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Could someone please find and make available any and all logs of the conversations Grimalkinii has referred to, up to when he was banned? These are some serious concerns, and ones that I'm sorry to say don't immediately ring false to me, so let's please take them seriously and get some more complete context for what happened. Then we'll see what, if anything, needs to be done next.

Thanks.

~Neshomeh

Hello everyone!
Some of you might remember me from the Discord server from a few weeks ago. I know I was not around for a very long time and didn't get to talk with too many of you on a personal level, and for that I would like to apologize. However, I am not here to give a long-winded apology about whatever Discord crimes I may have committed, but rather to raise a few concerns about the state of the Discord chat after poking around on the board a bit. This is probably a few weeks late, but I have been busy with my personal life quite a bit lately. For those of you who don't know me, I will introduce myself as a man who has been writing for fun and self-improvement for about 14 years now, and came to the PPC's Discord chat hoping I could connect with other people who also enjoy writing and maybe even help some of those who might be stuck or need a little boost.
To be transparent, yes, I was banned from the Discord chat permanently, but we will be getting to that later on.

For starters, some of you may be thinking "but I've never seen you on the board!" And you would be correct. To be a little bit blunt, I find the board is pretty archaic in its styling, and while you are all free to use it if it works for you I just didn't really want to go through the trouble, which I think is a perfectly fine way to go about things.

Anyway, my original intent here was to bring up a few concerns. I would like to say before I really begin that my intent here is not to get back into the chat, as my experience was pretty poor overall and even if my ban were lifted I honestly don't think it's the sort of place I want to be.

First and foremost, I joined the chat and almost immediately hopped into a debate on the topic of gun control in America because it is an issue I care a lot about. This would be fine, had it been a civilized conversation which I was lead to believe would be the case as according to the wiki the PPC "prides itself on the ability to have mature discussions". My politics aside, I expect to go places and have people disagree with me. That's how people operate -- some think one thing, and others think another, and that is perfectly fine. It is also perfectly fine to have a mature discussion about these things, even when people are disagreeing. The problem is that I was consistently being dogpiled by at least 6 different people, bombarded with differing viewpoints and attacked numerous times with passive-aggressive comments during the whole hours-long discussion. Another new member (who was also banned, but he was being rather rude, so I can understand his ban) started to agree with me after the whole bit. The next day a comment was made calling him and people like him mentally unsound simply for believing a particular thing. You'll have to forgive me for not remembering names or quotes of each particular member as this was approximately four or five weeks ago now, I think, but one particular thing I remember being said during the conversation was "Can we classify being a gun nut as a mental disorder?" or something along those lines. This is certainly not 'mature discussion' and it's definitely against the constitution that the admins of the chat said I was totally violating. It's very odd, considering I pointed out that there was a lot of passive-aggression going on in the channel, to which I was told by another member (I forget who, really, but I believe it was Maslab? That could definitely be wrong though) that it was 'better than open aggression'. I said that it seemed like it still violated the constitution, and that statement was promptly ignored.

The next day, I believe, me and the other new guy were having a bit of a talk about various things, and one of the admins came into the #heavy_stuff channel, which was essentially the de facto politics room. They disagreed with us, we provided evidence back, and the other new member made a comment towards Maslab. One that was essentially saying 'the thing you just said is not very smart', and the admin instantly responded with the threat of possible suicide and police investigation to a small, insignificant snide comment. This is behavior I would not expect from a ten-year-old child, let alone the adult administrator of a chat room that describes itself as 'capable of mature discussion'. Maslab then outright accused us both of being 'trolls' only there to cause problems, which was very much not the case with myself (though for the other newbie I cannot say). We then switched the topic and asked another member about something they had said; we were outright told to change the subject by the same admin or be banned right then and there. So we changed the topic yet again.

The next day the channel was gone. Why? I assume because they did not want me to continue talking about politics. Call it paranoia, but there are only three persons with the ability to get rid of channels, and plenty of other people posted about politics elsewhere after that -- I just didn't want to start a discussion in another channel and risk being kicked or banned because it wasn't the place for it.

There was an incident in which another admin, Delta Juliette, said something I misinterpreted and so I said a slightly sarcastic retort back. This was instantly taken as an "attack on her person" (despite the fact that I did not attack them, personally, but instead the argument they were making), and was blown out of proportion. I apologized because I had misinterpreted, which I felt was the correct thing to do in the situation. They then continued to demand an apology from me for attacking them. I apologized if they mistook my words but it was not what I intended to say. They continued to demand I apologize for attacking them for another twenty or thirty minutes before they finally said that perhaps they had overreacted, with the caveat of "but still". But still what?

The third incident I can think of is when a different user was thinking of writing their own badfic in order to write a mission about it. Myself and another user expressed that we didn't feel that's what writing missions was really about and gave our reasons why. I forget exactly who chimed in on this discussion, but the long and short of it is that at least three or four people that were not the person it concerned chimed in just to say "she can do what she wants" and other non-arguments in favor of the idea. When that person responded, they essentially said "you are right but I will probably end up doing it anyway". I apologized to this person in DM after the fact if I had upset them, and we resolved the situation like adults.

I posted a silly picture that I thought was pretty funny a day before I was banned, and woke up to find my image missing. Discord doesn't really randomly delete images, so my only idea is that one of the moderators deleted it with no warning and no mention of it to me -- likely because it did not align with their political views.

The reason I was banned came after a discussion about whether or not 'multiplicity' was valid or not, I believe, and I asked Delta Juliette what they, particularly, defined -phobia and prejudice. I was told by Maslab to "go do some googling and educate yourself". Myself and several other people pointed out that I would not find their particular opinion on google. I waited for an answer, and Delta's answer was similarly unhelpful: "Go read a book". I said that this was not helpful, and asked them to please explain their point of view. I was told it would be unfathomable to me if I had not read that particular book (a statement I still find rather dubious) and said "please just explain your point of view, telling me to go read a book is not helpful". It is at this point I was banned, the only explanation given being "I'm doing this for my blood pressure" by Maslab. I was never given an explanation, or a chance to appeal, as the admins either blocked me or don't accept messages from non-friends on discord.

This is all compounded by the fact that every time I tried to start a conversation or get somebody to talk to me about something that was not politics, I was ignored. I wanted to talk about writing, and so I asked -- I was ignored. I asked for recommendations for TV shows to watch -- I was ignored. I tried to talk about tabletop RPGs -- ignored. This only makes the chat seem more like a little clique than anything, unwilling to accept anyone who does not fit into a particular sociopolitical ideology.

All in all my experience with the PPC Discord chat has been extremely negative. Where I thought I would be able to communicate and connect with other writers, I found only a place where I was ridiculed, attacked, and in the end I believe outright banned for my own beliefs and what amounts, ultimately, to 'wrongthink'. You cannot call yourself "open and diverse", or "able to have mature discussions" if the mature discussions are just everybody agreeing with each other, and then say anybody who doesn't agree with you is just a 'troll'. I also expected to see a lot of discussion about writing or fanfiction in general. Instead writing came up maybe two or three times in two weeks, which is very odd for a community centered on the idea of writing things. And I totally understand -- talking about writing all the time would be boring. But most of the discussion in the server is actually a big echo chamber for sociopolitics, and very little talk about writing actually goes on. Most of the 'discussion' about writing was just blithe roleplaying the #rudis channel, which wasn't even really that active.
I really cannot emphasize enough how disappointed I am. Where I thought I would find a fun community of writers who I could talk with, help, get help from, share cool things and make fun of badfic, I instead found an echo chamber run primarily by three people who accuse anyone who does not agree with their views as a 'troll', and where other members blatantly ignore the rules set in place and attack persons passive-aggressively, and sometimes even blatantly. The overall nature of the chat feels very oppressive as opposed to the 'free, open, and diverse' atmosphere I was lead to believe it would have. In the end I feel I was banned for no good reason at all, and was never given an explanation. My images were deleted by moderators without warning or mention. I was accused of being a terrible person for misinterpreting a comment and apologizing immediately after realizing I had misinterpreted. After looking around some I can see the board has a very different atmosphere, which is good, but I don't think I'll be posting here anyway. I will probably also be telling other friends of mine who also write that the Discord chat, at least, is a poor place to find a fun writing community focused on self-improvement. I feel that the bottom line here is that the discord chat is barely even a writing community anymore and more of a political one focused on socialist ideology. This is not derisive towards these people in the slightest, but that is ultimately what I found myself reading and seeing almost every day.
The intent here is not to start a political discussion, but to tell some of the members on the board who perhaps do not visit the discord chat what it is like, and to warn against ever visiting it. My opinion of it is about as low as it can go at this point. Perhaps this will spur on a change in the community, and cause a review of what is and isn't acceptable. Perhaps the people who banned me will say "no no, he was definitely a troll," which I suspect will happen, but I assure you this cannot be further from the truth. Perhaps nothing will happen I dunno All I can say is you can be certain that I will make sure friends know that the PPC Discord chat is not a very good one for people interested in writing as a hobby or a profession.

Thanks, Grimalkinii

What exciting opening missions! The bit about multiclassing made me miss when players could do that in game... good times. Looking forward to more adventures that are hopefully less waterlogged.

Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!

I finished my opening missions a while ago. I don't know how these things work, am I done when I stop receiving notes? Do I wait for a final email that says 'you're good to go'? Frankly, the social stress of being beta-read ruined me, which says a lot about the state of my crippling social anxiety. So. Here. Finally.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1muyo-ObeHXtORlb1NpNbz79hfHeeKV6Z0UqHEje-jgs/edit?usp=drivesdk

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U2XT4HVqY5amUCy3JS6yehXUhYi5jFjZ5gDY1MtEiXA/edit?usp=drivesdk

Maybe I'll still spork the "I'm Not Okay" that I mentioned when I get past the stuff that's going on in my life (dying pets, dying family members and such)

This should have been a response to “Should I just not have bothered?”.

HG

I’m not into poems, and I have no idea what this one is about, but I liked it anyway. It got a nice rhythm – and you found a way to put a Safe-for-Alleb ship into this sub-thread; that’s great. (Note: all I know about Primarchs I learned from this sub-thread.)

Apologies for the late response. I’m still adapting to being jobless; since I can’t do stuff at the office while waiting for some actual work coming my way, it somehow feels like I have less spare time now.

HG

Huinesoron dragged his gaze away from the small pink fish bobbing in the middle of the pub. "You know," he mused, "I don't think I've ever heard a drinking song accompanied on the sousaphone before."

"Yeah." Thoth stared blankly at his latest drink, then shook himself slightly. "At least Vulkan's got a good singing voice."

"Two good singing voices!" Calliope chimed in. "And Cat Nesh is awesome on the harmonies!"

Just down the bar, Grundleplith slowly slumped down until his forehead hit the wood with a thunk. "I just wanted a nice drink somewhere quiet. Was that too much to ask?"

~

Welcome to continuity. ^_^

hS

Let's keep the theme going:

1. Ninetales-Alola
2. Lapras
3. Mamoswine
4. Articuno
5. Aurous
6. Glaceon

7. Kyurem-Black

As a stand-alone thing, it's cool, it's well done, but it's out of context with the others in the series, so I'm kind of confused about it.

It DOES neatly dodge the problem of really shipping Mortarion with anyone, though. I mean, the whole Darth Vader thing is cool and all, but yeesh.

(Mortarion is totally Darth Vader with poison instead of the Force.)

~Neshomeh

This shovel...

...

Whoops, I grabbed a mundane one this time. Well, instead of a magical shovel, have a couple terrible puns!

What do you call a bunch of female bunnies hanging out with one male? A hare-em!

The defendant was a runty beetle. His innocent plea was "I'm not bad, I'm just a little weevil."

What do you call a lemon with a degree in architecture? Acidic engineer!

Thank you, Cincinnati, I'll be here all week!

Except he'd get them on the computer, realistically, even if new books do smell amazing. And nothing beats the feel of the page beneath your hand, its soft, supple smoothness, its fresh perspective on the world...

...why do I feel like I've just given shipbait?

Granz's doorbell rang. He lept out of his chair and ran towards the door "Oh my oh my oh my it's finally here!" he said quickly, rubbing his palms together.

He opened the door and took the somewhat thin, large, rectangular envelope from the delivery driver and hastily scrawled a signature on the appropriate line.

Granz ran back up to his room and set his newly-acquired package on his desk. He began to peel pack the sear on the envelope slowly, trying not to damage the contents. About halfway through the opening, Granz realized he couldn't take it anymore, and tore the envelope to bits.

Inside, he found the RPG rulebook he ordered. He picked it up and rubbed his hands over it, caressing the wondrous source of unusual items and possibly overpowered skills, savoring the sensation of all the new ways to minmax the party's characters he could find inside.

Grenz then sniffed the book, inhaling the luscious aroma of never-opened pages full of role-playing goodness. "Mmmmm." he moaned, admiring the cover art.

He gripped the front cover gently with a few fingers, pulling it open slowly enough that someone might think he was checking the book for traps. (He wasn't. He just loved this part.) Granz began slowly reading the entries in the book, savoring the armor and gear described within. "Eh, that's not that useful.", he said at one point.

"Hm ... maybe" he commented, after tenderly flipping a page. He scrawled the name of that psychic power on a very full notepad on his desk.

A few pages later, Granz yelped in excitement. "Oh my god! Yes! This is perfect! And I have enough XP!" he shouted. His fingers flew over the keyboard, firing off a message to his GM, asking if he could take the psychic power he'd just found.

As he waited for the reply, Granz slowly lost control. He stopped being so tender and caring, and started rapidly flipping through the book, keeping a mental tally of all the super-awesome extra-useful stuff he was finding. The pages of the rulebook almost flew as Granz pawed through them.

Eventually, he reached the end of the book. He turned everything back over and went through it again, making sure he hadn't missed a corner of those delectable extra rules. His reading method varied from a measured, careful investigation to a fast, hyped-up, almost predatory flip.

Throughout all this, he made a lot of comments on the contents of his new acquisition, sometimes taking tens of minutes to debate the relative merits of two options with himself. A few times, he even got up to get other rulebooks to compare against. More books were more fun, after all. Whoops of triumph often fell from Granz's lips a few times as he used the contents of his new book to formulate the greatest plan he'd ever had — which was, rather frequently, superseded be the new greatest plan he'd ever had as he noticed an item he'd overlooked.

Many, many hours later, it grew late. Rather reluctantly, Granz closed his new book and carefully placed it on the rulebooks shelf, lovingly arranging it next to his existing collection. Finally, Granz turned away from his RPG rulebooks, his true, eternal loves, and went to bed logged onto Amazon to buy another one before picking up another one of his precious volumes from the shelf. I don't need sleep tonight anyway. he thought, getting ready for more cavorting with supplemental rulesets. It's not like there's a session tomorrow.

And so, Granz had a long, simulating night, which he loved every minute of, even though it drove him closer to exhaustion and the lightbulbs in his lamps closer to burning out.

(( - Tomash ))

A relatively obscure book: Ransom, by David Malouf, which is a rewriting of the last parts of the Iliad - specifically, the events of the Trojan king, Priam, travelling to Achilles to buy his son's body from him, and give him a proper burial. It's a plot I wish I came up with first and darn you Homer, you sneaky git.

It is easily my favourite fantasy (if, er, that's correct to call it?) story of all time. It's as beautiful as I remember having read it (read it for school, in fact, as a set text!) and even better, being that I understand the whole thing more clearly.
It is a sad, brilliant story, and it all goes into exploring the relationship of death and life, and of mortality and what being mortal means, and so on and so forth.

Achilles and Priam are both greatly detailed characters - broken, flawed men, in different ways, but ultimately more similar than either of them realise. It has such a bleak tone and feel and conclusion, but, at the same time, is incredibly uplifting, as it were. It's one of the only fantasy stories I've read that's touched me, in that sort of manner.

Also, it is a tiny book. Only 200 or so pages.



And for poems, I am deeply in love with the works of Coleridge, and also T.S. Eliot. I recommend the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which feels like a fantasy story before everyone started ripping off Tolkien, and Kubla Khan, which feels just as surreal and fantastical, if a lot shorter and easier to ingest.

T.S. Eliot took me a bit to get into but, man, is he brilliant. I consider his Preludes to be some good stuff - it's basically just a series of descriptions of scenes in a city, but he creates such a fantastic mood and tone and symbolism with it. It's some of the best descriptive prose I've seen, and it's not even a prose story!
The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock and The Hollow Men are similar.
It's all pretty bleak though so, iunno, maybe play Kirby or some such after reading it.

Hello Hello Hello
Glad to have you with us, please accept this plastic spork.

Welcome to the Board! Here, have some chocolate and enjoy your stay!

... it doesn't deserve mention. A major charge is still a major charge.

The last one on the list is so common it does not deserve mention.

Have the PPC newbie survival kit: A half-kilo of lembas and a laspistol (short for laser pistol).

Also, about the ship fic, I had multiple weeks (because my timed account kept forcing me off the computer on Sundays before I could finish) to plan it out and I like to over-plan and overdo things. I do not ship them whatsoever.

-Twistey

Newbie 1 Me 0

I forgot about New Caledonia...