I have little to no forum RP to my name. I tend to wax loquacious in the Xeno Alliance message dump, which is where the majority of my writing takes place, but the majority of my character development is in my head and the heads of my chums. Del can tell you that my character was a school teacher before things went sour, Zavier can tell you that his character indoctrinated me into the Xeno movement and Connor can tell you that I spent my first years flying freighers and, really, that's the way I like it.
I could write a magnum opus chronicling these events, or I can keep what I know about my dudefellow in my noggin and carry on in game.
There's some out there who might say that I've wretched RP for not developing as such, but I don't feel that way at all.