Roleplay Posting Speed

[SpamBot]

This is half rant, half something I’ve been legitimately curious about for quite some time now. Since there’s a mature discussion section on this site (which is awesome, by the way, I hate when someone tries to start an in-depth conversation about something only to be shot down or have the thread deleted… that said, I hope this doesn’t get deleted or locked) I figured I would bring it up.


Roleplay posting speed, as the title suggests. Now, before I get off on the wrong foot, I am in no way trolling, or bitching, or complaining about dead roleplays. Roleplays die, it’s just a fact of life. This is solely to talk about posting speed as a whole. Again, I’m simply curious.


Note: This is me speaking out from personal experience so I apologize if I do seem a little biased.


Back when I first began roleplaying, and as I’m sure many people do now, I was a lightning fast poster able to get in a few posts a day. Now, not so much unfortunately. I’m my own worst critic when it comes to writing and don’t like displaying things until it’s at least to my liking. I spend hours, sometimes days on a post to make sure it’s alright, and I also do other things outside of roleplaying. I can reply fast if I don’t have five people to reply to at once, of course. But I just… I don’t know… I’m not really a fast typer either; I can push out 500 words in roughly twenty minutes if I put my mind to it.


People always say that they want fast replies, and that they absolutely need people to reply in a certain amount of time or they drop the roleplay. Out of boredom, or just some other reason; I’ve heard arguments that people who don’t receive rapid-fire replies just lose interest. I don’t know about you, but that’s not a dedicated roleplayer or someone that has their heart in it to me. A dedicated roleplayer sticks with their partner though thick and thin. On another site, I have had the same few partners for years. They stick by me, even when life gets in the way. They don’t care that I don’t always rapid-fire posts.


I understand people want to escape from the real world so to speak. I’m sure most of those people are still in school, have crappy lives, want to unwind after work, or are just trying to get their life together, which is completely understandable. I’ll spare you my ‘my life sucks’ story and just say I’m in that crappy situation boat myself.


That said, why is it people insist on receiving rapid-fire replies all of the time.


Personally, it turns me off if someone is up my ass demanding a post every single hour of the day. I hate when people nag me, or when I feel rushed.


Another example I have is absence. People drop roleplays if their partner has been absent for awhile. People have lives outside of roleplaying… I think that’s needless to say but I’ll just mention it anyway. But my example doesn’t come from that, it comes from not having computer access. On another site, I was in the middle of a roleplay with someone and one day out of the blue my computer had some issues and needed to be taken to the shop. I was left without a computer for two weeks, and was only able to get internet access when I want to the library (this was before I had a smartphone). Well, when I finally got my computer back and was able to reply, I contacted them with an apology, and found out that they dropped the roleplay. Why? They had made the argument that they saw me online and that I could have replied, and that two weeks was too slow.


I don’t think that’s right when people do that honestly.


Ok, maybe I did like a little… maybe that is borderline bitching… But still, I stand by my curiosity, I did mention I was speaking from personal experience.


Then there are group rps. Some move fast, others do not. Then there are some that move so fast that people who might not be the fastest posters are unable to keep up, an instance I have seen on numerous occasions and have been faced with.


I post a heads up, saying I will post when I can, I get the response ‘you’ll be late again. Noted.’ (they had tried to delete it and put something else, but through my mod powers I had read the deleted post first) Which was the real turn off for me.


People want things to do, I get that. If you want to read so badly, go find a book or something. If you want something to write then make up your own story. Don’t take your boredom- influenced frustrations out on the people who actually have more to do than just sit and roleplay all day long.


People are so worried about roleplays dying, or things going too slow for them to be interested, that slow posters are unreliable, and are quick to assume that a roleplay is died because so many of theirs have died in the past.


I think I’ll leave it at that, though, because I’m going off a little.


Back on track/tl'dr version:


I don’t get why people are so pushy about posting speed or demand rapid-fire, or think that slower posters are unreliable. It’s quite rude, and pushiness really turns me off, especially when people are snide towards slower posters.

 

[DeletedAccount]

I agree with you completely.


I always make sure to remind the people I'm role playing with that role playing is a very low priority on my list, and that I understand if they're unable to respond timely. Being patient and mannerly makes the role playing that much more enjoyable.


I'm sorry to hear that people crawl up your ass just for your posting. I don't know why you'd even want to role play with people like that, and I don't know what their problem is. If they're inpatient for replies, they should just join more role plays. The more role plays they're a part of, like you said, the more posts they have to respond to, which takes up their time. Then they're not solely focused and dependent on the one role play.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

I completely agree with pretty much everything you've said also, and will admit I've had some of the same problems you've had in the past (only on the old website I used to roleplay on) with people dropping roleplays because they thought I was too slow and they said they lost interest because of it.


What's up with that? I like to think of a roleplay situation similar to a popular TV show (The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, etc). The show might air a few months out of the year and then go on hiatus for a while. Just because the show slowed down playing it's episodes, do people complain and lose interest in them? No, the dedicated fans still continue to watch the shows. I feel dedicated and reliable roleplayers should continue to reply even if their partner gets a little slow. Like a new episode of a show you like, a new roleplay reply is worth the wait.


On the other hand, I can see how it would be annoying if someone stopped replying for an extremely long time though, causing interest to fade. A few weeks is okay--especially if you let your partner know you're busy with something or can't reply for some reason. I've had people disappear and then come back over a month later and want to continue a roleplay I had entirely forgotten about. If I don't remember the names of the characters or the events happening in it, then they've definitely taken too long to reply. (But since I'm dedicated I've still even replied back to people who did that. I'm not a quitter. xD lol)


So I think inactivity can kill interest in a roleplay, but only if it's TOO MUCH inactivity. Being gone a few weeks is cool, but being gone for a few months is not cool. xD Unless it was a roleplay you really loved and were willing to wait that long for a reply... *shrug* I think the waiting time people like between posts is different for everyone. But people are just being ridiculous if they complain about a few weeks of inactivity. Like you said, go find a book if you're that desperate to read something. xD

 

[Castello]

Hmm, I am almost on the same boat as you. I have been roleplaying for about 2 years now, and I used to suck xD , like really suck. My posts (this was on a video game forum) used to be 5 words long and I was just learning. I could reply really fast because it only took me a minute, and my partner had to be someone who did the same. And of course sometimes I went over 5 words to ten words and that took a couple seconds longer, but I found I was never as into those plots as much as I could get into one that was a paragraph. But I soon found out how long the post was, was not the problem. I find slower role-plays to be much more enjoyable. For instance I was in the rp with someone else (which I stupidly dropped) and the posts went slowly, and were weekly and I found myself bonding with the characters and plot easier. Compared to one of my role-plays from a year and half ago where there was a post every 5 minutes.


As for group role-plays, they take a lot of organization to be executed properly. You have to keep into account of everyone's posting habits, and I find talking to them via OOC section really helps, which I learnt with one of my group role-plays. If they aren't organized and people just post willy-nilly, those are the ones that are either 100 pages of multiple 1x1's or the ones that die on the first two days. Which is why less people is usually best! But yeah, that's just my opinion and experience xD .

 

[Pine]

I understand what you're saying, and in a perfect world, I would completely agree.


Now, when people expect a reply every hour or something, that's silly.


When a lot of people are interacting at once, there also shouldn't be a lot of quick replies that go between two people, thus leaving someone out of the loop.


I've been the head of many role plays, some more successful than others, and usually end up being some sort of position of authority, so I'll mostly speak about heading a group role play here.


As far as one on ones go, there is no good reason to pressure someone into a quick reply.


I mostly have my role plays over e-mail, so the only reason why I would bug them after they haven't replied in a while is in case they never got my reply, which has happened a lot with one of my partners.


Personally, between her and I, I took a break from the role play for about a year after only having getting a little into it, but when since I've replied that time, I've had very many inspiring ideas, so it's now been going on for many months, so it's not really a problem that needs to be nagged about, even if sometimes I'm really excited to see the reply.


Some of my most inspired replies have taken hours to whip up.


Now, being in charge of a group role play is a bit more tricky, especially on this site, and I suppose role players who respond to my intro when it comes to one on ones (e-mail too, so I only have two that I've ever had a long term role play with).


I've come to learn a lot of people on this site are very flighty, and it doesn't always have to do with the pace of the role play.


People, sometimes having claimed important positions, will have no intention of replying after the first few days and will just leave without saying anything.


Being the person in charge of the role play, you try your best to keep everyone satisfied and interested, and you don't want some people to wait too long in case they lose interest, and there's such a strong possibility that the person you're waiting on just doesn't want to bother with it anymore.


Personally, what I like to do is keep an active ooc thread open as an option for role players to hang out, but a lot of role players don't actively use it.


The only way I know that they haven't left is for me to send them a pm, but I always try to make sure that they are still interested, as opposed to nagging them to post.


I don't know if most people have the same motivation as I do when it comes to bugging someone to reply, but they don't take into account how the other person may feel.


I know that whenever someone bugs me to reply, it's a total turn off for me, so I try to avoid doing that.


It's just that I know how some role players are and I want to make sure that they aren't... y'know... that sort, because I'll never know if they don't talk to me.


My last story will be a group of role players I came to befriend on a site, to which we took all of our role plays to a separate forum.


One of the role players was responsible for coming up with the plots well over half of the time, so we would role play that for a while, but within a few weeks, she would lose total interest and just move onto another idea she came up with.


so


thus begins the hunt for dedicated role players


I have no idea if any of that came across the way I wanted it to or if that even contributed to the conversation/my opinion of the matter, but there you go. xP

 

[SpamBot]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback. It has all helped out quite a bit. Quite relieving, actually lol


But yeah, I'm kind of in the 'waiting months for a reply' boat, but only because I trust the people I am doing those roleplays with. They have lives and I also really enjoy the stories we create.


I try to keep with a few people I know won't have a problem with me.


Also, I love how (at least in my experience) most of the people who say it's hard to get into a roleplay are the type of people that nag people and whine about dead roleplays. It's not hard to find a roleplay to join, but finding that one partner that's right for you? Yeah, that might take a few tries.


I suppose I kind of vary. I have people who reply slow, and people who reply fast, but I always keep occupied with other things in between.

 

[AlskaNoelle]

I didn't read the dates and didn't realize I was necro-ing this. Sorry...

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I can't do rapid-speed roleplays. I mean I physically can't do them.


First of all, I'm also a pretty slow typer and I put a lot of effort into each post, trying to be careful of responding to everyone who is waiting for a response as well as adding a bit to the story each time. And my obnoxious perfectionism doesn't allow me to just throw something mediocre together and call it a day. I have to like what I'm posting, at least a little.


Other than that, I'm a full time graphic designer at a trade magazine as well as a part time college student (last semester, what a relief). I also see a chiropractor three times a week, occasionally take on art commissions for extra money, and somewhere in there I try to chisel out time for friends (all two of them) and family. So, I might post just responses and no new content every once in a while, because working 8:30am to 5pm, then the chiropractor and the 45 minute commute leaves me with a whopping 3 hours at night to do the things I need to do, wolf down some food, take a shower, and then find the time to respond to my roleplays before dragging my tired butt to bed. Roleplays just aren't at the top of my priority list. They're a hobby. I still roleplay though, despite everything, because it makes me happy, and as much as I bust my ass, I feel like I deserve to do something just for me.


That said, I strictly look for slow moving roleplays that don't expect me to post anymore than once or twice a day, because I can post twice on the weekends, but Monday through Friday, I'm lucky if I can post once. I kind of wish more people would declare the posting speed int he overview so there's no confusion that a roleplay is rapid-fire or slow-moving and no one gets stuck in the awkward position of taking 45 minutes to write up their intro post, only to find that everyone else is already three miles away fighting dragons...

 

[Veil]

I know! But at the same time, its a little difficult when someone doesn't post for over a week. Particularly if their character is a main character. It pretty much pauses the whole thing and I've seen it lead to the end of some roleplays. I'm pretty chill other than that though. When I see a post, I respond. It is kind of exciting though, wondering what the other person(s) is going to write.

 

[Syrrus]

When I was younger and still going to school I always wanted to rush out my responses and get as many as possible back. It was the only thing I did but studying, and I could spend hours refreshing the web in hope that someone would respond. Which resulted in me either being bored or joining as many role-plays as possible.


Now a days I mainly do my roleplaying during holidays or just before bed if I find the time. I need the creative outlet. I draw for a living and get new ideas multiply times a day, but I need to take a step back and finish what I started, and that often takes me a whole workday, sometimes even a week depending on the priority. Therefore I need role-plays to clear my head before I can get some sleep.


I can’t say I’ve ever let a role-play die though. When I was younger I could be attending the same role-play for a year, maybe even two with a couple responses a day, sometimes more. I enjoy long lasting role-plays but if I’m not in the mood, don’t have time or simple feel tired, then I won’t respond because my heart won’t be in it. And if the role-play dies because my inactivity for a day or two, then I can get pretty frustrated.


But I have learned it is important to find people who feel the same, so everyone is comfortable with the speed the role-play is going at.

 

[Skelo10]

This is half rant, half something I’ve been legitimately curious about for quite some time now. Since there’s a mature discussion section on this site (which is awesome, by the way, I hate when someone tries to start an in-depth conversation about something only to be shot down or have the thread deleted… that said, I hope this doesn’t get deleted or locked) I figured I would bring it up.
Roleplay posting speed, as the title suggests. Now, before I get off on the wrong foot, I am in no way trolling, or bitching, or complaining about dead roleplays. Roleplays die, it’s just a fact of life. This is solely to talk about posting speed as a whole. Again, I’m simply curious.


Note: This is me speaking out from personal experience so I apologize if I do seem a little biased.


Back when I first began roleplaying, and as I’m sure many people do now, I was a lightning fast poster able to get in a few posts a day. Now, not so much unfortunately. I’m my own worst critic when it comes to writing and don’t like displaying things until it’s at least to my liking. I spend hours, sometimes days on a post to make sure it’s alright, and I also do other things outside of roleplaying. I can reply fast if I don’t have five people to reply to at once, of course. But I just… I don’t know… I’m not really a fast typer either; I can push out 500 words in roughly twenty minutes if I put my mind to it.


People always say that they want fast replies, and that they absolutely need people to reply in a certain amount of time or they drop the roleplay. Out of boredom, or just some other reason; I’ve heard arguments that people who don’t receive rapid-fire replies just lose interest. I don’t know about you, but that’s not a dedicated roleplayer or someone that has their heart in it to me. A dedicated roleplayer sticks with their partner though thick and thin. On another site, I have had the same few partners for years. They stick by me, even when life gets in the way. They don’t care that I don’t always rapid-fire posts.


I understand people want to escape from the real world so to speak. I’m sure most of those people are still in school, have crappy lives, want to unwind after work, or are just trying to get their life together, which is completely understandable. I’ll spare you my ‘my life sucks’ story and just say I’m in that crappy situation boat myself.


That said, why is it people insist on receiving rapid-fire replies all of the time.


Personally, it turns me off if someone is up my ass demanding a post every single hour of the day. I hate when people nag me, or when I feel rushed.


Another example I have is absence. People drop roleplays if their partner has been absent for awhile. People have lives outside of roleplaying… I think that’s needless to say but I’ll just mention it anyway. But my example doesn’t come from that, it comes from not having computer access. On another site, I was in the middle of a roleplay with someone and one day out of the blue my computer had some issues and needed to be taken to the shop. I was left without a computer for two weeks, and was only able to get internet access when I want to the library (this was before I had a smartphone). Well, when I finally got my computer back and was able to reply, I contacted them with an apology, and found out that they dropped the roleplay. Why? They had made the argument that they saw me online and that I could have replied, and that two weeks was too slow.


I don’t think that’s right when people do that honestly.


Ok, maybe I did like a little… maybe that is borderline bitching… But still, I stand by my curiosity, I did mention I was speaking from personal experience.


Then there are group rps. Some move fast, others do not. Then there are some that move so fast that people who might not be the fastest posters are unable to keep up, an instance I have seen on numerous occasions and have been faced with.


I post a heads up, saying I will post when I can, I get the response ‘you’ll be late again. Noted.’ (they had tried to delete it and put something else, but through my mod powers I had read the deleted post first) Which was the real turn off for me.


People want things to do, I get that. If you want to read so badly, go find a book or something. If you want something to write then make up your own story. Don’t take your boredom- influenced frustrations out on the people who actually have more to do than just sit and roleplay all day long.


People are so worried about roleplays dying, or things going too slow for them to be interested, that slow posters are unreliable, and are quick to assume that a roleplay is died because so many of theirs have died in the past.


I think I’ll leave it at that, though, because I’m going off a little.


Back on track/tl'dr version:


I don’t get why people are so pushy about posting speed or demand rapid-fire, or think that slower posters are unreliable. It’s quite rude, and pushiness really turns me off, especially when people are snide towards slower posters.

Agreed.

 

[Mesia]

I agree with you. I normally post everyday unless I have something important to do. If I know i'm going to be away I generally let my partners know that I am going to be gone.

 

[TheRoleplayingDovah]

I have a strong dislike of people expecting me to post every hour or posting 20 posts a day. It's just unreasonable but fortunately, no-one has asked me or told me to do that. However, there does seem to be a very fast pace for most group roleplays on RPnation and it is not fun trying to keep up with a roleplay that can go from 1 post a day to 200 by the time i get back from work or decide to spend my evening roleplaying.


The average group roleplay i've been in has died due to the pace being too fast and people losing interest after a few weeks or the fast posters taking it over completely. I dislike having to read 40 pages just so i can try to post or worse, being able to post anything for interaction and having that person move on before i can respond.


There is something everyone should remember, not everyone is hardcore roleplayers and some have jobs/schools/work/or just don't want to post daily. Patience is a part of roleplaying. Ignore that and group roleplays will drop in quality, people will rush out posts or just drop out because they simply can't post.


Now, i think if group roleplayers on here were more patient and took more time to write their posts, the quality would improve, there would be less dead roleplays and a better experience overall. But the GM must make sure that the roleplay doesn't fail and they should be willing to go "Hey guys, could everyone please slow down? The others may be busy and they will post when they can." instead of just allowing the fastest roleplayers post 40-50 posts a day.

 

[Elle Joyner]

I pretty much tell people if they expect rapid fire/fast paced RPs, not to sign up for mine. I require once a week posting - This is to ensure that the plot doesn't get lost by lack of responses ... but I also put a cap on large group RPs, to prevent more than a few posts a day per person... There is nothing I hate more than logging on and finding someone has moved my RP SIX pages in a few hours and I wasn't involved... It is an RP murderer, as much as one liners and lack of dedication.


In my opinion, RP isn't supposed to be rapid-fire, unless it's in a streaming form - It is supposed to be thought out, cooperative writing. You cannot possibly be thinking out a response if you're replying every five to ten minutes.

 

[Miz]

I personally think there is a certain skill to writing regularly. I mean one of the roleplays I am involved within (its a forum roleplay I help created) uses a thread for each particular scene in the game and requires players to have to finish that thread in one week. It sounds difficult but that's really only about 15-18 posts in total per thread (maybe even more if there is 3-4 people inside that thread). For each player that's only like 6-9 posts a week (about one post a day or so, maybe two posts over the weekend). This works pretty well in threads with only 2-3 players at a time but has also worked in a larger scene with 5 characters previously.


In reality, I think people focus too much on post length to judge skill in roleplaying. I think posting continuously and regularly is as valuable as any post length once a person is writing at least 2-3 paragraphs a post.


I am not one to post one liners, I naturally write about 3-4 paragraphs. Most of my posts are even longer than that, but I prefer to post multiple times a day if I can. This is because I feel I can get into characters the more I post with them. Its always the first post to make that is the hardest to make. Like I might spend like 20-30 minutes writing my first post but by my third or fourth I can write about 4 paragraph posts in about 6-15 mins.


That's not to say people are wrong for wanting slower play styles. I am just saying, faster posts doesn't always means less quality. There are two separate skills and you can get good at both of them if you have the time and effort to do so.


Personally - I prefer somewhat faster moving games as in my experience its games that don't require users to post regularly (like every two days or so) that eventually slow down, lose players and die. Mainly because people who aren't posting regularly forget about the game, forget how to play or get into their characters, and honestly have a harder time re-engaging with the story at play.


Though its all preferences and the players involved. In a faster game people need to understand you can't leave players behind (so you can avoid problems like Elle Joynar has had in the past). Likewise people have to understand that other players are waiting on them to post, so not posting is inhibiting them from having fun. That is why in the game I am in that posts quickly (as not all my games are fast posting speeds): deadlines help motivate people to post and prevent procrastination about posting. As after all, its easier to post one post on Tuesday than it is three or four posts Saturday.


Edit - Though I will say there is a point at which posting too fast can be detrimental. You need to have fast posting roleplays with people who are willingly to do it. It shouldn't be expected everyone can post quickly for every roleplay they are in. Though I have found myself enjoying roleplays more when I can post in several of them a day at least once or twice.

 

[Slenderman]

Oh God this is so much truth.


Some people just seem to forget that we are all people behind the wall of text.


STORY TIME! I once roleplayed as a female character and I got a roleplay request. I happily accepted and the other person sent their starter, I had begun writing my reply as they breathed down my neck every twenty minutes wondering where it was.


I have the best of luck.


My laptop turned itself off and I completely lost my reply. In a frenzy I turned my laptop back on and quickly apologized to them, only for them to log off five minutes later.


I was able to finish my reply and I had sent it to them in a private message. They ignored it. When I found them in the chat about two hours later I asked why they hadn't replied and they said "I lost interest because you took too long"


Hold up.


You breathe down my neck every twenty minutes for my reply and then throw a hissy fit because my laptop died on me? Heaven forbid I be a real person, HOW DARE I!


It makes me blood boil. How could anyone be so ignorant? They had my reply and simply chose to ignore it because they had lost interest. They could have at the VERY LEAST replied to my reply with a decent apology. It made me so frustrated.

 

[Mireille]

It's all fun in games till someone loses interest. Can't say I haven't ever dropped a role-play, though I'm normally the last one to leave (everyone ends puts a bullet in it xD ). Rather it does get annoying if you don't post every five minutes then the opposite party loses interest. I can understand the harassing about a post, some people are so excited about a role-play to start it's understandable.


Now here comes from my experience, a role-play I did join. We both posted lightning fast, probably an output of twenty posts an hour (paragraphed not one liners. So, it was a plus). Should go into mention this was another place. Anyway, I go to bed, cause you know people gotta sleep right? So, I post my response, and after a few days I ask them. "Hey did you get my new reply?" Cause sometimes you don't always get it (another reason Rps die sometimes.) They were like "Yes, but you took so long I got bored and deleted it." Behold sleep is a killer of an RP. Though, sometimes think it's another reason.


While it didn't quite matter to me, that's a pretty silly reason to quit a role-play. Unfortunately, I find the same cases of above, and of other peoples complaints viable here. I remember being in a fairy tail RP. Went from page fifty, to page one-hundred twenty overnight from two people. I stuck it through, but it eventually died since the owner dropped it xD . Though, regardless of posting speed. (However, this might be solved if everyone is forced to take turns. Whilst this could still kill an RP as well. But, hey it works somewhat.) The worst is having people show interest, make a character, then never even join. Especially, if it's the above idea of waiting a turn. It'll never go anywhere.


COMMITMENT That's what it takes for a role-play to survive. The commitment of others, holds true to one x one, and group role-plays. Post speed, and length is irrelevant without commitment. A role-play is only as good as the GM, it's players, and whatever Puff the Magic Dragon crap someone wants to pull. In short, I say more groups need to enforce a turn reply feature, or a limit. It'll show whom the committed are whilst also not making fifty pages into one-hundred twenty overnight!.


Seriously, that moment was awful cause by the time I read it all. It already had ten more pages from the same two people.


~Regards, Orion.


Post Start time: ? Post End 5 minutes later.

 

[Loki Laevatein]

I don't think I could agree, more. When I get a really great idea for role play, I can type out a fairly long reply in almost no time. Then, because of working full time and having other things to do, I often end up replying back in a couple of days or so. I don't think it makes me a monster. But even if I didn't have a job and was sitting at the computer all day, I doubt I would be inspired enough to reply as soon as I get a post. I like to read and examine a piece of story to decide where to go, from there. Sometimes it's just dialogue so it will be pretty fast. But if it could change the direction of the story, I'm not going to whip something out of thin air just for the sake of answering.