I like nominations. by
Neshomeh
on 2012-09-23 18:26:00 UTC
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I think I've said some of this before, but:
The reason I like the idea of nominations is that it encourages involvement with each other, and it discourages people from shoehorning things into missions simply to meet requirements for getting a Sue page, which is my concern about relying on guidelines and common sense. Everybody wants to make their mark, which is fine, but I think the truest test of that is the impact their work has on the rest of us. For that reason, I think there should also be a minimum wait time before a particular Sue can be nominated—maybe a couple of weeks or a month from when the mission is posted. If the Sue can be forgotten about in such a relatively short time, it probably wasn't that big a deal.
To respond to a specific suggestion, I think having a certain number of charges be a guideline is an especially easy to exploit idea, and I'm against it. Charge lists have already ballooned massively from what they were in past years; they don't need any encouragement. The quality ought to be more important than the quantity in any case.
Whatever we do, I think it will be important to keep in mind what qualities the Sue has on its own and what qualities come from the author(s) of the mission. Either of these can be important. For instance, I think Archir the Emerald made an impact because what Tungsten and I did with him conceptually at the end was unique, at least as much if not more than because of what he got up to in the actual badfic (though our agents probably still have nightmares about some of that). On the other hand, something like the Balrog Sue or Solaris (to say nothing of Legendary Sues) stands out because of her own spectacular and unique awfulness.
Either way, the key is unique and memorable, IMO.
~Neshomeh
PS. Hi, Guv!
On a tangental topic by
Sevenswans
on 2012-09-23 16:32:00 UTC
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I was poking through the list of legendary mary sues, and it turns out the link to the first Jaycacia Thornbyrd story goes to a site that is "frozen."
http://www.freewebs.com/bonsaimallorn3/Badfic.htm
My computer,at least, won't open it up. This one is to "The Story of Jaycacia," the links to the two sequels appear to be fine. Thought I might mention it here in the hopes that someone will fix it, as this thread does pertain to the notable sues page.
Well, the description of the category says... by
Lily Winterwood
on 2012-09-23 09:23:00 UTC
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...that the Sues mentioned there must be significant in some way.
I recently added a Sue to the category myself; I thought she was a good definition of the modern thinly-veiled Sue - that is, a girl who lurks in a grammatically correct and rather well-written (meaning prose style not very shabby) story, doesn't blatantly interfere with the Canon, and somehow still manages to derail the plot to suit her purposes.
So generally I think there could just be notable 'types' of Sues in the category. Sues that stand out for one reason or another, Sues whose missions have defined their Agents in some way, affected or traumatised them, whatever... those are the kinds that ought to be on the wiki, imo.
Some thoughts. by
Huinesoron
on 2012-09-23 09:19:00 UTC
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Assuming you don't trust the PPC to work with something like 'Please only add your Mary-Sue if (s)he is notable for some reason'... well, here's some suggested types that should(?) be added:
-Multi-mission Sues (eg Marissa Picard)
-Sues who have an effect on later PPC stories (eg Sairalinde, through her ring)
-Sues who are killed in a collaboration (eg Alumia - where collaboration implies more than two PPC writers. This would suggest that whoever Dafydd, Alec and Neshomeh killed on Pern would need a page, since there were three of us)
-Sues from agreed Legendary Badfics (eg Celebrian)
-Sues who did something spectacular to the PPC (no examples, but if an agent got killed, or the Sue got loose in HQ, for example)
-Sues who are from barely-used continuua/the first from a continuum, if this is noted in the mission (eg that Pern Sue again, and possibly that Lineland thing Narto and Lou killed, if it even had a Sue)
-Sues who are written about at some length on another page (so, for instance, if their biology inspires the DMSE&R, and is therefore talked about on the DMSE&R page... although this would fall under 'effect on later stories' anyway)
-Sues killed by Jay and Acacia (this will probably not get used much... :P)
I'd still prefer to assume common sense, but if not, this breaks down pretty much what my definition of 'use common sense' actually /means/.
hS