The sticky thread with the similar title is closed, which is kind-of silly (closing a sticky). Anyway, other data needed by would-be players includes: 1) What level or stage of advancement the requested slots are. 2) Stipulations regarding race, class, starting magic items, money, etc. 3) The background to include a few campaign or setting-specific hooks allowing the player to have ties to the world and showing the player read the material. 4) Policy statement concerning missed game sessions. 5) Chapter 1 heads-up as to style of adventure (city work, dungeon crawl, outdoors) 6) Campaign GM Philosophy/Style statement (low magic mundane harsh vs crazy magic zoo races & tech and other examples) These things immensely help players craft characters they will enjoy and that fit what will happen in the near term. They establish a feel for how the GM runs and prevent a lot of wasted time with false starts and such which are the plague of online gaming. In particular item 6 seems innocuous at first glance but is a huge issue with respect to long term fit for players and GM. I am not suggesting these things will not work themselves out in fairly short order, but, the energy required to get someone up to speed and into a campaign, only to discover it's not a good fit and have to re-ad is debilitating. It ends games. Starting right is critical.
