Short MBP FAQ
1. Are you guys real? Are you really the real celebrities?
No. These celebrities would never have the time or the inclination to keep journals. We don't even know them, and we know nothing of their personal or private lives. Anything we say in these journals is just fun, fantasy and speculation based on the public personnas of these people.
2. Why do you have so many of them as gay?
We don't know the sexual orientations of these people. We aren't trying to say that they are gay in real life. We don't know if they're gay in real life. Many of us, however, are into slash. Slash is homoerotic fan fiction that portrays sexual and romantic relationships between two or more people of the same gender. None of us around here think that being gay is such a bad thing.
3. What if I want to leave a nasty message in your journal telling you that I think what you're doing is wrong?
Don't. Most of us have disabled anonymous posters. Even if you do it through your LiveJournal account, we'll likely either delete your message or mock you. You're wasting your time.
4. Don't you guys have lives or anything better to do other than sit around pretending you're celebrities?
No.
5. What if I want to play?
Then go ahead and play. We would love to have you. You can read a step-by-step guide of how to get involved here.
6. What if I want to play a pop star who's already there?
We work on a system of first dibs. If another person registered first,
they have been accepted, and you'll have to find someone else to
play. We have a community devoted to suggestions for who people can play called mbp_suggest.
There are still lots of options and lots of people connected to the current Must Be Pop stars who haven't been taken yet.
7. How do I find out if the celebrity I want is already here?
We keep a list of current celebrities portrayed in the game. It should be pretty accurate, save for "dead journals." A "dead journal" is a journal that hasn't been updated in over 6 weeks or has been given up. If you want to know if a certain celebrity is taken, check the list. If the celebrity is not listed there, you can go ahead and create a journal, then register by leaving a comment in Enter MBP. If the celebrity is on the masterlist, click the link and scroll down to where it says "Date last updated"... if it says "6 weeks ago" or more, you can create a journal and register.
8. But there's no one good LEFT! *stomps foot and whines*
There are tons of great celebrities left. Turn on the radio and television. Look through magazines, yellowpress, record stores, and imdb. Surf the net. Go to mbp_suggest and faker_adoptions. Think out of the box of Top 40-music and the three biggest blockbusters of the season.
9. How do I get added to the Must Be Pop community?
Put http://www.geocities.com/must_be_pop2001 as your home page, add the code to your journal overrides, and write some sort of disclaimer statement into your user information. Have you written more than three entries, yet? Did you create your journal more than a week ago? If the answer to both those questions is yes, then go to the must_be_pop userinformation and apply for membership to the community by clicking the "To join this community, click here"-link. New members get added every weekend.
10. What are the appropriate disclaimers?
The appropriate disclaimers are dictated to us by the LiveJournal company itself and we have no control
over them. They are what LiveJournal insists we have in order for the journals to remain legal and
not a liability to them for hosting them. If they see your journal without adequate disclaimers,
they can delete it and you will not get your stuff back. You must have the following on your journal:
i. The disclaimer code. Clicking
on that link will take you to easy-to-follow instructions for how to put it on your journal. This
will make a link to the disclaimer show up on every single entry. It goes in the overrides box and
will not disrupt most customized layouts. Even if your journal is friends only,
it must be on every single entry. Your journal must be in S1 mode for this to work. If you have
your journal set to S2, the code will not work and it's up to you to find an adequate way for the
disclaimer to show up on every entry. In short, it doesn't matter how you make it show up, but it
must show up on every single entry.
ii. There must be a link to the disclaimer where you type the address to your web site in your user info.
It doesn't matter what the link says, but it must link to the disclaimer.
iii. You must have something on your user info page, in the "bio" section, that says the journal is not
real. Many people put this in [square brackets] (to indicate that it's "out of character") and many
put it in small letters under their regular bio.
The disclaimer, for the record, is http://www.geocities.com/must_be_pop2001/index.html.
11. Do I have to post in welcome_wagon for my character to be valid?
No. You have to register for your character to be valid.
12. At what point is a journal considered inactive? (Otherwise known as "___ hasn't updated in forever. Can I take it over?")
Our journal deadline is six weeks. You must update your journal every six weeks or your character will be considered up for grabs and will likely be replaced. If you're considering moaning about this, many, many communities in the vein of MBP have a one week dead journal rule, so six weeks is
actually very forgiving.
13. Do I have to give out of character information on myself?
No, and it's actually recommended that if you don't want people to know your name, age, where you're from, etc. that you keep your mouth shut entirely about it. And if you give out other people's ooc information, it will likely get you kicked out.
Let me restate that: It is dangerous to give away your real life ooc information to people you do not know over the internet. Do not lightly tell someone you met over the internet your name, your age, your address, your phone number, your social security number, or anything else about you!
14. So-and-so is bothering me and being bitchy to me and making my life uncomfortable. Can you kick him/her out?
Probably not. We have a rule that says you can't give OOC information about other people or expose their other characters in the community itself. It's done outside of the community all the time and if we were to try to police all of it, we would go nuts. In cases of extreme OOC harassment, we've
removed people, and by extreme, we mean constantly being abusive to someone over a long period of time after they have said to leave them alone, posting people's phone numbers, contacting them at home, etc. For the most part, it's a jungle out there, and it's a buyer beware situation. Don't tell anyone anything you don't want repeated to the world. If someone makes you uncomfortable, ban them, block them and don't look at them or talk to them. Completely disassociate yourself and it usually ceases to be a problem. Most cases like this are someone in a circle of friends not liking someone else in said circle of friends. We do not get involved in that, nor can we on any logical level.
15. Can I have more than one character?
Sure, but keep in mind that there's a limit on the human attention span and multitasking ability, and it's very easy to take on more than you can keep up with. Start with one, see if you like it, get a handle on what's involved and then see if you want to make another one.
16. What if the real celebrity finds me?
This has happened more than you can imagine. In the history of the game and what is now a history of more than a thousand journals, no one has ever taken legal action. Most celebrities seem to have enough of a sense of humor and enough savvy concerning their public image to know that it's just a dumb fan. If you are a celebrity reading this, we hope you do.
To the portrayers: fly under the radar and use common sense. If you meet your muse, don't tell him about the journal as a neat conversation starter. Check the box in your profile information that says "block search engines and spiders from indexing my journal" to diminish the possibility of it
showing up in search engines. If people talk about it on a message board, don't fan the flames. Just be discrete and mind your own business, and be absolutely sure your disclaimers are sound, and you will probably be fine.
Most importantly, never, ever mislead fans. It doesn't matter how convincing you are, any fan of your celebrity who comes across your journal should know from the first word read that it's not real. If they don't, it is your responsibility to make absolutely sure that you've informed them. A link to the disclaimer is usually enough to do the trick. People who interact with the journals but are just themselves and not a part of the game are called "civilians." Some of them may add you and some may comment or talk to you on AIM, just getting a kick out of playing along. Some fakers are really cool with this and some get uncomfortable. You're under no responsibility to add them back or talk to them, just make sure they know that it's not real.
17. Are any of these journals done by the actual celebrities, just for fun?
Not to my knowledge.
18. What if I want to leave the game and give up my character?
Before you do this, make absolutely certain that you're sure. The second you delete the journal, a new one can and likely will come along and replace you. If you change your mind and want to come back, you'll be out of luck. Don't delete to see if anyone notices. Don't delete for attention.
Don't delete as a joke. Just don't delete, period, unless you're certain you will never want to do it again.
To give up your character, you can post in faker_adoptions to see if someone is interested in picking it up. That usually involves handing over the passwords to the journal, email and AIM account, but you could also post there for a replacement and have them make their own journal. You could also leave an OOC in your journal saying that you're leaving and people will consider you gone. If you want to pick your replacement, you have to comment to enter_mbp to let them know, and you have to tell them the journal user name of your replacement. Otherwise your wish is likely not to be honored. You could also just stop updating and after six weeks you will technically be out.
However, if you just want a break from the game and aren't sure if you want to leave, you could always leave an OOC note in your journal saying that you're taking a break from it, and that is perfectly acceptable. You have six weeks to decide how you feel about it.
If something happens to you that renders you absolutely incapable of updating your journal in the six-week time span - sudden death, incapacitating illness, massive surgery or an extended overseas vacation that lasts months - please inform the MBP administration team by sending an email to reaching_mbp@yahoo.com. We will put you on a "safe list." You must tell us a valid reason and a return date. There is always the possibility to extend your leave later. Only under very serious conditions (for example chronic illness) we can also put you on a "permanent" hold list. Please work with us.
18. Anything else?
But of course. Check out faker_adoptions
if you're interested in picking up a character no one wants anymore. Get hooked up with a veteran in mbpfriendlink. If you don't know how to make icons, visit mbp_paparazzi and ask for icons. You can provide pictures you'd like to see iconized, or you can just ask in general. Any questions can be sent to the friendly moderators at reaching_mbp@yahoo.com.
And most importantly, remember that it's just a game.
