#rp rant

people do not like or comment on their mutuals’ posts. people do not respond to open starters anymore. people do not send prompts when they are reblogged or at random just to let a mutual know they were thought of. promos are useless these days because it’s only friends reblogging friends, and strangers so rarely go out of their way to check out a new blog.

there is no effort. there is no engagement. there is no care. you cannot follow people only to then ignore their existence and be shocked that the rpc sucks now. people are being pushed away.

because they are adults now with bigger responsibilities. and when they see that their efforts are for naught here, they leave. they give up. because with the finite free time they have now, this is not worth it. people have made tumblr rp something not worth trying on.

If you follow fandom content even slightly, you probably know what RP accounts are: accounts that portray themselves as characters in a defined universe, established or not.

My issue comes from the rampant mischaracterization that happens in said accounts. In some cases someone will take a character to RP as, but only portray certain specific traits of the character and leave out the rest. An example of that is the Harry Du Bois account.

This is Of Darkest Desires! Not “bad things happen but we’ll all be okay~”—if I come out swinging with “this princess secretly wants to be rawed near to death and certainly to insanity by a demon” I am not fishing for “but the demon just wants a wife and a happy life~” or “the demon isn’t a demon but a nice guy that’s saving Hyrule from corruption~” No!! I wanted RPs about a good, glorious Hyrule burning to death, and Zelda not caring because she’s drunk on demon semen!

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS !!!!

the amount of times i've had a well developed, friendly, absolutely stunning non binary or female character, and got NO interaction. so i would bring in a dry ass man with 0 effort and people would be up that characters asshole! this happened so regularly it wasn't even like it was one rp it was almost all of them. this was especially bad in twitter rp and it's honestly why i left that community in the end.

unfortunately, it's a problem that we're all a part of and are all responsible for. for things to change we all need to make an effort not to let our unconscious (or conscious) biases affect the way we roleplay. pay attention to minority muses in roleplays, support them. be an ally to minority muns too, listen to their stories, empathize, give them a platform to express themselves and their issues without judgement. it's so fucking important to recognise that we are all responsible for making this community better, every single one of us. be the change you want to see in the rpc.

all that being said, i feel very lucky because the only rp i'm in right now treats my female, non binary and male muses the exact same, as well as being full of beautiful face claims of colour & muns who are so sweet and willing to give me all the messy dramatic plots i crave. i've found my happy place, what can i say?

tldr; poofing (which i consider a specific kind of ghosting while actively talking to a person about plot or other things after a starter has been posted) is extremely rude, and imo, most rpers aren't assholes who harass people and would understand if poofers just said "i changed my mind / interest."

being ghosted makes me sad; sometimes disappointed when it's a plot that's been developed and i've become invested in. although, honestly, a large portion of my "ghosted" threads probably wouldn't have been so if i wasn't afraid to bother people for replies after several weeks to months of nothing.

on theother hand, poofing in the middle of a conversation meant to work through things (plot, OOC/IC expectations, etc) makes me so agitated. i don't take it personally, because i'm not gonna be that asshole who follows people around into their dm's demanding answers -- but, i do think it's rude as all hell.

i've told partners before that i've changed my mind for various reasons. it was received fine, and we moved on. i've been told before that i wasn't what they were looking for, and i moved on. i didn't whine about it or make the situations bigger than they actually were, because not every person who reaches out to rp will be a good match or work out. being upfront saves a lot of time of waiting for answers or wondering if something is wrong with them or me either IRL or as a rper.

if you're an adult who has already demonstrated the capacity to tell me that we weren't "vibing" you can tell me that you changed your mind. it's not that hard, and most roleplayers will be fine with that kind of honesty. most roleplayers will be appreciative that you were courteous.

a person can't give you content (IC or OOC) you want if it's not communicated. and you can't honestly get upset at someone for not giving you what you want / expect if YOU don't even know how to go about things or don't express it if you DO know. someone you reached out to online cannot automatically read your mind just because you have similar interests.

the proportion of roleplayers, imo, who follow, harass, and curse at rpers for X, Y, or Z is a significantly smaller population than most people will cite as their reason for ghosting/poofing (whether this is a firsthand experience or just in fear of). saying "sorry, i haven't replied. i don't have the time for this anymore / i've lost my muse" or a short "sorry, i changed my mind" is difficult, but if more people followed this courtesy i think less people would be afraid of the aggressive rper because they'd get to see that most people don't take it personally.