ACTING IN CHARACTER! Oh god this....this is a topic of so much debate. I personally will never act in character unless I am posing for a picture/video, for a panel and/or in a skit. I personally think I don't need to be in character any other time. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT ACT IN CHARACTER WHEN NOT IN CON SPACE. I have heard so many stories of people going to get food and acting in character and treating the normies (people not attending the con) like crap. The way I look at is this, people who don't cosplay tend to look down on us already, they don't understand, and they don't want to understand. They think we are freaks and don't belong with the rest of the population. I have seen several people stare at me in cosplay and then laugh after I pass (and this is me doing nothing other than walking, not walking funny, not running, not even talking loudly, just walking). I personally want to change this opinion and I think everyone here should as well, so why would you want to do ANYTHING that proves their point? By acting in character when interacting with others that are not at the con only reinforce their stereotypes of us and thus giving ALL cosplayers a bad name. HOWEVER, I have meet several people that have not known about cosplay and when learning about it find it really cool so there is people who don't look down on us.
There are some characters that I have cosplayed or will cosplay that are very close to my personality so acting in character just comes naturally, for example Rikku and Haruko. Both characters have very similar personalities to my own so in that case I seem like I am acting in character but really I am just acting like myself :3