The Trials and Tribulations of Charstaff
by Wolfang
June 25, 1998

Things that really piss me off when I'm doing apps:

No one ever includes a note and quote! It SAYS, clearly, in news 
application, please include a note and quote for your character! It 
tells you where to look for examples! It references a news file devoted 
to note-writing tips! And still they leave it out! WHY? Do they think 
it's somehow optional or what?

On that same note, people who leave out whole SECTIONS of the 
application. I got one just the other day that answered the name & email 
question, the previous experience question (he'd mudded a lot, fancy 
that), gave a < half-line pose ("XXXX looks around cautiously" or 
something similarly lame), and answered the consensual RP question with 
something about how it was good that high level characters couldn't kill 
newbies with powerful weapons. That was the whole app. Do these people 
even BOTHER to read the news files I spent so much time and effort 
writing to make this process easier?

"His greatest strength is his killing ability/massive array of weapons." 
How unoriginal can we get?

"His greatest weakness is that he hates retreating so he gets in over 
his head a lot and his friends have to rescue him." This basically 
equates to, "This character gets into a lot of pointless battles and 
spends all its time in the R-Chamber when it's not annoying the piss out 
of its 'friends' who have to go rescue it every day."

i really really hate it when people dont capitalize or punctuate 
correctly its even more annoying than when they cant spell

People who use this as their sample pose:
	XXXX sneaked through the woods, unseen by his <insert faction> 
enemies because of his stealth technology. The lightning crackled 
overhead, and in the flash of light, he spied his target standing next 
to a tree. With a growl of pleasure, he leaped out of hiding and mauled 
the hapless <insert faction>. When his victim was finally subdued, he 
disappeared into the trees again, leaving no trace.

This is a) not a pose.
        b) twinky as hell -- consensual RP anyone?
        c) still not a pose.

People who send 1.2k apps, and, when told politely that their app is 
incomplete and that they need to fill out the ENTIRE application, and 
please take a look at the Hall of Fame for some examples of really good 
apps, write back to ask: "but whats wrong wiht my APP??"

People who think that because they're applying for a TC, they don't need 
to answer the personality question, but can just restate the character's 
note for that part of the application.

People who ask for massive stats/attacks/effects with no justification 
whatsoever. (The, "my character has a level 5 blaster + stun, but I'll 
just mention it in the note and then request it under my attacks without 
so much as mentioning it in the application, even though my character is 
a Pelican and has no precedent whatsoever for such an attack" syndrome.)

People who ask for stats/attacks ABOVE THE MAXIMUM ALLOWED LIMIT. Do you 
have any idea how many times I've seen people request 10+ stats? (And 
usually more than one... I had one guy request *4* 10+'s, then some 9s 
and 8s...) What the fuck do I write these news files for? Do they just 
think they're EXEMPT for some reason? Why?

I also love the ones who request level 4+ attacks in beast mode and even 
*acknowledge* that it's over the maximum limit. ("I know it says no 
attack in beast mode can go over 3, but i think that my char shoud have 
a level 5 bite because hes a weasle and i dont know if youve ever been 
biten by a weasle but they bite HARD!!!")

How can these people even operate a computer?