Roleplay Ad/Request Thread Titles

[Minibit]

A lot of this is my personal opinion, and almost certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but here are a few things that I've noticed seem to make me less interested in clicking on an advertisement or request thread, and some things that do the reverse. Perhaps they will be helpful.

Small Titles:
A one-word title, especially if its a short word, is really easy to miss when scrolling. Its line takes up the same amount of space as a bigger title, but somehow, it's just easier to scroll past a small title.

Vague Titles:
Extra bad if the vagueness reeks of purple prose or melodrama. e.g.: "Mysterious...", "Darkness Falls", "The shadows", "Enter the Madness", and other vaguely dark/grim sounding stuff. I think my problem here is that it's so unclear what is being advertised (besides that it's going to be totally dark, man), that not only does it fail to grab interest (how can I be interested without knowing what it is?) but it also plants doubt about the OP's ability to describe what they're after; whether these doubts are justified or not is beside the point.

Abundance of ASCII or other special characters
This one is definitely personal; I find whole messages written in special characters just to make the font look different hard to read; plus sometimes my mobile can't interpret the characters used which makes it a guessing game. I don't want to read a title like that, and I definitely don't want to read whole posts like that.

Character Names
Diva Roleplays (roleplays about one character, where everyone else plays second fiddle/that character's support) are often characterized by introducing the Lead Character right away; sometimes even in the post title. I don't want to click on "Laura's Story", because it's almost certain the OP will be playing Laura and my job will be to tag along and make Laura's life interesting. No thanks.

Uncertainty
Sometimes we don't know what we want; it happens, but whether it's in real life or online, confidence sells. In my opinion, "Up for anything!" "Shoot me some ideas", "Character for hire" are all better than "Roleplay I guess..." "maybe a story or something'. Also I've suggested this before, but as a side note, if you don't know what you're after, it's helpful to those tasked with shooting you inspiration to let them know what you've enjoyed in the past. Citing books, movies, TV shows, and other kinds of stuff like that that you enjoy is helpful to figure out what works for you as well.

 

[Kestrel]

Opinionated 2 cents incoming.

Vague Titles:
Extra bad if the vagueness reeks of purple prose or melodrama. e.g.: "Mysterious...", "Darkness Falls", "The shadows", "Enter the Madness", and other vaguely dark/grim sounding stuff. I think my problem here is that it's so unclear what is being advertised (besides that it's going to be totally dark, man), that not only does it fail to grab interest (how can I be interested without knowing what it is?) but it also plants doubt about the OP's ability to describe what they're after; whether these doubts are justified or not is beside the point.

Basically, a good title IMO includes some form of description. I generally place identifiers or references as early as possible, so nobody has to wade through 7 paragraphs before figuring out "Hey this is a politics-heavy nation RP in a sci-fi setting." or "Godammit this isn't original, this is Naruto." (Also seriously if you're making a Naruto-RP and don't put Naruto in the title you are not even going to attract a fifth of your potential audience.)

Character Names
Diva Roleplays (roleplays about one character, where everyone else plays second fiddle/that character's support) are often characterized by introducing the Lead Character right away; sometimes even in the post title. I don't want to click on "Laura's Story", because it's almost certain the OP will be playing Laura and my job will be to tag along and make Laura's life interesting. No thanks.

This. So much this.

Uncertainty
Sometimes we don't know what we want; it happens, but whether it's in real life or online, confidence sells. In my opinion, "Up for anything!" "Shoot me some ideas", "Character for hire" are all better than "Roleplay I guess..." "maybe a story or something'. Also I've suggested this before, but as a side note, if you don't know what you're after, it's helpful to those tasked with shooting you inspiration to let them know what you've enjoyed in the past. Citing books, movies, TV shows, and other kinds of stuff like that that you enjoy is helpful to figure out what works for you as well.

Uncertainty makes you come across as a very passive player. This isn't bad per sé, but good posts include both reaction and pro-action, and uncertainty tells me you have issues with the latter. You don't have to pretend to be confident when you're not, but at the very least keep it out of your title and dedicate a paragraph in your thread on how you might not be the most confident, but want to learn and will still do your best to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone. [elitistdouche]That'd at least make me more willing to give you a chance.[/elitistdouche]

 

[Minibit]

Uncertainty makes you come across as a very passive player. This isn't bad per sé, but good posts include both reaction and pro-action, and uncertainty tells me you have issues with the latter. You don't have to pretend to be confident when you're not, but at the very least keep it out of your title and dedicate a paragraph in your thread on how you might not be the most confident, but want to learn and will still do your best to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone. [elitistdouche]That'd at least make me more willing to give you a chance.[/elitistdouche]

I agree with you, and I don't think it's an elitist view at all.

There's nothing wrong with being more comfortable letting someone else come up with the major plots/twists and do most of the Worldbuilding. As someone who usually serves this end in one x ones, some of us enjoy being put in charge! However, there's a difference between this, and being unable to respond to cues. If someone says that the woods you're walking through are creepy, and there's rustling in the bushes, that can be your cue to have a monster, wild animal, or even an NPC robber jump out! You don't have to be aggressive to read what the other player(s) are going for and help it along.

Hmm, maybe my next post should be on this subject.

 

[Kestrel]

That's mostly me poking fun at my own phrasing ;p

Anyway I'm fairly aggressive in play myself, but I've played a few games where I didn't have much to react to other than my own content. My philosophy is that the outcome of scenes should depend on characters their actions, therefore empowering them as key elements in the story. I mean, nobody RP's backdrops (at least you'd say so, right?) Because of this; I need partners to act and contribute beyond reacting to what's happening.

I don't need someone to worldbuild with me (though that'd be nice) but I want them to at least use their posts to add material for me to use. You don't have to invent an ancient underwater dwarven community to be important to our roleplay, but it would be nice if your character stuck it to the man at some point (or conversely try to cool an argument) and make decisions on their own. Roleplaying requires interactivity, and my issue is not so much with taking charge as with being confused for just being a more difficult and time-consuming way of writing my own book ;p