Stupid Rules

[Death Kitten 200]

2 hours ago, Honorem said:

 

- Mandatory post templates with multiple gifs, etc. I thought roleplaying was about writing?

Templates with gif? O.o I gif like it's going out of style on Twitter, but dude, if someone had gif in a template I had to use for everything I wrote? I'd nope the fuck out of there so hard, staff would get whiplash.

 

The fleet I used to play in actually used to have an Academy with written courses and exams. It used to be mandatory to take a general sim guide before you could even be an Ensign, and for a while you were supposed to take other courses to make it to department head or command team. I mean, if they were well written resources, I could see them helping people and maybe their being a good idea, but the content was laughable at times. The tests asked questions that weren't answered in the guide, the people administering weren't always knowledgeable in the areas they were proctoring. And the dh and command team courses all focused on in character info, where most people were lacking in out of character people management and plot leading skills. Then there was the time I decided to see if the security course was of use because I was playing a security officer for the first time, and my instructor was a condescending, sexist pig who treated me horribly because of the group of people I was on a ship with.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

7 hours ago, Honorem said:

 

- Mandatory post templates with multiple gifs, etc. I thought roleplaying was about writing?

 

I go on a site-browsing spree when I'm zombified late at night, and while I can't join more games.. I X iut pretty fast when I find a game that requires post templates. I've seen one game that even required it for the OOC areas. WTF?

[Rune 1,099]

8 hours ago, Blackjack Bart said:

 

I go on a site-browsing spree when I'm zombified late at night, and while I can't join more games.. I X iut pretty fast when I find a game that requires post templates. I've seen one game that even required it for the OOC areas. WTF?

I found a site I was legitimately interested in and looking at joining... Then saw they required a post template... That was also dated. I opted to not even bother looking further. Might just be my pet peeve but I can't stand mandatory templates. I check posts on my phone a lot, reading a template is hard enough much less attempting to post in one.

[Honorem 219]

8 hours ago, Rune said:

I found a site I was legitimately interested in and looking at joining... Then saw they required a post template... That was also dated. I opted to not even bother looking further. Might just be my pet peeve but I can't stand mandatory templates. I check posts on my phone a lot, reading a template is hard enough much less attempting to post in one.

Yep, when design means more to them than writing. Like if I opened a restaurant and the meals were all microwaved crap, but the napkins? The napkins are vintage 1800's fabric imported from France! Priorities!

 

It's a pain in the ass fiddling with a code every time you want to make a post.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Honorem

[CovertSphinx 710]

Having to write an entire roleplay sample for Every. Single. Character. You. Make. Plus a 2-3 paragraph minimum or other mandatory word count to it.

 

And I really shouldn't have a place to complain about it, as I ran a site that implored such a rule temporarily a long time ago. It was done because several members were in a prolific character-creation spree with half-baked, bare-boned profile development, and then never actually RP with the character made past like 3 posts. The rest of the staff and I thought it might curb some of the "character abandonment issue" by making the applicant bond with their creation a little bit. ......We were wrong, oh so wrong.

[Amelia 25]

I do have a rule for an RP sample on my board and we require an RP sample for every canon character that is applied and in that character. It can be from another site but it has to be for the canon character they apply for. However if they apply for an OC character, the post can be from another site. We just want to get a sense of someones writing style. 

The reason we ask for it with canon characters is that we have noticed that some people can write a very good app for a character but when posting it did not feel like the canon at all. 

[CovertSphinx 710]

On 6/13/2016 at 3:36 PM, Amelia said:

I do have a rule for an RP sample on my board and we require an RP sample for every canon character that is applied and in that character. It can be from another site but it has to be for the canon character they apply for. However if they apply for an OC character, the post can be from another site. We just want to get a sense of someones writing style. 

The reason we ask for it with canon characters is that we have noticed that some people can write a very good app for a character but when posting it did not feel like the canon at all. 

We made it known outright that we reserved the right to take canon characters away if that were the case. On our site, we found that people would have enough sense to make the RP part of the application good (or outright steal somebody else's on a handful of occasions), but then revert to whatever they wanted in an actual thread regardless.

At one point we also tried only requiring an RP sample for the first character only. This did not turn out badly, but ended up also being removed eventually for other reasons.

[Jakolope 0]

Perhaps this will ultimately be regrettable, but when I make rules I try to be conservative as possible, deal with things as they come up. Honestly one of the biggest turnoffs for me is a site that just has rules posted everywhere and fine print to read, it just feels way too tense and like someone has a need to overly mod things. Conversely, I've had difficulty in the past where players try to find loopholes to excuse what is blatantly bad behavior and since there was no rule for that exact behavior they felt they were invincible. So things like, exact duplicate names for instance, easy to solve by either politely making  a note or private message on an app pointing out that someone else shares that name, or asking both players, starting with the original, if they are comfortable sharing that name if the situation is right.

 

Saw a few mentions of "be respectful" is too vague, and I can see how that might be on sites, a source of stress as well. Ultimately experience has led me to believe that rules won't keep site-ruining players out, so designing systems to filter at the application phase and basically keeping the rule of dont be a dick, and if it is clear they are one (it is rare, but when it happens man is it clear), then a private message that the site is not a good fit. 

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by Jakolope
accidentally a word

[Death Kitten 200]

Even though we expand on it, our rules for my game starts with Don't Be A Dick, because long ago in the before time, that's the only rule I had. It's a good catch all, it's often credited to Wil Wheaton for instant nerd cred, and it's hard for a rules lawyer to effectively argue around it. Especially when there's a "command team has the final say" included in the fine print (even though it should be obvious enough to not need saying).

[Honorem 219]

Requiring people to sign up to post an advertisement. Trying to link back, I found that gem. And nope, wasn't a new site who just had their permissions wrong. They had the rule specifically stated in the advertisements header.

 

Why would they think it's alright to drive by and post as a guest on other sites, only to make others jump through hoops? It's a horrible idea.

[Death Kitten 200]

11 minutes ago, Honorem said:

Requiring people to sign up to post an advertisement. Trying to link back, I found that gem. And nope, wasn't a new site who just had their permissions wrong. They had the rule specifically stated in the advertisements header.

 

Why would they think it's alright to drive by and post as a guest on other sites, only to make others jump through hoops? It's a horrible idea.

I could hazard a guess that they're trying to minimize the drive by advertising, or they're trying to hide the inability to figure out how to allow guest posting behind a rule... But it certainly doesn't make it any less annoying. Most people are going to post, what, once? Are they hoping that you'll stick around once you sign up? Or are they just trying to inflate their numbers?

[Morrigan 1,826]

Word Count wafflers!! I love them! Just remember @SithLordOfSnark that once sentence can be a paragraph despite what your HS English teachers taught you.

 

Adding to this is "We have no word count" and then you get scolded for having "short" posts after joining.

[Death Kitten 200]

My rules kinda waffle on word count, and I can see both sides of this. We ask for one finished mission post per two week period (on Nova this would be comparable to a thread on a forum, kinda?), but we don't institute a minimum word count. I originally had a minimum word count for the finished posts, but then I realized two things: bad writers and RPers wouldn't suddenly become good for being given a minimum to meet, and good writers could push the plot forward with a self contained post that's perhaps as little as a sentence.

 

So it was a matter of setting the tone and the expectations in line with what I hoped for: an activity level I enjoyed, and an environment that encourages people to take the time and the number of words that suit their characters and stories being told the best they can.

 

All that said, without that context and without knowing my past RP experience, I can see how that can be annoyingly vague, or contradictory.

[Bishop 172]

My number one least favorite rule that I ever ever ever ever come across was 'first characters can not be female' as in there needs to be an equal amount of male/female to make the story go round? No. Because that player that comes in wants to play something they know. Let them have whatever the heck they want gender wise even if it is the stupidest most horrible thing that ever came through, because at the end of the day they chose you--they will build a relationship with you and your players and THEN you can get them to play something you want by showing them how important it may be to the story.

 

That and I hate limits, I hate ratios, I couldn't even begin to tell you how many male or female characters we have because I'm too busy posting and having a good time to give a crap to care!

[Honorem 219]

On 03/10/2016 at 1:18 PM, Bishop said:

My number one least favorite rule that I ever ever ever ever come across was 'first characters can not be female' as in there needs to be an equal amount of male/female to make the story go round? No. Because that player that comes in wants to play something they know. Let them have whatever the heck they want gender wise even if it is the stupidest most horrible thing that ever came through, because at the end of the day they chose you--they will build a relationship with you and your players and THEN you can get them to play something you want by showing them how important it may be to the story.

 

That and I hate limits, I hate ratios, I couldn't even begin to tell you how many male or female characters we have because I'm too busy posting and having a good time to give a crap to care!

Yes agreed! I hate the whole 'in the name of our census balance' crap, whether it's genders, species, character types, whatever.

 

I have another but I'm not sure it really fits the thread, though I'll say it anyway. The way rules are sometimes written in general. If someone starts going off on a first person tangent (I would appreciate it if you did X), it seems stupid and unprofessional. Related to that, having the rule listed, and then an entire paragraph of rambling directly underneath to supplement it.

 

For example:

1. No dogs!

Now we really don't like dogs around here. We're literally demons. We don't like em! So no dogs please, thank you!

 

How about just write the rule? The whole chiming in paragraph really grinds my gears.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Honorem