HOW TO: Make a great request thread! [1x1's]

moffnat

story connoisseur
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
  4. Slow As Molasses
Writing Levels
  1. Advanced
  2. Prestige
Preferred Character Gender
  1. No Preferences
Genres
Fantasy, politics, historical fiction, romance
HOW TO: Make a great request thread!

Welcome, welcome! My name is Sansa, and today we're going to talk about making those horrifically tedious albeit necessary request threads. :D I've seen a lot of people become confused as to why their interest checks never reward them with the partners they're looking for, or why no one responds to them. This is a problem I've seen across the board, so I thought I'd take a minute and address the issue in case someone is in need of help!

I'm going to start by giving a simple list, and then talking about each one pretty briefly.
  • Introduction!
  • Rules/Requirements vs. Being an Asshole
  • Spoilers~
  • Big plot = nono
  • BONUS: Formatting!
Okay. Let's get this show on the road.

~ Introduction ~
This may seem like a pretty redundant thing to say, but in my experience, when you introduce yourself, others are more likely to respond. Tell them who you are! You don't have to get into specifics if you're uncomfortable revealing certain information online. It can be anything from "Hi, my name is Iwaku and I like crying over fictional characters" to "My name is Iwaku Roleplay from 12345 Nerdy Avenue and I am 16.548 years old." Get as specific or creative as you like, but the more people can relate to you, the more they'll want to be your partner. Don't be afraid to make a friend.

(But don't put out your address or last name. *slaps self*)
~ Rules vs. Assholery ~
It is VERY important to put a rules and requirements section in your roleplay request. Not only will this weed out partners you don't want to work with, but it sets a standard for the kind of person you're looking for, and they'll be more inclined to reply. Be as specific as possible in your rules as well--the more in-depth you are with what you're looking for, the more likely you are to find good quality roleplays that you enjoy!

However, there's a big difference between writing a rules section and being an asshole about it. DON'T BE THAT PERSON. Here are some quality tips on how to not be an asshole when writing rules.​
  • DO say "I'm looking for x level of writing quality in our posts."​
  • DO NOT say "I'm looking for literate, quality writers. Just be a good writer. I don't like bad writers."​
  • DO say "I'd like a few well-written, nice paragraphs in your replies."​
  • DO NOT say "I only accept good paragraphs. If you can't do this, click out of here now."​
  • DO say "Unfortunately I have no experience in MxM pairings, so I'm only looking for MxF at this time."​
  • DO NOT say "No MxM. It's disgusting. I can't write it." (This would have me chasing you down with a stick, just sayin'.)​
  • DO say "Be confident in your writing!"​
  • DO NOT say "Confident writers only." You'd be surprised at how many people would stop reading after that point.​
  • DO say "One reply every few days would be ideal!"​
  • DO NOT say "If you can't reply every few days, don't waste my time."​
  • DO say "I'd prefer to write with other adults."​
  • DO NOT say "18+ only, I don't want to write with babies."​
Basically, just be nice and you'll be fine.

I want to go over a good list of potential rule subjects you might consider. Here's a good compilation of things you might want to mention in your requirements section:
  • Posting speed
  • Availability
  • Writing level
  • Post length
  • Versatility with characters (such as gender, amount of characters, etc)
  • Age of partner (teen vs. adult members)
  • Grammar/spelling (Don't say "literate." Diana will throw rocks at you.)
  • Methods of OOC contact
Finally, as a final note on the subject, don't ever feel like making rules somehow makes you prudish. It's not a bad thing to know what you have in mind for the ideal partner. Making a rules and requirements section will SIGNIFICANTLY improve the number of partners you have that you actually enjoy writing with, because they share your roleplay needs. Just be nice about it and you're golden!

~ Use the spoilers! ~
If you have a lot of plots you want to share and find partners for, might I direct your attention to the lovely spoilers buttons! I notice that a lot of people leave their plots out in the open without leaving them the option to be exposed at the reader's will. If the reader sees a big giant wall of plot text...well, it's usually not a good thing. Leave them the option to open the spoilers so they can read your cleaner request thread without having to scroll through a long post of your delicious plots.

Don't know how to find spoilers? Sansa to the rescue.

You insert spoilers by clicking any of the eye icons you see up in your formatting bar:
xvDdx0T.png


Then you paste your plot inside the brackets and TA-DA. Nice. A cleaner request thread for ease-of-access to the readers. Braavo!
~ Big Plots? ~
This is more my personal opinion than anything else, so if you're sitting there going "You know nothing, Sansa Stark" feel free to disregard this.

If you've got a big plot, it is my suggestion that you keep the request for this BRIEF. Summarize it into a paragraph or so at the very most, enough so the reader gets the gist but not so much that they feel overwhelmed. Follow this up by asking interested parties to PM you if they want to hear more about the plot. This ensures that no one just replies to your request all willy-nilly without reading the whole thing, and will catch you a partner quicker. Be a salesman!
~ Formatting ~
Again, this is just personal opinion, but the posts that have formatting seem to get more attention. Be aesthetic! Color some texts, play with fonts, experiment with the BBcode Diana works so hard to give us. :) you'll be surprised at the turnout.
Any more suggestions? Questions? Reply here to help the masses, and thanks for reading!
 
This isn't so much a suggestion but more a question.

In some other Guides people mentioned stuff along the lines of "Don't throw multiple plots into one Interest Checks. It shows a lack of focus/floods the reader".
And since you mentioned formatting for people with multiple slots I was wondering what your position on that reasoning was.

"You know nothing, Sansa Stark"​
Trying to take after your brother I see? :P
 
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Multiple plots in one request is the way to go, honestly. Give people options. It's better than putting out a BUNCH of different request threads for individual plots. Better to not flood the forum and keep it all in one nice post~ with spoilers too, like I mentioned! That way, people can just click on and expand the plots that interest them and read more.

And ahem. Cousin. Not brother. *flips hair*
 
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That's what I figured. Avoiding flooding the forum being more important than avoiding flooding a specific topic.
Especially with stuff like spoiler tags.

But you're not cousins... You have the same father! ;A;
 
This isn't so much a suggestion but more a question.

In some other Guides people mentioned stuff along the lines of "Don't throw multiple plots into one Interest Checks. It shows a lack of focus/flood the reader".
And since you mentioned formatting for people with multiple slots I was wondering what your position on that reasoning was.


Trying to take after your brother I see? :P
For interest checks for groups, you should keep to one idea, but when it comes to one x ones, if you want multiple partners, it is better to put in multiple ideas into it so that they have more alternatives to choose from. It would be highly unnecessary to make five different one x one partner searching threads because you want five partners with five different plots. For one x one's it is much better to have them in one and the same place where people can easily see what ideas you have and choose freely from that list if anything interest them instead of them running around the one x one threads just to hopefully find a plot that interest them from that specific user.
 
For interest checks for groups, you should keep to one idea, but when it comes to one x ones, if you want multiple partners, it is better to put in multiple ideas into it so that they have more alternatives to choose from. It would be highly unnecessary to make five different one x one partner searching threads because you want five partners with five different plots. For one x one's it is much better to have them in one and the same place where people can easily see what ideas you have and choose freely from that list if anything interest them instead of them running around the one x one threads just to hopefully find a plot that interest them from that specific user.
Yea, that does make sense.
Seeing how active 1x1's tend to be I can imagine such divided interest checks getting pretty chaotic. :P
Do we though?

do we
If not by blood you still do through how you were both raised by Eddard.
 
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