Post by Germany on Oct 7, 2010 20:51:33 GMT -5
Not so much a FAQ as a questions-and-answers-format clarification sheet. However, FAQ is more attention-grabbing. ^^
Hopefully this will be able to help all of those who are applying or thinking of applying!
Q. Do I need to reserve a character before posting a profile?
A. Technically, no. You can submit a profile any time you wish. However, if you really want a character, it’s definitely a good idea to reserve him/her to prevent someone else from snatching him/her while you’re working on the profile behind the scenes. Priority is given to reserves, so if, for example, you’re working on England but haven’t reserved him and someone else comes along and reserves him, then the person with the reserve has the first shot at taking the character. Even if you’ve told us you’re working on him. Even if your profile is 10 times better than the other person’s. This doesn’t mean the other person will definitely complete their profile in time and get accepted, it’s just not a good situation to be in. The staff highly recommend reserving characters if you are interested in playing them. Even if you’re working on an OC for a really random country ( like Central African Republic ), and you think there’s a better chance of snow in the Sahara than someone grabbing them, you just never know.
Q. What happens if I haven’t finished when my reserve expires?
A. Your account will be deleted, your character will opened back up in the taken/reserved lists, and your WIP profile ( if you have one ) will be moved to the “Abandoned” section.
Q. How about re-reserving?
A. You may not re-reserve, because that would defeat the purpose of our reservation/activity rules.
Q. Does this mean I can’t finish/submit the profile anymore?
A. All it means is that you have lost your reserve privilege and someone else can come along and reserve the character. You are free to work on your profile still and notify a staff member when you are ready, and you will still have the same chance of getting accepted as you would otherwise. However, please do not sign up again with an account until you are ready to post your profile! Your account will be deleted again if you do this.
Q. Why is this app SO long!
A. This is an advanced-literate historical roleplay. We really want people to think about their characters and characterizations — and have an at least basic grasp on their overall histories — before just diving in to posting goodness. The long app also discourages people who aren’t serious about staying with us and posting; they tend not to finish them, saving us all a lot of eventual headaches.
Q. What exactly are you guys looking for in these profiles, anyway?
A. We look for three basic things in a profile: literacy, characterization, and an at least basic knowledge and understanding of the country’s history.
Literacy: We’re not expecting to get a flood of English teachers, but please, put in your best effort. We do care about grammar, proper punctuation, and spelling here. Germany admin in particular is very good at catching these mistakes, and while she will let some slide, profiles with too many mistakes will be either pended or denied. Proofread your profile before submitting it for review.
Characterization: Length alone isn’t so important to us — it’s possible to prattle on forever and say nothing — but if you write something that’s too short to show us you have a good grasp of what you're talking about, we will ask you to expand on it. Even if you have a canon, you need to show us you’ve thought about him inside and out, that you know him and care about him well enough to play him. Yes, all of us have likely read the comics and watched the shows, but pretend that we haven’t. Write as you would for an OC you are introducing for the first time. If you’re making an OC, make sure to round him/her out well.
Historical Knowledge: Read up at least a little on your country’s history. There are plenty of websites out there — Wikipedia is perfectly acceptable. We don’t expect you to be a walking historical encyclopedia of the history of China or whatever, but do know the most important events and when they occurred. Very old countries will likely need more than 15 facts and dates listed about them, but remember, you only need the most important ones. Anything extra is certainly welcome and will count as a plus, but don’t overwhelm yourself trying to write a book ( unless you’re planning on writing a book anyway and want the practice xD ).
Be aware that some of us go into monstrous detail with our profiles, and — even though we love it when someone does! — we don’t expect everyone to match us in length or depth. Check out North Korea’s profile for a nice example of what we want.
Q. What does ( “Accepted”/“Pending”/“Denied” ) mean?
A.
Accepted: Welcome to the fold! You are now an official member! Feel free to post and plot to your heart’s content.
Pending: There are a few issues that need worked out before the profile can be accepted. A message beneath the status stamp will tell you what these are and ( usually ) offer advice on how you might want to go about fixing them. Perhaps you didn’t go into enough detail in one or two sections, or your profile has too many grammar/spelling errors/typos to be accepted as-is ( this is why we so strongly advocate proofreading ).
"Pending"s are only given to profiles which the admins feel the writer can salvage/fix within a reasonable timeframe. Following a “Pending” stamp, the applicant will be given an extra 2 days extension on their reserve to make the changes, and will need to alert a member of staff once they’re ready for a second review.
On the second review, the application will be either accepted or denied.
Denied: The application is rejected. The applicant may not apply again for this character or any other in the near future.
The most common reason for denials is poor writing. If the person only needs a few nudges or a little work in an area ( say they tend to make comma splices a little too often, but are otherwise a decent writer ) then they will receive a “Pending”, but if it looks like they haven’t been through 8th grade and would need a lot of one-on-one coaching on the basics of grammar/spelling, then we would really rather this person didn’t apply again until he or she brought his/herself up to par. The mechanics of writing are not something one can learn and remember overnight, so a few days extension is useless in these cases.
Breaking site rules and/or displaying a severe lack of maturity in the Cbox can also factor into a denial.
Hopefully this will be able to help all of those who are applying or thinking of applying!
Q. Do I need to reserve a character before posting a profile?
A. Technically, no. You can submit a profile any time you wish. However, if you really want a character, it’s definitely a good idea to reserve him/her to prevent someone else from snatching him/her while you’re working on the profile behind the scenes. Priority is given to reserves, so if, for example, you’re working on England but haven’t reserved him and someone else comes along and reserves him, then the person with the reserve has the first shot at taking the character. Even if you’ve told us you’re working on him. Even if your profile is 10 times better than the other person’s. This doesn’t mean the other person will definitely complete their profile in time and get accepted, it’s just not a good situation to be in. The staff highly recommend reserving characters if you are interested in playing them. Even if you’re working on an OC for a really random country ( like Central African Republic ), and you think there’s a better chance of snow in the Sahara than someone grabbing them, you just never know.
Q. What happens if I haven’t finished when my reserve expires?
A. Your account will be deleted, your character will opened back up in the taken/reserved lists, and your WIP profile ( if you have one ) will be moved to the “Abandoned” section.
Q. How about re-reserving?
A. You may not re-reserve, because that would defeat the purpose of our reservation/activity rules.
Q. Does this mean I can’t finish/submit the profile anymore?
A. All it means is that you have lost your reserve privilege and someone else can come along and reserve the character. You are free to work on your profile still and notify a staff member when you are ready, and you will still have the same chance of getting accepted as you would otherwise. However, please do not sign up again with an account until you are ready to post your profile! Your account will be deleted again if you do this.
Q. Why is this app SO long!
A. This is an advanced-literate historical roleplay. We really want people to think about their characters and characterizations — and have an at least basic grasp on their overall histories — before just diving in to posting goodness. The long app also discourages people who aren’t serious about staying with us and posting; they tend not to finish them, saving us all a lot of eventual headaches.
Q. What exactly are you guys looking for in these profiles, anyway?
A. We look for three basic things in a profile: literacy, characterization, and an at least basic knowledge and understanding of the country’s history.
Literacy: We’re not expecting to get a flood of English teachers, but please, put in your best effort. We do care about grammar, proper punctuation, and spelling here. Germany admin in particular is very good at catching these mistakes, and while she will let some slide, profiles with too many mistakes will be either pended or denied. Proofread your profile before submitting it for review.
Characterization: Length alone isn’t so important to us — it’s possible to prattle on forever and say nothing — but if you write something that’s too short to show us you have a good grasp of what you're talking about, we will ask you to expand on it. Even if you have a canon, you need to show us you’ve thought about him inside and out, that you know him and care about him well enough to play him. Yes, all of us have likely read the comics and watched the shows, but pretend that we haven’t. Write as you would for an OC you are introducing for the first time. If you’re making an OC, make sure to round him/her out well.
Historical Knowledge: Read up at least a little on your country’s history. There are plenty of websites out there — Wikipedia is perfectly acceptable. We don’t expect you to be a walking historical encyclopedia of the history of China or whatever, but do know the most important events and when they occurred. Very old countries will likely need more than 15 facts and dates listed about them, but remember, you only need the most important ones. Anything extra is certainly welcome and will count as a plus, but don’t overwhelm yourself trying to write a book ( unless you’re planning on writing a book anyway and want the practice xD ).
Be aware that some of us go into monstrous detail with our profiles, and — even though we love it when someone does! — we don’t expect everyone to match us in length or depth. Check out North Korea’s profile for a nice example of what we want.
Q. What does ( “Accepted”/“Pending”/“Denied” ) mean?
A.
Accepted: Welcome to the fold! You are now an official member! Feel free to post and plot to your heart’s content.
Pending: There are a few issues that need worked out before the profile can be accepted. A message beneath the status stamp will tell you what these are and ( usually ) offer advice on how you might want to go about fixing them. Perhaps you didn’t go into enough detail in one or two sections, or your profile has too many grammar/spelling errors/typos to be accepted as-is ( this is why we so strongly advocate proofreading ).
"Pending"s are only given to profiles which the admins feel the writer can salvage/fix within a reasonable timeframe. Following a “Pending” stamp, the applicant will be given an extra 2 days extension on their reserve to make the changes, and will need to alert a member of staff once they’re ready for a second review.
On the second review, the application will be either accepted or denied.
Denied: The application is rejected. The applicant may not apply again for this character or any other in the near future.
The most common reason for denials is poor writing. If the person only needs a few nudges or a little work in an area ( say they tend to make comma splices a little too often, but are otherwise a decent writer ) then they will receive a “Pending”, but if it looks like they haven’t been through 8th grade and would need a lot of one-on-one coaching on the basics of grammar/spelling, then we would really rather this person didn’t apply again until he or she brought his/herself up to par. The mechanics of writing are not something one can learn and remember overnight, so a few days extension is useless in these cases.
Breaking site rules and/or displaying a severe lack of maturity in the Cbox can also factor into a denial.
