litphoria

No average post length. Post length may cover any or all listed averages in a small span.

Right, but that's how pretty much everyone I know operates. (I raised these objections when this was initially suggested but pretty much ignored).

Anyway, I know of very few people who are strictly tied to one length, which is why there's an average. You always have an average.

Do we have any other opinions on this? This still seems to defeat the entire point of the trait to me.

The point of the trait is to show potential partners what your post length is. There's a big difference between "I don't care about post length", "I'm not going to fill in all these traits", and "I'm really flexible with my posts, comfortable doing long or short." Right now, the suggestion of "leave it unlisted" groups all three together in one lump.

There's a big difference between "I don't care about post length", "I'm not going to fill in all these traits", and "I'm really flexible with my posts, comfortable doing long or short." Right now, the suggestion of "leave it unlisted" groups all three together in one lump.

Well, this is the case for every other trait as well. There are many nuances that are not captured in the trait categories, and that is by design. They are meant to be simple caricatures to help you find partners.

I think the problem with this is more about the name. If it was changed to "Flexible" I think it would be a much better asset. I would personally choose that, because I also tend to vary pretty widely from post to post, but here, and on f-list, I've always chosen Short so that people would not be annoyed with the occasionally small post.

I think this also kind of brings up the question of exactly what a preference is for. There are cases where I almost feel I have to use the preferences to list things I myself might be willing to play or utilize, but that's no longer a preference. It's one reason why I've kinda wished I could choose multiple trait categories at times. This is especially of note for any character that's a shapeshifter that may not have a very specific "self". I know there's "Shapeshifting" in abilities, but I don't really feel like that does a good enough job on it's own.

Flexible is better than varies to me, but it's still basically saying "this trait doesn't really apply to me meaningfully". We then also create a false dilemma by people seeing this and thinking "Oh! I don't want to be seen as inflexible, so I'll pick flexible!" even if they very well have an average post length to work off of.

If most of the people who use this trait pick this category, then we have created a category too broad to be of much use (or maybe the trait wasn't that good to begin with, cough cough).

It's a necessary trait because there are sticklers for post-length. Possibly, it isn't as pronounced here because people aren't doing much live-connected F-chat-style RP on this site.

I'm one that will vary post-length by a wide range, and I would prefer that partners do the same, depending on what is best for the flow of the RP. I am not flexible in the sense that I will just match whatever my partner wants. I'm also not a "don't care," because sticklers have forced me to care. I do know that some people are sticklers and want the average paragraph every time, if that is what they specify, and will just drop an RP if you go off their preference. I just can't always do that, or find it always-appropriate in light of the post that I am responding to. I've made posts of one sentence, and up to four large paragraphs, which qualifies as a page post I believe, all in the same RP.

flexible is not the same concept as varies( or variable perhaps). flexible very strongly implies that they will match their partner's preference, as in the Partner's preference category on F-List. flexible is the only category I would consider to be indicated by not selecting any of the trait-categories. Something like varies or variable would be my preference to explicitly express than I'm not going to be a perfect little para-RPer, or a short-only RPer. BTW, people who often specify they are para-RPers or "NOT a para-RPer" are going to have a problem with the terminology of "average" in the existing post-length category descriptions, because they don't want any posts that vary from their preferred length. I've seen them and been dropped by them.

Consider when you are in melee combat (same for romantic encounters of all sorts, too), and you describe taking an action. You can get flowery, maybe and stretch that action to a couple of sentences. You could also throw in a flash-back of how your character learned to fight and use that particular attack. But... I just don't want to read a flash-back for every attack or punch thrown. If I were writing both sides, then quite often some action from one side, which must wait on a reaction from the other, SHOULD only be one sentence, if I want it to flow well. And then on the other hand, when transitioning scenes, it often makes sense to make one of those page posts to detail the setting and the travel, and the current mental state and other things that may change over a transition, plus dialog, and so on.

LOLS flexible vs inflexible. Assume people who come here are NOT so idiotic as to think "oh, lawdy! I don't wants to seem inflexible, oh noes, I better pick flexible without even reading those pesky descriptions!" If it bothers you though, just call it Partner-preference, but obviously that is not the same as varies.

FYI, I like the term variable, and the description:
a preference for subordinating post-length to the needs and aesthetic flow of the role-play, varying from short to very long.
or
a preference for subordinating post-length to the needs and aesthetic flow of the role-play, and may vary from short to very long, as opposed to fixed-lengths.

"oh, lawdy! I don't wants to seem inflexible, oh noes, I better pick flexible without even reading those pesky descriptions!"

Well heck, we already had an issue with this not too long ago with the whole nipple size/nipple appearance/breast sizestuff. Lots of male profiles would just pick none because, "oh lawdy, I'm a guy! I don't have nipples!".

So yeah, that's still a real issue. It's not an issue we encounter often because most of our categories are named sensically and we've been careful about the naming, but we do have people who pick categories without reading the description because they see a label they think they know and just go with it.

I was aware of that already, and posted this anyway, because this concern is ridiculous.