otherwise just layout alone  really, I'm not going to stay on a site if I can't look at it long enough to read through said info.

[xexes 108]

Sometimes when I'm browsing a forum, I look at it, but it all blurs together, and I feel frustrated and irritated and a little frightened. No matter how hard I try, that feeling never goes away. Even if I power through it, it's still really hard, and it feels like I'm doing the wrong thing by continuing to investigate and read. It isn't a concrete thing like overbearing rules, it's an overall, encompassing feeling.  And it's never been wrong.

 

I call it my spidey sense but really it is gut instinct. If my gut tells me to run, then I run. 

 

 

[Kazetatsu 263]

- mandatory account per character/no ooc account Likewise mandatory bios/apps/plotters.

Not my style, nor way of handling my characters. I don't mind if it's optional, but If I see a rule like this requiring a particular style I leave even if everything else checks out.

 

- Image/faceclaim rules.

Let me have the choice to draw my characters or go without a faceclaim please.

 

- trigger warnings for every little thing

I don't mind when a writer says they don't feel comfortable threading certain content and can respect that when writers communicate their limits. With rp, a thread can change from fine, to graphic very quickly. Players don't always know what'll happen right off the bat so its hard to warn for them there.

 

- any site layout or skin that hurts my eyes or makes it hard to find what I need to get started.

 

-sites that have boards for every little location.

A lot of boards make sites, especially small ones look less active over all when the threads are too spread out.

 

- seeing romance or sexual threads at every turn

 

- Sites that forbid or limit discussion on sensitive topics like politics and religion

Factoring in for ooc disrespect is one thing, but I've seen/heard of sites that are so one-sided to a political or religious direction that players aren't allowed to disagree, and those that speak up are ganged up upon, name called or otherwise driven off just for having a difference of opinion, even when that opinion was brought up respectfully.  Its rough on the players that don't conform to the majority opinion. Likewise sites that don't even allow ic representation of sensitive views. These characters are great for plot conflict and character development when handled well. Key word 'well'. When the character's view is just a self-insert of a player's view and wielded like a club on other characters, I agree that that can quickly become problematic.

 

[kjSage 81]

-The site needs to be readable to me. I've seen sites with 6px font as a base and good lords, I can't. Factor in being visually impaired and low contrast skins really do turn me off. Yes, they're pretty, but if I can't read your basic information such as rules and plot and everything else without needing to use ctrl+I or zoom in to 300%, why would I join? Once saw a site that had this, asked if they had a skin that was a bit more accessible, and was laughed right out of the cbox. (and from what I gather most people with normal vision find those skins hard to deal with too)

 

Also, using fontawesome icons (or images) for links everywhere with no title attribute or other way of knowing what the icon (or image) in question is being used for. Actually, people should really start using both alt="" and title="". And stop leaving one or the other as empty/null. Alt text is only displayed when you have a broken image, or have turned off image loading. It's also the one read by screen readers. Title is displayed as a tooltip on hover, and is not read by most screen readers. In addition, depending on which browser you use and which screen reader software you are using, things work slightly differently. (and heaven forbid someone is using jaws and older version of IE, you wouldn't believe how common that combination is in my circle of people irl.)

 

-Super strict activity checks/posting requirements. When it comes to posting I'm either posting rapidfire every 2 minutes or can take half a year to reply to a thread, no inbetween. I've gone over the whole "don't make a rule you can't follow yourself" bit elsewhere but I can't stress that enough.

 

-Required faceclaims and either no or 1-2 line physical descriptions. I have custom art of some OCs, have made others through the character creation of other games such as Aion and Bless and Dragon Age. Very few of my OCs have a faceclaim that can be used for them without an EXTENSIVE amount of editing them. Also, y'know, visually impaired. Give me a fully fleshed out, detailed description over a picture any day, that way I know what you are talking about. Including reference pictures (Ex: Her eyes are this shade of blue, or his wings are in the shape of a Gyrfalcon, with a link to a CLEAR picture)  and it makes it so much easier to visualize. Bonus points for optional faceclaims with those previously mentioned descriptions and references. People that do that are my heroes.

 

16 hours ago, Kazetatsu said:

- Sites that forbid or limit discussion on sensitive topics like politics and religion

Factoring in for ooc disrespect is one thing, but I've seen/heard of sites that are so one-sided to a political or religious direction that players aren't allowed to disagree, and those that speak up are ganged up upon, name called or otherwise driven off just for having a difference of opinion, even when that opinion was brought up respectfully.  Its rough on the players that don't conform to the majority opinion. Likewise sites that don't even allow ic representation of sensitive views. These characters are great for plot conflict and character development when handled well. Key word 'well'. When the character's view is just a self-insert of a player's view and wielded like a club on other characters, I agree that that can quickly become problematic.

 

I will never join a site like this, even if it aligns with my own beliefs. Seeing others jump down someone else's throat over a difference of opinion (even if they disagree with me) is frustrating. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and so long as people can remain respectful about things, I genuinely don't mind civilized discussions about a topic. It's okay to be set in your beliefs, and I also think that a good, mature, civilized debate is healthy. In life you will always come across someone that has different beliefs than you do, and it's the same on the internet.

 

My co-admin and I disagree on a number of things, and we're best friends. Why let a difference of opinion get in the way of that? Why should her opinion of one subject dictate that I be an asshole to her because of it?

[archaeon 14]

At this point, I'm pretty much just repeating what so many others have already said. But I'm going to jump on the bandwagon anyway because ugh! tiny fonts hurt my eyes. 

 

My biggest turn off has to be wordcounts and ridiculously high posting requirements. I can maybe get behind a rule about one post a week. Perhaps. But quantity doesn't mean quality in either case and the pressure just kills the muses more often than not. I tried it for a while when everyone and their mother seemed to go through a phase of having them and loathed it. Never again. An inordinate number of rules in general that govern every single aspect of your gameplay is a similar turnoff.

 

So many people have made so many good points here. There are things that really bug me that I hadn't even realised bugged me until someone pointed them out! I wholeheartedly subscribe to most of these complaints. Which makes me appreciate the gems of sites I've found out there that don't have these issues. Bless you all!

[Dragon 673]

Trigger warnings 

 

I don't care if they're mandatory or if its just one random user that insist on being so politically correct that they tag them to their threads. I will not join that site. Trigger warnings should not exist in an intelligent society. Full. Fucking. Stop. 

[Rune 1,099]

31 minutes ago, Dragon said:

Trigger warnings 

 

I don't care if they're mandatory or if its just one random user that insist on being so politically correct that they tag them to their threads. I will not join that site. Trigger warnings should not exist in an intelligent society. Full. Fucking. Stop. 

We have them... Kind of. It's more of a "Don't read this at work" warning. Because my members are slackers and post at work. We don't encourage illicit work smut!

 

Back on topic: Any site that demands I "register with character name in all caps!" or all lower case or WTFever. 

[Dragon 673]

15 minutes ago, Rune said:

"Don't read this at work" warning

 

 

That's just an NSFW, not a trigger lol 

[gelly 32]

+ Lack of trigger warnings. I personally don't have any triggers (I don't believe??), but this is a huge indication to me about the type of community I'm walking into and whether or not I'd want to be apart of it. Plain and simple.

 

+ Word counts. I'm an adult. This isn't a class I'm gonna get any transferable credits on. Let me write how much or how little I want to write.

 

+ Hidden word counts. Which are infinitely worse than outright word counts. At least the people who enjoy word counts will just be upfront with you, y'know? Which I respect! 'Yeah, bitch, you're expected to 2000 words a post.' Okay, cool. Bye. But the hidden word count people are just the WORST.

 

+ Long applications. Ehh.

 

+ Purple prose heavy. I can't. I won't.

 

+ No face claims. It's just a preference. I was never apart of the roleplaying community when it didn't have face claims so it feels bizarre not to have them around.

 

+ Premade themes that haven't been customized to fit your roleplay's premise. Not everyone can code efficiently, so premade themes are amazing for those peeps. But srsly? You can't even be bothered to change the banner or the color scheme to fit your roleplay's feel?

 

+ Sites that don't respect the fact people might be accessing them in a place where sharing NSFW material, especially images, is not appropriate.

 

+ Condescending rules. This is the one area where I agree with people who think admins should handle staffing in a professional manner. Cussing, threatening, or using chatspeak/slang to be 'funny' but the kind of 'funny' where you're putting people down is so unnecessary.

 

+ Admins that don't follow their own rules. If you say a canon can only be reserved for a week but the staff gets a 'forever' reserve, that's just poor adminning...ship. It makes the staff look... mismanaged?

[Maleficent 15]

+ Compulsory post templates.

+ Long, overbearing rules- double X out if they include swearing/threats.

+ Tiny font.

+ Ugly skin or graphics.... You know, clashing or pixelated or just completely unreadable.

+ Cbox / Discord conversations that make me uncomfortable.

+ If there doesn't appear to be any community- no posts at all outside RP areas like cbox or general discussion areas, etc. It'd make me wonder how I'm supposed to get to know people.

[Sketchy Unicorn 22]

Still reading through this thread (and agreeing with a lot of the stuff I'm seeing). Oh gosh, what can I add that hasn't been touched on?

 

• This just might be a Disney site thing, but having to acknowledge a cruddy DTV sequel as part of my character's background. I get why this is done -- for the people who are playing sequel-exclusive characters -- but what about those of us who don't even like most of the sequels? Now I have to sit up here and watch some poorly-written, poorly-animated movie just to even be accepted at your site?
• Staffers who try to tell me how to play a canon character. Nope!
• Staffers who can't even keep what they allow at their own forums straight. One time I came across this Sonic the Hedgehog board. It wasn't a crossover site either, it was supposed to be just for Sonic. Yet I saw people playing My Little Pony and Bucky 'O Hare characters there. I was confused. I'm here not only to portray Sonic characters, but to interact with them. If I wanted a crossover, then there are other places for that.

Also, I appreciate how there are so many folks on here like myself who just don't get why these kids love their itty-bitty font so. XD Is this still a thing?

Edited June 29, 2018 by Sketchy Unicorn

[Hypester 28]

Reading some of these responses I feel really petty. Mine are like:

 

- AUs to canon that seem like they 'missed the point' of the story.

- Fandom Lore, even site history that reminds me of Mary Sue inserts of an admin or founding member's OC

- new sites in hypercompetitive fandoms

- admin chat that seems unironically ego-centric

- A canon list with no POCs, and honestly, less than 1/4 is a pretty big turn off

- crazy small font