if you ever need help with any of it, the community here is quite knowledgeable and helpful when it comes to skinning and coding questions, or even just staffing related questions. Sometimes people are even willing to come check it out and give pointers and tips. Stay excited!

I love doing the backend stuff, putting reserves in and the like. It sounds weird but it's fast, easy to do, and immediately satisfying. Making lore only to expand upon it later and adding more life to your setting is so much fun too. 

Is it better to be known as really lax or really stringent about character approvals?

personally i think that decision is based on the setting. if your rp is more based in reality, being strict is required so as to not break lore. if your rp is lore heavy, then being strict is required for the same reason. however on the same hand, if its fantasy and not based on our world and its logic, then i dont see the point in being as strict as the aforementioned reasons.

of course, it's okay and honestly pretty valid to be strict or lax regardless, its your site in the end. i just think the reasons i mentioned are a good basis.

Personally, I agree with the above statements. It really depends on site setting, lore, reality, etc. I have some sites where I've been super strict about apps and requirements, and sites where I literally just sorted them, half of the time before apps were even done. It all depends on what you feel is best, or what you want to do based on the type of site that you're running.

Same thing with having fields of requirements versus a free written app. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, it all just depends on what the admin/staff team feel comfortable with doing for their site. If you can get away with something more lax without everything breaking, then feel free to do that. If you need restrictions and requirements, then do that. Everything is acceptable.

I used to be super strict. That was what I came from, 5k+ history, it had to be accurate to the time zone, etc. I remember one app got pended because I used 'he' too many times instead of their name or other description. While I am stringent about nothing breaking lore - I've learned to let go of a lot of other things, character app wise and people-personality wise. I think it's a case by case basis but as long as the character isn't too out of left field it can be given a chance - however - you should always think of the personality your site is going for.

Like, there was nothing wrong with an app I got before besides the edge but like, I don't think a baby killer on a slice of life site fits, yknow. It's okay to say no even if you're lax.

Sort of along the same lines but not really... I try really hard to not be the type of admin that is super intimidating to new people. Personally, I'm not entirely sure how I come off as intimidating in the first place, but people often take rejections or "hey btw you need to fix this it doesn't fit with the lore." as intimidation instead of correction. I get that I can be very blunt with the way I put things, but I'm not angry about it or going to fly off the handle unless there's a good reason to. At the same time though, being too soft of an admin is also very much a problem. Gotta find a good middle ground.

Idk if everyone already does this and I'm preaching to the choir, but one thing I try to do when pending a profile is give an Easy Out. I assume most lore/timeline/plot-detail-centric type of errors are people who just.. don't really care that much about that specific piece of worldbuilding, and made the character for other reasons anyway

Like on top of the exact problem, I'll give a suggestion of the easiest fix possible, always with a follow-up of "or anything else you had in mind" so it's clear it's not just this or scrap the whole character

For example, say they wrote about their character attending an elite academy at 6 years old, only that place 100% does not accept children so you know, just literally a Not Possible™ situation. I'd word it something like "Unfortunately, McSnooty's School For Elitist Fops does not accept students younger than 18, so Richard could not have attended until later. One quick solution is maybe he went to a private prep school first, one that allowed him to sail through McSnooty's once he could legally attend? Or anything else you might like, we can definitely talk ideas"

... I feel like it helps reception while straddling that line between "firmly detailed world" and "let people just play", but then that's probably just filtering out everyone who noped out the moment they saw a whole paragraph from me, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So what I'm hearing is that there's a way to balance it and make compromises.

... Gee, I wish more people would read this thread!

My travels since my last favorite site have led me to forums where the staff take a super hard stance on inane things.

e.g.
That my animanga FC is not wizened nor wrinkly enough to pass as 48.
That the child-of-previous-monarch role I meant to take is for male characters only.
That Anastasia Romanov isn't famous on her own merit (?)

If it's for the sake of your forum's roleplay vision, you do you, but I confess that I would never care that much about this stuff.

ma'am we literally became friends bc you keep letting me play cannibals

To piggy-back off of Noire's post, didn't feel like doing a whole quote thingy...

For pending apps, usually I will point out where the wrong features are and if there are fixes. Most of the time I will make a small list of what's wrong and why it's wrong and also make suggestions. It's just that a lot of people either then either take the L and fix it, or throw a fit about how they shouldn't have to bend their characters like that.

It's always such a toss up dealing with #people.