I suppose it all depends on your personal preference for the detail of the rp, the level of the rp, even the type of the rp. When I first started playing, "Sapphar grins." was fine with me. These days, I want to see, "Sapphar grins faintly." or "Sapphar grins with a wink." at the least. I'm not saying I don't use the socials (though I almost always only use the ones that do not have implications on the meaning behind the action, as I think my character deserves the right to show the meaning in her words and other actions).

Whoever in this thread commented that emote length is another unending debate is quite right. We all started out and moved on to different style MU**s. Which means we are accustomed to different things, have different preferences to begin with, and are being socalized to accept new stuff right now. So there is no right answer to the question, "What is the right length for an emote."

I think there might be a more interesting discussion out of "what should an emote express" and "what is the purpose of a social." Again, sorry for not recalling who said what, but someone talked about their mud having socials with implications like "Sapphar blinks innocently." Is that the purpose of a social, to offer the intent behind the action? Or should socials just offer the action itself, and let the character create the intent through other means?

You know, I have a really bad habit of getting off topic from how threads originally start....