Journal summary:

News

Ask & Roleplay accounts - RP accounts are fun and cool and can be iconified nicely sometimes, but I'm keeping the scope of this directory to more or less obvious plzes. There do exist some dual RP/plz accounts in this directory, such as Pyro-of-the-SIZZLE, but these should be added with care.

Spacing - I'm considering inserting spaces between plzes to give enough room to highlight + copy + paste :icon: codes for browsers that copy alt text this way.

Plzes

+34 (new)
-1 (dead)
Directory total: 384

News

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Ask & Roleplay accounts

Ask accounts are invading dA from tumblr!

For those who don't know what an "ask" account is, it is an RP account written from the point of view of a character, who answers people's questions, draws pictures, and generally interacts with their audience in-character. The ideas of such write-in Q&A columns--and general roleplay--are obviously not so new, but this style of character blog has really taken off on tumblr recently. Not so surprisingly, the phenomenon spreads to dA.

dA Examples: AskTf2Scout AskHeavy AskTheSpy

The reason why I'm mentioning this, on behalf of an icon-collecting directory, is that there is often a level of overlap between "RP" and "PLZ" on dA. That is, plz accounts often partake or are involved in roleplay, and some roleplaying accounts or accounts not specifically designated with a "plz" in their name allow themselves to be used for plzing purposes. Some accounts clearly intended to be used as plzes simply lack a "plz" in their username. (Examples: heavyisamazed, heavyisastonished, all of the "domination" set of plzes)

Sometimes I have to make judgement calls, but this doesn't happen often because we have the nice common naming tradition of including "plz" in the name of accounts set aside for icon use and silliness. Often it's pretty easy to tell what's going on.

Ask accounts seem close enough to a few of the plzable RP accounts that do reside in this directory that I habitually jumped at the first encounters, but I had to stop and consider the scope of this directory. _{(AskTheSpy, you caught me there! I watched a couple of you Asks before backtracking. For the record, I still think you guys are cool, but I have to use my watches for properly counting and keeping track of the plzes in this directory.)}

When it comes down to it, plz accounts most importantly need to have a consistent icon to link to, as that is the reason why plz accounts exist in the first place. Accounts that change or lose icons generally cause any previous references to the icon in conversations across dA to become irrelevant and confusing. Secondary considerations include how people interact with the accounts themselves. Many visitors to plz accounts post silly things including RP responses, convos, plz mosaics, and (sadly) chain-letters and other spam. This is expected behavior with plzes but may be annoying or confusing if too much of this occurs to "real" or "in-use" accounts or those who didn't intend for their accounts to be used like plzes. The existing RP/borderline accounts in this directory have mostly either already been included in notable plz lists (like those in TF2 class groups) or have been referenced or treated as plzes, so they should be okay with what's going on.

So, at the current time, I'm going to let the Ask/RP accounts alone and continue focusing on collecting clear-cut traditional plzes. If an Ask or other RP account wants to be included in the list and doesn't mind doubling as a plz, they can contact me. If someone else wants to create a central dA TF2 RP/Ask account directory or group, even better. (Let me know if you've got/found a good one - I might link to it.) And of course if you want to iconify an Ask account (or any other deviant) in a comment or other post, go right ahead. I just will generally refrain from listing non-specifically-plz accounts in this directory at present.
If I change this stance in the future, I'll let you know.

Spacing

I'm considering adding spaces in between individual plzes in the lists to allow people to click & highlight individual plzes to copy & paste the code from the alt text, if their browser has this behavior. In Firefox at least, this is a convenient shortcut and alternative to typing in the :icon...plz: codes by hand. This trick does not work in Chrome or IE7.

I will have to contemplate whether this is a change worth implementing. I'm not sure if I like the looks of it, with vertical gaps in the 'grid' with no equivalent horizontal padding.
For now, I have added spaces on the Collections: BY FACE / MEME / USAGE (Part 1) page, as it has many long unbroken rows.


You're welcome to give me your thoughts on any of this stuff, though I know not to expect a ton of feedback since I'm the one here taking plz curation srsly.

P.S. Happy Pyro update

PLZ changes

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Added Plzes

Latest 34 plzes, added between March and now:

scoutvsheavyplz
TF2spysplz
tf2sniperplz1
tf2soldierplz
redpyroplz
tf2pyroplz
snipermanfaceplz
  PyroThumbsUpplz
gentlemenv2plz
tf2redsentry3plz
tf2redsentry2plz
tf2blusentry3plz
tf2blusentry2plz
Engiessuicideaviplz
EngieSuicideplz
gentlemenv2plz
bluepyroplz
PyroLOLplz
snyphurrplz
trollscoutplz
Medictrollplz
lilscoutplz
OHUpyroplz
pervyscoutplz This account was banned, but the icon is still usable.
CBSplz
sniperderpplz
SpyDerpPlz
pedomedicplz
lolwutgentlemenplz This one has been in the "Misc/helpful plzes" section for a long time (as I had considered it more a "lolwut" spinoff than closely related to/useful for Spy/TF2), but has been added to the directory globally now.
GENT-YUM
GENT-WHHHUUUGGG
TF2Dispenserplz
sniperisnotamusedplz
SpyTrollPlz

Lost/Removed Plzes

scoutyayplz is deactivated and no longer has a useful icon.

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Total icons in directory at time of posting: 384 plzes