Subject: I think the other problem is learning to balance it all out.
Author:
Posted on: 2015-03-17 12:12:00 UTC
I'm part of two roleplay sites as well, and then there's school... Especially on school - depending on homework amount, I might not be able to be on once my spring break is over. Just giving out that warning.
Oh, and I'll be away from home from Friday night to Saturday noon - family outing, and I won't be able to contact you guys while that happens.
....without much danger of getting them taken down?
I found an LOTR badfic that's making me want to tear my hair out.
There's a unicorn (a creature who does not exist in Middle Earth) who's a pet of the Sue. But wait, it's not just a unicorn. It's an ALICORN. For those of you who don't know the meaning, it's a term from My Little Pony for a cross between a pegasus and a unicorn. And not only that, this alicorn can look just like a normal black horse if he wants to, so he's always called a horse. And it belonged to Sauron, but somehow only the Sue can tame him, and he's got superpowers. And although he was Sauron's pet, he's not evil!
That's just one of the major problems.
I wanna claim it when I think enough time has passed for a Permission request. The other problem is, I'm sort of afraid to ask, because I have a nagging feeling I'll be refused, which I can understand, but still...
Not to backseat PG or anything, but:-
You haven't been here long enough.
Much of your posting has concerned your desire for Permission.
You don't seem that bothered about the Board itself; we're a community first and a mission-going organization a very distant second.
So yeah, at present, slim to none by my reckoning. Being refused permission isn't the end of the world though; you still have the Board to hang around, after all. =]
I'm trying to find other posts to find other topics of discussion, things that I know about. Still learning my way around… I'm sorry that I'm too focused on Permission and all.
Thanks for the clarification. Now I think I understand better.
The problem is, I'm trying not to feel a taaad bit...well...bored? Well, not exactly bored...
Okay, let me try again.
The thing is, there aren't many conversations I feel like I can join because I either have no knowledge about the subject, or more commonly, the subjects have so many posts that it feels useless to go and post because the conversation is done, or my own opinion has already been spoken by another, or just because of how long one post can become with comments. I feel trapped, like there's not many options and there's not much to do besides simple chatting. I'm okay with chatting, but if that's it, then... You get the idea? Like there's no room for creativity, though I know that's not entirely true.
If and when you do get Permission, that won't mean you've 'completed' your socialising and can now stop. The PPC Community is about interaction, whether you're writing missions on the side or not. If you talk a lot, get Permission, and then suddenly go silent, we're going to look quite askance at that.
But yeah, I know what you mean. I'm the second most prolific poster on the Board (after Iximaz, who I think posts while she sleeps), but I've only posted a handful of times since the Shipfest ended - and all of those posts were related to dead authors. Because, yeah, none of the threads currently above that interest me (well, I read Rose Potter Mission 3, but don't have anything to say about it).
But next week, there'll be four or five new threads topping the Board, and maybe those will be more interesting. I've got a couple in mind to start myself, actually. So while I'm still compulsively checking the Board, I'm not saying anything.
And that's fine. The Board isn't going anywhere. If it takes you a week or two to find a thread to sink your teeth into - well, so what? By the end of the year, you won't remember the difference.
I realise it's frustrating now - it's frustrating for me, too (possibly more so, since when I joined virtually every thread was relevant to my interests). But it'll pass. Give it - give us - time.
hS
I'm part of two roleplay sites as well, and then there's school... Especially on school - depending on homework amount, I might not be able to be on once my spring break is over. Just giving out that warning.
Oh, and I'll be away from home from Friday night to Saturday noon - family outing, and I won't be able to contact you guys while that happens.
....reading other missions puts me into overdrive to plan and write my own... *groan* I know some of you will say that's a good thing, but the excitement is hard to control.
The other problem is that some aspects of the Wiki make it seem like it's all about the missions. Even the first thing you see on the Board, about reading the Series and the Rules, is instantly followed with a suggestion to go check out the list of Unclaimed Badfic. Read: Read all this and then go pick out a fun-looking mission right away!
I know the rules say otherwise, but if you haven't read the rules before coming to the Board, like I did once accidentally, this will be the impression you get. It was the message I got.
The first thing you see on the Board says nothing about the Unclaimed Badfic list. We give nine links: TOS, the Killed Badfic list, and the Complete List (for missions to read); the IRC, Constitution, and Wiki; and three FAQs.
But yes, the Wiki feels like it's all about the missions, for a very good reason: it's primarily a wiki of the shared universe, not the community. We've used it to host community stuff - the FAQs, articles about Permission, etc etc - but in its original conception and primary use, it's a resource for 'wasn't there an agent in Floaters who did something like this once?' and 'who else has written about Admiral Pansy?'. It's not - no, it wasn't intended to be the public face of the PPC, though it's fairly clearly become such.
As to wanting to write missions... why not write something else? Heck, why not write something else with your prospective agents - before they joined the PPC, or in an AU where they never did? Fleshing out their characters, even if you never show anyone, is always worthwhile.
hS
Crate them, yes, but not use them beforehand.
You can use characters you designed as agents for the PPC however you want - they're your characters. You can't use them for PPC missions yet, because you don't have permission, but other than that? It is, as they say, your party.
In fact, I'd encourage it. I recall coming up with the Notary for use in one of the Board's RPs (Gallifrey Bickers, a transcript of which is availabubble here), and she's actually grown into one of the more popular ones to use around here. It's not often people get to write for someone that genuinely awful, after all. Because I used her in a variety of interesting ways, I actually got a lot better as a writer - to the point where I felt able to give her a proper tragic backstory that features no tragedy at all, something of a feat. Give it a whirl, old spot, you might be surprised at what comes out. =]
It's merely you can't write (or is it publish, I can't quite remember) missions with them in before you gain permission.
But I did have a very disconcerting dream last night that I got a lot of backlash for Part 6. ^^; Like, long, detailed posts and everything. My brain is weird.
You won't. Now have a cup of tea and chill out, we love you here, remember? =]
I have no doubt that you'll be fine. We've talked about this - you are a fantastic writer and I know that you will handle whatever may happen admirably. We won't bite, promise! (Well, unless Shipfest rolls around again... :P)
So if you want to have another 'roll' you still can :p
Sometimes you just don't feel like there's much you can contribute to a thread, so you don't post. As someone who is still learning to become more talkative here, you're on the right track. Jump in on what you can, but don't feel like you half to jump on everything. Someday there will be a thread you will excel in, and it will help immensely. Just have to wait and see!
You can go ahead and put that fic on the Claimed Badfics page of the Wiki so no one else steals it. Just make sure to note your claim is 'Permission Pending'.
What would be the minimum time for me to wait before I request Permission? Because I don't want to spend all my time getting anzty waiting without knowing a probable deadline. Also so I don't ask too early and embarrass myself...
-Tries to put the Hat on-
That's mighty uncomfortable... Anyway, I remember something about at least a month, but that's just a rule of thumb.
We say to wait for X amount of time before requesting Permission, but that's just so you can hang around the Board and become a part of the community. If you see it as a deadline or a hurdle to be cleared, well, ur doin it rong. =]
Despite what my activity probably seems to say, missions aren't the only thing about the PPC. We're here to celebrate fandoms and have fun! If you focus just on getting Permission, you're not just missing the point, but a lot of fun stuff, too. Heck, most people only write one or two missions and stop. Don't worry so much about Permission and hang out! Talk, share stories, opinions, get to know people. There's a lot of cool stuff going on here. :)
But if you feel like I'm doing one thing in favor of another, let me know.
At least those used to be one of the most common sites. I know a few people use Tumblr, too, and Google Docs/Google Drive, though Tumblr and Drive are a bit harder to leave comments and concrit I think. Wordpress or Blogspot might not be bad ideas either, honestly. Depends on how much time you want to invest into this I suppose.
I wouldn't risk ff.net, or AO3. I know at one point stuff like PPC missions was actually banned from The Pit.
... I meant to say that LJ and DW used to be TWO of the most common sites, not one. I dunno how that slipped past me.
From what I've seen, most authors either link to a Google Document or use a specific web page for their missions.
However... It seems a bit early for you to be considering missions. You'll need Permission first (you've read what is needed for that, yes?), and one of the requirements for that is time. Wait a bit, let us get to know you more in the community, and then submit your characters and writing prompts once they are ready.
It's better for her (her? I keep forgetting people's pronouns) to ask now than to break her head on the question later one.
That said, Silenthunder, Darkotas is basically right; most people link to a GDerp or (also quite popular) use LiveJournal. A couple people have their own sites (ie, hS and Nesh) but I've no idea how that works.
hS and I use free webhosting services—Webs and Tripod, respectively. They give you a certain amount of storage, and you can build whatever kind of site you want (within their TOS). You don't even have to know HTML/CSS to take advantage of them these days, since they provide WYSIWYG sitebuilding services. I don't like those, personally, because I find them restricting, but that's not to say they aren't great for other people.
However, Webs has repeatedly proven to be THE WORST in terms of pages/sites randomly going down for dubious reasons (note that hS stores most of his actual stories on GDocs now), so I'd recommend Tripod more than ever. They do put obnoxious ads on your pages, but since just about everyone uses AdBlocker or the like these days, it's not that big of a problem. Also, the only trouble I've ever had from them in over ten years is one instance of the Lost Tales site going down because of an alleged TOS violation on one page, and the issue was easily resolved. Their customer service was very helpful.
There are others, too—I think Google has one—but I'm not familiar with them. Like I said, I've been with Tripod for ten years, no complaints.
~Neshomeh
I've been a member of that since 2011/12, but I'm afraid a mission could get taken down... Then again, all the forbidden things that site says not to write almost never gets taken down. Like the expressly forebidden M-rated fics, which I see on the archives all the time. It's sad.
We had that problem very often in the past - probably because the authors of the sporked fics tend to discover them more easily and so report the PPCer.
Why fics with graphic, badly written sex stay on the site despite being clearly against the rules while the sporking of these gets taken down for a "gray area" offense is a question that is probably best left unanswered.
Anyway, does anyone think I should try Fanfiction.Net, or is it too risky?
As has been mentioned, PPC: Driftwood has been sitting there quite happily for half a year now. I'm actually in favour of posting PPC stories where people can stumble across them, because otherwise we won't get any new members - that's pretty much what TVTropes has done, in fact.
But. But I keep every Driftwood mission hosted entirely separately on my site (as Google Docs linked from a Webs.com page). But I've deliberately written Driftwood to be much 'kinder' than the typical PPC mission - check out 'Agent Kaitlyn's Concrit' at the end of each chapter. But... well, honestly, but if you antagonise FF.net readers, the lashback might hit missions other than yours.
So yeah. It depends.
hS
You can always try it and just be sure to keep an up to date copy in case something happens. That way, at worst you'll just have to repost it somewhere (though you would lose any reviews...)
At the end of the day, it's your choice. Just remember to keep a back-up.
~DF
Apparently a fan reported me to an author and called me a flamer, but the guy never actually took any action. It was weird.