If there is someone I know I want to RP with in the future, I prefer to watch them RP for awhile before approaching them so that I can get a feel for their style. When scouting I will still act IC but I almost never use the information gathered. I only use the information given when people were specifically interacting with me or if something happened that logically would have caught the attention of everyone present like a brawl or someone shouting. If I am actively RPing, I view information as fair game, within reason. I will ignore conversations around me if I am caught up in my own or if I feel like the distance between me on the character is too great to reasonably hear it just like IRL.
