Weighing in from another RP board here... 
I know a lot of the things, kudos, ect seem a bit anti-rp. But as Alison said, they can be turned off.
I have found that Yuku is great for the role playing environment. The flexablity is wonderful, and honestly... those profiles that seem so myspace (my first thought when I saw them) can be very handy. If you're board is like all the rest of ours (we're all alike in this area I think) and your members use different profiles to post in character, the profiles can be turned into a personal page almost for the characters, as Lisa said. I like to encourage my members to use their profiles to create a whole other world for their characters. We even RP in the comments, practically entire stories unto themselves (we also put the character bios, the character sheets up there, some history of the characters, customize them to fit the personality of the character...).
The additional signatures come in handy too!
The CSS seems overwhelming, I know, but if you know HTML, CSS is a lot easier (The code is far more logical) and a lot more can be done with it.
There's also more community on Yuku. It's easier to find other boards. I doubt we'd be having half the fun we do if it weren't for the connections we've made out in the Yuku world. We never could seem to track down other RP boards and like minded individuals on Ezboard.
Just hang in there is really what I can say. The bubble gum aspect is not what Yuku is about. There are people out there like that, it works for them, but it doesn't have to be. We are very serious about our board, we don't like bubblegum in our little corner, and it's worked out wonderfully for us. Yuku has many tools that work very well for rpers.
I know a lot of the things, kudos, ect seem a bit anti-rp. But as Alison said, they can be turned off.
I have found that Yuku is great for the role playing environment. The flexablity is wonderful, and honestly... those profiles that seem so myspace (my first thought when I saw them) can be very handy. If you're board is like all the rest of ours (we're all alike in this area I think) and your members use different profiles to post in character, the profiles can be turned into a personal page almost for the characters, as Lisa said. I like to encourage my members to use their profiles to create a whole other world for their characters. We even RP in the comments, practically entire stories unto themselves (we also put the character bios, the character sheets up there, some history of the characters, customize them to fit the personality of the character...).
The additional signatures come in handy too!
The CSS seems overwhelming, I know, but if you know HTML, CSS is a lot easier (The code is far more logical) and a lot more can be done with it.
There's also more community on Yuku. It's easier to find other boards. I doubt we'd be having half the fun we do if it weren't for the connections we've made out in the Yuku world. We never could seem to track down other RP boards and like minded individuals on Ezboard.
Just hang in there is really what I can say. The bubble gum aspect is not what Yuku is about. There are people out there like that, it works for them, but it doesn't have to be. We are very serious about our board, we don't like bubblegum in our little corner, and it's worked out wonderfully for us. Yuku has many tools that work very well for rpers.
