I think there's something somewhere that says something to the effect of "by writing missions, we're creating more goodfic and thus increasing the average quality of fanfic," but that's not really why we do it. We do it because it's fun and makes us feel better about the existence of badfic. Those of us who actually want to help a particular fic or author improve give concrit. (And no, it doesn't often work.)

Also, "bash" is a strong word. These days we strictly do not bash the authors or even talk about them at all if we can avoid it, and as DawnFire said, we do try to use our missions as a form of critique to point out what doesn't work in a particular story and explain why, though again, the success of this varies. And you're mistaken if you think it's for the badfic author's education. We actually prefer that the authors never find out we sporked their stories. However, we learn from each other, and other people who read PPC missions can learn things from them, too. So that's another way we indirectly improve the quality of fanfiction, and fiction in general.

Have we mentioned that several PPCers have gone on to be published authors, and one that I know of is a professional editor? I recently did some freelance proofreading work myself, as a matter of fact. Dunno if the book will be published yet, but I'd like to think it stands a better chance now. The PPC helped me learn to see what's actually on the page rather than what I expect to be there.

~Neshomeh

That is our means for providing constructive criticism, and how we show how some fanfics did it right. Well, that and offer up badfic for the killing by another group, but tbe that as it may.

I also think that a mission, when done right, should be a humorous dissection into what made a particular fic not work. It's not just poking fun, it is pulling apart the worst of the worst bit by bit to show exactly what the shortcomings were, and possibly how to fix them. Now, not everybody shares this same goal, and that's fine. But when you see one of my missions (you know, some time next year) know that is what I am trying to do.