Occasionally, members will note that it can be difficult to roleplay with someone whose profile isn't filled out. They provide a lot of useful information, such as a character's appearance and notes on demeanor, that can be worked off of in addition to the roleplay itself. Newcomers seem to have a hard enough time already, so we don't want to have too many requirements, but it's easy to agree that a nicely filled out profile is more useful than an empty one. So when "Update Your Profile Day" was suggested, it seemed like a great idea! Here's a day to give everyone an excuse to get off their bums and finally get around to updating their profiles!

Filling out your profile still isn't required, but it's highly, highly encouraged. In addition to helping out those you write with, a profile can be a great way to keep track of things for yourself, such as your characters' relatives or escapades or various reference pictures or even his or her age and birthday. Keeping a profile up-to-date is also useful to help people stay in touch with your character even if you haven't roleplayed together in a while.

"Update Your Profile Day" will happen quarterly on the first of August, November, February, and May. Naturally, you're encouraged to keep things up-to-date on all the days in between, but we'll only make a spectacle of it on those days. :P You should be updating your profiles at least four times a year though -- at the minimum, your characters age would be out-of-date otherwise!

• Your OOC name -- Your OOC name now appears above your character's name on the topic view, allowing for easier recognition and addressing, and especially for clarification when the same person plays several different characters. If you haven't filled out your OOC name, people can only call you by your character's name, which can lead to a lot of confusion in some cases.
• The basics -- If you want to keep your profile to a minimum, some of the most basic information to fill out are your character's gender, age, appearance, and personality, all of which can be an enormous help to those roleplaying with you since most of those are things any character should be able to pick up when they first meet.
• Avatars and reference sheets -- Please remember to credit ALL artwork linked or used that you didn't do yourself. Before using someone else's lineart, template, or whatever else, make sure that they allow free usage of their artwork. Do not remove copyright information someone else's art and also remember that claiming someone else's work as your own is a bannable offense. We also encourage the crediting of photo sources, but as that can be much more difficult, it isn't required. Credit can be given in signatures as well as your profiles; they just need to be easy to find.
• Catacombs -- Don't forget that you can collect various skulls from the Catacombs game for IC and OOC achievements! They're like trophies for your profile!
• Postlogs -- You can track a topic to receive automatic email notifications when a reply is received (click "topic options" at the bottom of any thread), but it may also be useful to keep a log of all your threads in your profile. This is particularly helpful for others wanting to keep up with your character by stalking various threads you're in. You could also keep notes on who you plan on threading with next and various other related things.
• A few nice examples -- Gabriel de le Poer, Savina Marino, Jefferson Soul, Kaena Lykoi.

• Customizing your CSS -- A short guide to customizing the CSS in your profile has been posted here for the code-savvy. You can make your profile stand out from the rest, but please make sure you're not breaking anything in the process! (You can also add new fields to your profile, so there are endless possibilities!) An example of a CSS-customized profile is here.
• Extended profiles and Wiki -- As much as we love filled out profiles, sometimes it gets to be a bit lengthy, especially with characters that have had long, rich lives. In such cases, it may be best to leave something more concise in the profile and elaborate your characters' story elsewhere. It's all up to you! For those that want to take advantage of the profiles forum, Sie has kindly offered up a customizable template for profiles and post logs. The wiki can take a little getting used to, but it's also a great way to organize profiles and link between related characters.