Subject: Not usually.
Author:
Posted on: 2009-12-21 05:14:00 UTC
In general we don't tell them, because we write the missions for ourselves, not them. Also, more importantly, waving the mission under the writer's nose would probably just result in bad feeling and possibly ignite a flame war, which nobody wants.
On the other hand, if you know the writer would be a good sport about it, there's no reason not to tell them.
~Neshomeh
When one is writing a PPC mission do you have to tell the BadFic's author you're doing it? Should you tell them at all?
~Bryn
what do you do if the BadFic you're about to go into isn't finished? Do you tell the author to stop? And then if they don't stop say stop again?
Or do you just do the mission and then return to it if s/he/it continues the BadFic afterwards?
Or if you've killed the 'Sue do you just let it go once you've done the original mission and leave it at that.
just a minor confusion.
~Bryn
When Pads and I sporked LittlefootxCera, it wasn't finished. So we did one huuuuuuge mission up to the final posted chapter, and then as other chapters came out we sporked them individually. But I would only advocate this as a method for something where you can keep the hilarity going. If it's going to be boring, don't do it.
And the safest thing to do regarding authors is not to contact them, not to talk about them, not to do anything. We list their names with their fics on the wiki because they did write them and put their names to them, so we credit the author in that way. But we don't really want them to find out what we do with their work, because when you get right down to it, this is something we do for fun, not because we're internet police, or on some grand mission. And it'll hurt their feelings if they find out what we do. They're 99.9999% not bad people, just bad writers. Why spoil their day?
In these cases, you need to look at how long it is since the fic was updated. If it's a year or more, it's probably safe to assume that the author has abandoned it and won't be coming back.
You can PPC an incomplete fic. In most cases those missions would also end up with a dead Sue.
I don't think there is a point in going back into a fic if the author continues it, unless they explicitly resurrect the Sue you killed and their story becomes a critique of your mission, like your mission was a critique of their story. That could get confusing.
So, yes to your last question/suggestion.
And you don't tell the author to stop, you give them pointers how to improve their story. PPC-ers don't actually police the fandom. So, unlike the police, we can't tell authors whether or not they can or cannot continue down the road they are traveling on.
But I also post my missions on FFnet which makes it more likely that someone stumbles across a mission than if I posted on LJ or on a private website. My message is:
Hi,
I'm sending you this message to let you know that I've written a spoof of INSERT TITLE. The spoof is not meant as a personal attack on you as the author of this story, but if you have a strong attachment to the character of INSERT NAME OF SUE OC I suggest you don't read chapter CHAPTER NUMBER of INSERT TITLE OF APPROPRIATE PPC SERIAL.
I think that has gotten me three or four author reactions, and the most negative was "Hey, you said your wrote a story about my story, but I don't see it". Because I also usually wait a few days for a reaction before I post the chapter.
In general we don't tell them, because we write the missions for ourselves, not them. Also, more importantly, waving the mission under the writer's nose would probably just result in bad feeling and possibly ignite a flame war, which nobody wants.
On the other hand, if you know the writer would be a good sport about it, there's no reason not to tell them.
~Neshomeh
I was just wondering if it was a rule or something of the PPC. Thanks for the information :-)