March 25, 2013 - 5:06pm — darkzorse
I have a question for folks out there, and I realize that the answer will be as varied as the person. I poked around for some answers, but didn't really find any answers or ideas.
Bottom line is, I have absolutely no talent with CSS. I know what it is, and I've played with it. If I buckled down (and spent some time on it that is currently coming at a premium or nonexistant), I could probably spit out something that looked halfway decent. Fortunately, my question isn't about CCS, but it is related!
I have noticed that when people make posts about their deer diaries, often they are encapsulated in small CSS made places on the pages specifically made for their deer instead of as a blog entry that might appear under recent posts.
So, here is my question. Combined with the fact I don't have much for CSS coding, how should deer diary entries be handled, particularly for multiple characters? I noticed some of the roleplays are posted separately. Basically, I'm looking for a loose set of guidelines about posting deer stuff without becoming a spam-bot. I'm certain no one wants to read absolutely everything I write as a new post.
One more question... for those of you with multiple characters...? How do you manage them? Separate accounts (which I saw is a tactic used)? What do you use to keep individual characters separate?
I sure hope you don't mind
Each character has a seperate biography page, full-blown CSS and everything. Along with an in-depth information about the character, this biography will often contain a box for (daily) updates in the form of diary entires or just as a summary of recent events. Once they become irrelevant, they are deleted. I think it's a good idea to keep an archive of these diary entries somewhere, probably on a seperate blog since they can become quite lengthy over time. People can easily track these biographies for updates.
Many people also have a main "updates" blog which is sort of a character "hub". It contains shorthand information about each character, maybe quick status updates, and a link to the bio. It also sometimes acts as a personal blog for player updates.
Roleplay is most often welcomed on both the biography page and on seperate blogs. Since I don't roleplay I can't really tell you why one is preferred over the other. I assume that RP blogs are a more straightforward way of asking others to RP with you, while the biography is a more "passive" invitation. RPs on biographies are often tied to in-forest events or happen simultaneously. RP blogs are mostly independent of what's happening in the forest.
Stories usually are posted as new blog entries not only because they are longer, but also because they fulfill a different "purpose" from the usual diary entries. The focus here is more on the writing, naturally, rather than the narrative.
Some people have all their bios on one main account because it is easier to keep track of when you have everything in one place. It's also easier to manage because you don't have to constantly switch accounts, and it's easier for other people to see all characters which belong to one person. Sometimes people keep their characters on seperate accounts. Once again, since I don't play multiple characters myself I can only tell you what I observe. Maybe they find it easier to keep track of them that way. I think it's also a way of increasing immersion and trying not to break the fourth wall. If you have an account dedicated to only one character and use it only for acting as this character, you can sort of create a "closed system". Sometimes people also want to play anonymously and not reveal who they are for one reason or another.
Oh, I don't mind at all! You
just gonna drop these here;
free css bio templates
a giant collection of css and coding stuff, with a few templates and css free to use [ by unplugged, of course]
hope thats helpful c;
Expanding on what Unplugged
To me, it's easier to have a biography for the character's general information, and then the roleplay blog for interactions and diary-keeping. This is in large part because the bio has a lot of CSS and text in general for me to sift through, whereas if I only put the current/daily things on the updates and interaction blog, I have a lot less scrolling to do. I also find it easier to keep up with roleplay in the comments there because it's pretty much all roleplay on that blog, whereas the bio may have some player conversation and a plethora of "tracking!" type comments. In-Game related or spontaneous forum-only is irrelevant to me; it's just neater and more organized for me to have things this way. I also keep past diary entries in a third blog, again for the purpose of keeping things tidy, organized, and at a low-strain level of work for myself (because this should be play, not work!)
In summary, the bio is for information about the character, basically an in-depth description and with whatever prettiness suits my whimsy at the time (CSS and whatnot). It only gets updated when I feel like it needs something, pretty much. Then I have a "current" blog with updates and availability for roleplay, which tends to be a very actively updated blog. Lastly, there's an archive blog, which is updated less often with the events from the "current" blog.
Personally, I mostly keep my characters on separate accounts. There is one (or two?) exception, because those two characters are closely linked to one another and kinda exist as two parts of one whole. I do this for a variety of reasons. One is that this allows me to segregate my main account (this), which is primarily used for OOC/player matters, from my more heavily roleplay-based account. Again, organization and simplicity. Another is that this also segregates my tracking lists. I can post wherever I want with this account, but on the other I will only post on things related to that character, and almost always strictly IC-related blogs (bios, roleplay blogs, etc). Organization! : D See a theme yet?
A third reason is that, with each character on its own account, yes, I do have to switch between accounts, but I also don't have to go digging through my posts to find a bio or roleplay blog that has been bumped off of my "recent posts" list. They're always right on top, ready to be accessed. And, fourthly, I don't clutter my busy accounts with less active characters.
There IS a workaround for having to switch accounts. By keeping two browsers on my computer, I just keep my two main accounts logged in all the time (one on each browser - IE and Chrome), and pull up the particular browser for whichever account I want to use at the time. It makes things quick and easy, and it makes the accidental account switch much less frequent (sometimes when you change accounts on the same browser, it will log you out of the second and back into the first).
Of course this is all my personal experience and I can't really speak for everyone else, but I hope that answered some things for you :3
Aivilo has made some