Am I being too critical?

[Fish]

I have never really been satisfied by my own templates. Recently when I decided I was going to resurrect one of my old RPs, I had a look at some of the oldheads of disco's comms. I saw how simple their templates were and thought, "you know what? If they made it this far without needing to go overboard, I can do it too." So basically in a way i kind of stole their template(or rather, their lack of template?) and wrote essentially an email format. This time I am not unhappy with it, but I still sometimes think, "damn, why can't mine look as good as yours?" when I see other people's RP.

here is my current format, the only one I have at the moment

Sender: Saule Khalid
Ship of origin: Exodus
Target: Crayter Military
Subject: ?

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>>transmission begins

several incessant alarms blaring in the background

Back from the dead? [Saule scoffs - another alarm starts up somewhere] Not quite. Well the ship might be, but Andrew and gang remain dead. We tried taking some of the survivors to Gammu for new bodies, but the drones refused to let us near the planet. In the end, we sold the remains to some freedom fighters who were looking to procure food for refugees.

To business at hand then. [unmistakable sound of electrical arcing nearby] The Exodus has been repaired and is once again careening through space at unimaginable speeds! [some of the lights go out and the alarms all stop in unison. Saule slowly begins to lift out of the chair as the systems failure plunges the ship into zero-G. They seem unfazed.] Ok, you got me. We haven't sorted out all the problems yet, but I was not lying when I said we're mobile. In fact, we just arrived back in Coronado! Which - [the lights and alarms return. Gravity eases Saule back into the chair.] - is what I wanted to talk about.

In 823 A.S, legal agreements regarding Article V, Section I were made, granting the Colony ship Exodus unobstructed movement in and out of Crayter space (Coronado, Tau-44, Tau-31). Does a new capital ship license need to be applied for, now that the Exodus is under new management?

Saule looks at someone of screen, "Are we air tight? Good. Let's set a course for-"

>>transmission ends

Obviously a format doesn't affect how good or bad the RP is as long as it is as legible as the writer intends it to be, but do you think making them more unique is necessary?

The main thing that usually bothers me is that when I want to write RP for a different character, I don't have a format that is unique to them so I just use the same one and change the colours. Would you have made the effort to make a unique one in that case?

Should I stop worrying about it? xd

[Traudel Habermeyer]

I'd say you are too harsh on yourself and indeed worry too much.
As usual, oneself is one's own worst enemy.

Personally, i like both styles of templates. The very elaborate ones and the more simple ones. As long as you can properly read them and don't get distracted too much by all the fluff around, i'm fine with either of those. Having different colors for direct speech and actions makes for an easier read, adding some formatting helps as well. Doesn't really need more.
So no, i do not think it is necessary to make templates unique. Sometimes the desire to make something outstandingly unique, simply for the sake of making it special, can actually take away from it, instead of adding something worthwhile.

Having different characters, however, i'd go to at least some lengths to make them have some degree of distinctions between them.
For a Junker i might add little glitches in the transmissions, due to cobbled together tech that does not play nice with each other all the time. A law enforcement officer's transmissions on the other hand may very well be much more tidy and organized in contrast. Little touches here and there as a nod to the core of the character in question.

[Groshyr]

Nothing bad to desire improvement, neither is bad to stay with what comforts you. Your own comfort and satisfaction must come first

[Fish]

Having different characters, however, i'd go to at least some lengths to make them have some degree of distinctions between them.
For a Junker i might add little glitches in the transmissions, due to cobbled together tech that does not play nice with each other all the time. A law enforcement officer's transmissions on the other hand may very well be much more tidy and organized in contrast. Little touches here and there as a nod to the core of the character in question.

Tbh I have the same opinion here. When it comes to this though, I usually end up disliking what I made and the thoughts of "no one is gonna like this" force me to delete it lmao. It's just as you said,

As usual, oneself is one's own worst enemy.

Nothing bad to desire improvement, neither is bad to stay with what comforts you. Your own comfort and satisfaction must come first

I thought about it like that after I posted as well. It's weird tho, I will post someth and then it makes me unhappy and I delete it xd
I think maybe other people don't even care or notice all of the things I notice but obviously me who wrote it sees every little mistake and in the moment I am convinced that they will also see it. Hopefully I will get more comfortable once I write more and more

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[Traudel Habermeyer]

I think maybe other people don't even care or notice all of the things I notice but obviously me who wrote it sees every little mistake and in the moment I am convinced that they will also see it. Hopefully I will get more comfortable once I write more and more

It is a thing of practice and getting used to, ja.

I like to compare it to improvisational theatre, the only one knowing what is supposed to be there, what is a blunder and what was missing by accident is the one performing - in this case oneself. Everybody else just watches a show unfold of which they had no clear picture to begin with. Crucial point of this is, as you correctly said so yourself, the part of making it a habit to worry less. First steps are the hardest.