On CSes-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I've never been in an RP without a CS????? It's just an easy way to get ur shit together, I'll 100% use them for independent projects as well

On FCs-I tend to use real people because I like to make fun aesthetic things (moodboards, dolls on Polyvore but now urstyle, collages, et cetera), but if I'm GM'ing a RP, I don't care if it's art so long as it's not anime. Anime FCs are so triggering omg, for reasons that I'm too lazy to go into atm

Personally, when I find FC's I try to avoid Instagram celebrities, singers, etc. I like using professional actors/actresses/models (NOT Insta-models) because, like, in the case of models their [i]job[/i] is to model. IDK that's just how I justify it; plus high fashion models are so diverse in terms of look/vibe/aesthetic and there are increasing amounts of models of color. So there's my 2 cents

On color codes-if it's required, I don't mind, but I don't usually use them/force people to use them. I will admit that they make things fun and colorful, which is always nice

On images-uh, 1-5? I personally like to put an image for appearance, then make an extra section and put any aesthetic-y artsy things I've made in there under the hider just so it's not annoying as actual hell to find info in the CS

On coding-I prefer GM providing. It ensures that everything is unified, [sub]plus I'm a lazy piece of shit[/sub]. I don't [i]mind[/i] freeform, though, just don't expect me to make it ~aesthetically pleasing~ [sub]because I'm a lazy piece of shit[/sub]

On things to be included/excluded-eh, I dunno. I've had CSes that were just like, name/age/appearance/bio, but also ones that go super in depth (ESPECIALLY the ones on Polyvore/Urstyle). I don't mind, either way; I like fleshing out characters, and for the ones that don't have much in terms of required fields, I just stick other things I want to include in an "other" section

On character creation process-TBH i just rip off my own characters nowadays. Like, there are ~5 character "types" that I find myself playing a lot, even if there's a reasonable amount of variation in vibe/personality/bio/aesthetic that they're considered distinct chars (Haley, since this is you asking the question, I have, like, WAY TOO MANY versions of Mai. Also a lot of Mai spin-offs or Mai-inspired characters. Love u girl <3333)

Sometimes, ngl, I'll have a model I want to use as an FC and end up creating a character around the FC [sub](Yes, I know I'm shallow, fite me)[/sub]. On rare occasions I'll want to play/write a character who's completely different from anything I've written before, and then they end up becoming one of the "character types" I start writing a ton, lol. 

(Also I get pretty inspired by stuff I read in my Spanish lit classes, for some weird reason. I actually just made a character who's backstory is kinda sorta a ripoff of a short story I read last semester, whoops)