The Interview
What in the world made you decide you wanted to be a CS Liaison?I just wanted to help people. I was already helping people in chat who'd been asking, and frankly its just fun seeing all these different, and occasionally unique ideas. And I really wanted to contribute to Miz somehow, and I saw Siren's call, and I answered.
If you could communicate one thing to new players about creating a CS… what would that be?Please read the materials provided for you, specifically the templates. I'm not saying you have to follow the design patterns included, but if you just look, then you can see what is necessary. Also, take a look at some CSs that already have nice green checkmarks on them. This is a writing site, its 90% reading and 10% writing. If you can't handle the ink, get out of the kit... ink making place.
Everyone has rituals and habits they utilize when they do repetitive tasks on Mizahar. What are some of the processes or rituals you do when you look over CS’s? Do you reach every one thoroughly or do you just look for key points?Well no matter how much time I put into my day when checking CSs, I always do the same thing. I respond to all my PMs first, in order by received. So if you need to get a hold of me, that's usually the best way if you're not inclined to enter Chat. After that, I check the CS Review thread. People who post there are usually ready to be checked, so I give them preference. I try and get all of them caught up in one fell swoop. Then if I still have the energy and determination left, I find where the CSs were last caught up, and start checking them forward.
Now on individual CSs, I have a nice sticky note on my computer (hard sticky note, not that fancy shmancy computer app) that has the following words on it.
"Name/age/race
Concept isn't dumb (courtesy of Siren)
History
Skills
Lores
Possessions
Heirloom
Housing
Languages"
And while I do read each CS thoroughly, (you newbie nuits who have your history for the last million years written out kill me some days), those are the main points I check for. I do sometimes miss things, like the other day I missed a 7ft tall 100lb PC. But hey, if you wanna be dead of malnourishment before you start, that's your prerogative.
After becoming a CSL, have you acquired a new favorite race or city just from having read through character sheets and seeing people's concepts?Not especially, but I find myself respecting more races and areas equally than I did before. I will say that Wind Reach and Riverfall PCs typically tend to have some of the most interesting concepts I've seen, ways of fitting the mold of the natural denizens, but still being amazingly unique.
Mizahar has some of the most beautiful character sheets anywhere on the net. Do you find that reading the super fancy ones are better or worse than reading the plain ones. I mean, does the decorations detract from the writing, add too it, or does the whole thing break even?Sometimes they can, especially extra wide boxcodes. I usually keep two windows open side by side on my screen, chat/netflix/coding project I'm doing on the right, and Mizahar forums on the left. Then I get either a wide box code or a single frame sheet and it forces me to use up my entire screen to read it, since side scrolling for each line is not something I enjoy doing. I remember seeing one CS that had this bright yellow font that gave me an instant headache and put me in a bad mood for a little while. But tastefully done ones, pretty but reserved, are lovely. Examples that come to mind are Kavala (for senior players) and Wanda Endust (for newer players). But all in all it breaks even.
Is there anything you’d do or would ask to have done to improve the CS Liaison’s job?There are a few things, but really the job doesn't need a lot of improvement. To the players, please read your lore and resources before you finish your CS. And don't be afraid to slap a WIP tag on your CS. When I see that, I literally just slap a formal WIP tag on there, and move on. There's nothing I can ask from the moderators, other than check the CSs of people who register in your city. We occasionally miss things in the CS forums or things have been adjust after approval. So stay vigilant!
Now this is a big one for me, and I know its not that important for others. But one of my biggest pet peeves, in chat, is when people will link a CS that needs a lot of work done on it into chat, then proceed to flame, make fun of, and degrade that person and their character sheet. I don't care if its a CS from 3 years ago or from 10 minutes ago, neither are right. It creates a toxic atmosphere in chat, and is just rude, especially if the person isn't in chat to receive help or defend themselves.
There is an age-old debate on character history and personality. Do you think its better to write your entire history and personality out as a player creating a new PC or would you rather wait and let the history or personality write itself after the PC gets a chance to rp a while.Personally, my recommendation would be to just write a single, basic overview paragraph of both the history and personality (separately). There's really no need to get overly convoluted in either so early on, especially personality. The more things you write in to your PCs personality, the more constraints you give yourself as a writer. You already have your PCs personality in your mind, let that develop as you write. Now history I would suggest treating that the same way, unless you plan on covering a lot of flashback times. But even then, keep it as simple as you can, then update it as you thread.
CSLs are in high demand, and yet there are very few of you. Do you think this helps or hinders you and your fellows liaisons? Is too many a crowd or would you rather get some help?I think it helps, most definitely. The more the merrier. I mean, we have 194 pages of CSs, and while many of those are outdated and will never return, we can still work our way backwards (especially with the newer Checkmark system). I feel it is good practice for all moderators to check CSs. It forces you to pay attention, to really look at your players. I also think it could be a great training tool for people who aspire to be a Storyteller one day as well. And hey, I wouldn't complain if we had an army of Liaisons a hundred strong, for we would keep working to help the players, which in turn would help the site as a whole.
One of the most commonly misunderstood parts of the starting package is the heirloom. Do you have any tips for a new player starting out?Don't look at the heirloom item as a free item. Look at it for what it is. It is an item that is important to your PC on a deeply emotional and personal level. Something they'd hate to lose, and if it were destroyed, they would be devastated. They would guard this item/pet/thing dearly. Take some of mine for example: My PC Leila has a Falivan Elk Dog named Shaco as her heirloom. After having moved out of her parents' house for the first time, she got a dog for protection. He's her first friend, her companion, her guardian, and if he ever died, she would be devastated. My PC Rengar on the other hand, his heirloom is the first wooden carving he ever did. It was extremely poorly carved, but its a memory of his younger days (since he's an Akalak at 186 years old). He's a woodsman, and that item makes it easy for him to remember why he does what he does. Also a squirrel kelvic tried to steal it once, and Rengar almost lopped its head off.
Does being a CSL help you improve on your own roleplay or enjoyment of your own characters? It’s obvious that reading all the CS’s gives you an advantage to cherry pick new players that might be in your area whom interest you enough to rp with. Have you ever done this and do you feel it is any kind of advantage? So I guess what I’m asking is… does being a CSL give you any sort of advantage for your PCs, even if its just hooking up with thread partners or gaining new and interesting ideas?
I suppose it could, but I've never really used it in that capacity. I would thread with every person, new or old, great writer or budding writer, if I could. It's given me experience, but anyone could get that if they just read the CSs, something I strongly recommend. But I'm a simple writer, I just stalk the Registries in the cities I'm in, then hunt those people down.
Now is your chance to hop on the soap box. Is there anything you wan tot say, talk about, or reveal to your adoring fans?Hmm... I already ranted once on my not flaming people's CSs. And I'm not sure how many adoring fans I have, so I'll use this as a way for some people to get to know a bit about me who don't know already, on a personal level.
My name is Katherine, though I prefer to go by Kat. I do not let you call me Kat in chat though unless we've done a formal exchanging of names. I'm 21 years old, I'm in college for being a computer/math nerd. I love to read, play video games, watch scifi. I was born mostly deaf and I wear hearing aids. I get crushes on men and women alike, sometimes just looks, other times just personalities. I love Mizahar so much, and it is quite possibly the single friendliest community I've encountered in the online world. Oh and ignore any of my evil plotting I do in chat, that's just me being me. I cannot accurately predict what my PC is going to do in a thread. She's the writer, I'm just the typist. Oh, and I listen to opera music when I write, or watch The Office.
by Whimsy on June 2nd, 2013, 4:20 am 
