Some advice, written in the form of hyperbole because I'm bored and sleep-deprived.Making friends here is easy, because everyone on this site is pure awesome. If you want to get to know people, then try hanging out in the social areas. You can play
games with people, or even
naughty adult games. If you feel like you've made too many friends and need to make some enemies as well, you can always
discuss politics instead.
You shouldn't use people, because that's wrong. Except the mentors, that's what they're there for. They can help you out with plenty of advice and assistance.
Some people may use japanese words like yuri, seme, seke, yaoi, futa, etc. to describe various preferences or roleplaying set-ups. This is because they are secretly ninjas, don't let this scare you off though. Ninjas use roleplaying to practise their skills at disguise and acting to make themselves better shadow warriors and can be a lot of fun to play with. You can check
this list to crack their secret ninja codes.
Your on/offs list is very useful. It's often going to be one of the first things people look at when deciding whether to roleplay with you. But don't write it just to please them, it's most important use is to clearly express what you're looking for. Communication is key. But, before you do anything else, write somewhere on your on/offs page whether you're willing to play with authors writing for a character of a different gender. If you're fussy about that sort of thing, then 50% of the people here aren't going to be suitable to play with you and letting them know early on saves them time and prevents you getting a lot of unsuitable offers. If you're happy to play with authors running a different gender, then that doubles your opportunity for roleplaying, so advertise that and get more games.
