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Experience claims

Seranda

🎵 Fighting Evil By Moonlight 🎵
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
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Love Me! Heed Me! Worship ME!
Many times I am approached by potential partners and I notice that somewhere in the first two sentences is “I have X number of years of roleplaying experience.” I don’t really understand why this would be important or an issue. Someone who’s been doing this for a month can provide an equal or better experience than someone who’s been at it since 2007. I am not judging people who do, I just want to know why you include it, as to me, it doesn’t provide any sort of outlook other than you’ve been around a while.

I for some reason understand it in introduction threads or maybe even request threads, but when reaching out to someone, I don’t really understand why it matters. Maybe it’s comforting to some to know this person isn’t a newbie. But newbies are good!

I am just interested to hear why people advertise it and whether it matters to you or not.
 
Yes, I've noticed this too. Especially in the Request threads. Perhaps it would help if they differentiated between in-person role play and written role play. Does umpteen years of running AD&D characters really apply to a written scenario? I don't know.
 
I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I just don’t know what the actual goal is. It only tells me that you’ve been enjoying the hobby for a while. Which makes me no more likely to write with you over the next person. Just interesting and odd to me
 
I include it in my "About me" in my RT, for the goal of providing "information about me" that is relevant to rp and story writing.

So, if I were to include it in messages sent to people(I don't think I have) or if someone sent it to me, I would assume its purpose would merely be to provide information about the rper.

I remember too being so new to rp that I didn't understand yet the nature of partnerships, boundaries, terminology, or how to articulate goals and needs for stories. It took me a bit in the early years to understand what I liked, what I didn't like, and a lot of that came from stumbling through throwaway partnerships that I probably should have handled better. But 15 years ago, not knowing kink from fetish and not having experience with anything other than vanilla and never having had to work collaboratively on a story with someone before, I probably could have benefited from someone open to catering to newbs, who was patient, rather than leaving behind me a trail of folks who were annoyed that I waited until fully into a noncon scene to be like, "Ah. ...then no, I don't like this. My bad." But less articulate and more wishy-washy because I wasn't sure if it ws okay to ask for things to stop in rp, when I first started.

I'm not here to be a teacher or an editor and as much empathy as I have, I'm not patient with fumbling and insecurity in partners. It's a weight I don't want while trying to relax and have casual, creative fun.

So, information about experience in rp can provide context and perspective. I won't reject someone if they say they're new to rp but I might if they told me I was their first partner or if they asked me to define terms like OOC/IC, thread/post, or kink/fetish. I don't have time or desire to mess around with that. Sometimes, because of this newbie bias, people will lie about their experience or they will include however many years they've been writing solo to bump up the number. It's not that big of a deal, honestly, even if they lie about it. It's just one of the factors that can provide context when choosing a compatible partner.
 
I can understand the terminology bit. I’ve been doing this for x years and STILL don’t know what the differences really are between kink/fetish, Power Bottom. I just prefer things be simple. But it just goes to show, even someone who has been doing this for a while, may not meet the standards of someone else who may have been around the same time if not less.

I always know what OOC was, but didn’t address it as such until maybe a couple of years ago.

Some will find more value in it I assume. Really sounds like a resume for a job when all we want to do is put characters in situations and direct how things will go.

Again I am not knocking it. I just find it interesting and odd.
 
It's not an exact categorization. It's an estimate. Some people new to the hobby don't know what they're doing and don't know what they want. Not everyone and it's more a biased impression than based on any numbers or concrete data. But in any case, if you're talking up your years of experience, it's a shorthand way to say that nobody will likely have to hold your hand through a partnership, that you've gotten through the stumbling practice and awkward bits of figuring shit out in the rp world.

Everyone has different capabilities but personally, it's not all that strange to me. This site is full of eclectic individuals. Some people are here for one shots, some people want long, novelesque rps. Some people want a lot of smut and sex focus, others want more story with very little sex at all. Some people want to make friends with partners, others are more distant and happy with a casual "just rp" relationship. Etc.

With how much variety there is between wants and needs, it requires a bit of fine tuning to reach compatibility. So, not a job interview, but an interview of sorts to determine whether someone is worth their effort and time. And as stated, rp experience is just one of many factors someone would take into consideration.
 
To be perfectly honest, I’ve occasionally included it to let prospective partners know that I have a pretty good grasp of what I’m doing, but I feel more comfortable throwing out a quantifiable metric - time - than a subjective measure like “hey, I’m a badass writer” (they may not agree).

It’s true that time and skill are not intrinsically linked, but they often are, to some degree.
 
I do agree that having an ideal number of years of experience isn't a must, but I do think people aren't just saying how many years as a flex or something.

I like to say I have a fair amount of years of experience since I'm proud of my commitment to the hobby, and it hints at that I learned a lot throughout the years. If I was only a year in, I personally don't think I would be as diverse and as comfortable with the role plays that I do now. I'd surely be overwhelmed.

Also, I remember being new and needing every detail to start, to now I can craft a highly detailed story with a few brainstorming sentences. There are advantages that do come with experience.

However, that doesn't mean that someone new can't have a knack for it or can't pull off something good. I don't judge people solely based on their experience compared to what they produce, but at least from my point of view, I feel more confident accepting a partner with experience. At the same time, that doesn't mean they are good, and I have higher expectations from those with said experience.
 
Many times I am approached by potential partners and I notice that somewhere in the first two sentences is “I have X number of years of roleplaying experience.” I don’t really understand why this would be important or an issue. Someone who’s been doing this for a month can provide an equal or better experience than someone who’s been at it since 2007. I am not judging people who do, I just want to know why you include it, as to me, it doesn’t provide any sort of outlook other than you’ve been around a while.
Writing is a craft, and like every other craft one generally improves with practice.

That's not to say that someone who's been writing online for ten years is necessarily going to be better (for whatever definition of better you prefer) than someone who's been at it for three months, it's just to say that they'll likely be better. Which in turn is why people include this information: it's intended to convey signal to the prospective partner, helping to send the message "hey you'll enjoy playing with me."
 
Writing is a craft, and like every other craft one generally improves with practice.

That's not to say that someone who's been writing online for ten years is necessarily going to be better (for whatever definition of better you prefer) than someone who's been at it for three months, it's just to say that they'll likely be better. Which in turn is why people include this information: it's intended to convey signal to the prospective partner, helping to send the message "hey you'll enjoy playing with me."
Not necessarily true: you could have been writing, continually and consistently, for 10 years in a collaborative RP environment such as BMR, and still be a crap writer.

I've been RPing in some way, shape, or form, longer than some on this site have been alive, and I've been involved in collaborative writing for more than 15 years. I like to think I've learned a few things about RPing and writing in that time, but am I any good? I don't know.

Lots of experience doesn't necessarily translate to better talent or quality. A person who's only just ventured into a collaborative writing forum like BMR could be an amazing partner, where the person claiming 10 years of writing experience could be a hack.
 
I find that writing samples are a better predictor of writing skill than experience claims, but I also understand that not everyone has threads to fall back on. I'd say experience is the line that I pay attention to the least.

Pairings/Ideas/Kinks/Limits/Rules are what I generally pay attention to. If I'm not excited about an idea or pairing, then I'm generally not going to contact the person, anyway. I do have to be careful that I read rules carefully whenever I'm enthusiastic about an idea. If something is good enough, I'll generally accept any limit or rule put in front of me, but it's important to pay close attention to them.
 
Not necessarily true: you could have been writing, continually and consistently, for 10 years in a collaborative RP environment such as BMR, and still be a crap writer.

I've been RPing in some way, shape, or form, longer than some on this site have been alive, and I've been involved in collaborative writing for more than 15 years. I like to think I've learned a few things about RPing and writing in that time, but am I any good? I don't know.

Lots of experience doesn't necessarily translate to better talent or quality. A person who's only just ventured into a collaborative writing forum like BMR could be an amazing partner, where the person claiming 10 years of writing experience could be a hack.
Like most writers who have been practicing for a while, I tend to choose words deliberately. "Likely" was there for a reason! :)
 
I just want to know why you include it

I have done this myself in my main request thread and I can of course only speak for myself but it is in my mind the same thing as someone applying for a job as a gardener including that they have so many years of experience trimming trees, and hedges. It doesn't necessarily mean that there are not those with a month's experience of cutting grass one summer, to some extra money, who would do a better job but it does show experience and in most cases skill comes with experience, whether that skill was considerable after a mere month or not it will still have grown with experience, hopefully.

Perhaps it would help if they differentiated between in-person role play and written role play. Does umpteen years of running AD&D characters really apply to a written scenario? I don't know.

This is a valid point indeed and it has made me review my own request thread accordingly.

I certainly wouldn't expect someone who has been playing dice based roleplaying games to be good at written freeform roleplays by default, no more than I would expect it from someone with experience in Live Action Roleplaying. To link it to my response above I wouldn't bey default expect someone who has experience with cutting grass on a golf course to be good at trimming hedges as well.

If I was only a year in, I personally don't think I would be as diverse and as comfortable with the role plays that I do now. I'd surely be overwhelmed.

I think this really explains it best. There is a vast difference between being a good writer and an experienced writer. With experience comes versatility, flexibility and diversity. I can again only speak for myself but despite my experience I still find myself repeating certain phrases to start a transitional sentence, especially when writing in English, which is not my native language, as I think the case is for many of us here. Experience has however made me aware of this flaw in my writing and I often rework my posts at least once, sometimes more, before publishing them.

There are of course also examples of experienced roleplayers and writers who keep hammering out the same kind of stuff as they did when they started writing/roleplaying, who still play the same character under different names in the same sort of situations over and over as if stuck in some sort of creative loop. Of course there are also newbies that can throw a dozen different scenarios with as many, or more, original and diverse characters, at you off the top of their heads. It all comes down to creativity really.

It is also important to remember that there are different levels of commitment to roleplaying and writing. Some do it to pass time between work and sleep, some do it to find an outlet for their fantasies, for others it is a form of therapy, an escape from their mundane lives, others use it as what might perhaps be their only social interaction, for others yet it is more serious. This of course all affect how much any number of years of experience is worth.

Still I find it to be a good thing to know about a potential partner, especially if it is combined with examples of what to expect from them in terms of narrative quality, post lengths and initiative to progress the storyline, as I myself have done in my request thread.

It doesn't provide a guide with regard to ghosting.

Sadly no. It doesn't. And that in my opinion is a much bigger issue here. People who simply stop communicating and vanish. If you're not feeling it, or need a break for whatever reason, just say so. I am fairly certain that people here won't bite if you are open about not being able to post whatever the reason is.

And this got a bit long in the wind so I'll just stop now.
 
I usually just say "I've been writing forever" and let my posts here speak for themselves. I get it, though. It's a lot like a job application. You want prospective partners to to see you as experienced and able to handle the wiles/whims of the creative process. It's basically saying "I know what I'm doing" while also telling more about yourself, which is always hard if you ask me.

Personally speaking, it doesn't matter to me how long a person has been writing as long as said writing triggers something in me. For that reason, I usually ask for a writing sample whether you've been writing for ten years or ten days.
 
I do it but I guess it is just by way of conversation. I say more than just that in itself and I know in the long run it does not mean someone is a great writer or that there will be a greater chance of chemistry. One of my longest and best RP partners was actually not the greatest writer around and she did have experience. But we worked well together all the same.
 
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