<sup>I think FC hording is bad, that's why it's good to structure your site in a way to avoid someone swiping 50 faces and doing nothing with them.

But to the member who mentioned face claims being a reference, they aren't, 99.99% of the time they are a 1 to 1 right down to the clothes, the tattoos the piercings of whatever the FC looks like. Not only that but a lot of sites now don't even bother with an appearance written section, so how do you make changes to your FC? Some sites don't even let you edit the FC, like changing the hair or eye colors.

A face claim to me is personal, just like a name, just like my character's profile. They connect for me and mean something. Whereas character's I don't really care about, you can take their name, their face claim, be inspired and pluck from their storylines, I don't care because they are vacant of meaning to me.

I don't think there is anything wrong if you personally want to share your face claim, or have people who look alike to your character etc that's fine, it's your choice and what you are comfortable with.

But I don't agree with this narrative to trash talk people who care about the face claim they use, and label them 'possessive' of their face claims. These people have formed an attachment to their creation, they've stayed consistent enough with the FC that is who they see them as. What's wrong with that? Nothing, there is nothing wrong with caring about your creation and wanting to stay consistent with them.

Of course don't be mean about it, don't bully or target someone because they are using your FC and you want it, just move onto a site where someone isn't using it.

I also want to mention that it doesn't just go with your own FCs as well, you can form the same connection to other people. For myself I see a name or a FC and if either of those suddenly change but they are the same person, I really struggle with that because I come to recognize them...the same way you recognize your friends faces or names.</sup>

sites that don't let you edit fc is wack. any oc rp site that cares so deeply about that has completely forgotten that they're an oc site, not a canon site. i don't think i understand how an fc can be one to one though. i have to assume you're solely using canon pics, or you're vetting art to the detail, because a lot of art of characters is not consistent in themselves.

you're free to be attached to a face claim and feel like they are your character to its essence. but i personally have a hard time justifying the amount of stress and shit that comes from people acting like children over face claim reserves in a writing hobby. i'd rather treat them as headcanons, like voice claims, all completely valid, if it means i never have to deal with someone having a public meltdown because i 'sniped' their ideal fc when i was a new member again. i think this is a shared pain point; experience with people whose attachments lead to them refusing to play nice with others. but also it's not the main reason for face exclusivity that was brought up anyway. faceclaim possessiveness was something being mentioned tangentially. the biggest problem is the hoarding that fc non-exclusivity could solve by making it not matter (and of course, make reserve wars encouraging people to make characters that they're not actually that invested in and never rp, just to snag the fc first blessedly redundant).

there's also something so removed and discordant to the fact that none of us actually... own any of these designs? and we're treating them like they're unique to our oc? a complete make or break? i get it - i do - i also see fcs and think "oh character from rp x". but it's no different to having been on multiple sites and seen the same fc or names used over and over and having to adjust.

i'm also coming from a place of selfishness, i'll admit. the less rp focuses on graphics in general, the less stressed i'll be as a coder too. less to script, less to code, less to design, please & thank you 😥

tldr, there's nothing wrong with forming attachment. i do too. i just don't feel like i can use it to justify face claim exclusivity anymore. your mileage may vary, that's fine too; i'm not running a site any time soon, so (^._.^)ﾉ to be fair, its all just me speculating about what would be best for the rpc lol which doesn't mean it will be good for every circumstance, or that at least 90% of what i say isn't utter bs

def the kind of thing i see being "you either go all in or don't" , and if you're going all in on plot, it can be a good system. i'd love to see it in practice; my general apprehension is that it breeds resentment and some people raise a ruckus about it and how to go about it to avoid that.

i find it weird that people are willing to be so possessive and attached to designs but aren't willing to pay an artist any money to design their characters for them so they can own those designs and have a right to be possessive and attached.

like idk dimitri (whose avatar i need to fix) is my own character, i own his design, i own the art made for him. i didn't make him myself, but i know the person who did, and she gave him to me for keeps. i feel like i'm allowed to go "hey don't use my character's design" because i actually own it. (i'm not allowed to sell him or give him to anyone else, as per the terms of having the OC, but i can use him on any site i want for basically any reason. so if my wolf site shuts down, i'm allowed to keep him.)

<sup>I do really like what you said about not owning the original design. This is 100% something that keeps me up at night. If I could draw in a way that I was happy with I'd love to design my character's from the ground up. That's such a dream and I have SUCH admiration to those who can do something like that. They are brilliant people. ♥ For now, all my talent lies is in writing and loving my characters and the passion that flows from others and their creations, I have formed an attachment to my characters face claims and names etc. But I will never be cruel to those who have taken the FC. I'm sorry for anyone who has to deal with that type of behavior. I don't condone it at all. 

For myself as well, roleplaying has never been just a hobby to me, it is my life's passion. I spend hours daily writing, creating graphics to visualize the stories made and all sorts of dorky nicknacks. But that's just me. Whether it's your passion or your hobby, the most important thing is to not let that be cause to treat someone else poorly.</sup>

Admittedly I've been all over the place with regards to this. These days, face claims are sort of a placeholder for me. Once I get sufficiently attached to the character over the course of RPing them, that's when I commission an official portrait for them, I.e. The way they actually look in my head.

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i think a lot about that reddit post i read (and replied to) of a you g teen girl who loves talking to ai cloud. She knew she was balls deep in it bc she’s struggling with feelings of possessiveness and envy, about how she hates it when others like cloud bc to her, cloud is hers. She cant make friends or share even her joy in others bc she feels she isnt special or unique anymore if others like what she likes. These are her own words btw. I think she was like 14 or 15. This wasnt any popular reddit post but i do sometimes go through the mental health reddit page

I think it’s a parasocial relationship with this fiction. The internet has really messed up people’s mental health, building a whole new reality that only exists where they think it exists. I do think there’s a deeper cause behind it, like loneliness and insecurity. I dont like people being posessive of ideas, but i aslo find them pitiful

Just gonna step in here with unwanted two cents;

Yes possessive behavior is problematic and weird over designs you don't own, but looking down on them for having attachment to it is also kinda weird. I don't feel like attachment and possessiveness should really be lumped in together tbh.

Confort characters exist in that attachment spectrum and it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just the possessiveness is.

I + a few friends of mine have certain ocs in our rosters that we developed an attachment to, fc and all, due to being invested exc in them more and more over time. Not everyone gets attached to ocs like that I guess, but for me it is an easy way to elevate out of a bad mental space, if I talk/think about or write a character I've gotten attached to.

If anything I think it helps my mental health by giving me a foot-hold to get over the pitfalls with. That being said, my attachment is also separated from possessiveness.

If I could actually afford to buy art to commission, that would be a different story. But fam we be broke af.

ofc, but anything can "breed resentment" in an rp community. i don't think we should be worried about people taking things in bad faith when you can simply block those who come to the site in bad faith. people who actively engage w/ and want to create plots for the rest of the site deserve to be rewarded in a way, plus it takes some of the pressure off of admins to plot everything themselves.


i dont think we really gain anything by going "well some people could be upset" when it would be completely unreasonable to be upset about something like this, especially when it was a system where everyone could apply for & get the same position but they had to earn the right to keep it? it's the same way you'd get fired if you did a bad job, or if you're playing a game and you suck at doing something, you will be told to do something else for the good of the group.

quick edit: honestly this comes off as very mean but i have seen rp drama come out of the smallest things like... not being included in a plot that they did not do any effort to be involved in,,, so honestly my whole attitude is that people like that can & should get filtered

Been seeing more and more art credits. That's great. But in case you need to hear this:

Please do not link to Zerochan/Danbooru/Pinterest/Other Image Aggregate sites when crediting your artists.

Artists need impressions, likes, site traffic to grow their online presence. When Nintendo's looking for an artist to draw art for their Fire Emblem Heroes gacha game, who do you think will be noticed sooner?

It's kind of like when you write a story and post it to your site. It's a good story. 200 people liked it.

One of them liked it so much, they copied and pasted it to a story aggregate site. 5,000 people liked it there.

You post a new story. It's better than the last. 220 people liked it because your own site's audience has hardly grown, and people will instead wait for the story aggregate site to get updated with your new story.

If you don't even know it was posted to the aggregate, you can't even bask in the feelgood of having so many people like your stuff.

So when crediting and linking to artists, link to their social media, their sites, their Pixiv pages instead. It only takes a little more effort now that image aggregates often credit the artists.

Not sure if the “looking down” on them was addressed to whar i said, but just in case, posessiveness and attachment are far two different things. I havsnt been fully following this convo but attachment didnt even come to my mind of what we were talking about. The reddit post i was talking about was definitely not just about being attached to a fictional character.

If it wasnt particularly addressed to me u can ignore this post 8)) regardless ia anyway. I am attached to fc’s on my characters but it wouldnt deprive me of joy if someone else takes it. Maybe there can be a fleeting sense of disappointment but it would be just a normal emotion. Nothing extreme that gives out bad vibes or sucking away anyone’s happiness

Is there a stigma against running multiple sites at once? I'm getting too old and I don't know how much longer I'll be in this hobby, and there are just some things I really want to write. I understand that having a site is a responsibility, and some may see having multiple as being spread too thin? Maybe that some will not get enough attention? I dunno! GAH! I just have itches to write some things but there are no forums out right now that will fill those needs, and I don't see any being made in the future unless I make them. :( Man.

ngl i judge site owners who run multiple sites. but it’s more so bc of how that relatea to flakiness of owners who love to create a bunch of sites and then abandon them. As someone who likes to invest in sites, it makes me worried. And i think it’s a valid concern tbh

BUT i have so considered running multiple sites at once for the same reasons you mentioned

AND despite what i said abt judging, at the same time, i totally understand and ultimately, i think people should just do whatever they want. I thino you should just go wild and do what makes you happy

There’s the option to go under a different alias but personally i think you could just be open about it. It’s a lot more comforting bc it’d like like you’re genuine about writing. You dont have to advertise you have multiple sites (thatd be awkward) but maybe a note or something. But that’s just my take as a member as i havent actually been in that position. I usually dont have problems with my activity, so when i was considering how to approach running multiple sites, i thought abt not hiding it in particular + my activity speakong for itself

I think members would admire anyone with dedication to their writing no matter how many sites they have!