Other Preferences About Code?

[Skyswimsky]

Being a software developer, I don't like to spend too much time and effort on making things pretty. Though less because it's "my break from coding" and more because using inline styles is just... bothersome, as compared to using a framework with components etc. — though my CSS wizardry is also rather limited as I'm way more comfortable with the back-end.

Apart from that, I don't mind people using stylized things, I do go "oh-pretty" maybe the first time I see it but then it quickly becomes the norm. Although you can use styled stuff in creative ways to enhance the tone of your post, too, I've seen some examples of a messenger-app here for example. That's some great stuff.

Buuuuuut, on the contrary, I absolutely hate it when people:

• Use anything that requires me to scroll inside a singular post
  • Worse if there is no scroll-bar
  • Worse if a scrollable box has another scrollable box
• Use hard-to-read or small fonts as a standard
• Don't keep light/dark mode in mind (I'm guilty of that myself, also a dark mode user myself)
• Something I wouldn't mind so much, if not used in combination with the above to make it an absolutely horrible reading experience: Use left/right margins to reduce the real estate of where their text is standing even further. Basically:
  
  

 

[Perpetual Zen]

I agree, it's all about how the space is utilized and how easy it is to access the information.
I try to be mindful of that. I do love complicated codes though and how people can pull them off. I mean, the attention to detail.
Although, it doesn't dictate if I find the idea interesting or not but I can't help but like pretty things

 

[Jet]

My experiences with coders has left me jaded. There was a long stretch where RPN was dominated by hyper organized coders, focusing more on appearance than results. I experienced rejections and criticisms from coders because of my standard posts, which is doubly ironic because—

1. Most books with elaborate frills are for kids.

2. These were not strong writers in many cases. I would join RPs and put up strongly written content, and get nitpicked for appearance by mediocre writers, who barely contributed to the RP.

By no means am I calling every coder a bum, on the contrary many of you are great writers.

Really this isn't a shot at all if you, please don't take offense!

But this website was dominated by them for a long time. It was a bad era where coding was a requirement for many RPs. I didn't grow up using codes like some of you. I started this hobby at 18. I'm a dinosaur & technological barbarian. I wasn't in a position to start using extremely elaborate codes which, unfortunately for me and many others, were an expectation from many GMs.

So I lean towards anti-code. I don't hate you guys and welcome you into my RPs, but every time I see elaborate codes and borders and flashing images, I get flashbacks to 2015. I should probably work on my bias because admittedly it's unfair, but this website was brutal for a while. I was gatekept from half the projects on the website, even if my writing was equal or better than the host's.

Plus there was a nasty connotation about effort. That non-coders were bums who didn't contribute to stories, ghosted RPs and wrote garbage. It was offensive as someone who cares about their writing.

Edit

Skyswimsky

You'd probably like centerblock which is the one thing I use for appearance. It centers text like this. You can set a percentage value from 1 to 100, and your text fits that size. This paragraph is at 70%.

To use it, just put the following in brackets — Centerblock=70

 

[Perpetual Zen]

My experiences with coders has left me jaded. There was a long stretch where RPN was dominated by hyper organized coders, focusing more on appearance than results. I experienced rejections and criticisms from coders because of my standard posts, which is doubly ironic because—

1. Most books with elaborate frills are for kids.

2. These were not strong writers in many cases. I would join RPs and put up strongly written content, and get nitpicked for appearance by mediocre writers, who barely contributed to the RP.

By no means am I calling every coder a bum, on the contrary many of you are great writers.

Really this isn't a shot at all if you, please don't take offense!

But this website was dominated by them for a long time. It was a bad era where coding was a requirement for many RPs. I didn't grow up using codes like some of you. I started this hobby at 18. I'm a dinosaur & technological barbarian. I wasn't in a position to start using extremely elaborate codes which, unfortunately for me and many others, were an expectation from many GMs.

So I lean towards anti-code. I don't hate you guys and welcome you into my RPs, but every time I see elaborate codes and borders and flashing images, I get flashbacks to 2015. I should probably work on my bias because admittedly it's unfair, but this website was brutal for a while. I was gatekept from half the projects on the website, even if my writing was equal or better than the host's.

Plus there was a nasty connotation about effort. That non-coders were bums who didn't contribute to stories, ghosted RPs and wrote garbage. It was offensive as someone who cares about their writing.

Edit

Skyswimsky

You'd probably like centerblock which is the one thing I use for appearance. It centers text like this. You can set a percentage value from 1 to 100, and your text fits that size. This paragraph is at 70%.

To use it, just put the following in brackets — Centerblock=70

You see, I'm still really driven to do code because of this. I'm always under the impression that every site I'm on is judging me based on appearance.
I kid you not. I KID YOU not! I was role playing with a bunch of unfeeling assholes who had the nerve to lecture me about ending a role play when I was taking my parent off life support. I can't believe I actually wasted my time coding and worrying about a roleplay in the ICU. I was so driven into thinking these people valued me and I needed to do this. Maybe, in some small way, it helped deflect/ Although, I completely stopped writing altogether after that. I couldn't pick up a pen for years and even stopped listening to music. So, I feel you, completely, the internet has bred some really weird and messed up people.

Sorry I just had to get that out. Flashbacks. So many flashbacks.

 

[AllThingsCuddly]

I have been roleplaying for 20+ years and I agree with Ayama here. A lot of people on Gaia had high standards, wanted things to be pretty and polished and I spent some time conforming to this and found that I spent more time working on making my posts pretty than actually working on the posts. Now I tend to keep things simple and clean.

So back in my Gaia days, coding was specifically used as a means of vetting and controlling players, and you had to put an insane amount of time into it just to be admitted to the RP, which then usually didn't even take off. Very pretty, but total bummer.

On here, people are not nearly as snobby or annoying about it, and very little restrictions are imposed on the players. The OCD side of my brain that wants everything to be pretty pretty and matchy matchy doesn't like this, but I do have to admit it's far less toxic.

For my personal preference, I just like the way codes look and work better than anything un-coded, but I also think it's important to have plaintext versions for people that's an issue for (if you want to be open and inclusive). I honestly don't get RPing on mobile for so many reasons but, if the appearance detracts from the content and excludes potentially great players from your projects, you also have to consider where your priorities lie.

HOWEVER, there is still time for coding to help sell your post as well. When doing a time skip, a good

[hr]

helps break your post to show that there's a skip.

---

Or, in one roleplay I have going, I use indents and changing type font to indicate that my character has written a letter.

Dear John,​

I miss you dearly​

Love Jane​

Things like this are simple and not necessary, but can help certain elements pop or add some extra oomph to your reply.

 

[tsurene]

... I'm gonna be honest, I feel some of these answers are targeted towards specific coders lol

In my opinion, it doesn't really matter whether or not someone wants to code or do plain text. What really matters is if the posts have something to build off of for people to respond to them, and if it's readable to the average viewer. I personally like to add code on my IC posts because I get to express my characters more with visuals. However, I do get frustrated with the desktop-only codes and text with blinding colors. I also believe that denying or kicking people out simply because they don't want to decorate IC posts is ridiculous, because all the simpler-coded posts I've seen in the Group category focused their details more on the story which is more important.

With that said, I remember the coding elitism being at its worst in MyCandyLove. I remember this one time a roleplayer threatened to leave because they were paired with a girl who made simpler posts, despite her only being shy and never causing drama in the OOC. I honestly think the increasing pressure to do style over substance was what killed the roleplaying scene in MCL over the last couple years. I love how RPN has creators that would post templates in the BBCode Center for free, instead of the gatekeeping I've witnessed previously.

 

[fennel]

i heavily prefer simple code, if i'm using anything. i love coloring my character's dialogue, though; i'll do that no matter what.

fancy templates are very iffy for me. their coding is impressive, but a lot of them don't keep accessibility in mind.
i care about being able to read a post first and foremost, and if i actively have to think about how i can access the content of a post, then it's not for me.
that being said, people can do what they want. if they love super fancy stuff, then it's not my place to judge them. i can definitely see the appeal, and what people are able to achieve with coding is really cool.

(edited for clarity)

 

[AtlannianSpy]

My personal preferences are pretty minimalist. Crack open any novel on your shelf and you will find text that is highly readable without the use of things like coloured text, fancy boxes or much more than the occasional use of bold or italics. I think that's the gold standard out in the real world for a reason, of your text is properly paragraphed and punctuated than it will be perfectly readable and shine brightest with nothing to distract from it.

That's just my preference though. we're all here to have fun and if people are passionate about coding and jazzing up their posts that's great for them. I try not to rain on anyone's parade even when I'm GMing as long as I can get the information l've asked for.

That said I would like to extend a personal plea to all coders to please use all of your screen real estate. The tiny scroll boxes and narrow columns of text thing make my brain absolutely itch. My eyes jump around a lot when I read so I rely a lot on the overall shape of the paragraphs to quickly find my place again and I can't do that at all if I can't see the whole text at once because I'm basically being forced to look through a keyhole to read it or its distorted into a tiny column.

On the other hand I have mostly found that the coder set don't overlap heavily with me in terms of genre and fandom and other rp preferences. I usually find myself reading coding heavy interest checks out of idle curiousity about how the other side is living than a serious intent to join so maybe appealing to me wouldn't be of any benefit anyway.

 

[Chimney Swift]

I enjoy simple, pretty codes. When used right, they can do a lot to enhance the mood of a post, or they can make scrolling through a lengthy character sheet feel less boring. I think of it as being like the illustrations and formatting technique of a book: it's there to grab your attention and immerse you in the visual aesthetic of the scene.

The problem with code for me is twofold, though. Firstly and most importantly, I have a visual impairment. Low-contrast text is VERY difficult for me to read, and it's easy for me to miss hidden buttons and sliders. Many times, I've had to manually copy-paste the text from a coded post onto a Google Doc just to be able to read it. That can get very annoying.

The second part of the problem is that I'm bad at code, partially due to the aforementioned visual impairment and partially because I've just never been particularly tech-savvy. I borrow and use codes that other users have put up to share, but I often find the formatting confusing and accidentally end up breaking the code trying to edit in my images, colors, and text.