b2uh

10!!!!!!

Style/Tone
mm baroque

Factions
Agree: I think factions should be kept to a bare minimum. Don't let the playerbase get split up too much. Say no to someone making their oc Sfjnasdn or a Bount. Keep it low - Shini, Arrancar, Quincy. Hybrids can be sub-groups. Races not tied directly into the main events of the story (Fullbringers, etc.) are rather pointless. Even if someone might want to write one, if you've got a clique of 5 people fucking off in some corner of the site doing irrelevant stuff, that's not good.

Plot-Driven VS Player-Driven Plots and Events
Not much to say here atm other than that I think there should be some focus placed on getting people into the story. Many varied events or hooks or other ways to allow people to get invested without needing to make a bunch of 1v1 threads. Though I think this is more a discussion for all sites in general.

Conflict
People might get pissed by what I say here, but I've always thought that staff are well within their right to deny characters or ideas. I think, like you said, a clear 'mission statement' helps. I sure as hell can't cook a souffle - there'll be people out there who can't write seriously or in the vein as what you're looking for. If the goal of the site is a series of well-told stories and character relationships, the person looking to rp a soul reaper who likes to pretend they're a puppy 24/7 might not be the best fit. No amount of 'maybe you should try changing x' will make that into a good situation. Not saying you should be turning away everyone at the gate, but having a clear definition of what you want and communicating that to app staff is important. There should be a base level or seriousness and skill.

Combat and Mechanics
I agree here, plus I'd continue to say that minimizing staff work would be a godsend. The more time staff can spend actually writing, the healthier the site. Member threads, aside from completion/grading/wtvr, should be entirely in the members hands. While I prefer long apps, there is something to be said for small/no apps in that regard too. 

Progression
Personally, I think WC is often boogeyman'd. It shouldn't be the primary focus, of course, but in my eyes it isn't a problem per se. It'd be too complicated probably to do something like a diminishing returns system, and there is some serious hate out there for minimum word counts. No one wants to slog through 1000s of words a post, but how often is 100-200 really enough to fully progress the plot? All that said, I just don't think milestone-only would appeal to a wide audience. Progress in that regard is subjective - some people don't want to follow a character 'arc' and to them progressing is just making and building upon relationships with other characters. If there isn't any forward momentum for their own character, it might not satisfy a milestone reward. tldr; milestone only is tenuous imo

I agree otherwise, some kind of loose system that works for varied abilities and concepts but still allows 'ranking' of characters is important. Whether that is light stats or a specific rank like 1-b or something idk. Tying it to IC rank would be a mistake imo like saying "they're a captain so they must be strong." Of the sites I've seen, in and out of fandom, BG has the system I find the best. Perhaps something even looser could be good too though. 

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