Forums » RP Discussion » Pet peeves - Let's rant about RP stuff we hate!

Things I extremely dislike:

Short replies:
You're starting a rp and you typed up a good three paragraph and you give them the link to the forum and they type something that's like three sentences...

Extremely long replies:
Someone you rp with has 7 plus paragraphs each reply and you can't find anything to reply with.

Bad grammar:
Someone that gets "your, you're" mixed up or "they're, there and their..."

Drop outs:
You see someone replying to other rp's while you've been waiting for months for a reply and you don't want to annoy them by constantly reminding them.

Control freak:
Someone who takes over the entire rp and controls your characters and such...

No need for stress:
People that get stressed out because they're confused when all they need is to ask for a explanation.

God modeling:
No one likes this but this happened to me. Someone who adds on abilities to their characters.

Sentences like this:
ShaWty I'm so godly us his numb 2 Penical attck 2 Pimp slap dat emey! ONE HIT KO BBBOOOIIII!

CORRECTION!:
People that constantly and purposely correct, I find it very annoying...

misuse of the conditional tense

misspelling "god-moding"

people who write like they're ashamed of their own hobby (run-on or abruptly cut-off sentences with no proofreading - if you don't have time to write right now, write what you can and come back to it.)

any character problems are just the result of authors who haven't transitioned from wish-fulfillment writing to character writing, there's no argument based on reason you can use to convince them that wish-fulfillment is an objectively incorrect writing style

and yes, I will point out these problems when I see them. not that it will accomplish anything but make people defensive and resentful

To me, the cut-off sentences speaks lack of proofreading due to laziness, instead of shame.

Lol, I get exactly what you mean about the wish fulfillment, though. I once had an Rper try to make his character a super intelligent mechanical genius robot, despite the fact that it didn't make any sense within the RP (Robotics are limited to prosthetic and computers) and a hundred other logical problems.

It's very difficult to walk people through stuff like that. On one hand, you don't want to make them feel crappy, because they'll come away with a negative experience and that's not what RPing is about. On the other hand, if their crappy writing is detrimental to the story... To me, the most rewarding part of an RP is helping others tell a story. If I have to hold their hand, so be it.

When I was 12-13, I didn't know any English other than a couple of basic words/phrases. A website I frequented was purely in English, but I wanted to play on it, so I started learning as I went along. I wasn't perfect, I switched up words all the time (which and witch for example) and made huge typos, but people still understood me and many didn't mind. I had a lot of fun roleplaying and so did my fellow RPers.

Then people started bombarding me with instant corrections, in public, sometimes followed with exasperated emoticons, sometimes with obvious irritation expressed with written sighs or eyerolls. When I asked a question about an event on the site, I got responses that didn't even acknowledge the question I asked, but instead focused 100% on correcting me.

And you know what? It sucked. I felt awful, trampled on, constantly felt like I was lesser and not good enough to be among 'their ranks', shoved around, pushed into a corner. Nobody bothered to ask me if I wanted help, they just thrust it into my face, often rudely or without even knowing why I made so many misspellings, and then expected me to be grateful about it. I wasn't, and I never will be. It felt shitty and derogatory.

I still see this happening all the time, even on this site. Someone's intentions may be good, but it usually misfires. The only time someone will feel crappy is not because you're offering a correction or help, but it's that you bulldoze all over that person without asking what they want. Nobody will feel crappy about getting help if you ask them "Do you want help?" and they say yes. Nobody will be angry with you if you say you noticed they struggle a bit with such or so, and then let them know if they ever want help, you're there for them.

What about the feelings of the people who are being expected to take hours of their valuable time to teach someone they've never met the absolute basics of the language they're using to communicate? Who are probably tired of seeing and correcting the same mistakes being committed by every new member over and over again?

No one is responsible for a person's fun but that person. If you want to engage other people in a language that is not native to you, you're going to have to put more effort in. Classes, tutoring, reading, practicing, whatever it takes.

Also, bear in mind that the help others are giving out for free - regardless of whether it is asked for or not - would normally be super expensive. Tutoring isn't cheap.

No one is obligated to care about a person's feelings, either. There are a lot of words about feelings up there, but very little about why anyone from that community would have an incentive to be interested. They probably only noticed your posts when they were correcting them in order to look smart in front of their fake internet friends.

That's the beauty of free will - there's no obligation in this whatsoever. Everyone has the right to say "I'm not going to bother with this (person)". You don't have to read anything this person wrote, you don't have to roleplay with them, you don't have to do anything at all. RPR does have rules that outline everyone do their best, so if you feel someone is being particularly lax with their efforts to write coherent English, you're always welcome to write to the moderators and ask them to handle it if you don't feel up to it.

As someone who speaks/reads/writes 4 different languages fluently, I know this very well. I also know how difficult it is when the examples you're given in day to day life can hinder your progress to proper language studies. There are many, many Americans who were born and raised with their native language who can't write it correctly. They are abundant, and they are a leading example that teach foreigners all the wrong things. It took me forever to get the difference between then and than right, simply because many Americans (and British) don't even get it right half the time.

I agree with this! I do, however, believe that nurturing positive relationships with others, even strangers, through small interactions is healthy for the majority of people in the world and I know first-hand how sucky it is to be on the receiving end of the situation you described. Everyone can make their own choice not to be nicer about it, but if I can prevent one person from going through the crap I had to wade through by changing someone's mind, I gladly will make the effort to try.

You didn't have to go through any of it, though. You could've just played with other people who speak your language.

But then I would never have met you. Or Kim. Or all the other people on RPR!

See? Even more incentive.

#thisissarcasmdontbanme

Lol. Now that you guys are talking about not being a native English speaker, I thought I could jump in. I did use to feel bad when sometimes people rudely pointed out my grammatical mistakes. There were a lot of expressions I didn't understand, and roleplaying actually helped me improve my English. That's why I started doing it in the first place. From watching others' posts, I learned how to properly write, and what things not to do too. I think it's all about experience. At first, I envied those who could write more than a sentence. My posts used to be like this: Hi. *smiles*

No kidding.

I hadn't realized there were people out there who wrote up to several paragraphs. So, I think that if one dislikes seeing grammatical mistakes, you should simply avoid roleplaying with that kind of people. It's as simple as stating you prefer more experienced rpers in your rp request or profile.

But I do agree with you Ross, in that if someone wants to roleplay in a language they're not very familiar with, without the basic knowledge of grammar rules, then that person should really think it twice.

Well, haha in conclusion, it's a mutual responsability. People who should be more patient and understanding, and the others, to keep in mind it's about doing your best effort.

I applaud the people who learn and grow and reach out to meet others halfway, it makes the distance between each of us just a little shorter!!! CHEERS TO RPR and how it unifies us as a community!!!

Might already said this before but I grow very tired of people saying they are interested in an RP I have up in the RP Finder. When I PM them I always ask for ideas they may have to add or even questions.... I always have the answer as no to both! If you are gonna RP with me I expect you to help out with ideas not make me lead the whole thing!

Rant over

face claims

I don't mind face claims if they are along the lines of 'this face' + 'this hairstyle' + 'this eye colour' and so on - as an artist, I actually find it exceptionally useful if someone has a real-life face photograph as a reference to make the character more accurate. So in the context of RP, I don't mind it. There's actually a website called MorphThing that allows you to merge/mingle two individuals' faces to make a new one, which is useful/fun.

Turns out Morphthing doesn't work on cartoon faces mixed with real ones

That's because it's tailored to combining real faces together, not ones without at least some basis of consistent anatomy

That's because it's tailored to combining real faces together, not ones without at least some basis of consistent human anatomy

My Major Pet Peeves?

Ooh I have a few mind you, and though some of them have been mentioned above.... *facepalms*

1) Grammatical/Spelling errors as well as punctuation (I read a lot of R.A. Salvatore's books and try to mimic his style... but even I have errors with punctuation but ... some I've seen especially on Furcadia... oi...

2) People who Rp with you once or twice and never come on again. On Furc they are seen as the worst.

3) Poorly written characters that have no... real way of developing further; this angers me so much~ Why make a character if your not going to put some effort into it?!

4) Of course God-Modders, IC-OOC and Meta-gamers.

5) THIS IS ONE OF MY BIG PET PEEVES: People don't read the Character Site (RPR, Webs.com etc.) and say that the person's character is something else.


Ugh.. I have more but I'm too tired to think right now.

I can't stand when people think they'll convince you to do an RP you aren't interested in by arguing. I think the worst example of this I've experienced was
Pardon you. I like to keep beautiful houseplants in my home, but that doesn't mean my guests are free to copulate with them.

Psh, romance is cuter without "perfectly attractive" characters anyway. Romance covers have always made me laugh.