Minis aren't official unless there's a story for them.

I think I found a new mini-Aragog by RinaAndRanda (Rina) on 2014-02-26 11:43:00 UTC Reply

This one's named 'Mcgonagoll', and I didn't see it on the list of mini-Aragogs, so yeah.

If/when Randa and I get permission, we can adopt him, right?

Minis aren't official unless there's a story for them. by Outhra on 2014-02-26 14:59:00 UTC Reply

Or rather, to rephrase what I couldn't say because the title line doesn't allow for enough letters, minis don't "count" unless they spawned from a misspelling in a badfic or were seen as a guard in an OFU. Otherwise, people would just site-search the Pit for specific misspellings and overwhelm us with new minis. Someone used to actually do that a while back, and now we have six or seven entire species of minis that didn't come from OFUs or missions.

To correct for potential confusion, when people on the Board call out one another's misspellings by saying "oh, look, there's a mini here that I hadn't seen around before you made your post", it's just for fun. Those minis don't get added to the official count, or at least they don't most of the time. There's always a chance that someone might get attached to a particular misspelling and write it into a mission as a mini that had been adopted by an Agent off-screen, but that doesn't happen often.

So, if you can find a particular badfic that Mcgonagoll comes from, then the mini would be born in-universe, and if you can come up with way to visit a mini-Aragog adoption Center or the HFA, you might be able to skate around the usual restrictions. Aside from that, no.

Okay, thanks! by RinaAndRanda (Rina) on 2014-02-26 21:11:00 UTC Reply

And thanks also to hS.

Mcgonagoll was in a badfic we're planning on tackling as our first mission if we get permission.

I feel kind of weird now- I just realized most questions I ask involve 'what ifs' that only apply to people who've been granted permission. I just want to make sure our first mission goes smoothly, or as smoothly as can be expected, but I'm wondering if I'm coming off as arrogant or desperate.

No, no, it's good. by Lily Winterwood on 2014-02-27 00:22:00 UTC Reply

That way the rest of us are all on the same page as well.

As long as your very frequent questions aren't all about you and your personal Permission request, it's fine. And sometimes, even asking for advice on your personal request is good, too.

We just get a bit iffy on posting so many threads that older ones get bumped off the first page, because we infrequently check older pages.

Phew :/ by RinaAndRanda (Rina) on 2014-02-27 01:43:00 UTC Reply

That's good to hear. I always check on the Wiki, but my mind is a bit odd and comes up with weird questions or observations. ;) I'm usually kind of hesitant to post a new question because the old questions and threads are, like you said, always being bumped off the first page. I think I'm getting used to things more, but it still never hurts to ask. I wish I'd realized that when I first showed up here; it would have saved me a lot of uncertainty.

Randa and I* are working on polishing the sample I wrote, so I want to make sure I have all the bases covered and don't do something silly when I ask. You know, just SPaG, characterization, story flow, the usual. My grammar is almost perfect when I'm writing longhand, but transcribing it to a digital format has left me with some pretty embarrassing mistakes before ('juggles' instead of 'Muggles' comes to mind...).

Long narcissistic rambling concluded. Thank you, Miss Lily! *salutes*

*I'm going to do the majority of the writing, as I'm hoping to be a published author someday and think this would make excellent practice outside of my own fanfics, but I have a very low tolerance for badfic (like, screaming-out-loud-and-throwing-things low tolerance). Randa hates badfic, too, and is made of sterner stuff in many ways, but her talents definitely lie in drawing. So she came up with her agent, I came up with mine, we've done some practice sporkings, and she checks what I wrote to make sure her agent's in character. Yay teamwork!

A double clarification. by Huinesoron on 2014-02-26 16:38:00 UTC Reply

Obviously, people searching FFN for minis does lead to specific badfics with them in - which is why the PPC-standard rule is that the badfic has to be the subject of a mission to count.

This rule doesn't necessarily hold for specific species - the ones who have an active Adoption Centre runner. In the case of OFUDisc, I will only accept mini-Luggages who are found in missions or my own writings; any others can be played with for fun, but do not exist in-universe. And since I keep hold of them with an iron fist, no-one should have a mini-Luggage without them getting it from me. (Though a) I'm happy to grandfather in any which predate OFUDisc, and b) I'll give them to anyone who asks ;)).

The same, I believe, goes for Cassie, who runs the mini-Balrog Adoption Centre. I don't know about the other current OFU-writers we have around (though there's a thread about that... I think I'll ask). For those OFUs whose heads are gone, or those minis which aren't from OFUs, the standard rules apply - it shows up in a mission, or it shouldn't show up at all.

hS