Not usually that supportive, no

Some questions about sporking protocol by LunarHuntress on 2011-09-15 02:51:00 UTC Reply

I don't have Permission yet, but I have a few questions about how some things get sporked.

1. I've been looking around The Pit, and I've seen several stories that say in the Author's Notes or even the summary, "Yes, this is a Mary-Sue." Some seemed concerned about this; most don't. What do you do about those?

2. And then there are a few fics like this Doctor Who one - http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7353177/1/Doctorwhogirls - that don't have any Mary-Sues (unless you count the Silurians with the stupid names), no Bad Slash, no Implausible Crossovers, nothing specific the PPC covers, really, but has excruciating SPaG, eye-searing format, OOCness all over the place, and is just pure unadulterated idiocy. How do you spork those kind of things?

3. And then there's Hans von Hozel http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1730364/HansvonHozel. He's... internet-famous enough to have his own TVtropes page, if that means anything. But he's special in the badfic community in that he has a fic for just about every fandom you can think of, whether he actually knows what he's talking about or not (one summary, I quote: "Someone make email and say 'I have request for Warhammer story', only I no know what Warhammer is! Oh no! Anyway here is story". The thing is, each one is about 200 words long - far too short to spork - but there are so many of them, all in the same style (and then there are his RPFs about ABBA and The Beatles)... I was wondering what, if anything, the PPC does in this situation.

#3 dude by Jacer on 2011-09-15 19:02:00 UTC Reply

I call Google Translate. He's not writing in English, he's writing in his own language and using Google Translate. I can't think of any other explanation. It's just the phrasing that GT gives you.

So... by Sergio Turbo on 2011-09-15 19:24:00 UTC Reply

The claim of "writing to improve my english" is ultimately fake.

Either a troll or a guy who uses an excuse for not putting any effort at all in a text. But I'd tend to the troll theory, since one who doesn't want to put effort doesn't write tons of fics.

I second the troll idea. by FlareShard on 2011-09-15 19:39:00 UTC Reply

Because if this guy were really German, he would fail in his native language as well.

And seeing as he uses the word "danube" as a verb so much it essentially has become a catchphrase in his fics, I think he is aware of how horribly his stuff is written, and his incompetence seems more like a parody of badly written fanfiction than anything else, like Squirrelking.

Re: Some questions about sporking protocol by Phobos on 2011-09-15 13:24:00 UTC Reply

1) If they seem concerned that their story contains a Mary Sue, then perhaps they are open to some con-crit. Leave a review of the story where you tell them what they are doing right, and what needs work.

2) The Department of Technical Errors is an overlooked group, but they exist for fics like the one you describe. Check out the Wiki page to learn more.

3) Does the author show any improvement in their English? If not, it is probably a troll. Do with that what you will.
3) What was that guy thinking? by Sergio Turbo on 2011-09-15 08:41:00 UTC Reply

First of all, he says that he's writing to improve his English. Didn't quite work, as the language in the profile is so butchered that can only get worse by disabling spellcheck. (And I didn't even understand if he had a dream in which everything in Berlin was written in English or he seriously thinks that someday that could really happen).
To improve English there's only one realiable way: keep studying it, and then exercize writing. Writing alone won't do you any good.

But, as already said, how could you seriously think of writing a fanfiction for a fandom you DON'T know? Heck, I write missions only for fandoms I know really well, and they require a somewhat lesser degree of canon "manipulation" that writing a good fanfic!

Another idea for sporking could be MSTs, as the lenght of the fic is not an important factor as in missions.
Some answers. by HerrWozzeck on 2011-09-15 03:29:00 UTC Reply
1. For this one, I direct you to Spidey3000, a Super Smash Brothers Stu who was slain by the PPC. However, it turns out that his author had come around, and even makes an appearance in-mission. I suggest you ask Neshomeh about this first, but if they seem concerned about their character being a Mary Sue, it may be best to see what their thoughts on the story are then. I dunno how you'd go about asking that of course, but I'm sure there's a way.
  
  2. Well, it still has bad SPaG, formatting, characterization, and stupidity. That, my dear, is what the Department of Floaters is for. Also, if a character is super OOC, then chances are it's a special kind of Mary Sue called a "Character Replacement". So essentially, you go about the mission watching as word mishaps occur while gathering charges against the replacements and other things like that. Basically, you just make fun of the SPaG and the format while going through the rounds and killing off character replacements.
  
  3. My God, you /know/ it's bad when the freaking list of fandoms you're writing for is a wall of text! Miah actually recently did something where she sporked six short fanfictions in the span of a single mission, so you can probably do something like that.
  
  I'm sure someone else has better answers, but... that's my input on it.

Spidey3000 by Neshomeh on 2011-09-15 13:36:00 UTC Reply

He was a fairly unique case, but I don't see why he couldn't set a precedent. The story is this:

I was directly notified about the story through my website, which has a form for submitting badfic to me—it's anonymous, so I don't know who reported it. I looked it over, said to myself "Okay, yeah, this is pretty terrible" and decided to go ahead and spork it, relying on Phobos to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of Super Smash Bros.

Only later did I read the author's summary, on his main page.

Turns out Spidey3000-the-author actually knew about the PPC, and specifically said "Okay, yeah, this is pretty terrible; don't read it unless you're the PPC looking for work." I was pretty confident getting in touch with him, since he had already abandoned the story and seemed to fully condone it being PPC'd.

I'd be surprised if many authors are quite that supportive up-front, but approaching them with the question of whether they'd mind their story being used as the subject of a parody couldn't hurt—the worst that can happen is they'd say no (give or take calling you a nasty-wasty meen person), and you'd really have to leave it alone at that point.

~Neshomeh

Speaking about that... by Luigifan on 2011-09-17 15:37:00 UTC Reply

I'm still waiting for Aster Corbett to spark "Super Luigi Bros.".
Not usually that supportive, no by LunarHuntress on 2011-09-15 22:51:00 UTC Reply

Generally, the ones I'm seeing don't seem to quite understand the concept of a Mary Sue, and have just been told that their characters are Sues and therefore put that in the notes so people stop flaming them. They tend to say things like "Yes, it's a Mary Sue. Get over it." and "Mary-Sue, don't like don't read" and "MAJOR MARY-SUE! ARLISOFIMLADRIS YOU READIN' THIS YOU WILL FIND A AROARIAN ARROW THROUGH YOUR SKULL IF YOU GIVE ME THE LEAST BIT OF GREIF OR TELL ANYONE ONE LOTRO!"

Wow. Is that last one real? O.o (nm) by Neshomeh on 2011-09-16 03:21:00 UTC Reply

Unfortunately/amusingly, yes by LunarHuntress on 2011-09-16 21:50:00 UTC Reply

And it is quite a Sue. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7090215/1/AllIsFairInLoveandWar

Woooow. by Neshomeh on 2011-09-18 19:37:00 UTC Reply

I skimmed through the first chapter. It has a Nuzgul in it. A real live Nazgul misspelling. I couldn't stop laughing for a while.

-- Art by Pika, concept by Miss Cam.

~Neshomeh