[@Sho Minazuki] That's all fine and dandy, but some people prefer to explore personality/background within the RP. I mean, I always have a solid personality or background for my characters in my head--and I'm sure others have something similar even if they don't write it all down--so I don't really care if I write it down for people to see (though I typically do). Just because it's not written, doesn't mean it's not [i]there[/i]. And most people don't [i]care[/i] until it's expressed in character anyway. Because I mean, really, what does history / personality do for anyone? It's not like other characters should or even can interact with you knowing this information. They gotta discover it.

TLDR: personality / history should be optional because it's pointless and dull compared to actual RP.