i have a lot of opinions on this and most of them conflict pretty radically so i'll just write until i feel like i've outlined it.

i really do love wanted ads. i love taking the skeleton of a character and filling in everything else about them. i love being given this idea or a relationship and being tasked with the challenge of formatting another life around it -- it's like a puzzle to me, in that way. i find that some of my most intriguing characters are born of wanted ads. 

on the flip side i really dislike creating, managing, and pulling a character for others from wanted ads. i don't often put up ads for my own characters because i lack in good experiences from people taking my own ads. i'm a firm believer that characters should stand on their own as is, and so wanted ads created for the sake of propping up a character are something i frown upon. in addition to this i avoid ship ads like the plague, because a lot of the time i can't deal with the pressure of making a ship happen.

when i make ads i settle on a caricature and i try to leave it as broad as possible while still giving the details i desperately want. i find that the further removed i am from the character, the better the ad goes. over on ct i at one point roleplayed a character, his uncle, and his childhood best friend as well as adopted brother. the reasoning for this is because these three characters existed before CT in a private setting where overlapping relationships made sense. however in a forum setting it was restrictive and it kept me from exploring the relationship of the friends, and after a point i threw the character up as an ad. since then he has been taken and although he has the same name, he is not not the same character. do i struggle with this? yes, definitely; i had a very clear view of the character and i trusted someone to take this view and make it their own. i am more than happy with where it is, but i do find myself missing rping that character sometimes.

that isn't to be confused with me disliking the character now -- more that the relationship and the dynamic and even my own view on the character has changed due to someone else rping it.

i think in all situations you need to be prepared for your ad not being taken. if the ad isn't taken, are you crippled in rping the character? if the answer is yes, i would say to either trust that important figure with someone close to you or to perhaps make said character not as necessary.

i am also blessed with having a dedicated and lovely rp partner who hasn't given me a reason for want ads. our rping experience together has been about approaching each other with ideas that would be ads and filling them for each other. there is no pressure with trying ships with her, no pressure in character chemistry with her, and i know the writing chemistry will be fine.

tl;dr i love taking wanted ads, i dislike making wanted ads, and valka takes the majority of my would-be wanted ads anyway.