Viewpoint What is 'Literate' Supposed to mean anymore

[ElectronicSnow]

Murdergurl I agree, if there is no trade off then quality and quantity.

I mean, we’re all doing this for our own enjoyment. So if your style makes you happy, that’s important. And if it’s good enough to interact with someone, hey you’ve got yourself a roleplay!

Edit: Re-reading the OP I’m like super off of their post so Imma head out.

 

[Murdergurl]

Murdergurl I agree, if there is no trade off then quality and quantity.

I mean, we’re all doing this for our own enjoyment. So if your style makes you happy, that’s important. And if it’s good enough to interact with someone, hey you’ve got yourself a roleplay!

For me, it's a fun hobby. I wish I had more time for it, tbh. But I settle for what I can squeeze in nowadays. But aside from a hobby, I also take each interaction as an opportunity to get better.
But if people are happy where they are at, I can understand that, too.

 

[DigitalEcho]

The only writer I let ramble on (and still love reading) is Stephen King like in The Stand or It. Big books, rambling, but still enjoyable.

Stephen King's short stories are PERFECT to me. Short stories in general, maybe it's my attention span.

I was reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman and WOW he takes too long to describe simple things.

I must have read that so many years ago now.

Did you ever read good omens? If you ever read Pratchett you can see why they ended up working together.

 

[Chordling]

Please bring literature discussion to a separate thread or private conversation. Thank you!

 

[weldherwings]

The way my brain sees it: back when I was on Neopets (when I was like... 11 or 12 - I'm almost 29 now. You do the maths), there was a roleplaying forum. It was super speedy, probably two or three sentences each. Eventually, I started looking into those threads that were more around... five to eight sentences or so. Neopets used to have a character limit, and when you hit it, you'd have to do your post in multiple posts. Anyways, I was sort of 'recruited' off of Neopets by someone advertising a 'literate' roleplaying site.

And wowowow. There was a huge difference from Neopets roleplaying and this roleplaying site. For starters, on Neopets, the roleplays would be super quick. Probably be finished in over an hour or even less. On this site, they were long-term. On Neopets, sentences were quick, short, and simple to accommodate the speed of the story. On this site, people were able to take their time and describe their surroundings, what their character saw, felt, tasted, smelt etc. So, in my mind, when someone says 'literate', I think of the first roleplaying site I was apart of. I think of the 'ah, I can take my time and relax' concept of it all. Not the fast, speedy, 'come on, we need to get this story over and done with' concept which I saw all over Neopets.

 

[Crow]

The way my brain sees it: back when I was on Neopets (when I was like... 11 or 12 - I'm almost 29 now. You do the maths), there was a roleplaying forum. It was super speedy, probably two or three sentences each. Eventually, I started looking into those threads that were more around... five to eight sentences or so. Neopets used to have a character limit, and when you hit it, you'd have to do your post in multiple posts. Anyways, I was sort of 'recruited' off of Neopets by someone advertising a 'literate' roleplaying site.

And wowowow. There was a huge difference from Neopets roleplaying and this roleplaying site. For starters, on Neopets, the roleplays would be super quick. Probably be finished in over an hour or even less. On this site, they were long-term. On Neopets, sentences were quick, short, and simple to accommodate the speed of the story. On this site, people were able to take their time and describe their surroundings, what their character saw, felt, tasted, smelt etc. So, in my mind, when someone says 'literate', I think of the first roleplaying site I was apart of. I think of the 'ah, I can take my time and relax' concept of it all. Not the fast, speedy, 'come on, we need to get this story over and done with' concept which I saw all over Neopets.

I've been on Neopets and I've been on the Neoboards. Sentences and writing had to be quick, because if your threads falls too far behind it'll get deleted for good, no archives no anything. Those forums are just secondary to the gameplay aspect after all. On an actual forum, there's a lot of archiving and enough room for everyone. I guess that's where the difference truly stems.

 

[TPBx]

The way my brain sees it: back when I was on Neopets (when I was like... 11 or 12 - I'm almost 29 now. You do the maths), there was a roleplaying forum. It was super speedy, probably two or three sentences each. Eventually, I started looking into those threads that were more around... five to eight sentences or so. Neopets used to have a character limit, and when you hit it, you'd have to do your post in multiple posts. Anyways, I was sort of 'recruited' off of Neopets by someone advertising a 'literate' roleplaying site.

And wowowow. There was a huge difference from Neopets roleplaying and this roleplaying site. For starters, on Neopets, the roleplays would be super quick. Probably be finished in over an hour or even less. On this site, they were long-term. On Neopets, sentences were quick, short, and simple to accommodate the speed of the story. On this site, people were able to take their time and describe their surroundings, what their character saw, felt, tasted, smelt etc. So, in my mind, when someone says 'literate', I think of the first roleplaying site I was apart of. I think of the 'ah, I can take my time and relax' concept of it all. Not the fast, speedy, 'come on, we need to get this story over and done with' concept which I saw all over Neopets.

Lmao 100% this. I started RPing on the forums of peak 2007 fanfiction.net and a lot of the times things would just pop off too quickly. You would a lot of the time just not have time to write out a load of paragraphs. Just short one liners that had to make sense in context. And because of that experience I feel kind of the same way now, no more one liners of course. If the post works, and adequately displays the necessary information you want to convey then there's no need for anything else. That's what I think of when considering what a "Literate" post is. If you can do that bare minimum then I literally don't give a s***

More advanced stuff comes when you start weaving in that English class good good, into your posts, and really trying to flex that literary know-how. You got your themes, messages, plot progression, character development; you got them shades of irony, and foreshadowing. Got that gucci descriptive writing that details every little bit of a scene. That's advanced to me.

 

[Crayons]

Just saw someone on Discord describe their RP as "literate (200+ words)" so I think we can assume that literate means something completely different for every person you speak to.

 

[Grey]

Literate seems to be one of those cargo cult things (a term for which I'm trying to find a less troublesome term) - someone, somewhere, used it with a shaky definition at best and other people adopted it without knowing why it was originally used. So you end up with various idiosyncratic meanings based on the subgroup and user, but because everyone uses it a lot of people don't question if they mean the same thing.
I've made my feelings on the value of efficient wordcount dozens of times over the years.

I was rejected from a 'literate' RP once which remains one of the funniest things in my life.

 

[Malphaestus]

Let us be honest with ourselves and say that we know what it means. It implies some form of 'better than noob' writing. Its actual meaning is mute, and how people judge others' writing isn't different from before just because they utilize the term 'literate' to describe their desired 'skill-group.'

Just like any other time, if you want to know what people mean, then read what they have posted before.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

I think length is equivalent to meaning density
I am more interested in trying to impress people than communicating ideas effectively
I rely upon others' post length because my character doesn't have a mind of her own

 

[Jet]

I think length is equivalent to meaning density
I am more interested in trying to impress people than communicating ideas effectively
I rely upon others' post length because my character doesn't have a mind of her own

Well it looks like we can agree on this one. People who demand massive post lengths want an audience, not a collaboration between writers.

Sometimes you need 500 words, sometimes you need 2500 words. There is no issue with either. I have absolutely no problem with huge posts when content is there. Problems exist when you demand every post hit (arbitrary hypothetical amount) 2,000 words, because there's no reason to write that much in certain scenarios. I don't want to hear the "but muh detail" please stop in advance, there are scenes that require less writing.

People also forget that posts are cumulative. If two people are exchanging 500 word posts and make 10 posts in 10 days, they've produced 5k words. Meanwhile a couple "literate" posters might produce two 3,000 word post every week. The two stories have comperable length, but one of them probably has semi-realistic interactions and physical narration. The other one? Not so much. Yall can guess which is which.

Murdergurl about greatness and underachievers, my man Shaq wants a word

​

(He's 1/100,000,000 though, your point makes sense)

 

[FoolsErin]

I was reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman and WOW he takes too long to describe simple things.

As someone who read the book last year as a ”classic book” in my English class, this is a very fat mood. Didn't help that I was doing a short essay for every third of the book. Seriously, I just want to write my thing and be done, please stop giving me paragraphs upon paragraphs about how a character breathes.

 

[SilverBlack]

Eh, at least in the forums I surround myself with, simply labeling yourself as "literate" doesn't really mean replies are usually of a certain length. It means that the roleplay will be done in proper English/grammar. Basically, it's used to separate roleplays that are like "*walks over* hullooo *she waves hands*" to something like a proper English sentence: "She walked over and waved her hand before saying hello."

Basically using/doing the best to use proper English/grammar to write out their replies = "literate roleplayer"

Semi-lit on the other hand, in how I understand it to be, means that it'll be in proper English format but also focus less on grammar and all the actual literacy English "rules." I see it often in people who like to roleplay, aren't completely illiterate, but isn't too good at English too--or just don't put too much effort in making sure their English makes sense, but that their message gets across. Something like:
"the girl was happy. she walked over nd said 'hi.'"

Advanced literate usually means that person is used to creative writing, more than just knowing proper grammar to type out responses. Naturally, you also see an increase in reply length in advanced literate roleplayers, because that's usually how the trend goes.

However, I personally don't think using reply length to define semi-lit/lit/advanced-lit is a good idea. I've seen "semi-lit" roleplayers who label themselves semi-lit and type up paragraphs of replies filled with mistakes which they probably also know about, but still have a fun time roleplaying with others like them. I've roleplayed with one-liner/single para roleplayers who consider themselves literate because, well yeah, their replies are pretty solid. People who enjoy writing stories are often labeled to be advanced-lit, because they know more than just using proper grammar or English, they have good writing skills and are used to creative writing.

Labeling oneself as "literate" begins, at least if I remember correctly, to differentiate from legit illiterate roleplays. It starts off as a way to separate from people who use ** and incomplete sentences. Then it kinda grew from there, I guess.

 

[scorpiodragon]

I always thought of it as this:

One-Liners: self explanatory-people who write 1 line sentences, chat-based rps or chat/text
Causal: 1-2 paragraphs/100-200 words a post (aka beginners)
Semi-Lit: 2-4 paragraphs/200-599 words a post (aka intermediate role players)
Literate: 5-9 paragraphs/600-900 words a post (aka experienced role players)
Advanced: 10+ paragraphs/1,000+ words a post (veteran role players)

Used to be a time I could churn out several multi-paragraph posts easily in an hour (back as late as 2017) for multiple characters, let alone one. I cannot do that now and have gotten slower in responses, sometimes spending hours on a reply.

 

[Crayons]

I always thought of it as this:

One-Liners: self explanatory-people who write 1 line sentences, chat-based rps or chat/text
Causal: 1-2 paragraphs/100-200 words a post (aka beginners)
Semi-Lit: 2-4 paragraphs/200-599 words a post (aka intermediate role players)
Literate: 5-9 paragraphs/600-900 words a post (aka experienced role players)
Advanced: 10+ paragraphs/1,000+ words a post (veteran role players)

Used to be a time I could churn out several multi-paragraph posts easily in an hour (back as late as 2017) for multiple characters, let alone one. I cannot do that now and have gotten slower in responses, sometimes spending hours on a reply.

Just because you are more experienced, doesn't necessarily mean you write longer posts. It's kind of a strange way of looking at it if you ask me.