Character Biographies

[moab]

Not saying your wrong, Rindan, but I hate when people equate long with spam.

No useful content = spam
Content (at whatever length) != spam

[spawnloser]

Yes, moab, but if you make it so long that the IMMs will have to take 30 minutes to read the entire thing to understand your character...don't count on them reading it all when it's only to give you 5 minutes of interaction.

[moab]

Not disagreeing, Spawnloser.

[LoD]

Not saying your wrong, Rindan, but I hate when people equate long with spam.

No useful content = spam
Content (at whatever length) != spam

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work.  There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.

I mean, apply your rules to food:

Old bananas = bad
Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad

I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop.  Same with long bios.

Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

-LoD

[moab]

LoD

Your comparison is faulty.

However, - again - I'm not saying I disagree with Rindan's thesis.  I'm saying that long is not spam and the habit of calling long spam (long being = longer than you want to read or you expect someone else wants to read) is a bad habit.

That's all.

That's all I'm saying.

One might better phrase Rindan's idea thusly: "Brevity is the soul of wit" or "Be concise or be ignored."

I can see we're all itching for a debate so let's jump over to OOC and start somethin' if you wanna through down!
:wink:

[LoD]

LoD

Your comparison is faulty.

Have you even eaten enough bananas to possible know that!!?  If you had, you'd say, "LoD, your comparison is right on.  I ate a ton of bananas and I am seein' what you mean.  I am in the know about banana spam."

One might better phrase Rindan's idea thusly: "Brevity is the soul of wit" or "Be concise or be ignored."

Indeed.  

I can see we're all itching for a debate so let's jump over to OOC and start somethin' if you wanna through down!

Throw down, banana boy!  THROW down!

-LoD

[amoeba]

I think it should be as long or as short as people need them to be. It's an individual thing.

This being said, when reading stuff online, formating nicely is critical.  I haven't done the biography command yet so I don't know if you can put blank lines inbetween paragraphs, but if so, please do so.

Even though the content and length are identical, reading this:

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work. There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.

I mean, apply your rules to food:

Old bananas = bad
Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad

I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop. Same with long bios.

Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

is a whole lot easier than reading this:

Well, I think Rindan is using the word spam less to describe the usefulness of the content and more to describe the sheer volume of the work. There IS a limit on how much someone is willing to read, and the length will factor into the rules you set forth in your post.  I mean, apply your rules to food: Old bananas = bad Good bananas (no matter how many) !=bad I think Rindan is saying that no matter how good the bananas were, eventually you'd get sick of eating them and stop. Same with long bios. Morale of the story: Easy on the bananas if you want people to eat 'em.

One is spammy, the other is quite readable.

[Cegar]

I've noticed that I tend to like this sort of format. I start an entry with a brief summary of a major event in my character's life, then start another paragraph detailing a certain aspect of that even which was most profound. Best of both worlds. A brief introduction, then some meaty details. Yays.

[jmordetsky]

I just wrote my first Biography.

I am really, really pleased with this. Thank you very much, this is an excellent addition to the game.