Subject: my god...
Author:
Posted on: 2021-06-09 09:53:59 UTC

...it's full of nostalgia! Hi all!

I'm coming in super late--got an email from Neshomeh about a month ago (!) and then life, as is its wont, ate me. But I did want to come say hi! I recognize half a dozen names immediately, and a whole bunch of you joined long after I left (I vaguely wandered off in around 2006 or 2007, I think) and I'm mildly gobsmacked that this community still exists. Wow! I used to post as NenyaQuende (with an agent called Nenya and another called Quen, the PPC Secretary), and have gone by Nenya or nenya_kanadka for the last...uh...yep, time has no meaning! XD

The PPC was why I joined LiveJournal back in the day, and tangentially how I met my wife. (I don't know if any of you know Muccamukk; she wasn't in the PPC itself, but we're pretty sure she knew Acacia from another fandom and so we ended up in the same LJ circles. Which led to a real-life friendship, then dating, then marriage, then a cat... So far no plague, but one set of shots for it. <3)

I have to agree with others in this megathread that I have both wonderfully fond memories of the PPC as it was circa 2002-03 and a bit of retroactive cringe. :P It was one of the first places online where my deeply awkward, socially inept self actually felt like part of things for once, and the jokes and wordplay and clever foolishness mixed with earnest love for nerdy stuff are still the kind of thing that makes me happy. At the same time, I look back at my younger self, and wow, I was a judgemental jerk when it came to other people's fanfiction! (And not as great at either writing or literary analysis as I thought.) I've had to come to terms with the fact that some of what we did hurt people (even though I know it could have been worse, and I really appreciate that we tried not to troll people); I'm not proud of that, and I hope the PPC of today is heavier on the clever nerdery and lighter on the judgement. <3

At the end of the day, my time in the PPC was pivotal for me, and you all still have a piece of my heart. Thank you for being there, fellow oldbies, with your Morale Officering and Sufficiently Advanced Technology and Bast-Worship. Thank you, too, for being somewhere where my homophobic and generally sheltered upbringing was gently challenged. That mattered. I can't tell you how utterly delighted I am to find out that several of you are trans (I'm agender/nonbinary and bisexual and poly, as it turns out, not the cis straight girl I assumed!) and not even slightly surprised that I'm not the only queer alumnus.

Oh! One more thing to add to this epic novella I seem to be typing: for those of you who remember Philosopher At Large/bellatrys, who hosted the old board at one point--I heard from her a few months ago and she's still alive & kicking, and even writing a bit. <3 Not sure she's in fandom as such at the moment, but she lives!

<3

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