I don't think the PPC really does anything to help people outside the PPC write better. Those of us doing the sporking--yeah, we learn a lot from it. Many of us spork our own old shames.

What we're doing is more like MST3K than anything educational. We don't notify the people whose stories we're making into parodies. Some missions--the Legendaries, and some of the bleepfics and squickfics--really deserve to be parodied and "killed". Think of the recent "Little Miss Mary" mission, for example: That mission doesn't have very much to do with encouraging better writing; it has everything to do with saying, "Glorifying pedophilia is NOT COOL. Let me show you exactly now non-cool it is."

Sporking an honest effort by a likely young writer, a Mary Sue usually, can be anywhere from hostile to nearly affectionate. I guess it depends on the writer, and what kind of agents they're writing. Personally, if I ever start writing missions, I'm probably going to go at it like, "Yipe, this Mary Sue sucks. Poor baby writer; you'll be embarrassed later. I used to do that too." Because I did. My Mary Sue was an Animorphs 'sue who was the daughter of The Ellimist and literally omnipotent. Yes, really. Oh, and a fighter pilot who was taking calculus at the age of twelve.

I think you have to follow your conscience. Whatever we do here, we shouldn't hurt real people doing it. Whether that means leaving the PPC altogether, writing about untangling bad writing, focusing on the truly reprehensible fics, or writing mostly interludes, you have to be true to what you believe is right.

Personally, I think I want to start writing missions soon, but I want to do it in a way that makes it clear that the PPC, in-universe, is killing 'Sues and exorcising wraiths, instead of just squashing entire universes or promoting universal quarantines, because the writers who write those 'Sues will someday mature into goodfic writers who will strengthen the continua we all love. In the meantime, we do damage control: Kill the 'Sue because her writer, years later, will write goodfic, and it's worth the effort.

I know, it wasn't a question - but it was, really.

There are two main purposes of the PPC - entertainment, and education. I think you know why it's entertaining, so I won't dwell on that. ^_~

But education... aye, there's the rub. Who are we meant to be educating? As you say, writing stories murdering their fics is not a good way to teach authors.

But does it teach other people? I know I learnt a lot about what makes characters bad from reading PPC missions. I know we've had a lot of people come here over the years saying 'I used to write Mary-Sues, but then I found the PPC...'. So I think, really, it does educate - but not the badfic's author.

You've put forward the idea that some (most?) writers of bad fanfiction would improve if they knew they needed to. That definitely didn't used to be the case! Back when the PPC was all about LotR, almost every fic missioned was of the 'if you don't like, don't read/any negative comments are flames!' variety. That's not a parody we created - that's a thing that actually happened, and happened a lot.

But have things changed? I don't know - you tell me! If you think authors of the badfics that get posted on the Board would listen to constructive criticism - why not go and give it? You don't need to mention the PPC, but just reading through their story and providing that concrit - who knows? It might even work.

That goes for everyone, actually: if you're willing to read fics in order to write missions, why not leave a review along the way? It's not going to hurt you! Obviously that doesn't apply to old, abandoned fics, but the ones that are still ongoing... well, why not?

~

One more thing (there's always one more thing...): are we 'mocking people who have not [yet] learned to write decently'? I certainly hope not! Mocking their stories, yes; even mocking their writing. But not them.

hS

We're not fandom police and we're not fandom school. We're not here to educate anybody, save, perchance, for the people who come here seeking concrit. We're writing satire here, mainly for our own and the community's amusement. The thing is, if someone went ahead and published they're fic, it's open to criticism, in whatever form.

Yes, we're being judgemental, no, that's not a bad thing, and no, we're not writing missions for the badfic writers' sake.

And, as Ix mentioned, nobody's forcing you to stay, or to write missions, or to have anything to do with the PPC. It's entirely voluntary, remember?

The FAQ: For Other People? Specifically, these sections?

"You just like bullying people who don't write as well as you."
I don't think there has ever been an occasion where a bullying victim chose to go to school with hair coated in maple syrup, a shirt fished out of the garbage, shoes made of bubble wrap, and vibrantly pink clown make-up; stood in the center of the schoolyard; yelled out for all to hear, "PLS REVUE MY APEARENCE!!!!!1"; and expected—nay, demanded—that no one laugh.

In all seriousness, we strongly object to the idea that putting up poor quality work in a public place is "empowering", and that to comment on the quality is "bullying". No one is making you publish your writing. No one is making you beg for reviews. If you don't like the criticism, you can ignore it, you can not accept it, you can circulate your stories in a closed community. But if you publish it on a place like fanfiction.net, you are implicitly consenting to scrutiny. And we never force anyone to leave a site for any reason, unless they are violating the TOS.


"You are a flamer!"
Politely reminding people to not be lazy asses and that they should take the time to write correctly is not harassment. It's constructive criticism and, on ff.net, it's what you agreed to do when you signed the TOS. It's also something your teachers wish you'd do so they didn't feel driven to get wasted so often because their students are illiterate numpties.


"Cowards! Why do you mock me on your own sites behind my back?"
Well, seeing as we almost always get whining when we criticize your work to your face, it's sometimes less annoying for us to keep you out of our critiques altogether. And then there's the fact that you won't LET us criticize your fic to your face. The most obvious example of this is the fate of the original PPC series. It used to be on fanfiction.net, where everybody could read it and know whose stories were being mocked. That is, before someone got offended and unjustly reported it and got it taken off, thereby causing us to relocate.


"You insulted the story/character, so in a way you insulted me!"
A Mary Sue is not a human being. A Mary Sue is a character type. It's like saying, "Storybook villains are stupid!" Authors of storybook villains may disagree, but you're not insulting a real person if you say that.

In fact, it's a common mistake of Sue-authors to believe that we are directly insulting them instead of berating their characters. There's a world of difference. One is a criticism, and one is a personal attack. You can be a smart and/or good person and still write a truly worthless story—believe me, I've seen it.


"Why don't you just give constructive criticism?"
Because the chances of badficcers benefiting from constructive criticism are slim, at best. Constructive criticism only works when:

The story in question has some merit to begin with. Before you "construct" anything, you need a foundation to construct it on. In this case, the foundation is the badficcer's basic understanding of English and the canon of a particular fandom. If there is no foundation—if the only advice we can give is, "Next time, please read the book you're supposedly a fan of!" or "Perhaps you could have a third-grader instruct you on the proper use of punctuation?"—then there's really no point in our giving criticism of the constructive kind. We are here to enjoy fanfic; we are not Remedial Writing 101.

The author actually cares about the fanfic s/he is writing. More than once, I've caught blatant admissions that the badfic authors wrote a fic down while on the phone, in class, or watching TV. If that's the case, we'll have put more effort into our critique than they'll have put into writing the fic in the first place. To mock such a fic will give us entertainment; critiquing it seems like a waste of our time.

The author is receptive to our critique. This is rarely the case in badfic. It's one of the many problems with creating a Mary Sue: since the Suethor identifies with the character so strongly, s/he tends to treat even slightly negative comments about said character as a terrible personal insult.

So while it's not unheard-of for us to leave constructive feedback, we don't always feel the need to waste our time honestly critiquing a story for someone who will not benefit from it and/or who did not put any effort into the story in the first place.


But, if you want to leave, that's entirely up to you. We won't try to stop you.

We're primarily a satire group. We exist primarily to entertain the mass off the same manner that a group of people use to Roast another, singular person (I really need the watch the JB roast). That being said another of our primary goals is to help people improve their writing, whether it be in the field of Characters, Canon, Writing, or whatever other help the person needs.

And if you don't want to hurt another person's feelings you cold always start playing around in the canon of the "Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society" (We should really try get a crossover with that group).