[quote=Brovo]It's not manipulative to ask them to change something just to see if they are willing to be cooperative enough to work with me.[/quote]

Actually, yeah, that's kind of textbook manipulation. You're manipulating people by prodding them with something supposedly wrong about their sheet just to test their reaction and see if they have problems with cooperation or criticism. Seriously, dunno why you're trying to deny that.

The thing about it that people seem to not understand is that manipulation is not a negative thing in and of itself. Just because you're being sly about testing their commitment to the game doesn't mean it's bad. I doubt anyone would call bullshit if you just asked them about their future plans for their character development to see if they've considered long term involvement. This thing you're describing is just a subtle and indirect way of getting that answer, whilst also getting the bonus of finding out whether or not they're likely to be cooperative or open to criticism. I see no problem with it.

[quote=Dervish]Say what you have to up front and be done with it.[/quote]

Who exactly is going to say "yeah, I don't really give a fuck about this RP and I can't deal with criticism" when asked directly? :lol

Part of the reason manipulation is a useful tool is that since it's indirect, they'll be less likely to see what you're really aiming at and thus be less likely to hide any of the bad things you're looking for. Ask them if they work well with others and they will always say yes, even if they're a total prick who tries to ride roughshod over everyone to get what they want. The only thing you can really get out of directly asking those things is weeding out the people who are the least interested and just threw a sheet together because they wanted to kill five minutes. Anyone more determined than that will bullshit their way past your questions (which is super easy to do online, mind you) and then go about their merry way doing shitty things until you have to kick them. Better to use a little misdirection at the start than to deal with those problems later, I'd say.