Are my Request Threads Intimidating?

[tsukasa]

Firstly, I'd like to point out that I have no interest in changing how my request threads or other posts are laid out or formatted etc (it's me, and probably always will be), this is just a curiosity I have due to recent feedback by a partner who almost didn't attempt to contact me because of this issue.

Are my request threads and/or other threads/posts intimidating because of how "professional" they are, and how they seem to be more of a formal interview rather than a casual "Hi there!"? I'm both autistic and a software developer, writing a lot of documentation (now you know where my versioning and changelog obsession comes from!), making record keeping, clean layouts, well-defined specifics, and pretty much all details and formatting important to me. Is this a gift or a curse?

Note that I am not talking about the plots or themes etc, just the formatting and presentation of the RTs.

 

[Bellini]

Personally, I like the format. I think some of the content could be trimmed down, though; I find a lot of the information extraneous and if I spend too much time reading stuff that doesn't give me information on if I'll want to write with that person, I tend to click off out of default.

For example, your "code" to deciphering which plots you want more is a little wordy. I'd almost cut it down to something like this:

Plots

For these original plots, I am looking to use original characters, or any characters from the fandoms section here.
Anything in bold, italic green is a craving; anything in grey strikeout is low priority.
All characters will be 15+ and human only.

Then, for your fandoms section, something like:

Fandoms and Characters

I am open to using these characters in my original plots above, or in a fandom-verse plot.
Clicking each fandom and character will take you to more information on each.
All characters will be 15+ and human only.

It gives the same information, but reads a lot easier in my opinion.

Other than that, I'd recommend making sure your tables are the same widths as each other, as the constantly changing table widths can make it hard for the eye to follow from table to table, but that's my only real coding criticism.

Again, it's probably just that you're looking for niche things and that'll take time.​

 

[Chalarm]

From a short glimpse, the formatting looks good. Everything is organized, easy to find and concise.

The changelog and copyrights caught me off gaurd just because I don't see many threads bother with that, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. I'm assuming the addition of those might be what was meant by "professional".

I don't see anything that would prevent someone from sending a response if their interests lined up.

 

[tsukasa]

From a short glimpse, the formatting looks good. Everything is organized, easy to find and concise.

That was my intention with the table of contents and sections, so I'm glad to see it be field-tested and work as intended.

The changelog and copyrights caught me off gaurd just because I don't see many threads bother with that, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. I'm assuming the addition of those might be what was meant by "professional".

Changelogs come naturally to me; it's understated how important and useful those are when what changed and when is wondered. As for the copyright attributions, they are also something I do in my daily work due to managing and dealing with licenses; I think it's important to do that properly everywhere, since it isn't only related to business (although, you could likely get away with not doing it if one of the copyright holders brought it up, since it's personal fair use).

 

[tsukasa]

Other than that, I'd recommend making sure your tables are the same widths as each other, as the constantly changing table widths can make it hard for the eye to follow from table to table, but that's my only real coding criticism.

I'm not sure this is possible with the native BBCode of this site; it probably requires using a div, if it's possible. The table lengths are automatic; I didn't manually define them.

 

[Siph]

Without going into nit-picky details, I can't say there's anything that strikes me as "intimidating". It's all very clearly presented and yes, while detailed changelog and copyright sections might be overkill on a forum where most people announce updates as "new plot whoop whoop" and few bother to link so much as an artist's Twitter if they use their art in a thread, it's by no means distracting and I think it actually gives a good idea of your personality as a writer.

In fact, I'd even say I like it when my RP partner (or their RT) is somewhat intimidating. I don't mean the anxiety-inducing scary kind of intimidating, or the "supposedly introductory math textbook that requires a graduate degree in anaytic number theory to get halfway through the first chapter" kind, but if they say they're looking for high-quality RP (and give context to what "high-quality" actually means to them), or use words in their posts that I have to look up, it's more likely that they can offer a challenging experience for me to enhance my writing skills. Of course, that's different from their thread being a jumbled incomprehensible mess; that's not intimidating, that's just bad.

Perhaps one thing that'd make your RT more inviting is to work the bullet points in your Notes and About sections into a more elaborate introduction, as in e.g. Bellini's Introduction and Expectations & Offers sections, or the first few paragraphs in Chalarm's thread. (I don't like using my own posts as examples, but I tend to put those details under the About Me header in most of my threads.) I generally find that a written introductory section gives a better "feel" of the writer's "vibe" than barebones bullet points, however vague that might be. It could give the whole thing a bit more personality and take away some of its formality, but again, if you think your current format matches your own writing style and personality, you shouldn't change anything.

I hope that helps!

 

[tsukasa]

Perhaps one thing that'd make your RT more inviting is to work the bullet points in your Notes and About sections into a more elaborate introduction, as in e.g. Bellini's Introduction and Expectations & Offers sections, or the first few paragraphs in Chalarm's thread. (I don't like using my own posts as examples, but I tend to put those details under the About Me header in most of my threads.) I generally find that a written introductory section gives a better "feel" of the writer's "vibe" than barebones bullet points, however vague that might be. It could give the whole thing a bit more personality and take away some of its formality, but again, if you think your current format matches your own writing style and personality, you shouldn't change anything.

I hope that helps!

That's interesting; I never thought of the About Me section being long-form before. I wonder if that would make my RTs too wordy, since I already have a lot of description/explanation in the other sections. I laid out the Notes and About Me sections as they are so they were easily-digestible, but perhaps they do look a little bare in comparison to the other sections, as in I don't focus on me as a writer enough, only the plots and fandoms etc.

 

[Saiya]

I suppose just as a little input beyond what was said here.. it might help with the use of images? I don't think you should drown your thread in them, but having some eye catching images might help both adding a little life as well as breaking up the text a bit. Ideally they can enhance and add to the text in some way and spark creativity for the reader and give them a more clear image of what you might be looking for.

For example, have a plot section that is around Fantasy? BAM put a nice little image by it to spark the feel of fantasy. Modern day? BAM an image of something modern day particularly fitting of the type of RPs you like to do. They can just add a little bit of atmosphere and give the viewer a nice break and fuel their own imagination that might hook them on your ideas more.

Again though, just a little. There can be too much of a good thing! Also, make sure they aren't HUGE images. Just large enough to give a little break without making the person have to scroll down to see more.

 

[Fruit]

I wasn't intimidated at all.

They're digestible which already puts you ahead of the curve. I think you could trim down a lot of the irrelevant information still. If the information is something that can be discussed in DMs when plotting it shouldn't be in your RT. Only information that attracts whom you're looking for & filters out those you don't want should be included in your RT.

The other thing I'd recommend is to make your RT more.. eye-catching. You could add graphics but I don't think that is necessary. Simply rewording to make things more engaging and hook the reader early on would do plenty to help your thread be more attractive.

Good luck!!

 

[tsukasa]

They're digestible which already puts you ahead of the curve. I think you could trim down a lot of the irrelevant information still. If the information is something that can be discussed in DMs when plotting it shouldn't be in your RT. Only information that attracts whom you're looking for & filters out those you don't want should be included in your RT.

By this, do you mean the plots which are pre-defined? You think I should have only the fandoms and characters, and leave the plotting outside of the main theme to PMs?

 

[Fruit]

By this, do you mean the plots which are pre-defined? You think I should have only the fandoms and characters, and leave the plotting outside of the main theme to PMs?

The opposite, actually. When people click on RTs they're primarily looking for plots. Those should 100% stay and should be easy to read and very accessible. Focus on brevity and presentation.

Very basic information about your writing style (bullet points maybe) is important. Fandoms and kinks are usually things you could discuss. I'd only mention the ones that are deal-breakers or very very specific. You could add them to each respective plot instead of giving them their own section.

 

[tsukasa]

The opposite, actually. When people click on RTs they're primarily looking for plots. Those should 100% stay and should be easy to read and very accessible. Focus on brevity and presentation.

I actually used to have it this way until recently (until a specific version of each RT), but the monolithic table I was using became way too long to be presentable, so I spent up to a few days or so breaking them down into modular spoilers, each with their own fandom and plot table inside; had I kept it how it was, it would have meant reading the entire table to get to where you want (this isn't great when the plots list could be an arbitrary number and is already something like 16 of them), whereas now it means simply opening only the fandoms you are interested in. I plan to do the same to the "Fandoms and Characters" section of each RT.

You think this is a bad switch?

 

[Fruit]

Your code and organization is good. It's what makes the RT presentable (on PC and mobile) and digestible. It is just that there is too much text and space that can be discarded without sacrificing any vital information.

You don't need to write a title because threads have titles. It is fine if you want to advertise your other RTs but its not that important and you already have them in your signature.
Table of content takes space for no reason. You can mention you want the characters to start as pregnant in the plots. Your other notes can be added to your "Me" section.
You don't need to define what original plots are or what fandoms are, or what crossing off text means, etc..
I'd bring your plots out of the spoiler tags so they catch eyes quickly. You're making people scroll down then click to find your plots. Plots are like the items on front display in stores. You don't want customers going out of their way to search for them.
If fandoms are very important for you, you can list them in a small list without making it a giant table. You don't really have to list the characters either. If people message you about a specific fandom, you can then tell them what characters you like. I'd personally dedicate an RT just for fandoms if I were you tbh.