I'm after some advice on how you go about choosing from several excellent applications for a PbP game.

So far I'm juggling the following to try to whittle down 15 PCs to a mere 4:

Party Role: Does the PC fit within a role in the party that they'll need for the game? Meat shield, heal bot, glass canon or skill monkey. Clearly some classes and builds sit across more than one of these or outside of them entirely. That doesn't make them bad, just different.

Alignment: A party has to play well together so alignments shouldn't be that far removed from one another normally. No mixing Lawful Evil PCs with Chaotic Good PCs. Plus evil games in my experience quickly degenerate into secretive plots or even outright threats.

Background: I'm a big fan of the 10 minute background though it is formulaic and well written prose is more interesting it does provide the DM with some excellent raw material to work with. It also shows how well a person can write which is a big deal in a PbP game.

Connections to NPCs: Is there anyone that I, as DM, can use to motivate or direct the PC into an adventure?

Secrets: Something in the PCs past that makes them interesting and something that I can use in play at some point.

Connection to the setting: The DM has gone to a lot of effort to build a town, a city or a world or at least used an existing campaign world with a distinct look and feel. Has the player made an effort to incorporate their character into this world or just statted out their favourite race and class into a PC and left the work of drawing up connections to the DM?

Power level\Tier: The tier system has its faults but it is a good indicator of the versatility of PCs. If most applications are min-maxing then throwing in a halfling monk is going to leave that player with little to do sometimes. Conversely if the party artificer is optimised like crazy then that may leave everyone else feeling left out as they dominate play. Get a good balance for your game. This ties in to the party role.

Questions\Advice: Seriously a player who wants to work with the DM to make an interesting game is worth a hundred players who quibble over rules or play at one-upmanship. A player who offers advice to other players and who does the leg work into helping others to build better characters is worth their weight in gp.

Recommendations: A tip I picked up from another DM is to ask applicants who they would choose for their party if they knew they were going to get in and why they'd make this decision. When I did it I chose two PCs that the DM rejected and one that they accepted and my reasons were pretty much as above. Good background that I could tie in to my character, complementary party role (I was playing an artificer and chose a warforged fighter as one party member), good "vibe" for the player, etc.

So would you add anything or do you just put the names into a hat to pick your PCs?