The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Congratulations, both of you!

See, I told you guys you had nothing to worry about, now didn't I? :-D

Re: how the granting works, I'm not a PG, although by my recollection they're both granted permission according to the wiki. I could be misremembering, though.

Do I know you?
I've certainly seen you both around, at least. Check.

Can you write (technical)?
I didn't notice any SPaG errors or run-on sentences. Solid.

Do I like your agents?
Their profiles look solid (Though I did raise an eyebrow at the 'warped' sense of morals for Alexander until you clarified it was thanks to his medieval upbringing), and I particularly like the detail about Ce'rana needing to carry an acorn from her home tree to survive. The control prompt mentioned her keeping her tree in the RC... I assume it's either been shrunk down and potted, or it's rather young?

Do I like your prompts?
I liked them! The bickering over how to move into the RC in the first prompt was fun and gives me a sense these two are going to argue about the 'proper' way to do things a lot, especially since it felt like both of them were convinced they were right and their partner was wrong. I liked the second prompt better, though—it showed how they work together, and it was creative in how the agents interacted with the Minecraft world to take down the Sue. And it made me actually laugh in places— “You know, this would be a lot nicer if you were a Ghast.”
The brightly-colored Blaze took offense to that, if the number of fireballs focused directly on him was anything to go by. in particular made me giggle.

Badfic?
Even I've heard of this. Looks good to me.



So, it is with great pleasure, I get to say...



(Other PGs, this does bring up a question, though—the last time two people applied to write together was for me and Randa, but since I was the main writer I was the one who got the Permission—I assume that, since Mikel and Cali are both going to be writing, they have Permission independent of each other?)

This is actually an excellent spell. It blends wizardry with the sort of deep knowledge of physics and engineering that most wizards won't have. It's also a relatively cheap spell, since the power node (at bottom) indicates that it should take its energy from the volcano itself. (In full, the power circle reads: "Power source: [volcano] at focus of circle - chamber and flow. No power limit to ensure safety.")

Unlike Jacob and Lise's wizardry, this one is stuffed with arguments and persuasion, as well as technical data in the joined circles. They're not perfect - notably, it simply asserts that the spell won't hurt anything, without actually addressing the question of how the volcano feels about it (so to speak) - but with a bit of tweaking it could be a first-class spell, and be included in the Manual as a named spell.

Except for the minor fact that the name is all wrong and so it went very badly. But other than that--!

hS

When you don't put anything in the actual message section of your post it attaches the little (nm) to the end of the subject line. It's just an abbreviation of 'no message'.

I've been wondering for a while what the (nm) thing some of you put on the end of your posts actually means. Can you help me out with that, please?
Sorry, I'm far too curious for my own good.

Certainly don't feel like it sometimes, but it must be the old age eating away at my memory :p

So yeah... Hi I'm Novastorme, you won't see me posting on the board all that much, it's not because I'm not interested, I just don't have a massive amount of time on my hands. I will occasionally post writing prompts on the Board (yes, yes I know you're overdue one I meant to do it yesterday), and they're meant to be little things that don't even have to involve your PPC characters if you want. I'm more active on the Discord, although I do mainly lurk there, and then occasionally drop into the conversation (much like I am on the Board just with greater frequency), and I'm always interested in playing games (especially multi-player/co-op ones), so if there's a game you want to play with/against a Brit, let me know and I'll see if my laptop can handle it.

I don't write a lot, I have got Permission and have got a Prelude for those agents out (and nothing else) although I am currently planning missions for two other teams (when I find badfic for them to mission). When I do write it's more often than not either a little bit of one of the fanfics that I've got planned, or my own original story that has gone through more iterations than I care to remember. I also do quite a bit of online RPing on another forum, and that will occasionally bleed through into here, either with my want to get a D&D group up and running on our Discord (or maybe elsewhere if others want it there), or with some of my agent ideas coming from said RP's.

I can't remember any real embarrassing newbie stuff that I did, although I do remember Nesh saying that I had perhaps the cutest Mini-Aragog in existence, when in my first fanfic I wrote, (which was also a badfic) from before I joined the PPC (and in fact lead me to joining the PPC), I misspelled Hufflepuff to... Hugglepuff.

Novastorme
Who writes a lot and on second though can see why he could be intimidating.

Hello!

Newbie here - I poked my head in before disappearing for a few months, and now I'm back (to some extent).

Looking at your first post, where you claimed you were probably just passing through, I'm curious - what about the PPC contributed to your decision to stick around?

Also, I re-read the entirety of the Animorphs series this past summer - well, perhaps I should just say "read" since I never finished all of them or read them in order before - and I would love to talk more about them sometime!

First of all, it's great to meet a fellow resident of Fallen London!

I agree that I find this mechanic to be a lot more tolerable there than in other places, but I'm not entirely sure why. I was wondering if you could share what you think makes Fallen London stand out in that regard.

I, too, have been sticking it out because I want to know what happens, but I am annoyed at the energy system.

Maybe if they had a better balance - where, say, paying means you can progress faster by doing less of the many repetitive tasks, but you can still have things to do without spending real-world money, I think I'd be less frustrated.

*mild spoilers?*
Another thought that the game seems, thus far, to be copying a lot of bits from the original books - characters that are suspiciously similar to Malfoy and Neville (if less fleshed-out) and a whispered voice only you can hear that is very reminiscent of the Chamber of Secrets.

So I started graduate school last year. I have a friend, who has become one of my closest friends, and who gets a LOT of the same reactions hS does from people who don't know him. Fear, awe/respect, and some suspicion of arrogance/condescension. This is for three reasons.

First, he has an incredibly wide vocabulary. Dude is smarter than anyone I know. People suspect him of using large words and precise language to be a jerk, often not realizing that's just how he talks.

He LOVES language, and loves using it, and is incredibly thoughtful in his responses and statements. This often leads to people feeling overwhelmed with how to respond, and slinking away from dosagreements rather than trying to think carefully and craft a response. In arguments with my friend, I often have to tell him, hold up - I need a minute to analyze and get back to you. When he makes long, exhaustively detailed responses, he isn't trying to shut others down, but the opposite - he's trying to give their perspective the full attention and care it (and they) deserve(s).

I'm being deliberately vague about which person I mean, because I do think this is a people being intimidated by communication style thing, but the third reason is that my friend dresses nicely, wears Serious Glasses and a beard, and always looks like he's Very Seriously and Potentially Angrily disagreeing, even when he's not at all.

He combats this impression of himself by being aggressively cheerful, friendly, and also a genuinely kind person whose critique is always intended to be helpful rather than mean.

Huinesoron does this also, but doesn't have the option of grinning widely and using a Super Cheerful Tone, which means that even his super-friendly, super-helpful posts scare people, because they're long and use a certain formality of speech. So I'm at a loss, as I always am when this has come up, for the past thirteen years, for ways to explain to newbies that they should always, always apply the constitution to hS, specifically the part about assuming the best intentions, because, and I cannot stress this enough, he does have the best intentions* and try to have the self-confidence to think through his replies and respond to them honestly and thoughtfully, rather than back away scared.







* How can you tell the difference between someone who's an arrogant ill-intentioned person who likes to sound smart, and a well-intentioned person who loves language and words? The person who is your friend and ally will admit when they are wrong, and if asked for more explanation, will cheerfully provide it. I have never seen hS fail to do either.

It's nice to hear from you again! (I admit I haven't really tried to get in touch much, but that's because I figured you were busy. Sorry.).

I'll be moving up to Seattle in ~September and I'd be happy to meet up if you find an excuse to get out there. From the looks of it, Seattle seems to be a PPCer attractor.

On that note, do you have a preferred way for me to get in touch with you? (Email's clickable.)

Joined the Board as Barid, but changed it when I decided to make a self-insert...who may still be lost in HQ somewhere. Never did get back to him.

Anyway, I never was a newbie. I appeared on the board as a fully formed midbie. Mostly that's due to listening to Nesh talk about stuff while we were dating.

I write stuff, but only like once every couple of years (see: Agent Phobos, above) so there are a lot of loose ends hanging around. I do intend to get back to Agent Decima, Barid and Brightbeard, Agent(?) Phobos, Catastrophe Theory, Going Postal, Temporally Offended (still not officially a thing yet), Baron Phobos, Troll shenanigans. All of that stuff is planned, but in various states of disorganization.

A large part of the reason none of that stuff is getting done is that I spend a substantial amount of time being a semi-professional Magic: the Gathering player. I travel to regional events quarterly and grind local tournaments pretty constantly. I also write a Magic blog over at BadMoonMTG. I think it's pretty all right, but I don't have the time to really get it off the ground via social media.

Anyway, that's me. Now taking questions, I guess?

-Phobos

I Don't Hang Out Here Anymore, much, really, for a variety of complicated reasons some of which are busy-ness and some of which are mental health related, but I'm an oldbie as of I think 2005 and I'm here to say: you're going to UW?! I can actually meet you once I actually have a chance to go visit Juliette and Maslab again!

(Both of whom I owe an apology, since Life Happened and I never responded to last thing.)

To get more flavor out of any tea, use more of it. If you try steeping it longer, you'll eventually hit a point where it's either a) too bitter if it's a tannin-containing blend, or b) as strong as it's ever going to get. Oversteeping is the easiest way to ruin a good pot of tea. Some black and green teas are extremely sensitive (or just harsh) and really only need a minute.

If your mango peach green tea has chunks of fruit in it, you definitely want to use more than you would with a simple cut leaf tea that will fill your measuring device with less air between the pieces. Because physics. The terminology escapes me.

With fruit teas, I also recommend adding sweetener to taste—the least amount necessary to heighten the flavor and balance the acidity of the fruit without making your tea taste mostly of sugar/honey/whatever. YMMV.

With good loose teas, you can probably get more than one steeping out of them. The flavor won't be as strong the second time, but that's okay if it's still a nice flavor.

The quality of your water will affect the flavor of your tea, so if your tap water is iffy, use a filter device of some sort. This is probably a wise investment anyway. (I should take my own advice on this.)

What else do you want to know?

~Neshomeh

I've recently acquired more sophisticated tea-making supplies (a teapot that can do lose-leaf), and I'd like my ear talked off about the subject. I've found I like the fruit-y teas. (One thing I noticed is that, when I tried to brew one of the samples of a mango peach green tea, the flavor didn't seem to come through, unlike with the black or herbal ones. How could've that happened?)

Also, thanks for explaining what was with your emoticons. I've been curious for a while, but never got around to asking.

- Tomash

The website Television Tropes and Idioms (TvTropes) has seveal pages for fanfic tropes, some of which are staples of badfic. I've noticed that the pages "Draco In Leather Pants" and "Ron The Death Eater," which refer to when a villain is considered good, and also attractive, by the fandom, and when a hero is considered evil by the fandom, respectively, have ever expanding lists of fanfic where characters are ridiculously OOC.

Like Juliette, I've been here about 15 years now. I can date how long I've definitely known about the PPC to June 2003, anyway, based on my ff.net review history. Probably a bit earlier. I turned 18 that month. I'm 32 now, and I live in Chicago with Phobos, my husband, who is also 32 now. I have a cat named Merlin. He is about 18. Behold my cat pics if Photobucket behaves!

When I was a newbie, I still spent a lot of time RPing on Neopets. This was one of my characters. *cringe* Some of the Boarders at the time (I don't remember who) gave me some good advice on making her less Sueish, such as not having her share a name with one of the Valar for crying out loud. >.> They also gave me some other good language/naming tips, which is why the ones there now aren't terrible. The PPC was the first place I met people who knew more about Tolkien than I did—like a lot more—and that experience was the beginning of how I learned to be less of an arrogant little tosser. ^^

The PPC also helped teach me not to hate slash and shipping in general by way of teaching me that asexuality is a thing. I am definitely demisexual if not ace; how I feel about it varies. I thought everyone else was crazy for being so into all that stuff. Turns out they're not—and neither was I for not being into it. Go figure! These days, I enjoy reading and writing good shipping of all kinds, and have even written some M/M smut that people liked!

I didn't actually write a mission on my own until 2007, because at first I wasn't sure about the whole Sue-killing thing and I didn't come up with characters besides my self-insert until 2005, when I started writing Supernumerary and Cameo for games of Fill the Plothole (which was totally doing it wrong, but we were bad at telling people "no" back then). I rather quickly realized Cameo was a terrible agent, though, so I was stuck again until Twiggy Papaya recruited Ilraen in 2007 and let me adopt him.

My earliest contributions to the PPC, around 2004-2005, were the Glossary of Useful Technology and the Substance Menu 2.0, which NenyaQuende was good enough to link from the PPC Handbook. I also did a lot of work on the <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/ppcmanual/index.htm">PPC Manual, Second Edition (which seems to be down again as of posting this; dammit Webs). And then the wiki came along and made it all obsolete. So when I have nothing else to do, I work on that instead. {= D

... I never have nothing else to do. I have too many things to do all the time. And that is why I rarely actually get anything done.

What else? According to every personality test I've ever taken, it is difficult to be more introverted than I am. Occasionally, the effort of making conversation feels so huge that I just drop off the face of the Internet without notice for a week or two at a time. To everyone I ever have left or will leave hanging in e-mail, as a beta, as a co-writer, or anything at all, I apologize.

I'm pretty sure I'm the original PPC tea nut. I'm just quieter about it.

Oh, people often wonder about the curly bracket in my emoticons. My favorite TV show of all time is Farscape. I will never stop trying to get people to watch it. My Internet home before the PPC Board was a fansite called Friends and Defenders of Pilot, and we used the curly bracket to represent Pilot's carapace. I never stopped. {= )

Um... yeah! Anything else you want to know?

~Neshomeh

I mostly try to dredge fics from Quotev, but I will check other sites on occasion. Might just poke around those spots on your lead.

Thank you for sharing this with me (:.

I mostly look for more... racy fic than your average Sue, but I still look for other things on occasion.

What I usually do on fanfiction.net is exclude works under 1000 words, sometimes even works under 5000. Most of the things on the Pit are oneshots or just getting started, so it's hard to tell if they're going to be bad enough or long enough to be entertaining.

On AO3, I've found it useful to sort fics by how many hits they have. Oddly enough, the things with the most hits can sometimes be the worst fics around. AO3 makes it much easier to find badfic (or goodfic, for that matter) because of their tagging system; once you find a tag that has a lot of terrible things written for it, you can just search for that tag later.

Beyond that, there's a lot of reading summaries and hitting that "Next" button at the bottom of the page.

hS gave me the crown of Oldbie-ness, even though I've not been around nearly as long as some people have—four years and a bit for me—so I guess it counts.

I love fantasy and sci-fi, and will kick your butt in Harry Potter trivia. Currently have big dreams to run camera for Doctor Who someday in the far, far future. I'm contenting myself with writing a very cranky Time Lord agent in the meantime. I've got a bit of a reputation for writing a lot and doing horrible things to my characters. It miiight not be completely unfounded.

I'm about to turn 21, want to do film stuff with the big fancy cameras, might or might not be moving to London in a few months. I'll know as soon as I hear back if I got accepted into film school.

As for stuff I got up to when I was a newbie: I introduced myself on someone else's introduction thread, accidentally put my email in the author spot, and then proceeded to let my phone's autocorrect Toey ruin my spelling for a while. Fun times... fun times.

Those of us outside the Circle 'O Roleplay should probably get a chance to meet Juliette.

I'd ask you cool newbie questions, but... uh... we just talked. Like, 10 seconds before I wrote this thread. I'll leave the newer newbies to ask that stuff.

Although that HPMoR bit is mildly amusing...