I am no representation of what the community wants, but like any good spambot, I will babble on anyways. Most fundamental? [i]Balance[/i]. Depth to your pitch, but not excessive. All the basic information that would typically come up in the usual back and forth, but not going on beyond that. Decent layout, but not to the point where your effort on formatting in any way outstrips your effort producing the shit that people came to see. And miss me with that black-on-guild-background bollocks, it just strikes me as a waste of time and legibility. I would think on a site like this people should at least attempt to sell their talents with words, not with hard to read edgy art. Now that I've lost the OP, lets see, what else. [quote=@Odin][b]Sections[/b] [/quote] How exactly they're laid out isn't too concerning for me, but my system boils down to this. Critically I want the partner's expectations, standards, whatnot. This would be things like the posting rate they want, an emphasis on communication (or noting they aren't very fond of OOC chatter much), and beyond the 'duh' items, whatever they in particular want that wouldn't be implied. Nothing like approaching someone and finding they in fact have 20 different things they need you to know. Just get it out. This can blend into rules, but I am not so formal as to bind partners to rules. Merely express what I expect and would have them expect from me. I don't need your life story. A few tidbits are fine. I do want evidence that the partner in question has something they want to do. "I crave GoT" only tells me that you are going to flake in two weeks no matter what. This is not to say "drop a lore dump". Just give insight into what sort of things you want to explore, perhaps what concepts you want to realize, whatever. Give a solid reason for your roleplaying. This goes beyond the interest check, but before even posting it, consider if it's going to be a part of your time for any length or if it's just a whim. If you know it's short term 'I want to do this', indicate that, otherwise the implication is something longer term, and for that you're doing everyone a favor by establishing you're not giving in to a passing fad. An OOC gist of what you want from the roleplay 'relationship', and the content you want to explore. Everything else is up to interpretation, including how it's arranged, as long as the important content remains clear. [quote=@Odin][b]Imagery and 'dress up' of the thread[/b][/quote] Frankly, I don't give a shit about this, as long as the writing of the post doesn't leave me with doubts about their ability to write in-character. Conveying what you can do and that you're a person I can work with far more important to me than your mastery of this bricked-up BBCode system. [quote=@Odin] [i]What is the best and most logical build up of your thread section-by-section?[/i] [/quote] Present you. Present your OOC shit. Present what you want. If you want to provide more beyond important tidbits, neatly tuck them into the structure. Hiders or something. I don't think there's a universal answer to this, but I do think you can get close if you look at your interest check and use those roleplaying skills of yours to put yourself (referring to rp-seekers in general) in the position of someone wandering in wanting to find something. This answer is applicable to the organization part as well. [hider=Open for my vague bullshit replies to things in this thread] Pairings lists get a lot of flak. I don't exactly mind them as they give me an idea of what someone is looking for (and indeed, pairings are a good method of elimination for me), but without anything else I do agree that they're rather sloppy and run contrary to my point above where people should indicate what they want to do. Still, I'm not going to think down on someone for just sticking with that. I'm just not going to be doing it myself. If someone wants to be really thorough in my eyes - plot propositions for things you have a basic idea of, pairings list for extremely rough concepts you want to bounce ideas for. As long as you're established as thinking for yourself in a two-person situation, pairings lists can be a good base to start from, provided it's not a front for an unspoken desire for what passes as 'romance' around here. --- I often struggle with the 'music' and even the 'image' part of character sheets. My system is to draw inspiration from a variety of things, and if they don't already have an image or already a piece of music at the core, then it is nearly [i]impossible[/i] for me to find something truly fitting. I'll stick to good old descriptions as appropriate. The only way I do well with finding images is if I've built the character from the image. I derive inspiration from music, but not to the point where I can simply say 'yep, that's my character's theme song'. It's fickle. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKkLjJHwRec]Only my alias can say otherwise.[/url] [/hider] But, this is all as someone who's found the whole 'looking for stranger to fit my tastes' thing to be unappealing over the past few years, in favor of seeking out good conversation with people and then easing into a position of familiarity that allows a good, longer term roleplay dynamic to form. I've also ended up with very acquired tastes in plots (including my own content) and extremely harsh elimination metrics for the Guild. So, eh.