I'm sick and my mind is mush, but I'm bored to tears and happened to notice the debate on labeling 'semi-literate' and 'literate.'
Bull, you created a metaphor with training dogs; hug and give treats, don't kick and scream. Except... I'm not seeing any of that. No kicking, no screaming, no hugging, and no giving treats; as far as I'm aware, semi-literate/literate and illiterate roleplayers are more or less segregated. The way I see it, nothing is happening... I've never seen any of the illiterate members complain about semi-literate/literate members, and I've never seen any of us be rude to someone who doesn't "qualify." I say that word with great hesitance as, no, I don't agree with telling people they aren't good enough.
Ugh, I keep spacing out and don't have the focus to revise that crap...
Lemme just take a moment to walk you through my experiences; when I first joined CS, I was an illiterate roleplayer. I posted two or three sentences per post, most of it dialogue, and that was that. I saw things labelled semi-literate or literate and I stayed away because, darn, I was scared stiff. But nothing ever happened to make me scared. No one had ever screamed at me because of the length I lacked in a post. No one ever tried to pressure me into writing more. Even when I started dabbling in semi-literate roleplays, everyone was very kind and considerate to me. None of my illiterate friends ever complained about the "higher-up" members... in fact, we all sort of admired the members of this club. No one begrudged me when I was accepted here.
...In short, I don't understand where you're getting the whole dog training thing.
Maybe it's because I haven't touched an illiterate roleplay in quite some time... but I don't see anyone teaching "lower" roleplayers how to improve themselves; so I agree with your point that this club doesn't offer other members help. But... I dunno, the whole screaming/kicking thing really bothered me.
...IGNORE ME I'M SELF-TAUGHT.