Advice/Help Is Coding the Word?

[pushed]

So I am a noob-a-saurus rex to this website- that much is clear. I have never participated in a website that used the BBCode and it is very intimidating to a Pudding like me. Furthermore, I look at rps for examples and I am bombarded with beautiful coding masterpieces.

So the question is: is coding the word? Meaning does coding make or break your rping experience? A secondary question would be how can I install this beautiful knowledge AND jump into rps with my noobness. Your advice is welcome as well as your friendship. I sure could use some.

 

[rae2nerdy]

No. Some people use it but honestly it’s a person preference.

However if you want to learn more about it
Tutorial - RpNation - BBcode Guide

You can also get free codes BBCode Center

 

[pushed]

Bless you my friend

 

[Idea]

Just want to reinforce that you do not in fact need any BBCode at all. In fact, sometimes BBcode actually hurts your ability to attract players, I know that much from experience.

 

[Fae13]

oh my goodness you have no idea how glad and relieved I am to see I'm not the only one intimidated by the coding

 

[Genkai]

I kinda don't like coding. I think it just makes a post pretty but difficult to read.

I have low vision so trying to read scrunched up posts with poor contrasting colors in tiny fonts is a huge pain (literally). So I try to avoid posts who use them or if they do, I ask we keep things basic. Bolding dialogue I can take or leave but it does help I've found. Maybe using color for text if it's easy to read but I'm a pretty basic person for posts and I like writing to speak for itself.

That said, I love graphics as a separate entity. Line banners/headers that are their own thing are great but I don't like codes that shove things together and end up taking a while to load. I dunno, it's pretty but I think that's about it...kinda doesn't add to the story and it gets repetitive. But maybe I'm in the minority.

 

[adrian_]

Coding is really only for yourself, atleast for me it is. It makes me more satisfied with the end product.

 

[Fae13]

I kinda don't like coding. I think it just makes a post pretty but difficult to read.

I have low vision so trying to read scrunched up posts with poor contrasting colors in tiny fonts is a huge pain (literally). So I try to avoid posts who use them or if they do, I ask we keep things basic. Bolding dialogue I can take or leave but it does help I've found. Maybe using color for text if it's easy to read but I'm a pretty basic person for posts and I like writing to speak for itself.

That said, I love graphics as a separate entity. Line banners/headers that are their own thing are great but I don't like codes that shove things together and end up taking a while to load. I dunno, it's pretty but I think that's about it...kinda doesn't add to the story and it gets repetitive. But maybe I'm in the minority.

that makes sense, do you have advice on where to go if we were looking for like, certain stuff to learn this so we can decide what we like?

 

[adrian_]

that makes sense, do you have advice on where to go if we were looking for like, certain stuff to learn this so we can decide what we like?

The BBcode section on the homepage of RPN.

 

[Nano]

Like others have said before me, coding is not a necessity. I've seen lots of awesome roleplays with just plain text, some nicely coded roleplays that never take off, and vice versa. Coding CAN act as a factor which attracts attention, but it's all up to the GM and players to keep that attention to the RP. Furthermore, it can really only help attract attention to the RP if it's functionality = design/aesthetic. If it's design/aesthetic > functionality, then you'll probably have a lot of people who can't read it due to the code either not being mobile friendly, having too low contrast between the bg and body text, or the font-size is just too small on larger screens due to using px only. Obviously this only serves to hurt your RP, even if it has a great idea. For a personal example, I know if I have to scroll through tiny text contained in a tiny 350px wide box, I'm just going to automatically ignore the rp.

Then there are also people who turn away an RP because they personally believe that the code is "ugly" in their eyes, but that's a more tricky issue that has more to do with personal preference.

If you're looking to learn, take a look at things under the "Tutorial" tag in the BBcode center. If you want to use/borrow a pre-made code, take a look through the threads listed under "Resource". All the codes there are free for use as long as you follow the original poster's terms of service and properly credit them!

Edit: Only just realized the date of the OP...WHOOPS.