Welcome to Gaia! ::

Two words: I agree. Many times I come across cool-looking RP's, especially in the Gaia neighbourhood, and the sheer amount of html code in there makes me go cross-eyed. Like, WHO CARES? So,ebody's gonna have epilepsy from the color, too.

I actually agree. I just think it looks neatest without pictures (Because they all very in size...ugh) and just have a link [x]. But, that is just my personal belief. Unless all the pictures are rather small and all about the same size. But a lot of people do actually cross the line and over-do. And then it is hard to keep up because it's hard to read and understand and whatnot. To me simple = easiest to follow.

To true. I've seen a couple or RP's that I've been interested in, but as soon as I get to the rules I want to go and hide under a rock. 1) It's a lot of work to make a post fit all of the requirements and 2) I'm kind of lazy. I prefer content to prettyness.

Is prettyness a word?

Hey, get this. I was looking through the RPs again tonight and found one I really liked. I mean, this thing is pretty well done. (I won't be calling any names.) I got to the rules and was reading through them. I saw, "You have to type in your assigned color." I thought, Alright, alright, this RP is designed well enough for me to tolerate that, and read on. Then I saw, "you must type in size 9-10 font."* It made me grimace, but once again, I can deal with that. I might miss one or two, but I can manage that in one RP. Then, of course, I kept reading, only to find, "Decorate your posts." At this point, I just think, Alright, what the hell. Screw this garbage. And I leave the thread. So, congratulations, thread author. Your frivolous bull just drove off an excited role player that, likely, would have been a decent asset to your thread. Good going.

*((Seriuosly, somebody tell me what's so orgasmic about size 9 font?))

I actually agree with you dude. Normally I'm just looking for something straightforward. And yet, mine don't end up straightforwards themselves because I get bored. And next thing I know, I've random capitalizations and stuff. At one point it's like, hey... that's not bad. But it gets really tedious.

Using the number 9, it's the easiest number to quickly type because it's large enough to read and it's only one button.
Also when text becomes large with the regular 12 point font, it has a mental effect. At least to me. I don't want to read something that long. If it's small and in a small font, it doesn't make it as bad.
To bold and color code is to make them stand out. It gives a clear seperation between thought and dialouge. Plus it makes them stand out, so when skimming or reading it won't be missed.
Pictures added aloung with the text could help others, and even the rper, how the character looks.
The heading and pictures help seperate character from character. Sometimes looking at the username or avie won't help. There might be similar ones, either username or avie, and confusion might happen if the character's name does not show in the post. Which is a style I usually use when the name hasn't been said in the rp yet. So I post in a color that is differnt from the others to make sure no one gets confused.
Plus, I'm lazy too. So it takes me a while to get the style I may prefer but I just have to quote all the coding and just rewrite a new post. It isn't so hard once you get past that part.
The content of the posts is all up to the rper!

These are just my opinions, thoughts, and examples. Don't start flaming or killing someone for these.

It takes about .2 seconds to hit one key. Not exactly faster in the grand scheme of things. In fact, if you're worried about speed, just use size 12. that one's instant.
Now, I can't dispute the mental effect thing, but if I may point out, 12 is the standard size for typing anything for schools/organizations/companies. However, it seems to me that the mental thing might only apply to half the people. Some of them, like myself, would actually find the smaller font to be more, since taking up the same space with smaller font implies there's more to be read in one block of text. Again, if you're worried about length/speed, just don't require people to type as much.
In an involved RP, no posts should ever be skimmed for the dialogue. That cheats the writer out of purpose for the effort they put in writing it, as well as the person skimming causing trouble by not understanding what the setting is, missing a key detail.
If you're having trouble remembering what your character looks like, stop being a lazy bum and go look at the profile list on the front page of the thread.
Easy solution: rather than requiring loads of nonsense to clutter everyone's posts, how about just requiring everyone to mention their character's name somewhere in the post? Or if it's that important, head the post with the name.
Err, yeah, that would be an easier solution, too.
It's not making the decorations that I think to be a problem, but more that it's bothersome to look at it in every post as well as have to remember to c&p the code from somewhere every single time.

Yeah, that's cool. By the way, don't freak out that I rebutted you, I just thouht this would be a good way to further my point about why it shouldn't be required.