Those statistics are quite interesting - I'd certainly noticed a trend for people to post an introductory thread, only to post little (or nothing) after and just fade away, but I hadn't realised the retention rate was that low.

On to your specific questions:

1) Before joining, I thought I'd found somewhere that would help me with my own writing, a group of people that were interested in writing themselves, and were also interested in improving. It seemed to be somewhere where I could get advice, maybe offer it too, and chat with people about stories and canons in general – I'm pleased to say that it matched well with those expectations.

2) I have drifted away a bit - I was totally gone for a little while towards the end of last year, and I've been lurking a lot more than I've been posting these last few weeks. Both of those relate to stuff in real life.

Last year I was made redundant, and there was a point where looking for a new job had dragged on for so long that I pretty much stopped socialising altogether. Sadly, the PPC was the first place I left, and the last one I returned to - not a reflection on how much I like the PPC, but a comment on how much easier I found it to walk away from a purely online community, versus actually seeing people in real life.

Recently I've managed to find a new job (which has had the unfortunate side effect of cutting down on my free time), and I started lurking while I adjusted to how tired actually having to wake up in the mornings again was leaving me. I’ve just about got back into the habit now, so I should be around a bit more.

What brought me back is that this is a really cool place, and I never really intended on leaving - it was just something that I'd noticed had happened after the fact. I'm also involved in a couple of long running betaing projects, so if I do drift away again in the future, I may well get called back. Which would be a good thing if it happens, although I'm hoping that it won't be necessary.

3) I guess that it just doesn't match their expectations once they've joined up, or it could be that some real life distraction comes along shortly after they've joined, and they just weren't invested enough at that point to stick around. Real life has proved a powerful enough distraction to drag me away, but I’d like to think that I’d always eventually find my way back here if that happens again.

If I remember rightly from a previous 'stats of the Board' post, didn't you conclude that there were a bunch of IP addresses that regularly view, but don't post? Maybe some of the MIA newbies are just content to read the stories and what we are up to without actually joining in?

Thank you for posting this. I have been moping about, mostly lonely for months now, and this was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed to make me realize how silly it was to not be making a better effort to "undrift" considering how much I still love this community.

So yay for nudging me towards that introspection I needed.

1) Honestly, I was mostly here for the community. I liked the idea of sporking badfic, but at the time, I had recently discovered that a site I frequented through most of high school was inaccessible on the network in my dorm, and having just moved, I didn't really have anybody to talk to. So I showed up hear, not really sure what to expect!

2) Certain events roughly a year ago. I never really planned to come back to the Board, I just started showing up on the chat when I realised that I had been completely without human interaction for about two months. The PPC is pretty much the only place I hang out, partially due to where I live (2 hours by bike to the nearest town!), partially because it's where all my friends are. (Also, where I met my boyfriend.)

3) I think it's a combination of factors that pretty much everybody else said better than I possibly could >.
I would like to add that this has been a trend that I've been seeing since I joined three years ago, and that it's honestly never really concerned me all that much. The newbies that stay do seem to be here for the long run.

1) Honestly, I don't remember. I think I kind of came for the Sue slaying, but stayed for all the fun and the people.

2) I've always been kinda there.

3) Honestly, again, because they came for the Sue slaying, but weren't really interested in the rest.

I like book ends.

1) I figured I'd be getting into something similar to the SCP Foundation, when it comes to writing quality. More lenient than I expected.

2) I left because I thought I wasn't any good, and came back just kinda on a whim.

3) A lack of confidence, perhaps?

1. I...honestly didn't quite know what to expect. I had had no clue that the PPC community was still going quite so strong--in fact, I'd thought it had died out, more or less, quite a few years ago. I wanted to obtain permission to mention the PPC in a Mary-Sue parody I was writing (I'm still writing it--it's actually the one I used a chapter of for my writing sample) and I also wanted to say hello to the community that created all the writings and so on that I'd grown up with and that had helped shape my writing. I'm not really sure I thought I was getting into anything, beyond a whole lot of excitement over meeting people who were, essentially, a form of celebrities to me. I don't think I expected to get this far in, though; I certainly wasn't planning on writing missions and so on quite so soon. So I'd say...it's been far more than I ever even thought to expect.
   
   2. I...don't *think* I've drifted away...not for more than maybe a week at the most, and that's mainly due to being busy. Of course, I'm about to 'drift away' for three weeks due to joining a program with no wifi except on weekends, but that's a separate point. I'm hoping I won't end up drifting once I start uni in the fall, but it's a possibility: I'll have a lot of work, and a lot to adjust to. However, I will most likely be able to keep up (I hope). So while I may not be on quite as much, I probably won't fade out altogether.
   
   Basically, I don't think I've ever drifted yet, at least not as a member of the Board. If I ever do, it'll most likely be due to being very busy with RL and schoolwork (specifically around exam times, I'm guessing).
   
   3. From what I've seen...occasionally people get offended, occasionally people feel like no one shares their interests, occasionally people get busy, and occasionally people just aren't very good at sticking around as members of online communities. It happens. Alternatively, sometimes people just don't have internet access for a while, and from there they either come back or just drift away. Occasionally, people just outgrow the community; for instance, I used to be a member of a Warriors RP and discussion community on Amazon (and an HP one, actually, though that was separate). I eventually just stopped being quite so into the series, and some of my friends there left, and it just...didn't work so well. I think when that happened, my interest in the HP community also waned, and I sort of drifted off into the sunset. I sometimes check back with the HP community, though.
   
   And now that I've bombarded you with blocks of text, I'll post this and see what else I've missed.
   
   ~DF

1) Honestly? I discovered this thing two years ago, but I was somewhat scared of joining any sort of internet group, even one that worked with fanfiction like this. I wasn't even sure if it was real, except for the wikia page. After a while, I started to think I was ready to join and finally decided to come aboard. And to be honest, I trolled around for a couple of days before introducing myself, but I really had no idea what I was getting into before I joined. All I knew was it sounded cool and everyone really took me in when I went onto the chat before officially joining (I specifically remember my cat had turned off my sound card and asking Tray what the heck was going on in some horror flick he was showing everyone using a sharing site). I thought then that I'd be doing the mission writing immediately (like I said, I really didn't think joining through), but here I am four months later and still staying away from the mission writing. I think I still want to wait a bit before asking. I'm not sure I've been on here long enough, or have time to write missions (which reminds me...whenever the next badfic report comes up, I need to attach my old Pit account on there. It's a mission frenzy). Other than that, though, it's not all that different. This is one of two sites I've ever been on in which the members are like a slightly nerdy family. And I love that.

2)I did take a two-three week hiatus at the end of May- the beginning of June, but it had nothing to do with the site. I got sick about two weeks before my final exams, and I was working my butt off to ace finals because I lost that week of review. My post count hasn't been as large as usual as of late because I've been resting. But I'm getting back into it now. Like I said before, we're a community here. I could never just forget you guys. :)

3) Part of that might just be the PPC's nature. I'm a member of another RP site that gets a billion members who sign up and have their name in white, which stands for an unsorted newbie (it's Harry Potter). Yet they never post and never get sorted. And if everyone who'd joined was active, the site wouldn't have so few people posting. A lot of the people posting might not have thought it through, like I did. And it's nothing the PPC is doing particularly wrong- everyone here's very awesome and welcoming, the posts are good, we get to know each other. The issue is some people joining may not be as interested in the PPC as we are. Or normal life might be getting in the way as well. It might also have to do with the fact that we have to wait a bit before getting permission. Some people may not be interested in building the community.

1. I don't remember. It was ten(!) years ago. All I know is that I was also on the OFUM mailing list and a member of a small Farscape fan forum that had similar levels of zaniness and close community, so prior experience definitely stood me in good stead to get along here.
   
   2. There was a period early on where I drifted away, I think before the time I'm counting from now. Partly it was to do with real life—I would've been in my last year or so of high school, some weird stuff was happening in my family—and I hadn't gotten firmly entrenched here yet, so I think I just sort of forgot the PPC existed for a while. Eventually I found my way back, though, and noticed that there was a Farscape fic up for sporking on the Oddlots main page. I was under the impression I needed a co-writer to work with (that was the norm in those days), so I got active in the course of trying to find someone who knew the fandom well enough to write with me. I ended up finding Artemis, but it didn't work out—neither of us were very experienced PPCers, and in hindsight, the badfic was too long and the problems too understated to be missionable. I stuck around, though, and the rest is history.
   
   Oh, there was that hiatus last summer, but I'm not going to discuss that publicly.
   
   3. Various factors. Some people wander off and forget we exist and/or are consumed with other things, others are daunted by the Permission process or the Board or the learning curve, others just plain don't understand and don't fit in. And in my opinion, that's all perfectly fine. The people I want to stick around are the ones who are enthusiastic about the idea, willing—nay, eager!—to do the homework, able to grasp the concepts involved, and able to get along and make friends. That's never going to be everybody, and perhaps it's always going to be a smallish number. C'est la vie.
   
   ~Neshomeh

Quite the variety of opinions here. As one of the few who made it past two months (though I have been reading PPC stories even before my first post here), allow me to give my two cents. Now if my memory would just cooperate...

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

Having read the PPC Constitution before I joined, I knew that the Board would be a place of discussion, not about badfics, but about...anything. And having started a few discussion threads (insert shameless plugs here), I was not disappointed. And IIRC, I wanted to have at least a better view of when the next PPC missions would come out!

Long story short, the Board has met (and at times exceeded) my expectations--though I am intrigued how people could find lifelong friends (mush less mates) online.

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

Well, I haven't drifted away, since I'm always coming here approximately every day.

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

It could be that they had different expectations. For example, if all I cared about was figuring out when the next PPC mission was going to be published, I might not be sticking around, impatient as I am for a good read.

I know I haven't been active recently because I've been busy with school and Star Trek and travelling to China,so yeah. I find that when I get into a new fandom, I don't post as much on the Board. Not particularly sure why though.

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

I thought I was getting into a community dedicated to sporking badfic. I got so much more than that; I became a better writer because of the PPC.

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

Like I said, whenever I get into a new fandom I find myself drifting from the Board, probably because I'm indulging my inner fangirl in private. I always come back in between fandoms, or when I've decided to write PPC missions for the new fandom. Also, sometimes travel factors into it.

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

They get scared off after being told about the ways of the Board? Sometimes some of the newbies get repeat reminders about Permission and posting multiple threads, amend they get kinda cowed into submission. I dunno.

(This seems like the title of half of my messages here. Hm.)
Anyway, to answer your questions:
1) Before I joined this madhouse, I thought I was entering a madhouse of the fun type. I mean, I found the PPC's page over there at TvTropes, liked what I saw, and went over. And, barring a few scuffles with some people, I don't see a reason to regret joining.
2) Well, when I was drafted, and then when I was in my military course, I didn't quite have access to a computer, so obviously I wasn't around. It wasn't voluntary, so I came back at the first oppurtunity.
3) Well... I think that most people that end up here want to start writing PPC stuff, and they want to start writing it now. So probably the 'hang-around-so-we-can-see-who-you-are' period kinda scares them away.

I just haven't been posting on the board. I go into the IRC almost every day though.

1. I thought I was getting into a fun little community. I wanted to review things and be funny, but as I stayed here I began to realize that that isn't really what the PPC is about.

The PPC is about being a community of writers, laughing at the bad and praising the good. It's about pointing out the flaws of something in a humorous way, but not being mean while doing it. It's about celebrating the amazing things that can come out of fandoms, and sharing them with others.

So, no. The PPC didn't match my expectations. It was much better.

2. I've never drifted away.

3. I can't say for sure, but I think it's because what people are expecting is a writing community, not a community of writers. Newbies who show up really want to get their stories out. I did too. But then they run into getting permission, and well... a month is a long time to wait for some people.

Yup, I'm still alive too!

Which means I guess I'm qualified to answer your questions :)

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

I'm with a couple other people in that I really didn't have any expectations. I joined because I wanted to have more of the PPC world, get to know the people that were currently writing spin-offs and to be able to write missions myself perhaps, though I don't know how much of a writer I really am, but it was one of those impulse things where, if I ever wanted to be able to, I had to join, so I did. :)

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

I haven't really drifted away, per se. Though it seems like it, since I don't ever really post. But I do check in with the board to see what's going on a couple times a day or so.

As to why I've pretty much gone into lurking mode, well several other's have said it quite nicely.

VixenMage beat me to it, and no, I'm not looking to bring up the debate again either, but yes, part of it the board style. And I know most people are happy with it and that's fine, and I can't say I'd post tons more if it were to switch to a more modern style. I am a member of regular boards, and I lurk there a lot too. I'm just a naturally quiet and shy person, even around my friends in real life I don't speak up much and am content to just listen to the conversation most of time. However, I do find the board's older style to be a bit off-putting in that it's harder to follow conversation lines if you come in after a huge discussion has exploded, and trying to sort things out while scrolling up and down a huge thread, and going back to catch any new posts that happened while I was scrolling around leads me to be less like to to post at the end of things because of the slightly obnoxious effort involved.

Which leads to what Miah talked about, shared fandoms, and I'll second that, there are a few that share more than my love for Lord of the Rings, but I'm not big in most fandoms that come across the board. And those that do share some of my other fandoms drift off, or are big into the other major fandoms represented here so they discuss those, and not understanding most of the references, and having spent a major amount of time sorting out the tangled thread, I have a hard time joining in those discussions.

Also, and though I'm really not trying to harp on the board, being shy, I get worried about posting something that isn't super important, or likely to inspire an actual discussion since every new topic, big or small, important or not, paid attention to or not, kicks another topic off the front page. And yes we have frivolous topics, and have fun, and that's great, and I'm not really sure how to explain what I'm trying to say, but every time I run across something that I might post to another board for the fun of it, I think more than twice about posting here as I don't want to drop topics off the front page.

I'm also with hermione of vulcan, I used to at least always try to post on newbie threads, but so many of them not only don't ever seem to post again, but don't even respond to their welcome thread comments that it gets disheartening. So I've pretty much stopped that as well, though as she said it is an important part/tradition of the board, and being welcoming is a great thing, one of the things I like about this place. But as she put it, when you throw a party for someone and they wander off after 5 minutes... I have a hard time getting excited to throw the next party when you know from the pattern of the last 3 that they'll most likely not stick around for even their welcome either.

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

I'm sure there are a wide variety of reasons, as Karen and Ekyl said, shyness, which applies to me, or being at a loss of what do here while waiting, especially with the issue of each new topic kicking an old one off the page, coupled with said shyness, and real life. I know as a newbie I was wary of posting new topics because of that. And I have posted a few topics since as I got more of a feel for the place, but in the beginning it was a thing... and obviously not all newbies have that issue, which is not to try and admonish anyone, it's great, we get some fun discussions, and some serious ones, but they are at least active. I'm just saying I can't be the only one that was a bit less active because of that fact. And maybe it is a reason why some don't end up sticking around past their first couple posts.

Or as Cassie said, maybe they expect continual madcap adventures and stories and we just don't work like that? Or they are looking for the harder core bashing like doctorlit pointed out.

And there is probably a fair amount of people who aren't willing to wait out the permission process, as Ekyl said.

1. I got pretty much what I was expecting, except that I became closer to the other users here more than I had known was possible online. I think I'm maybe a little unique in that I enjoy PPC writing less for the humor and more for the feeling of exploring the Word Worlds.
   
   2. I've never left, and I really can't imagine myself leaving. I'm just too mentally involved with the setting.
   
   3. I think many newbies get the wrong idea about what goes on in here. A lot who come from TV Tropes seem to expect a more aggressive bashing of badfic and authors than what we actually tolerate.
   
   Honestly, I rather like that not many people join constantly. I like the PPC being a small community of friendly folks. It's manageable and interconnected.

1 - I started reading various missions from TVTropes links, then found the wiki and read more missions, interludes and backstory, etc before joining.

I didn't really even think about joining/getting involved myself until I'd exhausted almost all the content in familiar continua and thought 'well what am I supposed to do now, I want more stories dammit!' and then realised that maybe I should write my own!

I didn't really have any expectations for the community, although I did lurk on the Board for a while to get an idea for how things work.

2 - I have drifted away and back due to my tendency to be interested in so many things at once and yet only have a finite amount of time to dedicate to them all (when I finish those flux capacitors, that problem will go away. Muahahaha... *ahem*).

However, I have never lost interest, and even when I'm not posting or writing, I'll be lurking around. What keeps my interest is the massive shared world with infinite possibilities, the constant stream of new stories to read, and the many plotbunnies I keep thinking up for my own agents!

3 - I imagine it's partly the nature of Internet communities (VM convered this point below far better than I could), and partly the complexity of our shared continuity.

I am distinctly not saying that this complexity is bad (it's one of the reasons I love the PPC!), but it could well put people off who don't want to spend the time investigating and discovering it all. They may then drift away because they feel they would have to fill their headspace with it in order to get involved, rather than picking it up as they go along.

Yes, I have my cons about the board, but they're far outweighed by the pros and my general good nature, so I just tend to overlook them.

I was actually expecting this place to be way more hardcore when I first joined almost a year ago, and ended up being pleasantly surprised that it was more lax instead.

When I failed to get permission, I only turned down a second try because I realized that I wasn't actually all that interested in writing missions - I was fairly new then, I just thought it was a status symbol more than anything, so I didn't put my level best in to begin with, and I was bogged down in real life with other matters so it wasn't really something I could focus on.

Nowadays, with everything settling back down, the only reason I'm not on more is because I don't feel that it's an obligation of mine to be ever-present on the board, and thus tend to forget that I have membership here at all.

That, and I've found myself getting into Library of the Damned and writing more MSTs, which are really distracting in and of themselves. Not to mention my ongoing large writing projects, and just basically living my life.

Which, speaking of, got a bit more hectic due to an unexpected death in the family.

But yes - like my DA journal says, I'm not dead, I'm just a bit more quiet than usual.

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

I really had no expectations when I joined. I had been reading fanfic for a couple of years, and I had gotten extremely annoyed (and sometimes disgusted--ask me what my first slash story I ran across was. I dare you.) with various fics, I had never thought there was anything to be done about it. One day I ran across one of IndeMaat's missions on the pit, and sort of followed her here like a lost puppy.

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

Hurt feelings and Drama played a big part in drifting. Feeling extremely disconnected has played a big part in having difficulty in coming back fully. I like Tolkien, but I am no where near as dedicated as the original group. I am not into anime or any of the video games that have been popular topics with excited newbies lately. For a while there were at least a few others that I had some shared fandoms with, but they drifted off, and it has just been difficult for to jump back in when I feel like I am only following a small percentage of what is being said, and no one is able to follow what I want to say.

What keeps me coming back?

The PPC. This is the most awesome shared world I have ever seen. The backstory, the interactions between people's agents and missions, the little projects that people start to bring the group closer, the wiki, the work people do to put order to the chaos that is the PPC, the Ironic Overpower. I've been around 3 1/2 years, even though part of that has been marginally involved, and it has just sort of become part of my narrative to think of things in terms that the PPC uses. How could I permanently leave when it has wormed it's way that far into my life?

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

Wrong expectations when they arrived--especially from a couple of sources of arrival, qualms/fears that we are bullying authors, real life (the PPC is getting older, more careers, marriages, and children than there used to be*), loss of Internet access (this got me for 3-4 months last year), incredibly steep learning curve to get fully engaged in the culture of the shared world.


*My oldest is a teenager now. Can you believe it? I have a kid older than some of our members, and my baby is going to Kindergarten this year. I feel so old.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's something between just The Nature of The Beast - people often start things, join clubs, enter forums, and wind up not sticking around because they forget to come back, or life gets busy, or something else comes up, and I think that happens to a lot of things and a lot of people. But also, we... do have an unorthodox sort of forum here, and I do think people get thrown off by that. (This is not an invitation to start debating about The 'Board vs. a hypothetical T-Board again, or what have you.) But this 'Board is very unique, in this day and age, and I've noticed a lot of newbies comment on their confusion at it. I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of the issue some people have.

Other than that, I guess, what other people have said - we wind up not being what they expect, for whatever reason. Either we're too serious, or we take writing too seriously, or we're too off-the-walls, or they expected to get Permission and be having madcap adventures or Serious Grimdark adventures, and that didn't work out.

I don't think you're scary, hS. You do... loom, a bit. You did when I was a newbie, anyway - now, either I've grown a tolerance for looming, or I've grown, without realizing it. I've been accused of speaking, IRL, as if I always know the answer, or am convinced of my accuracy on a subject, and told it comes off as authoritative/arrogant. I think online, when one speaks with both intelligence and a measure of confidence, people sometimes get the idea that this person should not be argued with, and you get the impression of looming, instead of arrogance.

(I really, really hope that came off as friendly offering of explanation, rather than snapping-turtle critique, because it really is just friendly observation and I do not think of you as arrogant at all.)

Anyway. Questions.

1)
Well, it was recommended to me by someone who had taught me the basics of Elizabethan grammar, and was a brilliant writer and mod who was slightly notorious for her high grammatical standards. I'd read the Original Series, exchanged a single e-mail with Jay about permission, and enjoyed OFUM. So I suppose that was the community I was looking for - good writers, with high standards for their writing and canon, and a healthy dose of humor and friendliness. And, more or less, that's what you were. And are still, I think, for the most part.

2)
Once or twice, I'm sure. For most of the past eight years, though, I've checked the 'Board either daily or close to it, reading topics that catch my eye and skimming everything else. There were a few nasty drama flare-ups, multiple years ago, when I made the decision to leave, at least for a few months. Every single time, I found myself checking the 'Board daily -anyway-, because I'd formed the strong habit, and the URL was ingrained in my muscle memory. (I never wanted to leave permanently because Dann was here, and I couldn't get up the nerve to talk to him outside of a PPC context.)

So I guess that would be it. Drama has made me think about drifting away, or setting distances, but so many of my friends are here - this is like a home, I never could.

3)
I guess I answered that one up front? I don't know why, not really. I see people drift in and out of forums all the time, and the IRC, where I'm more vocal, seems to have a core of regulars that's grown quite a bit, and it's slow-growth these days, but we get new people still, who come in every few days and stick around.

This is why I don't often welcome newbies. Yes, I know everyone's different. Yes, I know that it's a friendly gesture. But it seems to me a lot of people just post their newbie thread and then never come back. It's like welcoming a person to a party and then watching them leave after five minutes.

So, to your questions:

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

I knew exactly what I was getting into. I read OFUM and HFA and HFA referenced the PPC, so I read the Original Series. Then when I started writing OFAS, I went looking for information on OFUs and stumbled upon the wiki. That was last summer, and I read a lot of missions and wiki articles and sketched out my agents and their backstories (I've reworked them since, but I started the process). I actually debated on whether to to join. I felt it was wrong to make fun of people's fic like that, so I figured I might just write PPC stories for my own enjoyment and not post them online. But I read several of the FAQs and different works around the wiki and decided I wanted to be part of the community. Then I introduced myself in October.

I don't think I had many expectations. If anything, the community was even more welcoming and friendly than I expected.

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

I haven't been posting as much recently, but that was because I was writing my first mission. (I got permission in January...) But I was lurking, and I started posting again because I saw things to comment on.

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

It depends on the individual person and their expectations, and then a) how well those expectations fit with the actual PPC and b) how good they are at adjusting when something doesn't fit their expectations. That's all I can say for sure.

A bit of speculation, though:

They don't know what they're getting into. They've somehow found the PPC in a way that doesn't involve actually reading any PPC materials, and they...decide to join a community...for the heck of it? *shrugs* It's not like we require a lot of commitment, it's just that they don't think through their first post and then, maybe, they find that the PPC isn't for them. I don't know, it just baffles me, since I was a wiki-lurker for months before joining and agonized over my first post.

That also goes for the 'Hi I've just joined can I have Permission?' people. They didn't think to go read the materials, for some odd reason. Like I said, maybe it's just incomprehensible to me because I read the materials multiple times before joining.

Those aren't great statistics, but I don't think there's anything we can do. We're welcoming and friendly, and we link people to our policies. It's them, and their expectations, not us.

Of course, I did disappear for two years, so...

Anyway, the questions.

1) It was long enough I don't actually remember what I thought I was getting into, I just thought it'd be fun to write for and the setting seemed pretty neat. It's matched up pretty well, for the most part.

2) I've drifted away a couple times - way, waaaaay back it was because I thought the community was dead, and then I'm not sure why back in 2011-ish. I'd always had a hard time finishing missions and stuff, and wasn't sure how to make them interesting - for a bit I just plain ran out of ideas. I'll not get into the various dramas that were going on back then, because I don't feel right dragging it all back up two years later when I've been trying to improve my behaviour and be less annoying and such, but between all that, my home life worsening and dealing with all sorts of real life stuff, including getting a job with a newspaper, eventually I just sort of forgot about the place. I came back when I stumbled on one of my stories and felt really guilty about abandoning it and the PPC as a whole.

3) I think a lot of it is people who aren't willing to wait out the permission process, don't really know what to do here or get shy and busy with real life. It's really just a guess though, and likewise I'm not sure what to do to get people to stick around. I'll have to think on it a lot more.

I know that I joined the PPC because I thought it'd be a fun place to learn about bad stories, how to write better, and do a few sporkings of my own. When I left, it was because real life got so busy I couldn't check the Board very often, and I just sort of fell away (then came back, and am hanging on with my teeth to avoid falling away again now that I have no regular Internet access).

As for people not sticking around...well, I'd probably attribute it to shyness and Real Life. Also, you people can be pretty scary! Especially you, hS.

And even fewer stick around for the real long haul - we have Ye Olde Permisshun-Givvers, of course, such as yourself, Neshomeh and Elcalion, who have been here since the early years. And I've been here five years now and seen faces come and go. Five! It doesn't feel like it.

1/ Before you joined the PPC community, what did you think you were getting into? How did it match up to your expectations?

I honestly didn't have any prior expectations. I just understood it was a society of people who killed really bad fics and I wanted to join in.

2/ If at any point you have drifted away, why? And what brought you back?

I've never really drifted away - been unable to access for periods because of lack of internet, but never left and then come back. I don't think I could, I like being here too much, even if all I do is lurk most of the time.

3/ Why do you think so many people don't stick around?

Hm. Maybe because they expect continual madcap adventures and stories and we just don't work like that?

Sorry for not posting in ages, but my real life situation is a little hectic right now. Currently I am visiting relatives in Arkansas, and have only now had opportunity to post. I won't get back home infill July 24th, so I'm likely to fade into the distance again untill that time.

In answer to your questions:

1. I expected a fun community of writers with whom I could laugh with and improve my writing. While the writing part has not happened much yet due to procrastination on my part, I have definitely laughed. And cried when I read badfic.

2. Vacation is my problem at the moment, being interested in other things is the other problem. So much media to consume, so little time to create.

3. Other interests. I personally don't know why, but that is what makes sense to me.