“Additionally, you have a multitude of Sues that you are still writing,”

Please explain why my characters are Sues. This was not brought up last time I requested Permission.

I have now read your fic, "Call Me Katie". I'll be honest with you, if I had come across this fic in a random fic hunt, I would have sporked it. This is one of the most blatant Sues that I have seen in a long time. There is a lengthy Author's Note in the last chapter that says that you wrote most of this in 2010, and you think your writing has improved greatly since then. It makes it clear that this was posted May 31, 2012. No where in that note did you state that you had realized this was a huge Sue, and you were only leaving it up to show your progress, so I consider all decisions in this story as something you currently condone.

First charge: Katie is the uncanonical sister of the Main Character, Coraline.

Second Charge: This is not a new story. This is a rehash of the movie, only with Katie shoehorned in.

Third Charge: Katie steals multiple lines from Coraline and is the one that the doll imitates, until Coraline is only a very minor character in her own canon.

Fourth Charge: Katie's presence drums up drama for no apparent reason other than to make her more important in the story. (The mom's unspecified accident is now Katie's fault, and they spend half a scene arguing over it.)

Fifth Charge: In-line Author's Notes like this one, parenthesis yours. (A/N: this sentence makes me laugh and laugh).)

Sixth charge: Calling the mom by her name throughout (okay, that one might have just fallen under annoying a PPC agent)

Seventh charge: Mothering Coraline

Eighth charge: Changing the mythos of the canon to be able to add your Sue in. There was only one doll. Coraline said so. The doll changes to match the victim. There was no way for a second doll to appear just so you could have your Sue and Coraline enter the Other World.





This is from your Narnia story about Ailena, which is also not labeled as something you have come to regret.

Ailena has cobalt blue eyes, hip length blond hair, ten different names, and an entire paragraph longer than the one I am about to quote explaining how old she is.

Ailena is extremely good with many weapons, seems to turn up at unexpected times and in unexpected places, appears to know some things before they happen, and is particularly close to Aslan. She has been around since before the beginning of Narnia and remains there until the very end. She ages very, very slowly. She is High Queen of Narnia with the Pevensies during the Golden Age, and is never paired with anyone romantically. Never ever ever, through all the years of Narnia. She is also the one who tells C.S. Lewis the stories of Narnia.

Let's take this bit by bit.

Ailena is extremely good with many weapons One of the hallmarks of Sues are that they are good at everything, better than most, with very little effort. You say she's lived a very long time, so maybe she's practiced for thousands of years, but I honestly doubt it.

seems to turn up at unexpected times and in unexpected places, This is a Speshul trait.

appears to know some things before they happen Since this isn't available in canon, this is also a Speshul trait.

, and is particularly close to Aslan. So, she is a personal friend of the canon's deity? Do you see how this is a Sue-ish trait?

She has been around since before the beginning of Narnia and remains there until the very end. She was being shoehorned into a very select group of characters here.

She is High Queen of Narnia with the Pevensies during the Golden Age, and is never paired with anyone romantically. Never ever ever, through all the years of Narnia. This seems to be a recurring theme in your stories, where you retell the canon stories only your versions are better, because they include your characters, who are much better than the canons, and outshine the canons. That is, honestly, the very definition of a Mary Sue.

She is also the one who tells C.S. Lewis the stories of Narnia. This is just. Wow. This character is so important that she told the writer of her world about the world, so he wasn't really writing a story, he was just repeating back what your character told him. The time loop-fourth wall breakage thing here is actually painful. That is a pretty bold claim, and makes this character a huge, huge Mary Sue.

I understand from reading other bits on your LJ that this character is old. I have heard that it is fairly normal to go through a stage of creating Mary Sues (even I can remember back to doing that, I just didn't write them down), but the thing is that you are still writing this character and apparently don't see anything wrong with her. If you can't see anything wrong with this character, then you are not at a mature enough place to write for the PPC, and July was absolutely right in denying you Permission.

I find one of your last points very interesting.

I am disturbed that in order to prove I am a nasty person, you are citing events that happened from nine to seventeen months ago. Why, if they were a problem, were they not mentioned last time I requested Permission? Why was the supposed Sueness of my OCs not brought up then? You never explain why you think my characters are Sues, either.

I'm not going to comment on the last one, as perhaps you should look at your characters. However, you seem to think that your actions are excusable because they happened in the past.

That is not correct. I am under the impression that the reason for your actions not being brought up at your last request was to give you a second chance with regards to this.

You have had that second chance, and things have happened since then. And yet, you have never once taken responsibility for your actions. It is always the fault of somebody else - the big mean world out to get you.

It doesn't work like that.

You have made mistakes.

Mistakes like those have consequences.

Your actions are, quite frankly, immature. The way you lay blame instead of taking responsibility is not a positive trait. You are the one who got yourself into this situation.

Learn to take responsibility.

I just want to address a couple of your points, slightly out-of-order.

"I also have another FF account, which I use to favorite Supernatural fics. Is this also socking? I don’t actively sock. A was originally created as an extra account, not a sock. And don’t we all do this, posting PPC missions on LJ and what not rather than with our FF names? Isn’t the PPC about mocking badfic?"
"I don’t bully, any more than the PPC does by writing missions."

Posting PPC stories on sites other than the Pit isn't sockpuppeting; it's keeping our shared universe within our little group. This is for two reasons. First, because we don't like getting much attention from the internet-at-large, to avoid becoming the focus of trolls and such. The other reason, and the one I believe you're having trouble understanding, is that we do not want to hurt the feelings of badfic authors. We keep our community on the down-low because we want to entertain each other with jokes created from bad writing, not because we want to smear that bad writing in its authors' faces.

The PPC does not bully. The PPC is about finding humor by mocking badfic, not by mocking badfic authors.

"Isn’t that exactly what the PPC does? God=Flowers . . ."

No. No, no, no. A million times no. There is a huge difference between writing a character who takes orders from a fictional board of giant, sentient, speech-capable psychic talking plants in business suits, and writing a character who carries out the will of the actual, real life God.

Do you see how claiming to be doing the work of God Himself while critiquing a fan fiction is problematic?

Having looked at the original thread (and thank you Tranum for posting the link - it's always better to know what's being referenced) I feel the need to agree with JulyFlame's decision. However, this does not mean Jacer is being denied a second chance. JulyFlame didn't try and demand Jacer leave the PPC, or say 'You will never be able to write for the PPC'; she simply explained the reasons she was making the decision that Jacer would not be given Permission at this time. There has been a further comment (not from JulyFlame) implying that Jacer should leave the community, but in no way was it a demand. The second chance - one wherein Jacer proves her(?)self able to interact with the community in a constructive manner - is and always has been there.

Of course, the situation isn't quite as simple as it seems from JulyFlame's summary (naturally - it's a summary of the reasons Jacer's being turned down, not a reasoned argument seeing both sides and showing her working! Nor should it be, in this context). Holding the opinion that Jacer deserves a second chance - however that is interpreted - is perfectly valid, and definitely not a reason for anyone to call you a 'douchebag'.

And since this isn't a summary, my working:

In Jacer's defence:

1/ The LGBT thread was over a year ago, which is a long time in the Interwebs. I haven't been following Jacer in between times, so I don't know how she(?)'s behaved since.

2/ The explosion originally came about because Jacer stated her(?) opinion and people disagreed vehemently - and some (by no means all) disagreed with her right to express it on the Board. As a rule, saying 'You're wrong' (which both sides did) is going to cause tempers to rise. Saying 'I disagree with your opinion' is far more conducive to polite discussion.

3/ While Jacer did get progressively more vehement in support of views which were being shouted down - possibly to the extent of being deliberately offensive, I haven't read every post so that's a guess - I did see several responses which I would class as flames. One person (I forget who) declares Jacer a 'miscreant', which, er, is a direct insult serving no purpose but to deride the other. So getting increasingly emotional and 'fighting back' would seem only natural.

On the other hand, and causing my opinion to fall out the way it does:

1/ Jacer's original post used not just loaded words - 'disorder', while an accurate statement of belief (I assume), was always going to cause controversy - but also straightforward insulting ones - 'disgusting'. That's also a flame - it may not have been targetted at anyone specific, but it's still a flame.

2/ At certain points in the debate, Jacer said things that were, um, objectively wrong (such as the implication that while Jews and Muslims have immigrated to America, Catholics are native to the country), and refused to retract them. That's not debating in good faith, and it doesn't seem to be mirrored by other participants (again, that I've noticed).

3/ There is the matter of the entire rest of JulyFlame's summary. Without access to the original data I can't comment on the specifics, but I trust JulyFlame to be truthful. And someone who sockpuppets, flames (my word, not hers) and currently writes Mary-Sues is not someone who should be writing PPC missions - regardless of conduct on the Board.

So, two - no, three final points.

1/ Everything I have said above is my opinion and perception of the situation. I may be wrong. I may be mistaken.

2/ I would like to invite Jacer to involve her(? sorry, no one can agree...)self in the PPC community and give people a more positive opinion of him(? hah, changed it around)self by his(?) conduct and presentation.

3/ I'm going to quote my wife, from a post she made about a Board crisis waaaay back in 2003 (the Thalia Incident, specifically):

I've been a regular at the PPC board for a fair few months, not long compared to some people, but a while, and this is the only time I have ever seen flames, except by trolls. Even when there are trolls, we rarely actually flame. The only time I have ever seen regulars get really upset at other regulars, or other 'names'.

*sadly* O, shiny happy PPC board, what have they done to you?

But really, the board has been different lately. It's not just these cute little flames, it's something I've been noticing for a while. We're more likely to correct each other's grammar, and in an annoyed tone, or to get upset during debates. I've been afraid something like this was going to happen, and now . . .

EDIT: Okay. The fighting has calmed, but I have one more thing (just one, I promise) to point out.

hS signed a post to margin, hS, who is hoping not to get an angry response.

-_- No one should feel like that on the board--no one ever has, to the best of my knowledge, before this. The PPC board was/is a sanctuary, and I pray that it stays that way.

I'd been there maybe two months and she thought I shouldn't have to worry about being put down for my opinions. The best part is? I didn't get angry responses. So let's keep the conversation calm here in the future(TM), too.

hS... who is hoping not to get an angry response

Especially when you weren't there.

For reference, here is the thread that is being referred to: http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199610;article=211150;title=PPC%20Posting%20Board;pagemark=975

I can tell you with a great amount of certainty that it wasn't pretty. That one spat was enough for me to say to myself "I don't care if his person becomes the next William Shakespeare, I'm still not going to be interested in reading her stuff if that is the attitude she's going to have about other people's opinions".

I don't always agree with July, but I completely believe that she made the right call on this. Further, I also feel she made the right call using the tone she ultimately did: there are some things you can't ignore when putting your foot down, and there are times when people need to be strict.

I've been linked to... what happened... with Jacer a while back. It wasn't pretty, to say the least, and TBH, that's not someone you want around.

Just because we don't do what we do for money, but simply for our own enjoyment, does not mean we should be excused from the basics of civil behavior. If anything it means we need to hold ourselves to that standard of our own free will. It's a higher bar, not a lower. July's decision was based on a failure to live up to those standards. Speaking as a long-time lurker, I for one agree with her wholeheartedly.

Treating anyone trying to uphold the community's spirit of integrity with such flippancy is juvenile and disrespectful.

Also, newsflash: We select PGs because we trust their judgment. A PG made one. Don't belittle it.

I don't think anyone likes it when it gets this way, but yeah. At the end of the day, permission means that we're giving someone license to say "I am the PPC!" - we're a little bit careful about that one, because it casts a shadow on all PPCers, past, present, and future.