Forums » Smalltalk » Anonymous Characters

Apparently I'm a glutton for knowledge that really doesn't have anything to do with me. But I guess I'm just a rather curious person.

Anonymous Characters? Why do you make them? and or Would you ever make them?

Back in the day I used 'em to joke around a lil'. Try and do some goofy-ass RP when I felt like I deserved some downtime from the usual rich-prose multi-para adventures I usually find myself in, without, y'know, tarnishing my 'rep' by publically writing like shit for my own amusement. Haven't felt like doing so recently though, I'm feeling way too content with the RPs I currently have going to even crave going back to my roots!

to be honest, i have no idea why i make and use anonymous characters! i think it's because it's just a neat tool to use, probably.

I remember back in 2017 when I joined this site, I made a few anonymous characters because I was embarrassed to show them off. I have no clue why, I wasn’t an awful writer per say, but I was nervous somebody would judge me based on the characters I made (which has happened before, so that could’ve caused it). But other than that, I haven’t used it for other things besides WIP characters before the draft update!

I understand why it might be because they’re shy to show who made that character or they might feel like people might judge that character from the creator and sometimes it’s ok to not know who made the character also ^^

its a nice thing for if you like privacy, dont like people asking for rps, its a character thats farther from your norm, oooooor if you wanna do multiple rps with a favorite rp partner without them knowing (anyone im rping with, beware, i may come for you) (oh, and you could try a new rp with someone if they decide to drop a rp for some reason that doesnt have to do with you personally)

I agree very much and I actually do have some characters like that hehe

I don't want my retired OC's to show on my page but I also don't want to delete them, so they get anon'ed

My characters are public as I myself don't see a need for anonymity, though I have used the feature early on for an incomplete and unused character. The 'draft' feature removed the need to have it anonymous though. I will say that some of my best roleplays here are with other people's anonymous characters.

Because some of my characters are just so degusting, traumatizing, and gory, that it's just for the better.

because i am a hermit that values privacy and do not want new partners stalking my every move and clawing through the entire history of my account and posts

...plus if they turn out to be nuts I can just delete the character lmao, you give them your actual account and you'll have to deal with them for the rest of eternity. same reason why my discord handle is a closely guarded secret

If I make a chara anonymous, it’s because I either…

Don’t list purely-mechanical slots

Want the chara to have strict association with another who’s public in my roster

Or for some other reason, feel that their inclusion in the public list is patently unnecessary or unwarranted, but still want to play that chara

There are plenty of good reasons you might want to anonymize your chara, but in the end, it’s your charas and your roster.

I've had various reasons.

For some, it's been something of an experiment to see how differently from my typical self I can seem, whether for curiosity or amusement. (I don't do anything dastardly or to laugh at anyone, just sort of a "teehee I'm doing a thing.") In some cases, it's sort of like an extra layer of escape from myself. (Even though in OOC contexts, I'm really not great at changing my behavior the vast majority of the time.)

For some, I've been concerned that preconceptions people may end up with based on what they know about me might lead them to expectations that don't really fit the character or its themes.

For some, something about it just make it seem somehow weird to have a given character connected to me. In some cases, yes, that has extended into discomfort about assumptions or confusion that could come from someone seeing me play some types of characters, though this has lessened somewhat.

For some, it gives me a way to more comfortably explore unfamiliar sorts of characters without necessarily embarrassing myself so much.

In some cases, it's just organizational. For example, I have a character where I identify myself on the profile; but the character is essentially an alternate version of another character I have listed publicly, so it just felt more tidy to not have them both appear in the list.

A more broad-reaching reason: it allows me to worry a little less about having to explain to someone why I haven't responded yet even though I've been active around the site. This is another that has relaxed some, since most of the folks I play with are similarly slow and unpredictable, and thus are quite understanding. It's not gone, though, especially in cases where someone I haven't been able to come up with a reply for in awhile might be aware of me replying to someone else pretty regularly at that point. (It's usually not loss of interest, just limited control over what my brain feels up to thinking on at any given point.)

Oh, I also had one who was anon because the profile had been set up for one of the Masquerade events.

I've occasionally considered making all of my characters anonymous, but that ends up feeling a bit weird, too, and I kinda like just showing some off. There are also folks who refuse to play with anons for various (plenty valid) reasons. Another reason to avoid using anons too much recently came up for me, too, but it's a bit of a unique situation that I wouldn't really have ever expected to run into in the first place. Probably more than anything, though, I haven't made them all anon because I'm lazy; changing them all over would take effort, as would having to list out characters all the time instead of being able to sometimes just let people pick through for someone that suits them.

There are small selections of folks who know who some of my anons are, but I usually try to keep those numbers low.

I only have one, and honestly, it's because it's related to some of my more...kinky...interests. So purely out of paranoia, I have the character marked as anonymous so I am not judged. But one of my visible characters is friends with them.

My interest in my characters can wane and wax. I don't want someone who played with one character to be hurt if it takes me a little longer to do something with that character versus another. I have friends who I show all my characters and they understand that I don't always want to play with X Y and Z all the time.

I also have characters that I use on other clients and I don't want them to see that I play on here as well. I keep those characters separate rom the characters I play on here.

When you have the craving of some silly sexy rp times, you whip up a kinky catgirl then you slap it into anonymous so it never traces back to you. So you can do kinky catgirl stuff and all that will be visible on your profile is your collection of masculine barbarians and the cool demon that kills other demons because that concept is totally not overused and you gave them a 30 paragraph backstory. So that's why you go anon. I have no anonymous characters, all my characters are visible on my profile lol

Part of it for me is privacy and not wanting to be "stalked", but another part is also that I want control over who sees the profile and not. I am very concerned with people's comfort level and before I show any of my anonymous characters (though I like to point out they're pretty tame, comparably) I make sure the person know what they will see on the profile so they have every chance to be like "Nah" if it sounds like there is anything there that might be upsetting or off-putting in any way.

I have one that I decided to make anonymous because it deals with subject matter that some would find objectionable so I wanted to put a little extra distance there.

I usually keep character profiles as anonymous while I'm building them. Once they're presentable, they get put up, because I like them lined neatly on my profile shelf so prospective partners can easily pick which one they want to play with. Outdated OCs get taken down.

I've also had a mass number of RP partners (many now friends) say things like "oh I didn't want to reach out to you because you had all these shiny OCs and I got intimidated", because toxic RP communities where everything is a popularity contest are regrettably common 🥴Sometimes I keep them anon as a way to be like, this isn't about me or any of my other characters, it's about this one character that I want to write, distancing myself from it so it's just a standalone story other randos can comfortably share in

What about setting them to draft or using the retired/inactive category so they don't show on your user profile?