Taavi's Rant: Some Picky People

[liontamer1]

We all have encountered at least one. Lets set a scenario; you are ambling through Flourite on your new character, when you see an advertisement. A literate, mapped, long-termed and newly formed pack. It is just the perfect roleplay for you! You dash to the other side of Flourite, and when you arrive the leader asks you for a roleplay sample, simple enough right? You type out a whole paragraph detailing your character running through the forest, being chased by some rival pack members. You check for errors until you can repeat the paragraph in your sleep and you send it off. You wait for a response and when it comes, your heart sinks. You are denied for a simple typo!

 This pretty much shows the pain some members of the community have to go through. One simple error, and someone rams them into the ground. I don't like to call them literate snobs, but that's pretty much what they are. Literate snobs are the players who hide out in their private maps and only come out to recruit. Now now, I'm not saying all mapped roleplayes contain literate snobs, but some do and the are hard to deal with.

So I was hanging out in AI and saw a Hetalia roleplay. So naturally I created a character and ask to join in. Mistake one. I realized that they are very VERY literate and have long, flowy sentences with no grammar mistakes as far as I could tell. I stayed mostly silent as they continued to roleplay. I made the mistake of interrupting one of the fans, as his post didn't fit in one of the chat-boxes and while he was typing the other paragraph, I had just finished mine so I sent it. Worst mistake yet. Long story short I got yelled at and I logged off.

This is one example, but I have one that kind of doesn't fit in with this category, but still is connected in some way.

I came to FH from WQ, in the summer of 2011. (Has it really been this long?) I was very, VERY illiterate and had joined a pack as just a generic white and black wolf and I thought no more of it since I had no idea of what was acceptable in this community and what was not. The roleplay was great, I made lots of friends and I learned my way around Flourite Plains. Then I learned about a rival pack that had moved in across the river. The Alpha of the pack was not happy about it, and in the roleplay, apparently, she ordered us to learn how to fight. I clearly didn't get this message and I got yelled at. I was just hanging around with my friend being, well, me. We got into this hour-long fight about me not doing my job and how I was going to get kicked out. My friend joined in, too, and the Alpha said I was illiterate and a powerplayer (?) and she gave me an example of a literate, "non-powerplay" post. Well, I think it was literate but it was definitely a powerplay. "She bit Shadow's face and threw her into the river." We yelled some more and my friend and I were kicked out.

Now, a few days ago I went hunting for a friend who was lost and I had happened to cross the area where that pack was located. I was in ear-shot and heard the very same Alpha speaking to her pack and I realized that over a year later, she was still not literate, and that post was just to make me feel bad. She is not literate, in fact she is more of a "semi-lit." I don't consider myself literate and I have mistakes, but at least I don't go around pretending I am.

Thoughts, opinions on this matter?



  

[Lady_Alizarin]

It's a shame that roleplayers have to go through this kind of rejection from time to time. It seems that most of these so-called literates forget that we are all humans who make mistakes. Nobody is 100% perfect when it comes to writing or typing. It's even worse when people try to pretend that they are something they aren't, just so they can make you feel bad about yourself. Really, that Alpha was being nothing but a bully.

I don't like it when people judge each other based on their roleplaying skills. Everyone has different skills and styles. There is nothing wrong with that. I hate to see people getting bashed all because they made one or two grammar mistakes in their roleplaying post. Making typos is NORMAL. Even the most skilled roleplayers make mistakes. I don't understand why some roleplayers have to cut other people down over simple mistakes. It's really not fair. I was under the impression that this RPG was for people to have fun, not get judged and bashed over their little grammar mistakes. The people who do bash others over grammar and spelling mistakes are NOT being fair. Some think they are better than others because they are so "perfect" with their perfect spelling, grammar, and RP skills. When they start bashing other people over little mistakes, they are nothing but bullies. Really, they stoop down to be nothing but lowly trolls.

I once made a topic similar to this. It talks about how some people criticize other people's RP style.  http://www.feral-heart.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=2&jfile=index.php&topic=31195.msg414194#msg414194

I'm very sorry you had to experience this kind of thing. Perhaps you have found some friends who don't care about the mistakes you make and only appreciate spending some good quality time with you. I would rather hang around people who want to have fun, instead of turning all of this into some kind of literacy competition.

[FantasyDawn]

Hey Taavi,I understand completely how you must have felt.When I first started playing FH,I wasn't quite sure wherether I should join an RP or not,considering I was just a newbie.Now,being extremely literate,I find it quite stupid.I mean,maybe your english(or what language you're roleplaying in) isn't that good so you can make "wonderful" sentences.Also,you have to make sure that EVERY word you type is written correctly,takes quite alot of time for a response or so is my opinion.In WQ you ca't be literate because I tried RP-ing and so many words aren't allowed,let's not count the godmodders*shivers*.Everyone's RP style should be appreciated,wherether you type it in 1st person(example:I was walking around the forest when I saw my friend on the grass,singing.I approached him/her etc....)which isn't usually acceptable in RPs.Anyway,semi-lit RPs are by my liking because even if I make like two-three mistakes in the sentences,no one says anything.

[Killian]

I know exactly what you mean. I've not been in the same situation as you, I've been accepted into RP's like this, they've asked me to be more descriptive, make my posts longer, even been asked to use dreaded wolf-speak. I would use the word 'hate' but it is strong, they really, really annoy me.

And, yes, they are snobs. I think an RP post can be too long, for them there is no limit xD They would probably think you were great if you wrote a story about yourself as an RP sample.

[BouncyLion101]

It saddens me that people are like that in this community. :c
Not all of them are rude and snobby like that, but I know that some are.

It's really bad and just a terrible thing to criticize a new player, in any community. It gives the community a bad reputation and discourages more new players, and slowly leads many games and communities to their downfall.
Great to see that despite that person being rude to you when you a newer player, you are still here a year later.
And about the literate "snobs" that you come across, I don't think there is much you can do about them. Unless they are harassing you for not roleplaying like they are, you can't do much other than ignore them, find a new roleplay, or block them.
However, if they do harass you, you can report them to a mod via screenshot. c:

[Nemena]

I can understand declining someone because they don't really fit your group's agenda. For example, a one-word roleplayer attempting to join a group of paragraph-spammers; they just wouldn't mesh well with the the others. As long as it's done politely, ie, "I don't think your style would work well with the group, but you're welcome to join us in the future if you'd like!" rather than "Ugh so illiterate". I automatically decline Wolfspeakers since there's a fair few non-native english speakers in the group (but they're always left with an open invitation should they wish to change), but-... A typo? That's absolutely ridiculous; I've been roleplaying for 10 years and have a mistake in almost all of my posts!

I honestly do agree that there's far too many 'literate snobs' out there. I've been called 'illiterate' myself for keeping my posts relatively simplistic in terms of vocabulary; people seem to forget that roleplay's absolutely useless if the other player cannot understand a word you've wrote. Some of the people I've accepted into my roleplays were awfully inexperienced and made a dozen glaring errors in their posts. Even so, many of them have improved dramatically and have became some of my closest in-game friends over time! Being too strict and exclusive really hurts the community and puts people off roleplaying entirely. It's terribly discouraging.

Heck, I was called illiterate last night in Flourite's general for making a typo!

[Silvertide]

Goodness gracious. D= What on earth is wrong with these people? This topic made me remember not to have stereo-types about all people though. I know some semi-lit RPs are really good. But as for myself, as mentioned above, I am one of those literate people who stay in their maps and online come out to advertise, except, I definitely am not a snob.
I am very lenient with my RP samples in my opinion, and if they aren't that good but are on the verge of being literate, I let them in and ask politely if they would mind me correcting their errors. And eventually, like Nemena said, those people become very literate. I've seen some big changes in some of my group members' Role Playing.
Being strict like that is a definite no no! One type isn't enough; I make about five typos per post in all of my posts. I am always correcting them, so much that I have been dubbed the typo queen at times. I am literate, but apparently for making one typo I wouldn't get into that literate RP you mentioned. Those types of people really just need to open up a bit and understand that a typo or two doesn't hurt.
RP is supposed to be fun and if it isn't fun then why RP at all?