Ironic irony is ironic.
Okay, so I go on Gaiaonline.com quite often. Every day if I can manage it. I've been a user since February '04 and had various accounts there, and currently I've gone back to my original because I didn't want people thinking I was a noob or a newb (yes, there is a difference) based on the age of my account. Having an account from '04 has been quite beneficial to me for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to get into.
But that's besides the point of this entry.
When I first joined Gaia I went to solely one sub-forum: the collaborative works, a sub-forum to the writers forum. I didn't go anywhere else except the Q+A forum if I had a problem I couldn't figure out on my own.
At the time the collaborative works sub-forum wasn't very active - not to say that it's sped up over the years because it probably hasn't - and there was basically a grand total of twelve of us, or that was what it seemed like at least, that were there regularly. I say that because no matter which thread I entered there I usually recognized at least three of the names on the list which isn't exactly normal for such a large site. Because it was large even back in 04 when it had only been around for a year or so.
Because it wasn't very active it was extremely easy to make friends there and that's exactly what I did. I found a very good friend in a girl under the username Jurriah, and she was one of the best roleplayers I knew. Which, as mentioned before, was admittedly few at the time I first met her but her standing amongst the elite hasn't changed in my mind. As far as I'm concerned she'll always be one of the greats and one of the people that helped me grow into the roleplayer that I am today.
Over time I stopped being so immersed in the collaborative works so deeply and eventually stopped going there to roleplay at all. For a good length of time I was only in the Entertainment forum, just chatting with people and geeking out over Sci-fi shows.
Eventually I felt like roleplaying again. To this day I have no idea what brought me to go to the Barton Town forum (the forum on Gaia for roleplaying) because up until that point I was very biased against the forum and everything to do with it. It was an old holdback from my time spent in the collaborative forum, that the collaborative works subforum was literate and good and Barton Town was filled to the brim with idiots that couldn't write a half-decent sentence if their lives depended on it.
Whatever the reason was that brought me to venture into Barton Town I'm glad it did, because I was surprised to find people even more nazi-literate than Jurriah was back when I first joined. The posts she wrote that we all considered "monster posts" were considered almost normal length in some of the threads there. I was absolutely astounded and eager to join in - so join I did.
Now, I'm at a point where I regularly type out around 1000 word posts, what I used to consider a good length for a story chapter on The Pit. Looking back I can't help but smile at the thought of bringing the me from 04 up in time to now to see the reaction.
Today I went to look up a new roleplay to join in Barton Town and couldn't help myself but peek back into the collaborative works subforum, which I haven't been in for at least three years. Which, just for all of you out there wondering, was about the time that Jurriah stopped being online regularly enough to join or create roleplays. So when I go down the list of thread titles ignoring the countless ones telling me to 'add on to this' and 'round robin, join please!' for ones with actual titles I'm both surprised and happy to see one with not only a title but with the thread originator as Jurriah. And she posted only three days ago as well.
I click on the link and scroll down to the first post expecting, of course, the in-depth plotlining, character development, setting establishment, and rules that I'm given in Barton Town. Only to find a small blurb with only a bare outlining of all the above. I go down, because Jurriah says at the end that the next post goes more in-depth, to find something that is definitely longer and more in-depth, but not as in-depth as what I'm used to and have come to expect.
Out of loyalty to Jurriah I scroll down even further to where the actual roleplaying posts are. The first one is a length I'm used to. I feel a little relief at that, it means that Jurriah hasn't lost the touch that I remember her having. But the second, third, fourth, and fifth (alternating between Jurriah and another person with a username I don't recognize) are only a fraction of the size. In fact they're a size that would get them kicked out of nearly every roleplay I've been in over the past year.
So, like the ninja I call myself but the lurker I truly am, I slip back out without making my presence known and go back to Barton Town to find something that's at the literacy level that I'm used to. I find it a sad irony that the girl I've come to use to compare against others to consider them 'good' roleplayers isn't roleplaying at the level I want anymore.
Cheers,
Vonnix
But that's besides the point of this entry.
When I first joined Gaia I went to solely one sub-forum: the collaborative works, a sub-forum to the writers forum. I didn't go anywhere else except the Q+A forum if I had a problem I couldn't figure out on my own.
At the time the collaborative works sub-forum wasn't very active - not to say that it's sped up over the years because it probably hasn't - and there was basically a grand total of twelve of us, or that was what it seemed like at least, that were there regularly. I say that because no matter which thread I entered there I usually recognized at least three of the names on the list which isn't exactly normal for such a large site. Because it was large even back in 04 when it had only been around for a year or so.
Because it wasn't very active it was extremely easy to make friends there and that's exactly what I did. I found a very good friend in a girl under the username Jurriah, and she was one of the best roleplayers I knew. Which, as mentioned before, was admittedly few at the time I first met her but her standing amongst the elite hasn't changed in my mind. As far as I'm concerned she'll always be one of the greats and one of the people that helped me grow into the roleplayer that I am today.
Over time I stopped being so immersed in the collaborative works so deeply and eventually stopped going there to roleplay at all. For a good length of time I was only in the Entertainment forum, just chatting with people and geeking out over Sci-fi shows.
Eventually I felt like roleplaying again. To this day I have no idea what brought me to go to the Barton Town forum (the forum on Gaia for roleplaying) because up until that point I was very biased against the forum and everything to do with it. It was an old holdback from my time spent in the collaborative forum, that the collaborative works subforum was literate and good and Barton Town was filled to the brim with idiots that couldn't write a half-decent sentence if their lives depended on it.
Whatever the reason was that brought me to venture into Barton Town I'm glad it did, because I was surprised to find people even more nazi-literate than Jurriah was back when I first joined. The posts she wrote that we all considered "monster posts" were considered almost normal length in some of the threads there. I was absolutely astounded and eager to join in - so join I did.
Now, I'm at a point where I regularly type out around 1000 word posts, what I used to consider a good length for a story chapter on The Pit. Looking back I can't help but smile at the thought of bringing the me from 04 up in time to now to see the reaction.
Today I went to look up a new roleplay to join in Barton Town and couldn't help myself but peek back into the collaborative works subforum, which I haven't been in for at least three years. Which, just for all of you out there wondering, was about the time that Jurriah stopped being online regularly enough to join or create roleplays. So when I go down the list of thread titles ignoring the countless ones telling me to 'add on to this' and 'round robin, join please!' for ones with actual titles I'm both surprised and happy to see one with not only a title but with the thread originator as Jurriah. And she posted only three days ago as well.
I click on the link and scroll down to the first post expecting, of course, the in-depth plotlining, character development, setting establishment, and rules that I'm given in Barton Town. Only to find a small blurb with only a bare outlining of all the above. I go down, because Jurriah says at the end that the next post goes more in-depth, to find something that is definitely longer and more in-depth, but not as in-depth as what I'm used to and have come to expect.
Out of loyalty to Jurriah I scroll down even further to where the actual roleplaying posts are. The first one is a length I'm used to. I feel a little relief at that, it means that Jurriah hasn't lost the touch that I remember her having. But the second, third, fourth, and fifth (alternating between Jurriah and another person with a username I don't recognize) are only a fraction of the size. In fact they're a size that would get them kicked out of nearly every roleplay I've been in over the past year.
So, like the ninja I call myself but the lurker I truly am, I slip back out without making my presence known and go back to Barton Town to find something that's at the literacy level that I'm used to. I find it a sad irony that the girl I've come to use to compare against others to consider them 'good' roleplayers isn't roleplaying at the level I want anymore.
Cheers,
Vonnix