Thread: Do you read other RPs?

Shovel said I've been reflecting on this a bit and have decided to give it another shot at stating my personal stance on it. Not an objective rule, but a personal and subjective feeling on the topic of viewing other peoples roleplays. It's not my story. It's not my scene. And it's not my creative space. And I don't have a desire to peek into other peoples threads when it comes to one-on-one roleplays. To illustrate my point, I will use an analogy. Say you are at a gathering of a lot of people in a public space Think of General Discussion and most other OOC sub-forums and two people at this gathering start to hit it off. They decide to branch off on their own away from the group and have a discussion just between the two of them. One-on-one threads Even though it is a public space, I don't make the assumption that they are okay with me listening in on their conversation between just the two of them. Plus, if I do read over their thread, it may color my perception of them and there is room for misinterpretation of who they are as a writer or a person. To me, it gives me a similar feeling as I would if I were eavesdropping. And it makes me personally uncomfortable to do. I do my best to act considerately and respect peoples creative spaces even when its out in the open for anyone to read. And to clarify, I am not saying anybody that does read other RP's is doing something wrong. I am merely saying how it makes me feel to do it. I could be dead wrong about this and am being irrational about it. One final note I hardly ever do thread roleplays anymore, so maybe my feelings on the subject are a bit biased. Click to expand... I'm not picking apart your preference here. You're allowed to feel however you want. I just don't think that analogy works very well, because of the unique way the Internet, and public message boards, work. When you post on a public forum, it's an implicit invitation for ANYONE to read what you're saying. It's very different than a group of people talking, and then two people breaking off to have a private conversation. The two people at the party that hit it off, and want to have a private conversation, leave the group. In message board terms, they take their conversation to private messages, email, instant messenger, text messages, or ANY other form of communication that is NOT the public message board. That being said, I do not believe that two people speaking within earshot of other people, offline, are necessarily entitled to other people shutting off their ears. The similarity between online and offline interactions are that private conversations must be had in way that other people are very unlikely to overhear. Sometimes people overhear when they don't want to offline, so if someone eavesdrops on me, I typically blame myself for not being careful enough. Like I said before, the notion is still absurd no matter how you spin it. It is irrational for you to feel that way, more so in terms of this unique, message board case. However, that doesn't mean you have to be comfortable with it. People are uncomfortable when they see intimacy in public, a kiss or even a hug. Some kinksters have sex in public and hope people see, but it doesn't mean one has to be comfortable with watching it. I may think it's entirely silly for you to feel the way you do, but that doesn't mean it's wrong for you to feel that way. That being said, I have few reasons to argue for why anyone should read role-plays. I mean, I don't even read them, and I likely won't. The only way I'd go and read a bunch of role-plays is if it's some kind of duty or study. darkangel76 said Some worry about how if others see what they write that it could color their view of them. And I will say, that a part of me held back from writing certain things because of this fact. I just outright avoided it since threads were permanent. But I realized, who cares. Click to expand... I have to censor what I say all of the time, and I often refrain from posting. What I have to say are the types of things most people would not take very kindly to. If I had less respect for the moderation team here, I'd be less inclined to pull my punches. While I know you are talking more along the lines of role-playing, I do find this aspect interesting too. The why we do and do not post is a topic just as, if not more, interesting.