i used the term "baby's first rp site" as a quick shorthand to cover a lot more ground than simply "someone new to rping" since, for example, people who come from other platforms (like discord or tumblr) or are returning to the forum rp community after a very long time often require a similar amount of hand-holding + gentle correcting for "basic" things that is super time-consuming and exhausting to handle, even if they may have a general idea of rp etiquette or navigating forum software; they're also tons more likely to show up on a site than someone who is brand new to rping, in my experience, so not including them is doing a huge disservice to the spirit of the original scream into the void sentiment i expressed in the op. (and, plot twist, i very obviously don't use that phrasing on my site since it's not something i would use out of context + only used it here on pixel in a staff confessions thread for the purpose i just explained + with enough context to be understood.)

but also the situation is actually a whole lot more messy than "just say you're not a good site for beginning rpers but there's lots of other sites that are accommodating". while that's a good way to handle it privately on an individual basis after the member has started the application process, it's definitely not something that's going to work to put in a site's rules section or description area for fairly obvious reasons.

however, using labels like "literate / semi-literate" or "intermediate / advanced" to try to convey that message instead also gets messy between esl rpers often feeling like it targets them (which it often isn't meant to), regular rpers taking it as a red flag that a site staff are elitist jerks (which it may not necessarily be), the labels not really getting at what they need to (since most people don't realize returning rpers or platform-hoppers are often in a similar boat to beginning rpers), and people just generally not realizing that they would fall into that beginner category (since imo most people don't tend to think of themselves as beginners, even if they recognize they're new to this or might need a little more help than someone more familiar with the format + culture).


tl;dr, it's really hard to communicate that a site isn't really a good place to integrate someone who isn't generally familiar with current forum rp culture + norms when the labels we try to use to communicate this often get interpreted as a red flag by people it's not meant to be catching and interpreted as not applying to them by people it is, and boy howdy does that make me want to stare into a void every time i then have to have the staff discussion of "do we need to be talking to this person privately or are we just gonna deal with it?"