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[The Dark Creator]

Roleplaying is all about creating a story with one other, or a few people. Rare cases a bunch of people. With that said, you think people would be able to accept all kinds of roleplayers, right?
Professional roleplayers
I'm obviously joking, but with that aside, i'll dive right into the meat of this topic.
Roleplaying is a hobby. We all know that. Some people do it for a story, some for the writing, and even a few people only love it for creating characters and expressing their personalities and abilities. With that said, the same logic can be applied to real life people. Nobody is perfect. There will be flaws within people, and trying to get people to focus greatly on getting big sentences and paragraphs, while the rest of the focus would be put into characters and... Well everything else, which usually isnt a lot. I had a buddy go for 1-3 paragraph roleplays and all the ones he had ended in ghosting, lack of interest for either party, and unable to continue it with all the filler into each paragraph. Could just be his luck, but still.
Additionally, it intimidates new roleplayers and discourages casual roleplayers. New roleplayers want things short and simple so it gets them used to the setting/plot better. Meanwhile casual roleplayers prefer things short and sweet.
A fix to this would be to ask for more detailed posts. Casual roleplayers typically know how to cram an entire story into a sentence or two, and new players could give it a whirl and should they make a mistake, correct them and teach. Not only does this open up the roleplay search to more people, it allows room for better actions, characters and story. If you do length requirements, i beg you to try out replacing "1+ paragraphs" with "Highly detailed posts"​

 

[Onmyoji]

Technically, when you add details, the post length naturally increases and could easily become 1+ paragraphs.

I usually don't care how much paragraphs I get as long as there is something to reply to. It can be two pages, can be two sentences, if it includes something meaningful for the plot and something to work with. Sometimes two sentences can express more than two paragraphs.

 

[Bone2pick]

Roleplaying is all about creating a story with one other, or a few people. Rare cases a bunch of people. With that said, you think people would be able to accept all kinds of roleplayers, right?

No, not right. Roleplayers vary greatly in terms of what they hope and need to get out of their roleplays. And it happens to be the case that many of those hopes and needs are incompatible. That means some roleplays can accommodate certain groups/types of roleplayers, but no roleplay can satisfy all roleplayers.

 

[Idea]

With that said, you think people would be able to accept all kinds of roleplayers, right?

Well...yes and no. It certainly is important not to mistreat or belittle someone for what kind of roleplayer they are, I think that's pretty much common sense. You shouldn't mistreat other people period, especially not for differences in preference.

On the other hand, if you mean what I think you mean, then I have to say no. There is no rule nor benefit to accepting all kinds of roleplayers into your roleplay. You said it yourself "rarely a bunch of people". We all have limited time and limited room to use that time with. It's simply not possible to try it out with everyone, and even if it was, it would be even more ludicrous to suggest that you need to keep it up with someone that you obviously match poorly with. In this particular scenario therefore, a rule which outlines what kind of players are better equipment to be in your roleplay is a perfectly legitimate thing, even if it ends up excluding roleplayers that don't meet that requirement.

Roleplaying is a hobby. We all know that. Some people do it for a story, some for the writing, and even a few people only love it for creating characters and expressing their personalities and abilities. With that said, the same logic can be applied to real life people. Nobody is perfect. There will be flaws within people, and trying to get people to focus greatly on getting big sentences and paragraphs, while the rest of the focus would be put into characters and... Well everything else, which usually isnt a lot.

I feel like a point was missing here? You say that roleplayers have a multitude of reasons as it is done for a hobby then say that some unspecified logic also applies to real life, that flaws will be within people, and that trying to get them focused on size rather than characters and others stuff... And then it just seems to end? Like what are you trying to say that nobody being perfect and getting people to focus on size does?

Well, I'll adress this in a bit, but regardless you are mistaken. Size requirements are not asking people to focus on size. They are saying that if the content you produce doesn't end up at least that big, then you're probably not the person they are looking for. What you, and many others, seem to mistake, is the order of things. The size isn't in itself the goal, but rather we who have size requirements are simply convinced that you can't physically cram the things we want to get out of partners or members in less than the required size.

I had a buddy go for 1-3 paragraph roleplays and all the ones he had ended in ghosting, lack of interest for either party, and unable to continue it with all the filler into each paragraph. Could just be his luck, but still.

None of this has anything to do with the size requirement per se. If anyone is taking up a 1-3 paragraph requirement and can't eep that up, then the problem is in the person who tried to bite off more than they could chew. Admitedly, this is a common problem, as people often join roleplays without thought about the long-term sustainability of such an action. Nonetheless, the problem is only tangeantiably related to paragraph size. The core of the problem is people overestmating their own skill and using that false assessment in making compromises they can't keep up.

If you treat adding more content as adding filler you will generally not be cut out for detailed roleplaying. If your content doesn't reach by itself a naturally higher size, you are unlikely to be a detailed roleplayer as well. But this isn't a bad thing by any means. There is nothing wrong with being a casual or simple roleplayer. Heck, even one-liner of script roleplayers are no problem at all. But the type of roleplays these different people look for are different. SIze requirements are one way to attempt to assess compatibility, so if you're not compatible with the requirement, but try to take it anyway of course it will end up poorly.

I'll also add that ghosting and lack of interest rarely have anything to do with anything that's happening with posts unless you're in a group, and even then size requirement is pratically never the issue. Most of the time it's real life problems, or too much delay between posts (due to people waiting for the muse a lot of the time), reaching a slower part or the like...

Additionally, it intimidates new roleplayers and discourages casual roleplayers.

Yes. That's kind of the point? The idea of size requirements is for casual roleplayers to not join, because they would not provide the posts and storytelling that the person with the requirements wants to get. This is not exactly a problem- there is a wave of casual players out there, dare I say the vast majority of them are. If you don't match with a certain roleplay or roleplayer you can just move on to another. If there is a specific roleplay you want to join but the GM has a size requirement, then it's your responsability to see which you value more- the effort it would take to meet the requirement or the participation in the roleplay. Nobody's entitled to forcing their style onto someone who doesn't like it.

New roleplayers want things short and simple so it gets them used to the setting/plot better.

True, but that's because new roleplayers tend to start out at the simple level of roleplaying. So it falls into what I said about preferences, casual roleplaying and simple roleplaying. It's about finding people who want the same kidn of experience as the one you are willing to give.

A fix to this would be to ask for more detailed posts.

I will be dissecting your point a bit more, but the overall answer is just this: It doesn't work. I tried this in the past, I didn't used to be a big fan of length requirements either. I used to have somehting called a "content minimum" only, where I asked that certain elements, like character reaction and actions, emotions, position thoughts ... were present in every post. The result? The requirement was too complicated for many to understand. Others would half-ass the things that were asked in it. And in many cases it was hard to tell whether people were actually keeping up with it.

Other requirements like the one you suggest fall into a similar pitfall. How does one measure whether it's being kept up? If you're going to tell me there is no general rule, then it's just dictatorship. And what effects will it accomplish? Whose behavior will it change? Will you post any more than you would have otherwise? Will it filter out people who don't want to post as much detail as you require? If it doesn't do that, then it doesn't work for the intended purpose.

Size requirements are by no means a perfect solution, but being pratical it's the best solution that currently exists.

Casual roleplayers typically know how to cram an entire story into a sentence or two

Yes, anyone can give a story synopsis. Nobody can make a story synopsis compelling for someone who doesn't feel compelled by mere summaries.

One mentality I often see in casual roleplayer is calling any detail beyond that which is directly involved in the plot progression "rose prose". Such details are often viewed by said players as trivial and as more of a detriment than a contribution. And you know what, if you think that, then you're free to roleplay however you want. But if you're gonna roleplay with me, and I'm going to roleplay with you, then I'm going to need someone to provide me with posts that have a bit more meat and flavor to them. To me short posts are unrewarding to receive, a waste of time to make. To me a post without atmosphere is blander than those drinks you get when the soda machine breaks that ends up tasting like rusty sparkly water. Minimum requirements are simply a translation of the thought that if you can't write at least that much, I simply don't believe you can actually provide me with what I want to get, and if you can't do that then we're just not good partners for one another.

new players could give it a whirl and should they make a mistake, correct them and teach.

You know.... size requirements don't affect your ability to do this at all. Players can still try their hand at things even if there is a requirement, and still have those mistakes fixed. All it takes is exactly the same, a willingness to learn from those mistakes and take in feedback critically.

Not only does this open up the roleplay search to more people

Something which you don't want to do necessarily...

it allows room for better actions, characters and story.

That's wrong. Not because better actions, characters and story can't be done without post requirements, far from me to say that. Rather, it's because the problem is your handling of post requirements. As I mentioned earlier, post requirements are meant to filter out the people who can't fill them. But for those who can post requirements are a guarantee of safety in exploring detail and creativity and hard work without having to worry about getting something miniscule in return.

Plus, better actions, character and story will usually take up MORE space, not less. A story which occupies less space is more fluid, but in that fluidity it looses the benefits of good structure unless there is an intense degree of planning for each scene, which is not usually the case.

Again, this isn't to say there is a problem with not having the requirements. A story can be enjoyed more simply for the fun. But being more fun doesn't make it a better story, especially when one of the people you're pitching it to you can't have fun with such short replies.

 

[Yunalescaa]

I've always hated post length or a literacy scale because there are days where I write a lot, and days where I write very little. I always feel like if my partner can write enough to move the story then it's fine. I would like more than a few sentences but if that's all I get then that's all I get.

 

[The Dark Creator]

As I mentioned earlier, post requirements are meant to filter out the people who can't fill them.

Yea, but one thing i absolutely hate the most (which i did not mention in my original post, my error) is when i find a roleplay i like, i meet all the requirements and then the length requirement shows up. I have more info to give, but i'm not in a good mood (You did nothing to make me mad.) and i have been ever since before the first post... Now a little more calm and reading everything, i am informed and noticed my error. Thanks for your large amount of input on this.

 

[Idea]

Yea, but one thing i absolutely hate the most (which i did not mention in my original post, my error) is when i find a roleplay i like, i meet all the requirements and then the length requirement shows up.

Well, I don't know if it means much, but I know the feeling. It's similar to how I feel about suddenly finding out that a roleplay doesn't allow child characters or as I used to feel when interest checks had 18+ requirements. It really sucks to be deprived of the chance of participating in something awesome for reasons we can't fully grasp with our own train of thought.

Ultimately the decision lies in whether that partner is worth making the compromise.

The good news is, however, that a lot of people don't really mean their requirements and mostly add them as an attempt to get some content back. If you just keep a decent writing sample in hand to show that you can satisfy them, I'm sure that explaining your reasoning to people will be enough to convince many to negotitate the whole requirement aspect, which they probably don't want to be bound to either.

On the other hand, the usual requirements I see are pretty low. 1-3 paragraphs is often 3-9 lines, and in more demanding cases 4-12 or 5-15, on PC. There are some relatively simple tricks one can use to always meet such requirements with relative simplicity, while reinforcing the story consistency but not having to add a lot of side-details.

 

[The_Enchantress-x]

Oh well. My requirements are my requirements. Some people just prefer things that are not detailed.
And no, casual roleplayers cannot tell a whole story in a few lines. That statement is incredibly laughable

 

[welian]

This topic kinda reminds me of when Grey was around. One of the things he always talked about was economy of word, the idea that we can say more in fewer words.

In my experience, length requirements seem to also be used to gauge commitment from potential RP partners. I think it's more evident once you start seeing roleplays where the leader is asking for 600, 800, or even 1,000 words per post.

 

[The Dark Creator]

i am informed and noticed my error.

The_Enchantress-x

 

[Whisker]

I'm honestly confused as to what the point of this thread is? Is this about regarding post length requirements under another name, "Highly Detailed" (which as I've posted numerous times before is misleading and sucks), or a rail against them in general?

 

[The Dark Creator]

Whisker read above your post please

 

[Whisker]

I did read both of your statements, OP. I'm asking for clarification before I say something potentially off-topic. The Dark Creator

 

[The Dark Creator]

i do not want to continue this thread

 

[The_Enchantress-x]

i do not want to continue this thread

I would edit it then and put closed thread
That way people stop finding it.

 

[The Dark Creator]

Thank you. The_Enchantress-x