I never understood the prospect of having one, or more, long-standing characters. Not that I'm hating on people who do that, but it just doesn't feel right for me? I haven't even been aware that this is [i]a thing[/i] until a few years into roleplaying! 

That said, I'm in a way not even sure if I don't have a long-standing character myself. A few years back I discovered a certain archetype/trope I enjoy roleplaying a lot. Ever since then, I often end up making a character that has some very same core personality traits, but with some differences. Outside of that, and the fact I re-use the same name 80% of the time if it's fitting [s]as a sort of homage to my 'discovery'[/s], they are always different. Always will be. Also because part of my character making process is that I end up fleshing them out way more as the RP goes on, I guess. 

Reading some other people posts about the whole 'cheap copy' gave me some food for thought about my own situation, though. This 'copy-character' of mine often feels like that too at the beginning stages of the RP. But thinking back on the three roleplays I participated in, which managed to go on longer without dying, said character/s(?) each ended up very different from one another. But maybe that's also because said trope has a very innocent world-view and a lot of room to grow as a character? Meh, whatever, now I miss those RPs.