nah see 'cause the amount of times i've gotten ask "so what's your character like" while not only i've linked to my character's app, BUT ALSO DID A WHOLE ASS PLOT PAGE JUST TO SUMMARIZE WHAT MY CHARACTER'S BEEN THROUGH. i usually don't write too much either, or i think i don't. i just add in parts where i think matters in terms of how it impacts my character and how others may view them.

my character app is not just fancy decoration dang it :sob: i did not put in consideration, time, and effort just for the app to be overlooked and straight up ignored. maybe it's because i actually read through apps to have an idea of who a character is that if something as basic as that (for the hobby) is not reciprocated, i'm just like hfdxfds.

now ALL OF THAT SAID, i have absolutely no actual problem if people don't read my app. it happens, not even gonna bother making a fuss about it, and i have no problem giving a synopsis of who and what my character is. it's just a little frustrating that (in a genera sense) no reads your hard work ):

Ye i’m not gonna be mad if you dont read my app if we havent talked but the moment we plan to rp… yoo… come on.

To me, it’s just a sign of good faith. RPing is a give and take. I feel like if you don’t make the effort in starting things out with an rp partner, you’re just there to take. That your rp partner is disposable and replaceable, and that stings. It stings bc rping is a hobby, a hobby people pick bc they love writing and stories. Because it’s an escape from the real world where your hard work is often ignored and even ridiculed. People say “it’s just a hobby” and it is but hobbies are practically what helps us thrive as people. It’s us doing what we love and the fact that we get to share that with others? Even better.

And again, i am not saying you have to be friends with your rp partner. But i don’t see it as a “professional” relationship either. That’s just weird. There’s definitely something more personal about working your unpaid passion with someone.

i get major turn off ickies when the person i'm trying to write with don't read my app or at least skim it. it's common sense to me to do it myself. then, if i have questions, i'll just ask. tho if we're not interacting, i don't expect or sometimes want people to read my writing ( bc sometimes i write triggering content + people don't see the tags then get angry at me for it ).

sometimes people write their apps with a ton of fluff or as scene snippets. which can be great to read but hard to work with. that's the only time where i'll be like uh... what that guy be doin'?? how they vibe?? which i get might come off as a "why you no read?" but that's about it.

i had a conversation about this a while ago with an old friend and... we pretty much were like... if the person don't like / want to read, why are they in this hobby? all it consists of is reading and writing!! might as well get into dnd or some other rp medium because this clearly ain't it.

It's not that I don't read apps, but as an admin this is something I have to do on a regular basis, so I kinda just skim through them. Then, two months later, I'll be like "wait a minute, your character had a dead wife???" However, if I'm going out of my way to plot with someone, I'll definitely read their app and actually pay attention to what I'm reading.

You can add me to your list

In the novel writing world there are planners and there are "pantsers" (those who right at the seat of their pants). To call pantsing organic simply means that you don't go into it with a plan. You set a scene, put the characters together, and the story is whatever happens. It isn't meant as a dig at planning or to imply that it is bad.

When I write novels I pants. When I write posts I often prefer open threads/minimal planning and I don't read apps very often. I find it more enjoyable to write this way. It is easier for me to stay in character when what I know matches up with what I know. I can make unintentional mistakes about someone that lead to interesting conversations without having planned it in advance.

But I also am pretty experienced at doing it. Pantsing can lead to dead ends as often as it can lead to fresh new content. You've got to know what a thread needs to keep it engaging. The stereotypical open thread is people sitting down for lunch and then nothing happens but talk- a lot of pantsers will make threads like this and make people bored. There's a lot of finesse involved in "organic" writing with another person that doesn't fall flat.

one of my major turn offs is when people can't be bothered to be read my app- or even skim it. in a perfect world, everyone would match everyone's effort at all times, good or bad- but that's just not how it is and that's fine but i just raise a brow when someone i'm planning to do like, more than just a one off thread with can't be bothered to read my app. it definitely makes me less inclined to want to write with you if i feel like i am having to repeat things that are all written in the app that i wrote. and it's not like we're asking for you to write an essay or take a test about the character after either. it's one of those rp etiquette things that exists for a reason, imo.

It's been a while since we had a thread to shit on people.


Personally, I go over apps to have a gander at possible plot points to work into a thread. If I see your character's got a deceased child, I might try to work something into the thread that lets you address that plot point and work it out some. I think that's fun for me to do.

At the same time, I don't feel comfortable passing judgement on others for not reading my apps, and I don't even write my apps with an audience in mind. To me, I'm writing out my character as a presentation to the site admins, to let them know what I plan on doing. The most relevant stuff I want you to know before we sit down to write will be in bullet points in a plotter. Everything else, I will present to you within our posts.

For example, if my character has a complicated relationship with her family, I will write in the app that "She has a complicated relationship with her parents", then put a bullet point in my plotter that she is an aspiring artist, and she's looking to have her art displayed in a gallery.

Someone's char owns a gallery, great, we set up a plot where circumstances make the art director present it in their gallery (like, maybe they have a kid who's super into the paintings, which my character abuses to make the art director agree to put her art up just to placate his kid).

Within the thread, I'll reveal that my character's fathers were heavily against her going to art school and are convinced she'll be a jobless failure, so she wants to snap a picture of her art on display to prove them both wrong and show she had what it takes, in the hope that it may soften their harsh stance towards her and ameliorate their relationship.


So if someone hasn't read my app, that's fine. I don't take offence, and I won't think less of you for it, and I strive to ensure you still get to know my character through our writing. I'll go over all your apps to see if there's some interesting plot points that match up with mine, because that's the way I enjoy approaching it. But it's fine if that's not your cup of tea.

i am very much not a planner. And everything here can still happen even if you read an app. You don’t learn everything about a character by reading the app and instead that lil bit of knowledge can give some interesting options instead. And also make the other person happy

I don’t want options. I want to bring the personalities of the characters together and see what happens. It’s much easier to just communicate with people honestly about what I want. If I have someone approaching me wanting to hash a big plot out I usually let them know I prefer very light planning. If you tell someone your preferences that helps filter out incompatible partners and helps you find ones that mesh with you better.

Yeah see I'm this the exact same way. There's two ways I'll read apps: reading it as an admin and then reading it as a fellow writer. I'll take more careful care in reading as a writer when I want to plot someone but when I'm reading it as an admin I am just fact checking, making sure things follow with lore, etc. etc. 
But there have been occasions where I've asked to plot with someone and they just go "so who is [character name]" and sometimes I just want to link my app and not say anything else. Cause like, why am I making the effort to read your app to plot with you if you aren't reading mine. 

i hate non-plotter apps and don't play on sites that require them anymore so.

i find that most traditional apps are relatively useless for coming up with ideas, anyway. it's like i'll read it and go "ok that's an infodump about a character i legitimately don't care about yet. what are your actual goals with the character." which is why i only write on sites with plotters to apply. write plotters, not infodumps. give me ideas of what you want to write, because odds are our character histories don't really intersect and i don't care about anything else. like cool ur character has a dead wife. my character doesn't know that. what am i going to do with that. but if your plotter says "looking for someone to kill the people who killed the dead wife," that might be more useful and i might have an idea of what YOU want to write and what I can write with you.

Cos you made a choice to read it lol

I prefer learning about characters within threads as well. However, piggybacking on someone else, I'm also an admin. Reading all the apps is kind of something I have to do. However I do often forget like... all of the information anyways. Hell, I even have to refer to my own apps like 90% of the time. So it's not that I don't want to read apps before posting with people. It's that give me 5 minutes and I'm going to forget it anyways. Or I'll read it wrong and have to clarify it 81047293820342 times anyways. Besides that, not rereading them a bunch of times leaves my characters subjective too. While I know this doesn't work for everyone, it's not a respect issue or anything like that. It's that I have frogs for brains and won't recall it anyways...

edit: also. Isn't it also kind of the point to regurgitate some information from thread to thread with different people? Like if your character meets someone new each time, of course they're not likely to just spit out their whole back story, but revealing pieces at a time, or developing new things that might not be in an app... Isn't that also the point? Not that reading apps for people isn't important, but it is a hobby. and some people like to be surprised about things that may or may not develop. You don't need to read apps to learn about characters, not if you're paying attention in the threads themselves. Characters will reveal what they want to about themselves. That's part of what makes it fun. At least to me anyways. Again, everyone is different.