I've thought about it, taking in everything in this thread, and I have to go with my instinct. In light of the information that you've been trying to get through the process in a hurry to meet a self-imposed deadline, it just strikes me as poor decision-making from the off. Your first Permission request was posted in March, so this request makes four in as many months. I get that it sucks to be told no that often, but it also sucks to be nagged. You could have chosen patience instead, and we would probably be having a much happier conversation right now.

When you get back, please just chill. Leave off missions, leave off Permission. You don't need to produce stories in order to be here; you can just be here. Given that the PPC does have a relatively steep learning curve, some folks (myself included) have waited years before even trying to write a mission. With that perspective in mind, I suggest you give it at least another six months, being sure to interact and read other people's works as much as you can to really soak in the nuances.

Heck, if it's a need to contribute driving you, I can relate. The first thing I ever wrote for the PPC was the Useful Technology list, because we didn't have that back in 2004. Maybe you could make a project of improving some of those wiki pages that don't really cover the little details. Something like that would be very welcome!

~Neshomeh

but the general feeling that you might not have read relevant articles on the wiki or other people's spin-offs before asking questions about basic tech. If you plan to write missions for Pokemon or Naruto, we do have existing missions in those continua to refer to for a sense of precedent. The setting is flexible enough that you can go your own way and justify it however you want, but it's recommended, especially for newbies, to have at least some precedent to refer to. Heck, I've been here since 2008, and I still trawl the Wiki to see what's come before if I want to do something that I think might be new.

Precedent is key. That's why one of the new suggestions for gauging whether you're ready to ask for Permission is being able to answer which non-TOS agent pair is your favourite, and why.

As for the feeling of impatience regarding your personal schedule -- I'm sorry to hear that this has been frustrating for you and that the Board seems to move too quickly for you to be able to keep up with things. That being said, Permission once granted doesn't expire with inactivity, and -- let me quote myself from last year -- the Board won't sprout legs and walk away. If you're going to be busy, that's okay! This Board will still be here when you get back.

Off the top of my head, Bookworm was denied twice before their life got busy, came back in January this year, and got Permission. So maybe some time away to clear your head and focus on other things will be good for you, too!

-dons a cardboard knock-off Hat-

Firstly, writing. Novastorme in his last read-through said your writing passes muster, and I agree with that. Your agents have a pretty decent banter going in your samples, and the "Dummy's Guide to Being a PPC Agent" is a pretty funny touch.

That being said, there have been some concerns about your levels of understanding wrt the basic setting. Nesh mentioned the tech, but I'm going to mention:

“Wouldn’t the Narrative Laws work in the PPC Continuum, but not elsewhere?” Winfrey asked. Noman hung up the phone and scratched his head.
“We have a Continuum? What happens if someone writes fanfic of us?”
Winfrey scratched her head, baffled. “Wait, hang on, hang on. If we’re in the PPC Continuum, do we ever enter another Continuum, or is it just a story in a story? Anyway, I think we can kill any Sues who crop up in our own-”

There's been a fair few recent conversations about the Multiverse and how the Prime Multiverse (the "PPC Continuum") plays into it. There's also a well-known reason for why PPC Badfic doesn't affect the agents, too, especially since we actively write PPC Badfic during the Badfic Games in September. I know this conversation is played a bit for laughs, but it also seems to be written without much of the existing knowledge about the PPC in mind. If Noman's the most "agent-y agent there is", he would be aware of these things.

I also side with Nesh on the interactions. I noted in previous requests that people have mentioned you being a very harsh beta. I personally do not think harshness is a good trait for a beta or a PPC writer. Concrit should come from a place of genuinely wanting the person to improve, not just angrily nitpicking the problems in their stories. It's taken me, personally, a long time to realise this myself, and thus my older missions are much angrier and harsher than my new/rewritten ones. Being firm on, say, grammar rules or when characters are doing OOC things is one thing, but being harsh is another.

Finally, the mission target. It doesn't appear to have changed since the last request, and Novastorme specifically denied you because of the mission target having been taken down for rewriting. You said there was a new one, but I don't see it, so I hope that's just you linking the wrong Permission slip and not because you didn't hear Novastorme the last time. I would honestly recommend staying away from NSFW and Bleepfics for your first mission altogether, because PPCing isn't about being able to take on the ~worst of the worst~, and having a NSFW mission first go might alienate potential readers before they can even get to know your characters enough to want to read more missions about them. Not to mention that newbie PPC writers might not know the balance between "showing how awful the fic is" and "forcing the readers to read the worst parts of the fic".

So all in all, if I had a Hat, I'd deny you based on the mission target not having changed, and be very concerned that you've already got a first mission ready to go for what appears to be a fic that was already discouraged for a mission target. I apologise if that's not the response you want to hear. I would strongly recommend you take part in more discussions on the Board in addition to the Discord and get to know the setting well enough that you can pass the Self-Check (hS worked very hard on that! So use it!) before you send another request in, and that would probably mean, as Nesh said, not to apply again for some time in order to better understand what's going on.

But please, don't sweat this. Nesh denied me Permission my first go back in the day because of concerns regarding my agents and having a very weird writing sample. I took some time away from the request, posted a ton on the Board (I think I had like the third-highest number of posts on the Board that year?) in response to other people in addition to talking about my own agents and plans for them, and then I got Permission. I noticed that you tried doing the Multiverse Monitor RP, which led to the World Without Suvians RP, which is really good! I enjoyed interacting with the Gossip Monitor and the cashew running gag was funny! So more interactions like that, and you might have a better chance of people trusting you with the keys to the sandbox. Ganbare!

Okay, while I’m obviously not a PG, I’ve interacted with Sier and would like to say a few things.

He’s been pretty active, starting and participating in a lot of RPs. And (from what I’ve seen) he tries to listen to feedback. He seems to really want to write for the PPC. He responded to my beta request, and has helped me with my Permission Request.

However, from what I’ve gathered, he has a tough time finding anyone who will beta his stuff. Perhaps an oldbie could help him out with that?

—Some thoughts from Ls, who is definitely not a Permission Giver.

Disclaimer: I am not a PG. I've been here since Decemeber 2019 (almost three years), and I feel rather well-versed in the PPC Multiverse (Omniverse? Universe?), but I'm still not a PG. Please take this lighter than hS or Nesh.

That being said, I have some points to add:

• Having two beta requests the same-ish day is not entirely a new thing. GeniusGamer and I posted our requests on the same day-ish, as Genius noted. Granted, in this case, it was nearly 24 hours apart and it happened in 2020, where a majority of us were probably less busy due to, well, current events. I am a little off-put by the fact that Sier's request was seven hours after Ls's, but two-in-a-day Permission requests have happened at least once before.
• That being said, we recently discussed needing more PGs because a lot of them have drifted away or are busy with their personal lives. The thread recently-ish dropped off the front page, but it was a monster. It seems like a lack of situational awareness, especially added onto the fact that Sier is still going off on the old requirements on Permission (which is understandable somewhat, since Sier said he was out of town when that happened, and I wouldn't have wanted to completely start over if I had messed up on a couple of little things).
• Like what hS said, it makes me (and a couple of other members, I think?) uncomfortable that Sier requested a beta for his first mission without Permission (I think the interlude is wrapped up in the Permission request? Might be wrong), especially when Nesh pointed out that he doesn't have a strong grasp on esstential PPC tech. I get being excited to write PPC missions, but one of the requirements is that you have to use PPC tech and somewhat understand it.
• Yeah, the badfic Sier wants to tackle as his first mission (?) is distasteful since the author has taken it down. Did he already write the mission for that fic? Or is the badfic listed a badfic he might tackle in the future? I'm a bit confused.
• Also, more of a personal opinion, but saying "can you find the hidden text?" makes it seem more like a game to me, which throws me off. A Permission request is meant to see how well you write and how well you do in the PPC 'verse. Again, more of a personal thought, but the "find the hidden text" reminds me of "Where's Waldo" in not the best way.
• He does seem to be making steps towards not being so self-centered in his interactioms, although he still tends to drive discussions in #writing (to my knowledge. Please correct me if I'm wrong!) towards "this is how my characters would react" or "this is what I'm doing with my agents" with little connection to the topic. Again, I could've misread some context, so please correct me if I'm wrong!

All in all, I think Sier has some work to do when it comes to his interactions with the community and his knowledge on the PPC. Again, I'm not a PG, so please take this lighter than any PG's opinion, but I personally agree with Nesh. Pause on trying for Permission for a little bit, get to know PPC better, and then try again. Try not to stress too much on the writing aspect.

-kA, not angry, just putting the points the best way that they could think of.

I really appreciate the fact that people still - after literally two decades - want to write for the PPC. I don't want the Permission process to be a roadblock to that! I also get how frustrating it can be to want to write but be repeatedly told no. So for all those reasons I lean towards yes.

But... I'm worried about that "struggle[d] to get to grips with [...] the console, remote activator, and disguise generator" (per Nesh). I'm particularly worried because, before even getting Permission, you're looking for a beta for your first mission (and interlude?). And you're doing that when the "only point of contention from last [Permission request]" was the badfic you'd chosen. What is your plan if the badfic choice is an issue again? Would you scrap the mission you're looking to get beta'd?

... hang on, is that still this badfic? The one that Nova told you you shouldn't mission because it has been taken down? Because the title seems to match. Can you check that you've updated the badfic appropriately?

Coming back to the first point: how did you get on with the Permission Self-Check? I seem to remember it has some questions about basic PPC concepts that should help you know how you're doing on the kind of issues Nesh mentioned.

hS

(I just wanna double check, but I also don't wanna dogpile and I don't want to... be putting my opinion in where it's not needed or wanted. Does that make any sense?)

-kA

Didn't see that. Plus, I tend to stray long for my prompts and missions, so having something closer to my actual style would be more representative, and give a better vision of what I'll be bringing here.