The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

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. :|

Welcome to the 21st Century Dino...Ow my spleen.

So obviously they are idiots, so I say lets give this Maul guy a chance. Besides he sounds up like a fine upstanding gent. Tell him about the Jedi and Anakin.

Shhh, I'm sleepy today.

Did it sound like there was one? Please to let me know if I left that impression.

No offense to ya, doc—I do think you'd be a great mod, if you had the time, but you're not really online enough to keep an eye on how the chat's going.

That said, I fully support him being a Permission Giver. :)