Announcement: Bleached Souls Review is Finished!

[Zabasaz]

Thanks for allowing me to participate on your site and review it for the purposes of giving people out there a proper look at what goes on in your rp world. I'm pleased and proud to announce that my review is complete, and can be found here!

With that, I must move on to my next project. Thanks again and sorry I had to end the review short, but it was just taking too dang long. :3 If you have any questions you may comment on my blog or send me an AIM message. Farewell!

[Zhiel]

As I was unable to post this in the blog itself, thanks to the character limit on comments I'll just have to post it here I guess.

---

Before I begin here I'd like to mention how GK and me are not the original founders of Bleached Souls, the two people with broken link avatars are. The outright horrid skin you probably tried to swap to was a remnant from me trying to make sense of ProBoards, in an attempt to make a better-looking skin, however as you could probably tell I'm not very fluent when it comes to ProBoards (I prefer to just have the code to look at, instead of a bunch of drop-down menus)

Now this may be a bit early in the comment but after you get to the application you keep mentioning "my" character or how all staff have some of the strongest characters on the site. While this holds true to GK, I do not own a single captain class character. Death (and his "whore vacuum") are Plot NPC's controlled entirely by GK, they are all extremely powerful to lay out a challenge for everyone else.

Now that we have that cleared up, I'm going to start for real. Saying advanced and expert are the same can be true, that depends entirely on how you view it after all. By everyone of our members it means anyone has the potential to alter the flow of the story, and obviously if you want a RP that makes any damn sense in terms of time-flow you'll have at least a very basic order of posting in bigger RP arcs. Now this may just be me but neither advanced nor expert suggests a perfect understanding, and there are always ways to improve oneself, an expert knows his stuff but he's no master (By some definitions).

Yes, many info sections are outdated from when the old admins were there and that's why I've been working on a new thread that would take their place. I'm pretty sure I must have suggested for you to check it out at some point? I posted it in General OOC as a WIP so others could read and comment, oh well. I do not remember any rule stating that someone of a higher rank HAD to win against you, they will clearly have an advantage in general strength but that does not mean you can't turn the tide if the conditions are right or your power or fighting style is effective against theirs. But saying that your Academy Student would be able to beat the Commander General in a swordfight would just be retarded.

Chatboxes serve their function, it allows several members to chat, leave messages to each others or plan events without having to get their AIM/MSN/etc. addresses. Though you're free to dislike it, everyone has an opinion after all.


To give you a quick run-down of what should be obvious: Denied/Dead applications (which is the same sub-forum as you seemingly forgot to mention) are where the applications of dead characters are placed. Now the majority of "dead" characters come from people in high-seated positions who have not been active (read: unable to get in contact with) for a very long time, and are thus killed off either in the RP they are in currently (Mostly only in the case of a main arc) to open that position to others who may desire it. Most of the time inactive players apps are simply moved under inactive however, where they can be moved back should the person return. And calling our method "complete shit"? I'm guessing you're trying to find a flaw to bash in every section to feel better about yourself, but that's not of my concern really.

Regarding age, you're right there is no official source for how old a Hollow of a certain 'power level' are in general, however I merely asked what you meant by 7 years and never, not even in our IM conversation did I say you had to make him older. "that's why I felt his time as a hollow was short, but I'm not forcing you to change it, it was merely an observation" to which you responded "I understand, that's not really anyone's bad, it's based on perspective.". I like how you say one thing but mean another, especially when you clearly did not understand my intentions.

Appologies about the physical description length, it's one of those things that have gone unnoticed and thus not been changed, though I appreciated you not complaining endlessly about needing to change something.

Saying I didn't read your personality offends me, I take reviewing characters seriously as it is not my primary duty and thus I have to be careful not to let something detrimental to the rp overall through. The reason I didn't "nitpick" as you call it (read: reviewed) was because I thought it was a good personality, both in length and content. The only thing I asked was for you to add how he views other races and his leaders
"Personality looks good and has plenty of description, though it would be nice if you could add how he views other races (Shinigami, humans, bount, etc) and his actual thoughts on fighting or their current leadership (the Horror Vacui)"

Now for the history, yes your "ghosts" did make me concerned because as you mentioned in the history yourself: "You owe us for what we've done for you, and in five years we'll be ready to collect.", stating they are powerless because they are "ghosts" in Bleach... That's quite ironic isn't it? Besides that, you never stated anywhere in either the Application thread or our IM conversation they were "powerless", besides that how would a powerless ghost train a hollow? Telling it how to become an arrancar, sure I can go with that but train him? Clearly they are more than just "ghosts", the fact you were (potentially) planning a future plot with them being released suggested this even more and it was the reason I asked you to explain your intentions with them.

As I keep reading you seem to get more and more pissed off, hurt that your "amazingly awesome" character wasn't approved on the spot? And once again, never did I say Death was my character, I was merely making an example which you took far to literally. Sorry to burst your bubble Zabasaz but it takes a lot more than "I'm too important to listen to you" to make me "butthurt".

This is the complete segment I used to "ask for a nerf" which was actually an explanation that no defense is "perfect".
"The unreleased ability(s) is meant to be like the Arrancar's form of Shi-kai (except it's always released), and thus should be an ability unique to the arrancar and not something they have learned. However if you don't want a pre-ress ability then that's fine too, just thought I should mention that Mano Vacie should be placed at Hollow Techniques. And though it's pretty much confirmed that most arrancar are able to increase the efficiency of their hierro on their hands/wrists, they would be unable to protect against a released offensive zanpakutou of someone of equal level //UNLIKE\\ this technique (though you still have to consider the abilities of the sword itself, for example Rin (Darkoda's Captain) has a sword with exceptional cutting power, and would probably give him a cut even with that ability, though it probably wouldn't go straight through.)"
Here I state that Pre-ressurection abilities are meant to be unique (hence: Special Abilities in the template, though I admit it could be clearer), and that Mano Vacie should be moved to hollow techniques since it's something he learned from someone else. I was essentially giving you the opportunity to have ANOTHER power, and you say I was nerfing you? The fact you never filled in a Pre-Ress ability is really not of my concern.

Was I nitpicking about the zanpakutou? I don't remember nitpicking about the zanpakutou...
"Interesting choice for Zanpakutou form, and I see no real reason to not allow it. Though I'm curious, is the 'extra efficiency when drawing blood' something that is actually present with that type of weapon, or is it something you added? I think I understand the concept though asking never hurts"
Oh yes, I was merely ASKING for a CLARIFICATION something you seem to have trouble understanding since every time I've asked for one you've started arguing something completely unrelated to it.

For his ressurection appearance I merely asked you to add the part where his blood becomes crystals as described in the ability itself thus explaining why he's encassed in a big crystal before emerging with only a few shards sticking out of his back. More data? No, it was already present in the application and merely needed to be moved.


I guess "balance" is a concept completely alien to you. I tried time and time again to explain to you that a "perfect" defense with no costs to use simply won't fly.

"I was asking for clarifications about how the ability worked, specifiks if you will. I was not saying he shouldn't be able to block anything with it just because as you seem to believe. Obviously it wouldn't be a very useful ability if he couldn't block anyone with it, but if he can produce crystals anywhere at will in an instant, then how would anyone manage to harm him with a weapon? Sure, one could attack him from where he can't see or use a wide-area attack, but you're really stretching things as this is not a purely defensive ability but one that also works offensively as well, and from what I can imagine, pretty damn well too. I've got nothing against his 'dynamic shape', but there has to be a limit to how adaptable it is or otherwise he'd be virtually invulnerable with no real cost to himself."

Also like how you combine all of my 'complaints' while you keep your revised version like if it was always so. A perfect example here is how you never included how whatever part of the body he extends a crystal from becomes unable to move properly in the initial app, but added later, but once again you took something I said too literally: With flexible I did not mean he could go around spinning and doing backflips while walking his dog, but that he had an ability that was a very powerful defensive ability and at the same time allowed him access to decent offensive capabilities. I never said this was too strong, I never said it needed to be weakened, what I did say was that there needed to be some kind of Reiatsu("mana") cost.

We may be a free-form RP site, but as our setting is very fight oriented it is important to keep battles balanced, even if you can't kill someone without their permission it's never fun to fight someone who never gets tired and can spam his Gran Rey Cero indefinitely.

Same thing comes with the Cero here. It possessed attributes not ordinary for a cero, thus essentially making it a different technique which was why I asked about more specifik information for it, but that it would probably cost slightly more than a normal cero out of balance. A perfect example here is the cero of my character Kehieleth, his "power" is a specifik attribute to his reiatsu, which then also translates to his cero as it is made of just that. Normally it makes no sense for it to cost more than an average cero, but I concluded the only way to balance it was to make it cost more to use. I also gave you several options with how to regulate your power usage, from % based costs to "it's pretty taxing to use this" descriptions, but clearly a flaw in your character is too much to handle.

And much disdain regarding the rp sample? Really?
"As for the sample post, I'd prefer one that included your character itself, to make it easier to get a grip on who he is. But it's not a requirement and more of a personal preference, so no biggie there."
Apparently "prefer" and "personal preference" are great disdain. Interesting how that turns out, eh?


I thoroughly enjoy how you go on about how "my" character is this and that, when you haven't even bothered to check if it was actually my character (when I never stated it was). My strongest character is roughly of VC level, because I enjoy playing weak to average strength characters in general, so please do not presume to know me. I was using Death merely as an example, the very peak of power on the site (and as a NPC and THE big bad, he's entitled to be the strongest).

The first comment from GK was something I "relayed" becuase I felt it really emphasized how you seemed incredibly reluctant to conform to our standards, rather expecting us to change for you. This is the exact quote: "I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is having got you instead of me as a reviewer?" GK is a great writer and fair, but he's got no patience with people who can't follow basic instructions. I on the other hand are as mentioned pretty hard to piss off which is why I tried to hammer out the kinks of your character with you despite how reluctant you were. In hindsight I realize it was just a big waste of time for both of us, but what can you do?

I find this pretty funny however
"Because that's all that was to be said. He's the head-admin of a role play site on the internet, why should I have to listen to what he says when he carries no weight nor importance in my life to the point that I should be obligated to listen? GK never said anything to me personally, tough guy couldn't be bothered to break a nail."
Yes, on the internet. But it's also the site YOU were applying for.
I'm making a pretty extreme example here: I'm living at your home, but I don't conform to your rules and don't wear my pants outside of my room, leave crap lying around everywhere and am a general douche. Would you let me stay or would you kick me out?
Though it's clearly not the same, the scenario is very similar. You, a guy we know nothing about, come to join our site but you don't listen to our requests or conform to our rules. Do you expect us to just let that pass with a "Okieday"? Your own perception of what is accepable is not always "right".

I've accepted plenty of applications, do you know what they did different from you? They actually listened, didn't argue ever. single. point. and actively tried to better their applications instead of looking for loop-holes to remove all possible weaknesses.

I wonder where you got this idea from however: Also gleefully delight in receiving special perks due to their ranks in the context of the rp.
Probably based on your misconception about Death once again, funny how easy it can be to fabricate shit when you're completely clueless.

And really, two active threads? You clearly haven't checked or once again you're just making up shit without context. At this moment there are (at least) 6 active threads. And the reason the approval process was "poor" was because as I've mentioned you not listening. We do not expect you to blindly follow our every "command", but there's a limit to arguing your point. And yes, many info sections are outdated, something which I was amending with the new info thread I was working on.

And a variety of player-made factions? The only player-made factions are The Maesto which is a very minor hollow faction, and the New World Order which is my "evil" human organization. Both the Brotherhood and the Masked Syndicate are factions which were there from the start, and sure they aren't canon factions but humans, bount, quincy or mod-souls can't exactly join the Gotei 13 now can they? And to claim you were the only numeros on the site is once again a fabrication, one of my characters is a Numeros (and one of the weakest ones too), I also know several members who have had to leave due to real life problems who had Numeros or other such (below captain/espada) characters. And to note, the entire Horror Vacui are made up of Plot NPC's.


Want to know why I never posted in your application about what needed to be changed? Because that was what the IM conversation was for, the fact you didn't alter it from there or notified me of said alterations is not my problem, it is everyones choice if they want to participate or not and if you did not think you fit with us then that was your own decision. You had my AIM, so I don't see why you didn't poke me on there if you actually wanted your character approved?

Now I have to give you credit for such a long and throrough review, however the fact you base nearly as much on assumptions as your own experience leaves a bad impression. I'm not above turning the left cheek however, if you are still interested (doubtfull as that is, with how colorful your review is) you are welcome to attempt to pass your character again. I also appologize if this comment might be badly structured, my thoughts have been all over the place while reading this. Either way, I wish you luck with your future projects, and hope that the next site you visit might be more to your own tastes.

[GoldenKitten]

While Zhiel addressed most of what you had to say (and as the target of much of your anger as well as the one who reviewed your profile that was his place) I just want to touch on a couple other things that involve the whole site.

Before that however I would like to say the reason you saw nothing of me is because he was the one to review your profile first, here on BS the reviewing of applications is shared between us and when one claims a profile the other doesn't interfere. The reasoning for this is so the final product is a cohesive whole organized from a single Admin's thought process instead of a mish-mash of randomly noticed and patched inadequacies from several different minds. There are rare exceptions to this if one of us is having a tough time deciding if something is acceptable but they are few and far between. As for my “passed on” comments I think Zhiel summarized quite well what that was about. The point was not to threaten you or to prove what a hard-ass I was, it was to try and make you realize that we were making quite a few concessions to try and be lenient but you were fighting every point Zhiel made. Thus he was trying to point out that (for someone who ironically used “Mary Sues” as a rating scale) we weren't going to accept a perfect character and the head admin (myself) was not going to let that fly.

Now to the site itself. As he pointed out we inherited this site from the previous admins, thus there are certain things I cannot control, complete control over the sites appearance is one of them thus why we will forever have this admittedly controversial color scheme. However for every individual like yourself who dislikes it we have had several others come in and say it was unique and had a calming look to it, you know, instead of being ANOTHER black and red color scheme like half the Bleach boards out there. Yes this is an unfortunate limitation on my part but it is the only one and far from a site breaking one. The alternate scheme was explained by Zhiel, it is not a scheme at all but an attempt at altering the board with the constraints our accounts have.

Now you greatly understated the number of active topics but yes I understand if you come from a site that has dozens or hundreds of posts a day this place will seem like a turtle. What needs to be understood (and of course with how little time you spent here or how little you knew about the members I know why this was looked over) is that BS is almost entirely populated by individuals in their latter highschool years or in the case of myself and several others, college and the work force. We do not have the time for daily posting, we are excessively busy and even should we get home with the time there are just some days we are completely creatively drained and have no desire to make a five page post. We all understand this about each other and have learned to live with that, only driving others to post after a reasonable waiting period (around a week). Thus we trade speed for quality, if that isn't your thing I don't blame you but there are many boards that cater to faster/shorter posts whereas this one is for a different kind of writer, you either are or are not that type, no negative or positive to it. Also keep in mind BS is a smaller site, of course we aren't going to have a hundred active posts when we don't even have that many active players and when the site focuses on large posts over numerous ones.

The posts made by individuals with broken avatars are the previous admins. As Zhiel told you we have been working on fixing outdated rules and updating posts like that but as I also just said we work WHEN our busy real-life schedules allow it. Given that we would much prefer to keep our stable and current user base happy with updated storylines that digs even deeper into what time we have leaving the revision of these other topics as a final act. This is not such a bad thing as most of the rules are still applicable and any revision to the rules has at least been pointed out via announcement/sticky and slowly added to Zhiels WIP revision.

Finally while you once more greatly over exaggerate the lack of weaker characters (there are well over a dozen) of course the majority of applications are Espada/Captain/Etc. First and foremost as the top of the site says we are story oriented, that means these aren't accepted on the basis of making the world explode but for the story itself. After all who does the story in almost every manga/anime/movie/book center around? The powerful and unique ones, it's the same here but we do not allow these positions to be abused and to do so would be to be instantly banned (unless it was an obvious mistake). When the antagonist of a story are excessively powerful of course the created protagonist are going to drift toward the more powerful side and I don't blame them though I will try my best to keep everyones powers on an even level. Also nowhere does it state a more powerful individual will always win.

For most of the ultra-powerful characters, yes they are mine but no they are not me abusing my position (even less so for Zhiel who has NO incredibly powerful characters at this time as you claim). Every single one of my characters (with the exception of a VC and a human, both weaker individuals) is a Plot NPC given PC treatment due to their presence and longevity in the RP. Most of them ARE incredibly powerful but that is because most of them are my tools for crafting a story that presents a dire situation that the much weaker PC member populace needs to feel is something that simply can't be won (just as any traditional action story like the canon Bleach introduces characters that seem insurmountable but gradually become less so over time). At no point will I EVER use these character to EVER fight a member outside of a story event which they will be alerted to beforehand and asked if they agree to the outcome, should they not I would NOT force my will on the issue and would find another way to forward that portion of the story. I have done this more than a dozen times to date.

So in closing, you are free to carry your own opinions but when writing reviews that could adversely effect a site you should be more professional. As Zhiel showed you fabricated more than a little evidence to suit your cause and make the site seem more dire than it was. You also painted yourself as the lone hero and us as the average 12-year old power hungry admins while completely omitting actual conversations Zhiel had with you that suggested the contrary. Finally you did NO research (or simply decided not to include the truth) as to why some of the things were the way they were, you just tossed them up as blatant all encompassing negatives. Believe what you want to believe, I don't claim BS is perfect but your overly biased and unfair review does not portray a realistic view of our site.

[Zabasaz]

tl;dr

[GoldenKitten]

Good to know thats the kind of devotion you have for your own work. You can spend hours coming up with reasons to gripe but can't be bothered to engage in actual dialogue or give others the time of day. If anything it's that attitude right there that is an indicator of your skill and the level of reliance a reader should put in what you have written, that is to say, none.

I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt at first and treat you like an intelligent individual but you have single-handedly just doused any credibility you carried by responding in such a way. I guess that should be expected from someone who fabricated so much “evidence” to make his review as negative as possible.

Good day and good luck with your project, you're going to need it.

[Galihan]

I assume such projects only include finding small-scale roleplay communities to troll, quite miserably might I add. Anyone with enough attention span to actually read his complaint-ridden bashing who proceeds to follow up by reading this thread, only to find that Zabasaz thinking himself too important to actually spend the time to read over a response no longer than his own initial complaining will understand just how pathetic his own complaints really are.

[Zabasaz]

Look, if you want another review you're going to have to wait while I finish my current projects. Perhaps by then you guys can get your shit together and receive a better rating. :3

[Galihan]

I don't mean to sound rude in any way whatsoever, but perhaps you yourself should take the time to consider that the facts being presented to you may actually be correct before you decide that you have to go about and be a nuisance just because you feel like you deserve some attention. We understand that you are only trying to be a troll and I also realize that I'm wasting my own time discussing this with you but, but still I find it worth mentioning that you will not enjoy any more self-gratification beyond me stating now that your presence is inconsequential and we will not waste any more time on you no matter how much you wish to complain.

[Zabasaz]

Hey now, I stopped reading when I saw the word troll.

Troll? You mean like a person who does things just to offend people? Because if I wanted to offend you guys I certainly could have. That wasn't my intention. My intention was to put forth a helpful and informative article so that my readers (and trust me, I have faithful readers) would be spared any disappointment. I'm looking out for my fellow man, the troubled working-class rper who doesn't have time to commit to a community that will only shovel a heaping helping of disappointment on his plate.

So no. Don't call me a troll when I am in fact a martyr, a man who puts his neck out for the other down-trodden rpers out there, who devotes his day and night analyzing and interpreting that which makes roles worth playing. I am not here to offend anyone deliberately, I am here to give people the credit they deserve and give direction to the lost and confused. Period.

Perhaps you should instead look inward at your own faults and work tirelessly to rectify them. This would be both the noble and diligent thing to do. RP Sites are a two way road.

-Zabasaz

[Knightmayre]

I think you failed to read the part where both GK and Zhiel said several times that the issues the site has are being worked on, or perhaps, as suggested previously, you think too highly of your own opinion and refuse to see where it has been proven wrong. I've been a role-player for 11 years now, and this is a great site, with a great community, sure it takes a reasonable amount of time to get characters approved, just means they are worth RPing when they get done because the staff have ensured that your character is balanced enough to be able to participate fairly within the RP, instead of letting every second player have Aizen level powers.

What's more, you're not a martyr. You came here, couldn't deal with the criticism your profile recieved and moved on before you actually had a real idea of how this site works. If you were reallu a martyr, you would have sacrificed your incredibly inflated ego and accepted what was being told to you by Zhiel and gotten your character accepted, then role played and actually earned the right to review the site because you have actually participated in it do a degree which allows you to make a judgement. Instead, you chose to write a narrow minded review which is obviously jaded by your own inflated sense of self importance and bias against the site because it didn't feed your ego by giving you what you want when you wanted it. My three year old brother is better at dealing with not getting what he wants better, at least he listens to what he is being told to help him get what he wants.

In short, if you want to write a review of a role-play, be prepared to actually have to work to get that review written, and try to be a little more professional in future when it comes to writing the review itself, it is hard to take a review seriously when it isn't even written in a semi-formal script. Conversational writing styles are good for novice reviewers who are trying to connect with an auidence because they lack the skill to do the same with proper structure, but given how you portrayed yourself in your review, I would expect a little more effort on your behalf.

[Wanzer]

I'm kinda laughing at this guy now, I've been periodically checking his blog to see if anyone so much as even looked at it. Sad to say no one did and he has no comments. In effect Galihan had it right, he was little more than a troll who had no idea what the hell he was talking about.