I think there's a ying and yang for all things. Too little description and the character feels blank, too much description and people start skimming or the scene slows down. I guess that's what makes writing art.

All I really want to know is the character's name, roughly how they look, their [b]non-combat skills[/b] (something sorely under spoken for in this topic), and maybe a brief description of their past, just to get to know them better. It doesn't have to be their super secret past, just what the neighbor picked up from them.

Another interesting trend on another forum I saw was that someone actually wrote a post for the bio. It was a sort of mini adventure with the character in it that had nothing to do with the RP. After that, everyone started doing it. What a great way to sample someone's writing ability and see how a character acts.