@Sammyhundde: Well, I'm sorry if you felt that way but I don't intentionally lock people out. What happened? From the sound of it, you probably encountered Zan when she feeling moody and mistook it as me the player not wanting you around. If that is the case, the difference there is that a character's behavior is not the same as how the player feels. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Zandral hasn't ever been the nicest sweetest character, but I often will find ways to drag out RP even if the character wouldn't actually be very interactive at that point. However, I admit. Zandral is probably not the greatest character for a person completely new to RP to interact with.

I'd suggest finding a nice character to RP with rather than a moody one.
Well .... if they try to ignore you and/or give you the feeling to leave them alone, I wouldn't say that they are good RP'ers. Granted there are times when a discussion is meant to be "private", but that is when they ask if they can help you .... then return to their conversation.
Depends on the RP... if it's something they can't afford for another character to hear ICly, then chances are the character will try to brush off another, but you can use brackets. There have been times characters have bust in on mine when the door to a room in kada's was RPed as being closed and locked. Naturally my character is not going to be cheery to have someone bust in on her, especially with nearly dying that way before, but when the other player asked an OOC question about the rooms at kada's I answered that OOCly.