Okay, guys, I feel like this really needs to be said and if I get stabbed in the face for saying it or forever hated then I guess I’m alright with that because it needs to be said by this point because… It’s starting to get to the level where it’s making other people feel bad and people who don’t deserve to feel bad to feel like they’re terrible people and on top of that it’s… Starting to look like it’s crossing the boundary from RP blog to real life for a lot of people which is… dangerous.

Alright, so, mainly, I’m going to address the biggest problem I see on here and it seems to be the issue of people not rping with other people. If you assume that this post is about you and you alone I am going to call Carly Simon and tell her to hand you a personal note from me.

This is after like six months of observing people and watching the roughly 46 people I follow interact on my dash. That’s 46 people. I have 102 followers and I see this happening with 46 people and I know you guys follow more people than I do.

Tl;dr of this whole post: Just because someone doesn’t jump  your posts all the time doesn’t mean that they don’t like you, or just because someone doesn’t send you anons … It doesn’t have anything to do with you as a person. Or if it does, chances are, the general public has no idea about it. Your characters aren’t bad because you don’t get a lot of attention, because sometimes the best characters don’t get any at all and it sucks but it doesn’t… you shouldn’t take that onto yourself like it’s your fault. Because sometimes it’s not.
(but sometimes it can be.)

Alright, so first I’m going to address a really common trend amongst people just not rping with others. You have to bear in mind that for someone who follows as few people as I do, it’s really, really unlikely that I will miss a post. Not everyone follows as few people as me. A lot of people that I know actually follow at least 60+ fantroll blogs.

I don’t because I knew I would miss more stuff than I wanted to, and I will be as honest about myself in this post as I am being honest about what I think is happening here; I am really picky about who I follow because of past experiences. There’s no covering it up when you look at the ratio of my followers to my followings.

1. Sometimes people miss your openers because their dash is busy.
2. Sometimes people don’t have an character that could or would interact with yours. Or, their character has had a bad experience with yours and doesn’t want to see them again. That doesn’t mean the roleplayer doesn’t want to roleplay with you.
3. Sometimes they think they are bothering you and you want them to back off.
4. Sometimes people just don’t have ideas! And you can’t blame them for that, especially with magic anons or ask games. I do this all the time you would be surprised how many times I would say something when I just can’t think of what to have happen.
5. Sometimes people are shy. That is a really common thing. I have seen very few people who are outgoing about throwing their characters out or talking on open posts.
   
6. Sometimes people don’t know it’s an open post, that’s why I said on my blog that “all posts tagged with CG Complains are open posts.”
   
7. Sometimes, people just have too much on their plate.
   
8. Sometimes, people are like me: they have to have an un-answered open post to feel like it’s okay to reply, and don’t tend to plot.
   

You can’t blame people for a lot of these reasons, just like you can’t blame someone for not talking to you in class or anything. Alternatively, sometimes people just want to stay in their cliques and don’t want to venture out often. But that doesn’t mean that they should shoot down any rp attempts.

**THE GREATEST PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU ON THIS POST IS THIS: ROLEPLAYS WILL NOT ALWAYS COME TO YOU, YOU HAVE TO GO TO THEM.** [ADDED 02/24/13]

That’s a really small section of the issue here, though. The second has to do with characters. And it isn’t because anyone dislikes your character or they’re bad or anything else. It honestly has a lot to do with their personality and the way they talk to others.

This is probably what’s going to get me into trouble.

1. If your character is remotely an “asshole”, if they insult characters upon meeting them, if they tend to not get along, do not be surprised if lots of other characters don’t tend to talk to them.
    I can’t stress this enough. A lot of the characters I use publicly are social. They talk a lot. They tend to be nicer and they tend to be social butterflies. This applies to ALL roleplay groups, not just fantrolls. Bielav isn’t even my main fantroll, but I used him here because of this reason. Even if he is inaccurate by fantroll standards, he has reasons for being that way.
   
2. If a character bad mouths yours, that doesn’t mean the roleplayer dislikes  your character. But at the same time, character bleeding is a really bad problem on here and I think it has to do with a lot of the animosity between roleplayers that really doesn’t need to be there.
   
3. If your character is quiet and doesn’t tend to bother other characters, this could explain another reason why  you don’t use them very often.I made Bielav social because I’m not good at meeting new people. I knew i had to have an OC that was willing to interact and in fact over-interact if I was going to  get to roleplay very often.
   
4. If your character DOES NOT JOIN OPEN POSTS, I can almost PROMISE YOU you will not get to interact very often.This is technically a subheading to the point before it. Let me give you an example, Bielav never would have met, say, Saelem, had he not tried to be friendly to her.
   
5. Sometimes, you have to change your character if it starts to become obvious that no one is going to talk to them for various reasons. And that doesn’t mean they have to be nice. A lot of people in real life realize they’re doing something wrong and they learn to soften up a bit… It’s natural.
   
6. Characters are like real people. The loneliest are typically rougher, and the most social are softer and more energetic.
   

What I’m saying is this: Your character’s person and how they talk to others will affect if they will get to be very social. If you make a character and don’t think YOU would want to talk to them, chances are, not a lot of other characters will either.

Bielav has blocked multiple characters and not spoken to a lot of them just because they rubbed him the wrong way. It doesn’t mean that myself, as a roleplayer, dislike the other roleplayer or anything else. I’ve actually apologized to people for him doing this.

As for fantroll-blog specific things:

• If you are really popular or well known, people are less apt to talk to you because they probably assume you have a lot  going on or they’re star-struck.
  
• The more fantrolls you have on your blog (usually three+), the less likely people are to be able to pick which one to rp with, or they’re never sure when it’s alright to jump in or who they’re going to get. OR, the character they want to roleplay with never gets an open post.
  
• I’ve also noticed a correlation between how well people draw and how shy people are to talking to them. Guys, artists are just like you, don’t worry about it.
  
• …Same way with writers.
  
• If you regularly drop roleplays, forget, or anything else, it could create a bad image for you. Be really careful about what you let drop and when and why. People pay attention to it more than you think.
  

The fact is, what I’m saying is that it’s time people get objective about this stuff. People get neglected in terms of roleplay a lot, and it’s not new. Sometimes you try and you fail and you have to try again. Sometimes it works right off the bat for some people. Sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve seen a lot of inactive character blogs I would have loved to roleplay with that because no one roleplayed with them they quit altogether.

It’s really hard to get a lot of attention on a site as big as this one, but don’t give up or feel bad or think that someone doesn’t want to to roleplay with you because of it. Don’t think your characters are bad or anything else.

But, you have to bear in mind that if you don’t branch out… No one else will, either. I recently discovered there’s a whole section of fantroll blogs I have never, ever seen, just because I don’t leave my usual groups very often. And you can call me out on that. I know I tend to roleplay exclusively, but so do a lot of other people on here. It’s not bad that you have people you’re comfortable with roleplaying with or that your characters are friends wtih. In real life, we talk to our best friends more than our acquaintances. It doesn’t become a problem until someone says something like they won’t rp outside of their clique or they shoot people down.

That’s… really all I have to say, I think. And if I hurt anyone’s feelings I’m sorry,  but after a while it gets tiring to feel like you’re being chastised for something you can’t really help. And it’s starting to breed a lot of issues among roleplayers on here.

 ALSO

• IT IS TOTALLY FINE TO NOT WANT TO ROLEPLAY. It is totally fine to want to take a break. A character blog isn’t your job. Don’t harass people for not replying right away, and don’t guilt trip them over it. Sometimes people lose their juice, and that’s fine.