Are You A, a poll Options

[Talzhemir]

I've been following various comments and off-Forum threads on Para RP.

Do furres who call themselves Para RPers agree on what it means? I'm curious to find out if there's a clear consensus. Generally, so far, I've found wildly different opinions throughout Furcadia. One furre, who called herself a Para RPer, honestly told me it meant filling the screen each time!

Also, I'd like to know-- are there alot of Para RPers? Recently a Dream I was in that was Strict RP lost nearly all its players because it was run by two furres who wrote Para into their rules. Could it be that this is just too rare of a taste? As I've seen several other Para Dreams that seem to be doing fine, I wonder if maybe it wasn't just their strident and shrill demands. No compromise was their apparent philosophy- did they give other Para RPers a bad name? Exactly how many furres who call themselves Para RPers are there, compared to the general populace, anyways?

The concept is especially interesting to me because Furcadia won't always be limited to such a small text window. Eventually it will be resizable, and what the typical furre considers "normal" or "acceptable" might change alot. As always, hope this provides food-for-thought, and, thank you for taking the time to fill a poll out for me.

[Remus]

I run a paragraph-roleplay guild where we prefer if members post at least 4 lines. The way I see it, roleplay tells a story, and allows one to be able to close their eyes and picture the scene after reading a person's post.
Body language, expression, mood, and the overall scene are important to the type of roleplay my guild has, and one or two liners aren't very descriptive and are very ambiguous in my opinion.

However, I dislike and do not support a type of paragraph RP that some call "thesaurus thumping". The point of a roleplay post is understanding what the other furre is saying, not throwing in a bunch of big words that look fancy.

[Shaun Cross]

I think the best thing I’ve heard regarding post size is: “ Posts should be like skirts, long enough to cover everything, but short enough to keep interest. “ I think this is the way it should be, cause not everyone wants to read a large post that covers everything in the first few lines then continued on to just add more and more useless information that can’t be used in the RP.

[Zexnon]

Roleplay is what the roleplayer themselves make it. I tend to like descriptive RP...but I am more so fascinated by storylines. I RP with all sorts, I simply expect proper spelling and grammar...or at least as best as the person is capable of.

In the end it is what you enjoy doing, not what others like. I am a fast typist but that is because I've been at it for years. Not everyone can type fast which I understand. But being impatient is what I am known for XD Thus I tend to not RP with people who take a good twenty minutes to post, especially since I don't always have the time to dedicate to such long roleplay's.

[Ridia]

I wasn't fully positive how to answer this poll becuase I don't call myself a para RPer anymore, nor a semi para Rper... I simply call myself an RPer.

[Chey d'Larivey]

Personally I feel that you must adapt to who you are playing with. I mean there are times I can put out those posts that will overrun the post window and be cut and others time if only one or two sentences are all that are needed then that is what I do. But I look at like this .. you get what you give. I enjoy rping on here and I have seen some that can't post more than one line or two . That is fine as long as it gets the point across. Afterall this a game and should be enjoyed by all. I personally stay away from certain dreams just because they have become elitist and leave no room for new players , who may be new to rp , and others who may be just looking for a casual rp to relax with for the evening. Been rping for over tweny years now .. though I have only been rping online for about 6 . So have pretty much mellowed out and go with the flow. Unless I know the person I am rping with is showing an obvious disinterest at which point I will politely end it.

[Kamose]

My general philosophy is that real-time role-playing (such as in Furcadia) should have posts that are short enough to be written in a minute or two. I'd really rather see a somewhat imperfectly expressed idea NOW than have my role-playing partner spend two minutes deciding whether her character's eyes should look flirtatious or bashful. Lengthy paragraphs that take a long time to write are better suited to message boards.

I think that my attitude stems from my early role-playing experiences.

Real-time role-playing in MUDs

I first role-played in MUDs (and to a lesser extent, chat rooms), where response time was considered very important. If you took more than a minute or two to respond, people wondered if you were multi-tasking. The emphasis seems to be on interaction with other players who are sharing a common experience. Furthermore, in MUDs, there is not as much of a need for long posts, because many MUDs handle actions with individual verbs. (If you don't type a verb that the game recognizes, nothing happens.) The longer posts tend to be limited to actual dialogue. A character's speech tends to mimic a real person's speech, and people tend not to speak in flowery paragraphs IRL.

One other important thing about MUDs that heavily influenced me was the idea that other characters can't read my character's mind. Unlike a novel written in third-person omniscient form, the readers (other players) should only see what I do. They're left to infer my thoughts and feelings from my actions, words, and demeanor. (I try to apply the same principle to descriptions.) When I see a person shaking, I don't automatically know that the pit bull down the street triggered a childhood memory of a vicious dog attack that killed his baby brother. Some people find this additional information interesting, but I'd rather be left to wonder.

Message Boards

My other main role-playing influence was the message board system. This is something that is quite different from real-time role-playing. On message boards, people expect you to write at least a good paragraph, if not a lot more. The emphasis shifts to a form of a loosely connected cooperative story-telling where each person writes about a different character. Since it's not in real time, there is an unwritten consensus that it doesn't matter if it takes you a few hours or even a day to post something.

My Thoughts on "Para-RP"

I must admit that I don't really get the para-RP trend, despite the recent thread on point. Talzhemir's poll answer: "I don't judge a post by its length. I prefer good grammar, coherent writing, and spelling that showed somebody cared about what they posted," pretty much summarizes how I feel about writing in general and role-playing in particular.

To me, the insistence on paragraphs of a certain length reminds me of high school English teachers who specified word or page minimums on papers. Sure, the teachers (like para-RP advocates) had good intentions: they wanted to make sure that students adequately covered the topic. Unfortunately, the result was that students who would otherwise write more concisely developed the bad habit of adding fluff to bolster the length of their papers. I have never admired writers who insert a needless string of adjectives and adverbs to increase their perceived facility with language.

[Nai]

Wow that's a lot of smilies...

Anyways, I call myself a Para RPer, just because my posts generally end up being enough lines that I consider it a paragraph. Considering that I've heard a full Furcadia window called a "page", I think the four lines I usually put into my posts is at least a paragraph.

But, mostly, I just ask that my RPing partner puts in at least 3 lines. And I work off of the length they work off, if at all possible. I'm not going to put filler into my posts to lengthen them, so if I don't have much to do, there won't be much to my post. The opposite is true as well.

I also don't think 'Para' means 'Porn' in the slightest. While my RPing takes place in FurN almost without exception, it's not always, and frequently isn't, sexual in nature. While I admit that my characters take part in it, that's not their primary function (save one), nor secondary.

The only problem I see with Para RPers is that many tend to be very snobbish, not deigning to RP with anyone that posts less than they do, and have excellent grammar, spelling, and word choice (almost to the point of screwing the thesaurus). While I admit that I get irritated when I put a lot of effort into my posts and I get posts half my length, or posts that make me wonder if English is their third or fourth language, I think the lengths that some people take the elitism is absolutely outrageous, and THAT is what gives Para RPers a bad name.

And this post has gone on long enough.

[Starla Darkstar]

I agree with what several people have said already. The following are just a few examples:

"Roleplay is what the roleplayer themselves make it. I tend to like descriptive RP.....I simply expect proper spelling and grammar...or at least as best as the person is capable of."- Zexnon

" Posts should be like skirts, long enough to cover everything, but short enough to keep interest. "-Shaun Cross

".....Roleplay tells a story, and allows one to be able to close their eyes and picture the scene after reading a person's post.
Body language, expression, mood, and the overall scene are important to the type of roleplay my guild has, and one or two liners aren't very descriptive and are very ambiguous in my opinion."- Remus

Yes, I know that it is basicly all that have been posted, that I've seen, but it still covers all the bases. Espically Remus' post about body languate, expression and the overall scene. Yea, I don't have much time to RP right now, but when I do, I keep finding people that post just a few words or lines that are nothing more then basic verbal responses to what ever it was that I actually said though most of my posts have been about how a character moves (body language) and what she is wearing (mood ques). Another thing that I keep having touble finding is people with expanded vocabularies... what I find instead are people that over use common words which is fustrating, at least to me. Anyway, enough ranting by me...

Thanks Talz for putting up this poll, it helps us (Para, Semi-para and non-para) RPers know where everyone else's mind is at, and what they are thinking about during pauses between posts. *smiles and gives Talz a quick hug before slowly wandering back to working on a winter version of her home dream and the fustrations of a Mason trying to patch when she's extreamly tired.*

~Starla Darkstar~
Owner- MST
Mason Beekin

[chain]

Firstly, I find it mildly ironic those who prefer long, coherent posts ... use an unofficial abbreviation "Para". Most would consider me a Paragraph, to "Multi paragraph" roleplayer, because, quite honestly it takes me around seven to ten minuets (on a slow day) to come up with nearly a full page of text. Not furcadia text box, but a 8 ½ x 11 piece of printer paper post. The reasons for this vary, but by default, I respond to everyone's post with a solid paragraph, it's pretty easy when you have a bunch of people playing.

If I'm with a power player, I can spend nearly that much space on a great single post, just for them. I've never had any complaints. Personally, being one that hangs out in furn a lot, I find [para] is just another tag to "keep up" with everybody else, meaning, there's almost a standard to furn descriptions, notice how almost -everybody- has a Rabbit Hole profile?

Personally, I don't -call- my self a "para" role-player, because I feel that role-playing is -supposed to be- at least four or five "furc lines" of text, saying it over again would be redundant.

If you're considering, adding in the option to have an even larger text window .. that would be mad of Awesome, and win <3 ... Also the ability to disable some key-commands would be nice, such as control+b, and control+u .. quite frankly, I occasionally hit them instead of what I wanted >: (

[Zae]

OK WILL DO THIS IN A SECOND.

[KinkyKelseyKat2]

To myself, I think that the posts should be at least 1/2 Longer. Seeing as I'm a part-time pararaph Roleplayer, My posts seem to go longer then the Screen can hold. It gets Agravating when you can't see what your typing, so you have to type into wordpad then transver it.
Though I do understand that most people can only type so much, or don't even roleplay, So I was wondering, if we could create a Toggle for such. Like, how we have the different skins, is if we could have the different Text Amount as well. That way we could all get it to fit our own dark hearted needs.
And Its finally nice to see that its about time someone thought about making the Paragraphs longer/Shorter. Been driving me crazy for years, but oh well. Whatever happens, will happen with that.

Kelsey

[Meiun]

I think Para depends on the time of day and people. If its early morning or late night where the general population of the rp come from, they're probibly going to type less. Mid day to after work/school, most folk post more. The description if always differant though.

My friend runs a pokemon rp dream asking for para rp. Most folk who come there have low grammar abilities and don't type much - except for our group of friends. My experience is, the more rules the less they're followed. People like to rebel.

It is about quality, content, and length in all. Roleplay is like a book with far too many authors. If you go on about your character's beautiful hair or hideous birthmark, that's not worth it. Just go short.

Im expecting a secret communique from agents of the Priory of Sion. Hail unto the Merovingian Line!
.. Excellent. XDD;

Jehovah's Witnesses have come to the door.
That happens to me all the time >>

[Sao Kymo]

I couldn't care less about how long a post is so long as it's clear and understandable within the continuity. Personally, I keep my posts as short and concise as possible just to keep the story moving. Paragraphs of text are okay for battles or other descriptive, emotional scenes, but when characters are just hanging out at the local pub for small-talk full-length posts aren't necessary. Simplicity is an artform.



But then, I read roleplay posts as a comic or theatre scripts rather than some grandiose volume of literature--it gives the story a faster pace and makes for easy editing and adaptations later.

[Vibe]

I usually cram up a nice page. I used to play a character where I could whip up two pages for one post in about 8 minutes. I dunno what happened, guess I lost my passion for Furcadia. Now I stick with about 75% to 100% of a page. though I've bogged down a lot. No passion, lack of useage, ect ect. It makes for a very slow and unimaginitive post. <.< A life and ignorant people with do that to a person.

[Setaro]

To myself, I think that the posts should be at least 1/2 Longer. Seeing as I'm a part-time pararaph Roleplayer, My posts seem to go longer then the Screen can hold. It gets Agravating when you can't see what your typing, so you have to type into wordpad then transver it.
Though I do understand that most people can only type so much, or don't even roleplay, So I was wondering, if we could create a Toggle for such. Like, how we have the different skins, is if we could have the different Text Amount as well. That way we could all get it to fit our own dark hearted needs.
And Its finally nice to see that its about time someone thought about making the Paragraphs longer/Shorter. Been driving me crazy for years, but oh well. Whatever happens, will happen with that.

Kelsey

Sometimes if I post too much(which is like rare in and of itself) you can switch the font size in the corner and that usually let's you have some more room without cutting anything off. *__*!!

[Nathaniel De'vir]

Well this topic is a fairly popular one, at least within my own social group on Furcadia which consists of any number of, "niches" I guess you could say, but I use that loosely because I hate putting people in terms of: Para, semi-para, noob, twink, power-player, etc.

[/color]

The subject of Para-rping, or non-para is really not all that complicated. Some people do it, and some people don't; for those that don't, respect the people who do. For those that do, learn some consideration and realize that not everyone has the same wants, or needs of Rp that you do. But because everyone is different conflict occurs, I guess.



Personally I do a varied length, most often dependant on the person I'm role-playing with. People need to understand that although a person doesn't write more then three, or four lines, it's not always due to a lack of imagination-sometimes they merely don't want to. An off-day, their preferred style, they could be extremely young and may just not have the patience to write that much.



[color="#000000"]On the off-hand there are a lot of, "para" stereotypes too. I've been called, "an elitist pig" simply for writing the maximum amount now and then. I don't know anymore; I'm going off on a tangent. Meh, people are people, and as people everyone has their own style!! Dammed, why can't we all just learn to get along? <3 But I'll stop with a serious note, when it goes from fun, to not fun, then you know there's a problem. Games are supposed to be fun. >=) Write however much you feel like.

[Xxysthstris]

In my opinion: Robert Jordan is a prime example of what to not aim for when it comes to authoring posts in roleplay, as the length becomes not only tedious, but lacking in plot, depth, character and atmosphere.

Though contrary to this: Jordan was, in my opinion, one of the world's greatest authors during his earlier years. However faultered when it came to making one hell of an epic saga turn into a boring-as-hell midday soapie by playing things out far too long by using much too much useless filler.

Regardless of this:

Ask me to paint you a picture, and I'll give you the words which describe it in my own mind.

[Youlanda]

I tend to pick up cues from simple poses, what a character says, the situation, and can put most imagery together with that information combined with a description. Because of that, I don't include too many details, figuring others are capable of making the same conclusions by using their imaginations and examining the situation. I find myself feeling mildly insulted when folks feel the need to spell out and give every detail about a character or a situation, as if they don't trust my imagination and intelligence. My mind is not challenged if people spell out everything for me, if I wanted everything spelled out for me I'd hunt down some static reading material.

Alas.

[Panya]

I personally don't care what style someone uses. I myself am I para rp fan but it's painfully obvious when someone who isn't, is trying to be.

The -only- thing that annoys me is people who fill their posts with actions. So every post their character changes position or fiddles with something.