I'm actually in the middle of editing the fics (I started when I was made aware of the similarities between the SSU and the PPC.) If there's anything people want to me to change I would appreciate the input. I’ve seen some good ideas here (like using visors that spot sues instead of the scanners) but I won’t use the ideas without permission from the people who created them. I just want to say that I did NOT steal the neutralizers from you guys, it was from Men in Black and I know it’s not original and its one of things I plan to change. I realise the story is weird and inconsistent, again, something I’m going to go back and change. If anyone gives me ideas I will happily credit them back to the people who made them. Despite the impression I may have given, I don’t like taking credit for stuff that’s not mine.

Also, I just want to say that I got a number of private messages from people who wanted to write their own sue slayer stories after reading about the SSU, so I think you can expect a bit of a boom of stories in this nature. I know it can all be traced back to you guys, the pioneers of sue slayers. Like how the Wolf Man was wonderful and original and is pretty much the parent movie of all werewolf movies since. I think you should be proud of yourselves for creating a new genre and wanted to let you know that I’m not the only one writing about sue slayers (apart from you guys) and I have read a fic about ANOTHER sue slaying organisation in the Maximum Ride section. The PPC and the SSU are not the only ones.

As for charging the sues with their crimes – this was something that was pointed out to me as a similarity. Fair enough. I would like to point out that this wasn’t standard procedure for the SSU, Alex and Alice did it once or twice because they thought it was funny. This is something that I can stop doing if you like. If people want something changed I would appreciate it if you tell me, really.

Or affiliate? Or just become "hey-look-let's-go-swap-stories" type friends? Or- ?
Personally, I don't really mind. Although some people could point out it is really, really similar to PPC.

You guys are being too harsh. There's only so many ways you can do the basic "We fight and kill Mary Sues, etc" dealie.

In other words, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, or get on other people's cases for 'similar' ideas. There are dozens and dozens of badfic fighting societies out there and only so many possible variations, of course there's going to be similarities, especially if she did read PPC stuff. There are only so many ways you can kill a Sue, so many way you can make canon characters forget (pills similar to Torchwood's retcon, MiB neuralyzers, a careful bit of brain trauma, or just kill that fic's version), only so many ways you can watch the action, and so forth.

There's this 'Lemon Fighters' fic out there that has agents, crappy budgeting, departments, and sarcasm and adversarial friendliness between two partners who alternate between picking up the slack for each other, and a fondness for wordplay. It's from early 2001.

Or how about those ACMSES people? They have a Canon Cannon just like we do. Except it does things different. And they have Plothole Generator, which hm. Seem to be Remote Activators under a different name, basically.

Or that group in the Artemis Fowl fandom, which is a bunch of teenaged girls fighting to protect canon.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I think CreativeSprite has made enough changes and has made what she's doing enough of her own thing that us getting on her case about it is just showing a bunch of people who are overly sensitive to other people using the same equipment in a different playground.

After all, we don't give every single PPC agent an animal counterpart to help with CAFs. Or envelopes saying what roles they're supposed to pretend to be and take up while they're in the fic. We don't do multiple chapter fics for missions. There's a continuing storyline, as compared to our favorite way of doing things with a formula. You're all being silly by focusing only on the similarities; when you bring the differences in it's a whole 'nother ballgame.

So it's that, or, y'know, you lot are feeling threatened by it for some reason. Which is really silly, given her reply to Araeph. She's clearly aware of the similarities, but she wouldn't offer to change things if she didn't care; there's respect, which means she doesn't want to offend us.

And for you who are crying about her spelling and grammar? Go reread TOS. Then try and tell me that Jay and Acacia were perfect writers. With a straight face. Hell, go and tell me any of our stuff is perfect with wonderful spelling and grammar when it's put up without a beta going over it. You can manage that, right? Oh, wait, no.

Suck it up. We're not the only ones doing this, it's not just our idea, you're all getting whiny and defensive over something for no good reason.

The very first quote has a grevious punctuation error; any decent beta would have caught the extra apostrophie. That alone makes me think that this 'organsation' is both careless and hypocritical. Not maliciously so, but nonetheless. I don't like it.

Certainly, if someone without any knowledge of the PPC were to create a Sue-Slaying organisation, there are some things that would follow logcially - using in-canon weapons and avoiding interaction with canons - but the use of neuralysers, the style of the charge lists, and the "own 'world'" outside of any fandom are too specific to be natural coincidence.

My impression therefore is that this author read something from the PPC, loved it, but didn't like either our community restrictions or Permission-getting process and decided to strike out on their own. If she's being honest and encountered the PPC later, then I don't approve of her leaving her story up the way that it is - in her shoes, I would instantly take it down or heavily edit - but that's me and my determination not to offend anyone.

That said, I'm not inclined to be nasty about it. If we did present her with a list of things 'too similar that we want her to change' I imagine it would be both very long and poorly recieved, but I'm not ready to write to the FFN admin and try to get her taken down. That's unnecessary and uncalled for. I would rather that she either did some thorough editing and adjusted 'her' ideas so it's not such an obvious parallel, or apply for Permission and then adjust her work so it conforms to our standards - but, again, I don't see that happening.

In short, I'm not happy, but I'm not about to start a fight. In lieu of some very generous offers on her part, I'm inclined to leave it alone.

If you would take her at her word, here are some things that you could suggest:

It would be nice if the 'walking trees' were just background dressing, and the 'screams from the lower parts of the building' are eliminated. As for the 'neuralizors', ask her to use darts filled with Amnesia Potion instead. As for the CAD-like scanners, change them into visors that allow the wearer to see Sue Auras.

Before I knew the PPC, I liked to write little adventures going around resolving horrible fandom issues and battling Mary Sues. Except in my stuff Mary Sues took more of a 'hive-mind aspects of a single Eldrich Abomination' feel to them. In fact, I still like to write them, and I'll be writing one with the help of a friend that actually includes PPC themes and stuff in it.

I think wanting to kill Sues is pretty commonplace...

Idk about stealing the idea, though... *shrug*

"Sue Slaying" and "Killed Badfic", and this is where I found the first PPC named results:
"Sue Slaying: At the bottom of the 4th page.
"killed badfic": First result.
"Badfic Killing": Once again first result.

My point being that a basic "Sue Slaying" search (the most likely search) wouldn't really bring us up unless the searcher has a longer attention span than most googlers.

Although I agree that a polite note might be helpful.

If we're generous, I guess we could write it off as, "Snarky minds think alike."

Seems like a run of the mill cheap knockoff to me.

There are an uncomfortable number of similarities.

Something else that worries me is the number of spelling errors and misused words. This is similar enough that anyone that has read a PPC story is going to think of the PPC when reading this, and she has some rather obvious problems with SPAG. Basically, if she is going to imitate us that closely, then her standards shouldn't reflect poorly on us. (Kind of pretentious sounding, I realize, but it's still my opinion.)

It's obvious she did steal, whether on purpose or not, and I think we have the right to ask her to change some things, like the neuralizors and CADs -- especially the CADs, which you couldn't make up independently. Charge lists make too much sense to complain about.

I think you should either ask her to change and/or tell her she has to put a disclaimer that she is not associated with the PPC.

steal it on purpose, but there are far too many similarities for my comfort... a building "not in any canon", walking trees, a fully stocked armoury, rules about using canon-appropriate weaponry, no contact with the Canons unless necessary, neuralyzers, charges, ending on "being annoying", devices that sound suspiciously like CADs... and that's just from the quotes.

Maybe they can be left alone for now, but if things take any sort of serious downhill turn/they're associated with us/both, I think we might really have to contact them and ask them to knock it off. It reads more like someone's trying to do an unofficial spinoff without having to go through the process of getting Permission - not that I'm saying they are, mind. That's just the sort of impression it gives me.