Subject: We do keep getting new members somehow.
Author:
Posted on: 2014-06-12 17:33:00 UTC
Out of everyone who reads a mission, we can assume there are (basically) four groups:
1. Loved it so much they decided to join.
2. Enjoyed it, but not enough to comment.
3. Disliked it, but not enough to comment.
4. Hated it so much they decided to lash out.
We know that non-PPCers read missions because some of them either join up or do something to let us know they hate us. I'm assuming total readership represents a bell curve, though, because that's usually how this sort of thing works, so there must be plenty of people in group 2 who read and learn from missions without saying anything directly about it; they just silently go on to write better fic, having learned what sorts of things to avoid. (Meanwhile, there are probably people in group 3 who learn to improve in other ways and people in group 2 who enjoy without learning anything, but that's beside the point.)
So that's how missions effect change even though we don't inform individual authors about them.
I don't know if I buy that all satire is public. Certainly the famous satirists we've all heard of were, but not everyone can be famous.
But, lemme try putting it another way: When it comes to who sees a mission and who sees concrit, the question should be who stands to benefit from it. Fic authors do not stand to benefit from seeing a mission to their fic—they stand to take it personally and be insulted and angry. People who are not the author, and especially other PPCers, do stand to benefit, because they'll be able to enjoy the huor and appreciate the instructive parts without taking it personally.
On the other hand, fic authors do stand to benefit from concrit given in a polite and level manner. So, if you really care about giving advice and helping individual writers improve, the best tool for that job is concrit, not a mission. (And as Herr points out, even that doesn't always work. In those cases a mission wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell.)
~Neshomeh