And I'm surprised no one has made the best argument: it's pretty!  =)

As always, jase is my hero.

In reply to jase (msg # 59):

You win.

Although, to be fair, if that actually surprises you, then you must have never been on the internet before.
:p

Jase, you are my hero.  :)

In reply to jase (msg # 59):

LOL nice, end this conversation. :)

Cool, I didn't even know you could do that :D.

Edit - Just tried it, then realised that it also means that coloured OOC text in IC threads is also converted to black, so that's no good. D'oh!
This message was last edited by the user at 23:36, Tue 03 Feb 2015.

In reply to jase (msg # 59):

I had to laud a bit here. I diligently read through the entire three pages of this thread, starting at the OP and wanted to post exactly this tid bit, only to see my post ninja'd just before my turn. So, yeah, lol.

I also dislike colored text. Mainly because I find it obnoxious and distracting from what the poster is trying to convey. I was very frustrated at first and required my players to not use colored text. Some people are very defensive of their love of colored text. :) so I found Jase's well prescribed method much more useful than nagging all my players when they would forget to not color their text. Plus, I hated the white background and base colors of the website. Which you can also change in your custom theme. As well as add a background image.

Ok, glad I got that out there, load off my chest. :)

Would be interesting if instead of tagging text as particular colors, we could tag them as "ooc" "parenthetical" "speech" that way ooc text can be colored, and possibly my favorite use of colored text (coloring parentheticals) , yet allow everyone to select their own theme. So one person could make all players speech the same as regular speech without affecting ooc, while another person could make everyone's speech the same color but different from their own, etc.

That sounds cool, though I have been in games where people putting their speech in colour neglect to use speechmarks, so that would just get confusing to someone trying to read it all in black...

The variety of players and their relative familiarity/use of punctuation provides a necessity for something to be used to offset speech.  Yes, I realize some people can not stand colored speech text.  However, I play in a number of games where some of the players do not even use commas or periods.  I have one player who has NEVER used any sort of punctuation except a single period at the END OF THE LAST PARAGRAPH.

This leads to absolute insanity in trying to read plain, black text.  Without colored speech text I would never have a clue what the character was doing.  Also, I like to keep things simple: quotes/red for speech, italics/blue for thoughts.  For me, I have visual difficulties as it is: and the offset makes re-reading an entire page very quick and easy.

In reply to GamerHandle (msg # 70):

It sounds like we more or less all agree to some extent or another. Colored text is a preference. People should use punctuation and propper grammer (exept when deliberately done wrong). It obviously does help some people keep things straight.

I found a way to fix my issues with it on my side, as pointed out by Jase. It saved me a lot of headaches, quite literally.

Gamerhandle, the problem you are talking about with punctuation and writing technique is an entirely different post. One I'm happy to discuss as learning to write is something I have been doing for a long time and will likely never master. And yes, that would be insanity and make it so I couldn't play with that person.

~cheers

I have to agree with the OP here. I just joined the site and am starting my first game. Some of the players are trying to get us all into colored speech to represent languages. It's distracting to read, an added hassle to write, and leads to lazy grammar.

People have said that colored speech allows them to pick the speech out easier. In other words, it helps them to better skim the posts. My take on that is: if the people I'm playing with want me to go through extra effort to make it so they can spend less effort reading my posts (and missing all the non-verbal stuff I've written) then why am I gaming with this person?

I've only written a few in-character posts as of yet. So far I've been adding color just to get along with everyone... but yeah. It's unnecessary work, a bad grammar practice, and (if you think of it as setting your post up to be easier to skim) kind of insulting. :/

I am a GM.

When I need to "skim a post" it is to quickly go back to a previous post and see what exactly someone said.  Oh, I remember that player 1 said something about that last month; better go back and check the post to be sure...

It is not laziness; it is time management.

If the GM asks for colored text for various things, understand it is because it helps us organize ourselves in whatever fashion we feel the need for, and not to make posting more difficult.

What jtc said. In face to face game, a GM or player may need to remember what happened a few minutes ago. In a play by post game, you have to remember what happened weeks or months ago, depending on the speed of posting. Add in that you may be in more than one game at the time, and all the drek that comes with living in the real world, and anything that makes posts easier to read, organize, and reference later is a Good Thing(tm). If you don't like it, there are plenty of other games out there, or you can always try running your own.

I have been on RPoL for eight to nine years.  I use colored speech.  In fact, I far prefer it.  As I have stated earlier in this discussion, I even find it necessary due to ADHD and health problems.  My grammar, punctuation, and spelling never suffer from my long-term use of the tool jase so wisely implemented in his wonderful site.

And as jtcbrown and srgrosse explained, it isn't for "skimming" over your posts during game-play.  It can, however, help people with ADHD, dyslexia, Autism, and medical conditions involving the eyes or blood vessels of the eyes to break apart and separate large chunks of text.  It can help them to organize what is being said versus what is being implied via actions, stated body language, and facial expressions.  And, finally, as jtcbrown and sgrosse said, colored text is an extremely efficient tool when previous posts, often from years ago, need to be 'skimmed' to jog a DM's or PC's memory.  For example, earlier today I needed to look back at a post written weeks ago to remember what room my character was supposed to go to.  Because we used colored text, I was able to look for the appropriate color to find posts by the correct character and, thus, find the speech text very quickly.  It saved time and frustration.  My post, of course, still had proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

I'm confused about how colored text impacts grammar.

It's a slippery slope argument, where someone claims that because you use the 'color speech' option; you become worse as a writer as you will develop a lazy habit of not using any punctuation.

You know, in all the games I've been in that had colored speech, they used all the proper punctuation, along with the colors. Colors don't make people stop using proper grammar. The people who stop using proper grammar just because the speech is colored were going to do it anyways.

I think the two topics are mutually exclusive. Grammar is a problem for a lot of people, myself included. The colored text is a different issue. I don't think writing in blue font means I'll have worse grammar, only that my text is blue and now you have to view it that way. Unless you turn it off ;)

As far as calling out dialog is concerned and referencing everything as a GM, I just 'archive' the thread and that puts the entire thread into copy-paste friendly format that I can search with ye old control-f. Plus I use a GM thread for important remainders.

Nevertheless, I still hate colored text... So keep up the good natured fight. :)

Note: darn you srgrosse you're a forum ninja.

Yes, I am sneaky like ninja!

EDIT: Also, if you have a thing against colored text, that's all well and good. Not every game has to be for everyone. Some people like it, some people hate it. If you hate it, don't use it in your games, and don't play in games that require it. Makes it quick and easy.
This message was last edited by the user at 02:37, Tue 24 Feb 2015.

I am in a game where colored text is a requirement and another where it is just used by the players, kinda like playing follow the leader.  Although it does not bother me to use it, the hardest part for me is place my cursor between the quotation marks on my tablet.  Fat fingers it is can be a pain.

Now hopefully something that will be taken with humor.  Of those complaining of bad grammar and punctuation, which of you have an English degree?  If you do not, you are not qualified enough to complain about it.  :-P

Since when has a lack of qualification ever stopped people from complaining?  *laugh*

While I've been a fan of colored text, overall, now that I've upgraded to a phone that actually makes posting a viable option, I will likely start cutting down on it, for the simple fact that my phone doesn't have the appropriate brackets to post the RuBB code to color my text (or do italics, or spoilers, etc)   I'll live...

If your phone can select text, select the portion of text then click the color choice box. It will change the color of the selected text instead of opening a text box.

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 82):

Never.  LOL

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 83):

If it can, I haven't figured out how, yet.  I had thought of that (I've done it on my computer before)...but I have yet to find any method of selecting text to use that option.