thatrainbowcity | (no subject)

GENERAL NOTES ON APPLICATIONS

All right… while it’s true that this might end up sounding perhaps entirely too academic / overly pretentious / whatnot, it can’t be denied that there’s a perpetual degree of puzzle and controversy surrounding the application process. It’s not – contrary to popular belief – a phenomenon visible only at

polychromatic, and I think it’s only fair to emphasize that we try our very damnedest to keep things clear for all parties involved.

To that purpose, we’ve tried to come up with – well, wouldn’t call them tips… but certainly with a guide of things we try to keep in mind when dealing with apps. Hope it helps.

][application guidelines][FAQ][

What we look for in an application would conveniently happen to be…?

Basically, any material that will reveal the personality of your character. Personally, I strongly discourage RP samples that focus on action sequences or excessive dialogue, because only a handful of applicants know how to incorporate those in a manner that is unique to the character applied.

If all you’re narrating is of the “X took aim, fired several rounds, then dashed through the corridor” variety, you’re not telling me anything that will help me distinguish character X from any other character A, B, C, or D. I shall be the first to agree that context helps, and action is a literary instrument – but in applications, we’re chiefly looking after character, so use it in moderation and with relevance to the char personality attribute that you’re trying to depict.

Idem, dialogue.

I’m sure it might be very gratifying for certain characters to discuss the weather outside at 500 words’ length, but unless you’re throwing in damn good narrative to support it in, you’re going to land us in the following problem:
1. confusion as to which interlocutor you’re applying [we often get dialogue!RP samples that have the other character tell more about themselves through their lines than the applied one does];
2. misunderstanding about how the dialogue’s content is relevant to your character;
3. failure to grasp your character’s personality.

We don’t want number 3 anymore than you do. Truly.

I guess you could call it ‘Show, don’t tell’, but I happen to believe that’s one of the stupidest writing laws known to man and mammal, myself. It helps us a lot if the sample is focused on character reaction or thought process.

Ultimately, there are natural exceptions. I’ve been left ga-ga by apps that were exclusively action or dialogue based, and that didn’t let their mean of conveying the story eclipse the actual purpose of apps – but they’ve been rare, and far between. If you think you can pull that, go for it. We live to be dazzled.

What about Additional RP Samples?

Those come into play whenever the initial post was either overly dialogue / action – based without presenting too much of the character, or when you’ve simply not given us a well-rounded image of the character.

`To elaborate on the latter point: if character X has three major personality traits, namely A, B and C, we expect you to at least portray two of them. Don’t focus on just one of them, or just on insignificant details. Sure, you can write nice prose around the fact that your character likes really salty tomato soup – but is that who he is? Or if he’s a gourmand who likes really salty tomato soup – is that all that he is?

Your mastery on the char’s personality might be, in fact, perfect – we just don’t know. The Additional RP Sample Request is there to help us find that out.

As a rule, we only ask for one additional RP sample per application.

…and what about the Info Resource Request?

Those are the product of a long-standing, sadly irreconcilable issue: moderators don’t know all fandoms firsthand. People who are unfortunate enough to be applying something in a fandom we do know will be subjected to a much more biting mod review. Similarly, people from fandoms we don’t know, and that for some reason have no char information immediately available online? Will be getting an info request.

We can’t help that – we take responsibility for everything that we approve. And we cannot approve blindly, and least of all shrug it off as a question of “small fandom, no one will notice ^__^v!” That wouldn’t be fair towards other players, would it?

But it’s not fair for me if I can’t find any info on my char online either!

No, it isn’t. But then again, I would think you’d entertain several difficulties not to find anything on a character anywhere online.

We had a complaint on this matter, and I strongly feel that we should clarify it: we do not ask you to necessarily find us author statements, official resumes, official sites, etc. Wikipedia scouting and a vague Google search are something we perform by default, so we understand why it might seem like we’re shooting down the ‘user-friendly’ resources when we ask you for resources -

…however, there are many ways around that. So many. An eljay community dedicated to fangirling that character will surely have one or two essays on them, to begin with. Ask a friend who knows the fandom to write a small characterization of the char you’re applying, then link us to it? Hades, much as it’s inconvenient to us to have to look through all of it, if you’re really pressed, we’ll even take very detailed summaries that provide some insight into the characters.

A rabid fangirl can be writing your resource – we don’t care, as long as it’s vaguely literate, and as long as you’re not the author. One could argue that you are in fact getting the better end of the deal here, as sockpuppets abound, and you can easily pick a char approach that matches yours for our reference.

What’s up with the OC app for Canon Chars?

We ask that you use the OC application for whenever a character has had a number of canon appearances [still enough to merit a char’s application], but doesn’t have a well-rounded personality established canonically. This is for when you know that you’ll have to fill in certain blanks.

When filling in an OC app for a CC, we kind of count on your fair judgment. We expect you to try and state which events did canonically happen, and which you are inserting as part of your interpretation. At the same time, please don’t try to overemphasize your character’s relationship with other canon chars beyond what canon itself has stated. You’ll inconvenience other players, and, er, well. That’s not very nice, and then sad, and cutesy, depressed emoticons pop up. See here: ._.

How many appearances are enough to merit a char’s application?

This is one of those tricky questions that is really, really circumstantial. As a very loose guideline, we’d recommend that the character have at least one or two identifying personality traits. If all we get in canon are the char’s name, rank and face? Sorry, but… yeah. Rather not, thank you.

Why are you only asking for all of this now, and have not in the past?

The app-process has usually been dependent on mod configuration and the time at their disposal. More to the point, it’s also always depended on the issues we’re confronted with. Mod decrees are reactionary by nature – unless there’s a trend in certain events, we don’t create rules for them.

Don’t you think that’s a little too strict?

Honestly? No. To be even more blunt, we’d love it if we could be far more lenient in our application process, as it would definitely cut down on a time and energy expenditure on our part that is more significant than you might first think. Unfortunately, that would entail that players talk among each other, or actually use the Characterization Complaint Thread to state their issues with quality control and misdemeanour thereof. There’s an ‘unfortunately’ there, and let’s underline why: people regularly don’t talk to each other, and they don’t use the Characterization Complaint Thread.

Part two of this ‘unfortunately’ relates to a conjunction: people don’t use the Characterization Complaint Thread but they resent and/or complain about certain manners of roleplay.

The quality of this game is part of our responsibilitie; we both know and are periodically informed of this fact. As moderators, we don’t want to have to police things -but we have no choice. Furthermore, in the absence of characterization complaints, we have no way to intervene, except for cases where basic RP rules are clearly violated: Godmodding, infomodding, etc. As such, what we can and do is that we try to filter through the application process.

I submitted an application and was asked for an addendum. I never replied to it before the app week ended. What now?

Basically, you just lost that application. We can’t allow you to post the addendum next app week, because someone else may have reserved the character, and then there’s a question of who gets precedence.

So why can’t you just extend my reserve?

Because, yet again, that wouldn’t be fair towards other applicants. Instead, try to manually reserve the character again, as per standard procedure. That way, everyone has a fair shot at things.

If someone else has reserved a character, may I still apply for them during that application week?

A bit inelegant, but yes, you may. However, please keep in mind that we shall be looking at their application first, and only appreciate yours if we reject theirs. Alas, this also means that you might wait up for a verdict until Sunday evening, if they happen to not follow up on their reserve without stating it.

Moderator involvement?

Application reviewing isn’t a fixed assignment, like the other moderator chores. We all take turns throughout the week, usually in duos. Therefore, please keep in mind when contacting a moderator that they might not have dealt with your application, and will require some time to procure the necessary information.

-

Hope this didn’t confuse anyone any further.

Please feel free to provide any further questions or comments on this or any other application matter. Insofar as suggestions don’t demand the spectacular or outright impossible, we’ll do our best to accommodate.

Thank you for your time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Long.

*snuggles teh ruxi*

...'LONG'?! =__=;;

Long! ♥

♥

But I want to harangue you for hours. How dare you?

I'm so glad I remembered to look at this when I got home, or I would not have seen the image I couldn't see at work.

*bites the hand*

Have the other half of my soul now.

♥

Thank you for clearing everything up~ ♥ And sorry again if I annoyed you about this. D=

Don't worry about it ~

I don't think that's too strict at all! It's all common sense IMO. ♥!!

A thought re: info requests.

You could just ask for a link to a site about the canon or the character for each app. Like...the link title is the character name.

Like so:

Series: Death Note
Character: L Lawliet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Death_Note_characters#Main_characters).

I've seen some of the larger games do things that way.

...Frankly, it made sense to me.

Oooh, it's all well-thought-out and logical and stuff. This is what we call 'sexcellent' around here.

We do?

...Well, it is what I call sexcellent in the real world? ^^;;;

Good enough.

I like to think so. Fair enough--I stole it from my roommate, and Jesu knows where she came across it.

It makes perfect sense to me. here, have part of the stocks on my heart.

♥

~...?

You sound like my University Creative Writing teacher.

Show, don't tell is what I'm good at though, so that's no problem for me. ('s what I got a degree in, after all. I didn't go to college for 5 years for nothing. And that's the first thing they teach you.)

I'll just next time know not to apply on a week where I will be going on hiatus.

But, I want to know--if you cannot reserve a character again (2 time max reached), can you continue to apply for them?

I'm not a believer in the "show, don't tell" bit, which is why I employ the terminology loosely.

And yes, you may.

I go overboard in descriptions. <.<

Flowery-language and the like. So, smack me if I go too far, mm?

And thank you~ Much love, and thanks for this. ♥ ♥ ♥

... err, uhm. *clears throat*

...

What I want to say is that I really appreciate how much time and effort you, the mods, are putting into this game to make it enjoyable for us players.

Thank you so much!

Raburabu ;; ♥

I don't see why, myself - but I suppose it depends on how seriously each person takes these things? It's all in the name of fun, after all, so don't take it otherwise.

But if you need help, by all means, one of us will be happy to provide it.

Thank you dahling! This was lovely ♥ you work too hard *3*

Hot shit. I'd buy you roses only, that'd be creepy.

Thank you for clearing this up; I was about 90% sure about half of the stuff you said up there was true already, but it's really nice to hear it from you~!

Awesome Ruxi post is awesome.

I know this will definitely help a lot of people, myself included.

HUZZAH~♥