Subject: Ehhh. Maybe.
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Posted on: 2016-08-11 11:48:00 UTC

I can't argue with most of your points, but:

You may have noticed that if we do things in our stories, other people tend to want to try them, too, yes?

Not yes. The most-copied person I've noticed is Tawaki, who's not a PG. On the flipside, I haven't noticed strong trends of people spinning off ideas from Phobos, or PoorCynic, or VixenMage (or sundry others). Mostly, people of late have imitated Iximaz, and I think that's far more to do with her volume of writing and tendency to cowrite than it is her Permission Giver hat.

I agree that it's not concidental that being an active writer and being elected a PG go together, but nor should it be - it takes a special kind of person to be known for their knowledge of good writing without actually writing themselves. Though, as you say, it's all very much tangled together.

And: We block people who behave badly enough to hurt the community, too, because—as we're so fond of saying—we're a community first.

Again, not really how I'd put it. Mostly people are denied permission because they haven't contributed enough. It's not our job as PGs to decide whether they're harmful - that's a matter for the Constitution, and so for the Board at large. On occasion, a Permission thread has turned into a Constitution thread, but that doesn't make it the same thing.

Yes, there is an element of character judgement in being a Permission Giver. But it's a minor part compared to the writing/PPC parts, and I'm uncomfortable with the suggestion - discussed almost entirely by Permission Givers themselves - that being elected a PG means you'd make a good moderator.

Because I know I certainly wouldn't.

hS

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