The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

You have had your very first encounter with a monstrously deformed prehistoric creature, and you're not dead! Good for you!

Now it's time for you to decide what you want to do next.

So... what?
-Try to escape the island with all the other people.
-Loot the place. Dinosaur souvenirs are fun!
-Try and tag along with the folks with the guns.
-Hide out and wait for the inevitable dramatic fight sequence.

(Oh, this is probably a good point to mention that Scapegrace recently pointed me at your 'Overabundance of Snrf' mission, which I'd not read before; I was actually skimming for information, but what I focussed enough to read looked good! If I have time and/or memory to do so, I'll probably go back and actually read it.)

I'm with you on the lack of responses to stories; I try to reply to everything I read, but I, uh... don't read much. :-/ But yes, people, it's very disheartening as a writer to get no response to your stories - it feels like no-one's reading even if they actually are!

The big issue with this issue is that it doesn't go away unless lots of people try to counter it at once. I've tried at least four projects to get more people posting by posting more myself (the Friday Forums were the most recent); it doesn't work when it's only one person making that effort. The reason the Friday Forums ended was that we were down to a couple of people replying, and no-one responding to them.

But the more people do their best to post more, the easier it is for everyone - because more posts means more that any given 'you' will want to reply to.

Right, I have work to do, and a game thread to continue - and probably a mission (or two?) to read. And two hours to do it all in. Up, up and away!

hS

doc was the name I kept looking at while making the 'More candidates' lists. The main reason I didn't suggest him myself (other than having already proposed one - I'm not overly fond of the 'hS Is Controlling Everything' narrative) is that I feel like he hasn't been all that active.

But every PG we've got has had their inactive spells, so that's not really a bar if people are in favour. So yes, I support this.

hS

A while back (2015 or so) I came up with an outline for how to fix up our moderately terrible FAQ situation. I think you were involved, Nesh.

I think this is a good time to revisit that. This is the plan I concocted; so far, it's mostly just placeholders and empty spaces.

PPC FAQ Recalibration

1. FAQ: For Newbies (partially-filled draft)
-This combines most of the old FAQ: For Newbies, FAQ: The Board (which has been removed), and pieces of the Guide to the PPC (also removed). It's actually mostly complete - the main missing pieces are the introductory questions ('What's the PPC?') and a section on the Discord.

2. FAQ: For Other People (empty outline)
-It's no secret that I hate our current FAQ: For Other People. This one aims to actually provide helpful answers for questions like 'What's a Mary-Sue?', rather than just ranting at people who don't like us. I've outlined what I think are the questions that need answering, but haven't written any answers yet.

3. FAQ: On Permission (current FAQ)
-This one doesn't need changing! It's been repeatedly tweaked to try and give the best answers it can. It's not perfect, but it holds up a darnsight better than the four named so far.

4. A trilogy on mission-writing and posting: the Slash-Sporking Guide (unchanged), Posting New Missions (unchanged), and Mission Writing Guide (needs expansion and eventual revamp).
-Initially, the Guide will need to accommodate mission-related information from the old Newbies FAQ. Ultimately, it would be great if someone revamped it into a proper guide like the slash-sporking one.

If anyone is looking for a way to help the PPC community, working on the first two drafts is an excellent place to start! If we can get decent FAQs put together and linked on the Board and Wiki, then new people will have a good chance of understanding what's going on - and PPCers will have an excellent resource for explaining what badfic is and why it's a problem.

hS

It's redundant to say at this point, but still. Give this man a hat!

Speaking as someone who has had doc as a beta multiple times, his writing abilities are excellent and his judgement is well-reasoned. Considering how long he has been with this community, I see no reason why he shouldn't be a PG.

...I do not support this nomination.

While it is true that Tomash has been very active and constructive in the Discord, he has been a mod before and was forced to step down due to a questionable incident (as hS pointed out). It's not so much that, however--that was a year ago, and his behavior since then has been very good--as much as the fact that Tomash didn't mention any of that at all upon accepting his nomination.

All that said, if there is sufficient support to reappoint Tomash as a mod, I will not block it. I will respect the decision of the community.

This is purely anecdotal evidence on my part, but this is how it goes for me:

>Post on the Board
>>Get little or no response
>>>Get discouraged
>>>>Not participate in discussion because why bother anymore?

People just don't really respond to stuff anymore, and that creates a sort of mentality where it's like, "Well, if nobody's going to respond, I'm not going to post" and then nobody posts so there's nothing to respond to.

(Yes, I'm still unreasonably salty about my missions going from ten responses full of feedback to... one, after a week of silence.)

winces

I was not fully aware of the details of what happened, just that it was Bad.

I'd say we should probably at least have some kind of rationale, as per your suggestion hS.

However, I do not withdraw my nomination. Tomash has had an admirable record post-ban, and I believe that his prior resignation and ban, as well as the events leading up to it, informs his cautious stance towards issues and general willingness to examine both sides of a situation, traits that, as I've already stated, I believe will serve him well.

The formatting options are better there than on FF.n. For instance, you can post stories as part of a series, which suits a PPC spin-off better than making each mission a chapter in one story, IMO.

... I wonder if I can label a story as part of multiple series. I don't think so, but that would solve my problem of what to do with "Gestalt Therapy," since it's not exactly part of the RC 1110 series, but also really is. I'unno.

What's mainly holding me back is a) it's work, and b) I dunno how I feel about opening myself/us up to the sort of complaining the early PPC got, which prompted the creation of the FAQ For Other People. (Which still does need an overhaul, gah, why is there never enough time for anything anymore.) I do think the AO3 Terms of Service allow for missions, so there probably isn't a high risk of getting kicked off, but that also figures in a bit.

~Neshomeh

Darth Maul will probably be deeply impressed by young Anakin Skywalker's Force abilities, and even more by knowing that his targets are trapped on the planet. The thing is... well... Sith aren't exactly known for their ability to display gratitude. So you might find yourself in a bit of bother.

How does Maul take your offer?
-He has left immediately to take Anakin to his master, leaving you behind.
-He has declared his intent to train Anakin as his own secret apprentice.
-He has raced off to confront the Jedi, locking you and Anakin up in his ship first.
-He has just up and killed you and Anakin for knowing he exists.

This is why I wish we had a better-referenced Wiki... so from the name, I'd guess logicillion applies logic to the Suvian-ness to make it go away. That suggests that giving it to an unreformed Suvian would essentially have a milder version of Reality Room effects.

-Unnatural abilities would be weakened.
-Characters who liked them for no reason would go off them.
-Impossible colours and the like would be muted.
-Impossible biology would start to be rejected.

&c &c. The best place to use it would be when something has happened in the story that would directly debilitate them - for instance if the Suvian has had a transplanted arm grafted onto them, logicillin would likely cause immediate rejection.

Alternately, maybe it acts as a sort of internalised Reality Room - it helps ex-Suvian agents by making them see/feel the illogic of what they were before. By that measure, you could use logicillin poisoning to shatter a Suvian's worldview. Imagine them falling to their knees in front of their designated Lust Object, yelling, "Why was I even after you? You're not interested in meeeeee--!"

And then they get shot in the head. Because PPC.

hS

I am a firm believer in the principle that the best way to attract new people is by having them read our stuff (though the last census shows that fully half of our membership came in through TVTropes, which is kind of the opposite). With that in mind, my number one way to draw more people in would be for those of us who are still writing missions to post them where they can be found! For me, that means Fanfiction.net, but AO3 is also under discussion. If someone has a broadly-read fandom blog (as Lily Winterwood did), that's also a fine place.

hS current status: I have a mission on the verge of posting, which will go up on FFn. I'm also looking to finally carry out the 'Welcome to the PPC' project, posting several classic missions there, and potentially crossposting to AO3.

Second up, one thing that sets the PPC apart from other Suvian hunters is that we love concrit. So... how often do we give it? If you read a fanfic that needs work - or is just plain bad - why not review it and offer the author advice on what the problems are and how to improve? And if there happens to be a PPC mission which showcases the same sort of issue, why not link to it? Obviously you'd need to reread the mission first (oh, the horror!) to make sure it's actually going to help them, not offend them - but aren't we a community of readers?

hS current status: I posted the 'Kaitlyn's Concrit' section of my Driftwood missions as a review for each author. I don't think I referenced the PPC, though.

Thirdly, looking more at retaining new members now... post more! The PPC Board used to be bustling with new threads, to the point where they kept dropping off before we were done with them. Now? Now there's nearly a month's material on the Front Page. Where are the badfic discussions (discussions, not just 'here's a link bye')? Where are the debates over canon minutae? Where are the ridiculously overthought questions about PPC trivia? Where are the games, the serious discussions, the ficlets and missions and all the good stuff?

Well... they're there, obviously. But there's many fewer of them.

hS current status: Posted a game! Don't post about canon much because it feels like no-one's interested in the ones I am.

And, fourth and finally: look for your own answers. ;) If you care about the PPC community continuing, then don't just expect a handful of Oldbies to carry it on our shoulders. That just results in very tired Oldbies.

hS current status: Not too tired right now.

hS

I'm specifically concerned because I'm bored - because the Front Page is currently nearly a month long, so even assuming I'm interested in half of the threads that go up, that means I can easily go a week without anything interesting appearing.

Given that the PPC Board is a place I go to find an interesting discussion to get involved with, yeah, I'm concerned.

You asked about Permission, and yes, that is also way down. Here's my spreadsheet, which I previously updated in May '17. I've now added all 6 requests we've had since then, none of them being from this year.

I would also like to point out that 'storm off in a huff' is hardly an appropriate way to describe how hurt various long-term members of this community have been by various events of the last few years.

hS

I was hoping Tomash would bring it up himself, but since he hasn't: it is relevant that Tomash was previously a moderator of the Discord, and resigned in March 2017.

This does not, of course, mean that he cannot be reelected/reappointed, but I feel that it's important that the people involved in making the decision are aware of it. The last thing we want is an incident later where someone goes 'why is Tomash a mod again?' and everyone says 'what do you mean 'again'?'. Everything will be much better if you have an answer (eg, 'we think his later behaviour demonstrates [that stuff Thoth said]').

hS

1. The idea that anything bright, cute, and cheerful can't be taken seriously, and the flipside view that gratuitous gore, violence, and general edginess means maturity.
   
   2. Apologism for a character's misdeeds, especially when good characters are derailed to force the issue.
   2.5- The above goes double if it's part of the story being turned into a temple devoted to the worship of the author's chosen waifu/husbando.
   
   3. Misanthropy.
   
   4. "I'm the protagonist, so I can do whatever I want and it is, by definition, good."
   
   5. Violence towards animals, especially cats.
   
   6. A villainous character's motivation is incoherent, their own darn fault, and/or just plain ridiculous, and I'm still supposed to sympathize with them (though the 'their own darn fault' can be negated if the sympathy is reinforced by the character admitting their fault and dropping their villainy because of it).
   
   6. Ridiculously obvious science failure, like something going at "the speed of light" and not using hyperspace handwavery or becoming a Relativistic Kill Vehicle.
   
   7. Overly angsty stories.
   
   8. Crowbarring OCs into canon teams without respect for canon limitations on joining said teams, like being a Jinchuuriki, an Element of Harmony, or a Fellowship member despite those rosters already being filled.

I've noticed that, over the years, we tend to hover around 50 people if you count "willing to fill out the census") and 20-30 people if you count as "could be corralled in for a ban vote"/"posts regularly (in the Board or Discord)"/...

People also tend to leave either near-immediately (a lot of those newbies you mentioned, for example) or after several years (because of real life starting to hit their time harder or sometimes because of Drama).

So, abusing some terms a bit, the community membership pipeline is Newbie -> Middlebie -> Oldbie.

If there's been a noticable drop in how many people are entering the pipeline (showing up and posting), that's something we should worry about.

If we're having trouble with conversion to Middlebie (that is, getting folks to stick around for more than a week or two), that's also a problem, but a distinct one.

Come to think of it, do you have Permission Requests by year? That could help point to anything like that happening.

Middlebie to Oldbie conversion is ... not something we can exert much control over, I think, except by doing fewer things that cause folks to storm off in a huff, which we've been working on for the past year.

So, at the very least, what we want is a small stream of incoming Middlebies (using the term loosely) to replace the ones we lose to external stuff.

It's not clear that we've been shrinking. Going to look at a September 2011 seems to about the same number of distinct people posting, just that a lot of the names are different. Maybe we're a bit smaller ... but then again, the Discord is a thing (and so was the IRC, whose logs I don't have, so its hard to compare).

So, the question is, are we looking like we're going to shrink?

I don't quite know at the moment, because I'm not in a position to run more stats.

- Tomash

I know I've been trying to be more active on the Board lately, but my free time is still very much something I earn for myself, not a guarantee. I'm not meaning any disrespect to existing PGs, because I realize we're all busy, and that they're spending their own free time to serve as PGs. But I can literally go days without even turning my computer on, if I get stuck in a eat-work-sleep cycle. So I just don't feel like I can be a PG with any reliability.

And that's putting aside my own discomfort at making decisions that can affect other people. I know granting/denying permission is a very minor thing in the grand scheme of the universe, but it's still a level of influence that I don't have any right to exert over others. Making decisions is terrifying, and Gan knows I've made bad decisions in this community in the past. I don't know if I can be trusted with this responsibility.

So here's the takeaway: if the community feels that we are lacking in PGs, such that my below-standard service is actually potentially necessary right now, then I will "run," as it were. Otherwise, leave me out of this election. (And considering this PG election was basically just tacked on to a called-for mod election, I think it's safe to say I'm not needed.)

—doctorlit, the PG, not that this community needs, but also, one it doesn't deserve I always butcher that Dark Knight quote, and have probably done so again, but you get the idea. :|