To All The People We've Snarked Before: A Cautionary Note
Before I start, let me give a special mention to lurkythespork, who made the suggestion to convert this speech from a comment into a seperate post. Also, thank you to the Almighty Mod for giving the all-clear.
If you're reading this, you're probably one of three things: A member of warcraftsues, an interested third party, or a person who has had their roleplaying character's description/their Warcraft fanfiction posted in this community. If you are in the second of the above three groups, then this probably won't apply to you, but you're welcome to read it anyway. If you are in the first group and have been around a while, then this also probably won't apply to you, but if you're a newcomer, it might be useful. If you are in the last group, and are planning to comment on the post that involves your character or fanfic, please read this before you do so.
This community is not for attacking the players of badly made characters, or their friends, or their relatives. This community is not for going "LOLOLOLIL MORONS LOLOLOLOL WERE BETTER DAN U!1!1!1" or using bad writing as an excuse to torment people. This community is (mainly) for collecting and putting up ridiculous RSPs and stories as an example of what not to do/why not to do it, in order to encourage adherence to WoW lore and better and more plausible RP for all.* We do try to find some amusement while we do this, but it's usually applied as a way to help us cope with some of the worse cases of crappy writing, as opposed to "haha ur fat and ur character sucks". The majority of people here don't mind you trying something new and unique with your character, or you writing an alternate-universe fanfiction, as long as it's plausible and it doesn't deviate too far from established lore rules. There's not a great deal of point to playing around in the Warcraft sandbox if you don't accept its regulations, and it does have regulations, just like basically any other fictional universe one might care to name. Applying restrictions to writers can actually help them to come up with ideas, just like saying "Draw me something purple" to an art class can help them get to work faster than saying "Draw me anything". This is because saying "Draw me anything" means that the class probably has more ideas than it's easy to sift through in, say, five minutes, and also because "Draw me anything" implies that there are no quality limits, and you don't care if they give you a crude stick figure or a replica of the Mona Lisa. At the moment, are you saying to yourself, "But all RP is good RP"? I'm afraid that that's not true. Try to think back on every roleplay you've been in over the years. Are there some that stand out as being just more fun than others? Are there some that you remember as being terrible and boring? I'm sure that you must have some sort of preference for certain roleplaying memories over others, and if you do, then you are automatically labeling some as having a property of 'good' and some as having a property of 'bad'. If you look back and you scrutinize and you truly, truly think that all of the roleplays you've ever done were completely equal in how much you enjoyed them or did not enjoy them, then you're either lying to yourself or you haven't been roleplaying for very long. (On a side note, if you've labeled your roleplays as 'good' and 'bad' and the ones that you consider to be 'good' were all outside of proper Warcraft lore, then you've either found some people who were very skilled at making non-lore seem plausible or you're roleplaying in the wrong universe.)
Anyway. Back on topic.
If you scroll through the warcraftsues archives, you may see that many of our screencaps of in-game character descriptions have the names of the characters blanked out or otherwise censored. This is because we don't want the players to get grieved. We're insulting concepts, not the players behind them. Giving out literary critique is not giving out personal critique, and saying "This character makes no sense and doesn't fit into this universe" is not saying "This player is an idiot and should go die in a fire". There is actually a livejournal community (critthisflag) where people post RSPs to get critique, which is populated almost entirely by people from warcraftsues. I've posted some really ridiculous garbage on there, and people ripped my characters to pieces, but they were right about everything they mentioned, and none of them suggested that I was any less of a good person for writing up these ideas. (On yet another side note, if you're new to roleplaying or are unsure about a character, it might be a good idea to post your character up there and get some feedback before you start playing it.) Are you currently thinking "You know, that's different, because the people in that community actively ask for critique, and I don't"? Well, I'm sorry to say this, but putting up a description in flagRSP or MRP or whatever other addon you choose to use means that you are allowing everyone to see it and you are taking into account the fact that people are going to comment on this description, whether they are offering praise or criticism. This is why people polish and perfect their character flags before they put them out in the open, and sometimes even spend weeks trying to get everything just right. Are you now thinking "I still don't want my writing to be criticised, because these people have no right to criticise it"? Tough luck. Everyone has the right to criticise things they don't agree with. Would you say that someone had no right to criticise an unjust law because they didn't go to law school? Are you now thinking "Alright, I suppose I understand your argument, but I still don't want my writing to get criticised"? Then I'm afraid I must ask you, why are you putting it on a giant virtual billboard for everyone to see?
If you have become confused as to the point of this speech, which is understandable since it's rather long-winded, let me summarize it for you: If we put your character up here and say that it's a bad idea, we're not putting you up here and saying that you're a bad person. Please don't start ragefests in the comments in reaction to us criticising you, because we're not criticising you, we're criticising your writing, and these are two very different things.
*This community is also used for RP ranting, as was helpfully pointed out by gizzybiscuits. This post probably counts as a rant, actually.
If you're reading this, you're probably one of three things: A member of warcraftsues, an interested third party, or a person who has had their roleplaying character's description/their Warcraft fanfiction posted in this community. If you are in the second of the above three groups, then this probably won't apply to you, but you're welcome to read it anyway. If you are in the first group and have been around a while, then this also probably won't apply to you, but if you're a newcomer, it might be useful. If you are in the last group, and are planning to comment on the post that involves your character or fanfic, please read this before you do so.
This community is not for attacking the players of badly made characters, or their friends, or their relatives. This community is not for going "LOLOLOLIL MORONS LOLOLOLOL WERE BETTER DAN U!1!1!1" or using bad writing as an excuse to torment people. This community is (mainly) for collecting and putting up ridiculous RSPs and stories as an example of what not to do/why not to do it, in order to encourage adherence to WoW lore and better and more plausible RP for all.* We do try to find some amusement while we do this, but it's usually applied as a way to help us cope with some of the worse cases of crappy writing, as opposed to "haha ur fat and ur character sucks". The majority of people here don't mind you trying something new and unique with your character, or you writing an alternate-universe fanfiction, as long as it's plausible and it doesn't deviate too far from established lore rules. There's not a great deal of point to playing around in the Warcraft sandbox if you don't accept its regulations, and it does have regulations, just like basically any other fictional universe one might care to name. Applying restrictions to writers can actually help them to come up with ideas, just like saying "Draw me something purple" to an art class can help them get to work faster than saying "Draw me anything". This is because saying "Draw me anything" means that the class probably has more ideas than it's easy to sift through in, say, five minutes, and also because "Draw me anything" implies that there are no quality limits, and you don't care if they give you a crude stick figure or a replica of the Mona Lisa. At the moment, are you saying to yourself, "But all RP is good RP"? I'm afraid that that's not true. Try to think back on every roleplay you've been in over the years. Are there some that stand out as being just more fun than others? Are there some that you remember as being terrible and boring? I'm sure that you must have some sort of preference for certain roleplaying memories over others, and if you do, then you are automatically labeling some as having a property of 'good' and some as having a property of 'bad'. If you look back and you scrutinize and you truly, truly think that all of the roleplays you've ever done were completely equal in how much you enjoyed them or did not enjoy them, then you're either lying to yourself or you haven't been roleplaying for very long. (On a side note, if you've labeled your roleplays as 'good' and 'bad' and the ones that you consider to be 'good' were all outside of proper Warcraft lore, then you've either found some people who were very skilled at making non-lore seem plausible or you're roleplaying in the wrong universe.)
Anyway. Back on topic.
If you scroll through the warcraftsues archives, you may see that many of our screencaps of in-game character descriptions have the names of the characters blanked out or otherwise censored. This is because we don't want the players to get grieved. We're insulting concepts, not the players behind them. Giving out literary critique is not giving out personal critique, and saying "This character makes no sense and doesn't fit into this universe" is not saying "This player is an idiot and should go die in a fire". There is actually a livejournal community (critthisflag) where people post RSPs to get critique, which is populated almost entirely by people from warcraftsues. I've posted some really ridiculous garbage on there, and people ripped my characters to pieces, but they were right about everything they mentioned, and none of them suggested that I was any less of a good person for writing up these ideas. (On yet another side note, if you're new to roleplaying or are unsure about a character, it might be a good idea to post your character up there and get some feedback before you start playing it.) Are you currently thinking "You know, that's different, because the people in that community actively ask for critique, and I don't"? Well, I'm sorry to say this, but putting up a description in flagRSP or MRP or whatever other addon you choose to use means that you are allowing everyone to see it and you are taking into account the fact that people are going to comment on this description, whether they are offering praise or criticism. This is why people polish and perfect their character flags before they put them out in the open, and sometimes even spend weeks trying to get everything just right. Are you now thinking "I still don't want my writing to be criticised, because these people have no right to criticise it"? Tough luck. Everyone has the right to criticise things they don't agree with. Would you say that someone had no right to criticise an unjust law because they didn't go to law school? Are you now thinking "Alright, I suppose I understand your argument, but I still don't want my writing to get criticised"? Then I'm afraid I must ask you, why are you putting it on a giant virtual billboard for everyone to see?
If you have become confused as to the point of this speech, which is understandable since it's rather long-winded, let me summarize it for you: If we put your character up here and say that it's a bad idea, we're not putting you up here and saying that you're a bad person. Please don't start ragefests in the comments in reaction to us criticising you, because we're not criticising you, we're criticising your writing, and these are two very different things.
*This community is also used for RP ranting, as was helpfully pointed out by gizzybiscuits. This post probably counts as a rant, actually.