Fandom Roleplay Accounts are parody profile accounts where the user pretends to be a fictional character. They are usually associated with popular fandoms, and interact through comments or videos to give the impression that the fictional character is an active member of the site.
Overview
Most websites with active roleplays tend to have several features that allow roleplaying to propagate. The first is Reply and Show Comment features, which allow commenters to read previous replied comments and thus form comment chains. Second are Voting and Top Comment feature, which allowed highly regarded comments to by noticed by their votes, for those regarded as best to remain at the top of the thread for more people to read. Last is Profile Images, which are used by roleplayers to show an image of the assumed character identity. Websites that include some or all of these features include YouTube, DeviantArt, Facebook, Twitter, the A.V. Club, and Know Your Meme.
On YouTube
YouTube comments first began introducing roleplaying when the “Show Comment” feature was added in mid-2012, allowing comment threads to form without the hinderance of having to be manually searched for. Later YouTube introduced the Profile Image feature, which let the YouTuber add an image of their choice to appear alongside their comment, further propagating the abundance of RPs on YouTube.
Threads
Roleplaying threads on YouTube are most commonly seen on videos for large fandoms, such for The Lord of the Rings, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Halo.
On DeviantArt
To be expanded.
On Facebook
To be expanded.