The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Sure, people aren't using email for social stuff directly as much as they used to. However, chat services are still a thing. They're just different ones. Instead of MSN, AIM, et al., we have Discord, Slack, et al. (in my experience).

Chat servers, then and now, had, like you said, individual and small group conversations. They also had, from what I know, public chat rooms that you could just join ... sort of like our Discord. A difference is that the PPC didn't have a place on the chat services people used back in your day, but now it does.

I wouldn't say that my friendships are tied to community spaces. I would say they are somewhat adjacent to them (for one thing, Discord is where the PPC chatroom is and also where I'd get my own megabytes of logs from private chats), but if the PPC Discord disappeared, I'd still be friends with a whole bunch of the people from there.

As to waiting for your friends to log in. I know that feeling. That ain't changed one bit.

Now one thing that has changed, I think, is where the PPC is in internet-space. From what I can tell, once LJ died, fandom-y blogging eventually wandered its way to Tumblr and a lot of the long-form communities went to Reddit (? probably). The PPC didn't follow, we just sort of wandered into the Board and did our own thing.

I don't have an opinion right now on whether this is good. I suppose one concern I've on and off again had is whether the people who would want to join/the people we'd like joining have a chance as figuring out we exist. (Then again, we might have a long history of recruiting by "Hey you should check out this community I'm in"?).

Add this to the ever-increasing list of reasons I hate this administration and everything it stands for.

Although I'll admit I'd have liked a 'not yet' or 'having projects' option for the Original Writing questions... and others like it too (And I'm surprised and amused by my presence for Action Thriller).

I approve!

Yeah. That's why PMs are a thing. And also emails - although nobody ever gives me their email... :-(

OTOH, the discord's name is "The PPC Lounge", and that's largely how it behaves: it's a place where us PPC people talk about largely irrelevant and OT topics with one another, as a group. It functions as a sort of "after hours" area, I guess.

You talk about using MSN and AIM and GChat to keep in touch with PPCers. That idea didn't die, but most of us moved from those platforms to Discord, where there's an additional, community-wide forum.

I do not describe intent, merely how it seems things actually function.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html

I... I really hope that things don't end up as bad as we think. But y'all are my internet family and I can't imagine what would happen if we fell out of contact because of stuff getting screwed seven ways to hell.

So if anything happens to make the Board inaccessible, my email's iximaz(at)gmail(dot)com.

Love you all, and I hope we're able to stick around for a while yet. :(

Haha you agreed with me I win.

They may have changed the mailing list... I've just signed up, and will report back when I know more. Hrm.

Now, onto your description of what the community is to you... I'm pleased for you. It sounds nice. But it doesn't have a whole lot to do with the PPC, by the sound of it.

As someone who made a lot of friends through the PPC (plus, you know, a WIFE...), I think it's worthwhile to describe how that worked In My Day:

-People post on the Board and you get to know what they're like. Mostly it's 'on topic' (broadly defined - it's the PPC!), but big life events (for students...) also show up.

-You exchange email addresses with people you want to chat with more. This was the heyday of MSN and AIM, and later GChat. I have megabytes of chat logs with dozens of PPCers; some of them were my closest friends when I was in uni.

-Everyone has a Livejournal. This is like Facebook, but not linked to your name, and oriented towards long-winded rambling. You post fandom stuff openly, and lock down RL stuff to your Friends list.

-You don't have to use the Board to get your social fix - you wait for your friends to log into MSN. You can chat with multiple people individually but simultaneously, or put together a group chat. It's... nice.

This was my experience - my life - from joining the PPC in late '03 to getting married in '08. The details changed, but the pattern stayed the same. I drifted away because of lack of time (and inability to answer emails), but I still miss it.

So, yeah: I understand making friends through the PPC. But - even in the post-LJ age - that doesn't mean those friendships have to stay tied to community spaces.

hS

PS: But that's just me. I didn't visit the original Lounge much, but I know they got up to, ah... some things that aren't really to do with the PPC. So yeah, it's not all clear cut.

If there's been a long involved discussion about something in chat, it should probably be summarized for the Board so more people can get their input in and since it's probably an interesting topic to someone.

- Tomash

... that I was about to make a post that could be summed up as 'be more like Huinesoron, I'm awesome'. Because I am nothing if not puffed-up. So I didn't do that.

Then I decided to do it anyway, because now it's ironic.

Be More Huinesoron: A PPCer's Guide

-Never post a sentence when you can post three paragraphs.

-If you read a thread, reply to it - even if you don't have a clue what's going on.

-Everything is better with bullet points.

-Don't choose between linking, quoting, and summarising - do all three!

-Remember your past. Forever. And refer to it constantly.

-They call it a trailer - you call it an excuse for madcap theorising.

-Tomash is not to be agreed with (even if you agree with him). He stole Ozerbord, and Plort Is Life.

-Speaking of which, Plort Is Life. Never trust anyone who slights Baron Huinesoron.

-Disagreement just means you haven't used enough words yet.

-Periodically concoct grand plans to revitalise the Board. Abandon them before they have a chance to work properly.

-Never get over anything.

-A picture is worth a thousand words. That means a picture plus a thousand words is worth... more.

-Chatrooms are out to get you. Brood on it.

-You don't have to post stories often, but when you do, end them with a promise of a sequel. Actual sequel is optional.

-If you read it, review it.

-Never be afraid to learn too much about something new and then bore everyone with it.

-Always sound like you'll bite people's ears off if they disagree with you (even though you won't).

-Refuse to accept any kind of authority. Just post like you have it anyway.

-If you don't know, ask. Then ask some more. Never stop asking.

-50% of your posts will get no reply, 20% will receive only one-liners, 10% will be completely misconstrued, and 10% will spark discussion that peters out immediately. But the last, golden 10%... live for that. It will be better than you can possibly imagine.

hS

(Now I've got that off my chest... yes, at some point I will contribute something of substance to the thread!)

(now that PhD applications are in, I can reply)

1. I will agree that the potential to miss conversations (or to only be aware of them by reading after the fact) is a downside to chats.

I would say that the overhead to finding, reading, and responding to conversations on the Board is higher than on the chat (as a general process, you need to figure out which posts to read, click through, etc.). How much this determines the permissible ways the Board's culture can be is unclear, but it's probably not a large factor, given that we apparently cleared the front page in three days back ... way before I got here, I don't think my records have that time.

Also, that's what than link does?? That is completely nonobvious. In fact, the text right below it says "(This will only tell you if someone has responded directly to your post, not the thread, nor will it send a copy of the post to you.)", which is very much not what you described.

So, I propose, as a concrete measure, we find a way to educate people about that feature.

2. I wouldn't put that absolutely as you do, but yes, there are many conversations (like this one) where long-winded, carefully-considered replies are what's good and wanted.

3. I never proposed directing the entire PPC to the Discord? But there are things that warrant a more limited reach. You even said that if some of what goes on in chat flooded the Board you'd be Upset. But there are many people who want a space for these sorts of trivialities with their friends here, and chat seems to be it at the moment.

Agreed on writing and on the low response rate.

Personal stuff: Either my memory must be going or that sort of thread was dying out by my time. We could bring it back? (and you called how this tends to work, yeah. But is that bad?)

RPs: Yeah, there's gray areas. I should note that there is a noted pain point around RPs in the Discord. Namely, once you get four people (either all together or as a pair of pairs) in #rudis, adding more RP gets ... impractical, and this either ends in splits into #other_rp or people being frozen out for a bit. This is definitely not ideal, and solutions are unclear.

As to the autogenerated Harry Potter you posted: I read it, I liked it and thought it was funny, and, for lack of something substantial to say or the inclination to go through the bother of broadcasting my reaction, moved on with my life.

On badfic posting: I don't know why that's in chat and not on the Board. It just is that way right now. But that's cultural norms, and those can be changed.

I accept your correction to the hypothesis, that was too general.

Having read your reply and thought some things over, I'd like to admit that I probably placed too much emphasis on the effects of the Board vs. the chat as media when trying to discuss how they formed different patterns of behavior. (For example, there's another Discord server that's a lot quieter and somewhat less general-purpose than the PPC's.)

I'd say those different patterns of behavior are largely down to cultural norms, and those can be changed. How? *shrugs*. Probably conscious effort on various people's parts.

Now, the thing we don't seem to agree on is "what the PPC is about". The PPC, an a community, has things we do around here (write, like good writing, have these sorts of long nerdy debates like you said, spork badfic, etc.), and we're a place that attracts a certain kinds of people because of that. But, in my case, that's not the entire point of it.

The PPC (actually, mainly the Discord) is one of my main social groups, in roughly the same way that some people have a social group at the local pub or wherever. The chat is where I do a lot of hanging out with these people I know. Heck, almost all my close friends (people I keep in touch with frequently), such as Iximaz, doctorlit, and Aegis I met through the PPC, and more specifically the chat.

Why didn't I have that sort of connection through the Board and not the chat? I don't quite know, but it seems that's not how the Board has been for a while (at least from my point of view).

Can we change that? Probably.

Do we want to change that? Maybe.

- Tomash

(I will make a direct reply to this at some point, but I want to squeeze this in at the bottom.)

As part of this drive, I feel like Section 4 of the Constitution is currently... worryingly anti-posting, or at least not very pro-discussion. So I put together a rough draft of what I'm calling the Discussion Amendment, replacing the current Section 4 entirely. Comments, improvements, corrections and contradictions thoroughly welcome!

~

Section Four: On Thy Topics Of Discussion



16. The PPC community thrives on discussion, and wastes away in its absence. When you post a thread on the Board, try to do so in a way that encourages discussion and interaction - and when you reply, do the same thing!



17. That doesn't mean the PPC is Serious Business! Silliness and insanity are welcome here — even encouraged. Feel free to leave your sanity at the door. Most PPCers do.



18. On the other hand, serious discussion is ALSO welcome, nay, encouraged, here. Odd, ne? "Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."



19. Don’t worry about your interests being too eclectic for anyone else to be interested in — history has proven time and again that there probably is someone who shares your interests. And on the off chance that there isn’t, there’s somebody who wants to start!



20. There is no Article 20.



21. Randomness is seldom a bad thing, as long as Da Rules are followed. (For an example, see Article 20.)


22. Feel free to tell us all about stories, websites, news, or anything else you think will be of interest to the PPC at large. We're always in dire need of entertainment, intellectual stimulation, and good fanfic. And don't just drop us a link - wax lyrical on what you've found, why it's interesting, and any questions it creates. Don't be afraid to quote (but don't make the quote stand in for your own words!).



23. The PPC has always been about having a good laugh at badfic, so feel free to talk about it, and post links if you find something you think is worth sharing (but not just links... see Article 22). If there's a thread about badfic on the top half of the front page already, go ahead and add to that - otherwise, feel free to create your own! (And when replying to a thread about badfic, or reviewing a badfic, please remember Article 2!)

hS the Loquacious

Right! As a result of the census, we've noticed a discord-board gap. A big part of this, IMHO, is the infrequency of posts, and how infrequently those posts spark interesting discussions. SO! We need more posts (not a MASSIVE AMOUNT, but more than the maybe one or two a week we get), and we need posts that spark discussion.

In order to do this, some ideas for what sort of posts are good for sparking discussion, and we also need to get people talking. For the second part...

OI! YOU! YES YOU! When we post stuff on the board, PLEASE share your feelings, comments and opinions. And then share your feelings, comments and opinions about everyone else's feelings, comments, and opinions. This way, discussion wll happen.

As for topics, that's what the thread is for. I'll start with a list, and you lot can add to it. Or post your feelings, comments and opinions.

-Recent news
-Things to debate (Do Balrogs have wings? Who would win? Tabs or Spaces? Vi or Emacs? I kid on the last two...)
-Interesting fandom things (like GNU Terry Pratchett, which I just shared. Look it up, it's pretty amazing.)
-Cool fanfic (and your feelings, comments, and opinions about it - what did you like? What didn't you like?)
-Bad fanfic (with eye-gouging, rage-inducing excerpts, and your feelings, comments and opinions (are you noticing a theme? (nesting yay!))

And now, dear PPCers, I turn the thread over to you. Please post. And frequently.

...So I think the problem is that the board's culture isn't encouraging what you suggest right now - which is, quite honestly, what I WANT out of the board.

The problem is, the Board isn't like that at the moment. So people looking for that tend towards Discord. So we need conversation starters.

For badfic... Well. We can get Geema posting on the board, I suppose. That will definitely spark discussion. OTOH, most of his badfic is NSFW. So discussing it may be difficult.

Doesn't seem to work, alas.

Here's the full code, though: <meta http-equiv="X-Clacks-Overhead" content="GNU Terry Pratchett" />

I used the character entity codes for the angle brackets to make 'em display properly instead of being read.

~Neshomeh

YWA is mangling my code!
Just an an open angle bracket and a meta tag to what I posted.

Or just look at the code on the site I linked.


http-equiv="X-Clacks-Overhead" content="GNU Terry Pratchett" />

there we go!

The message "GNU Terry Pratchett" is hidden all over the internet in response headers - The internet's equivalent of the clacks overhead. Specifically, headers are key/value pairs, so the key/value (colon-separated) is X-Clacks-Overhead:GNU Terry Pratchett

If you don't control your webserver, you can't do this, which is sad. However, you can add it to your HTML documents. I don't think this lights up most of the browser plugins, but it's at least something:


http-equiv="X-Clacks-Overhead" content="GNU Terry Pratchett" />

is how you do it.

If you control a webserver, webapp, mailserver, or use an email client, you can find instructions for adding the header to your stuff at www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

...Which we have already been doing in small numbers already ('plith's SW/40k thread began as a post to Discord). We can do that more! We just need to make that more socially common a thing. And also need to decide which things are worth posting to the board.

I may start a thread about the latter issue Real Soon Now.

Do you write original stories?
The current answer is "No", but I actually did (when I was young and needed the money).

Do you create outlines for your fics?
The current answer is "never" only because the fics I wrote so far are all quite short, "only sometimes, not everything I write needs them" may actually be more accurate.

How often do you finish any fanfics?
"I finish everything I start" actually means: three short fanfics in three years.

How often does writer’s block hit you while writing fanfics?
"Never", but I may frequently need to fight through it before I even start writing, when the (short) story is already more or less outlined in my mind.

What types of fanfiction do you write?
"Gen" – filling gaps left by the canon author with logic, reason and canon-compliant story-telling. The only AU thing I ever wrote is a Slytherin tapestry in the DA’s garrison in the Room of Requirement; if J. K. Rowling hadn’t explicitly said that it isn’t there, I would just pretend that Harry didn’t notice what happened behind his back.

What was your first fandom? When did you discover fandom?
I went with "Harry Potter, 2007" (when I started to participate, but never "heavily"). Actually I was aware of the existence of fandoms for "Star Trek", "Darkover" and German science fiction series "Perry Rhodan" since the seventies.

How many books do you read on average?
"I rarely read" books nowadays, because I spend too much time reading everything PPC.

When did you start reading fanfiction?
Do the "Best of Darkover" anthologies count? Anyway, there may have been some "Perry Rhodan" fanfic mixed with original stories.

I don’t have any favorite anythings because there’s too much I like for too many different reasons.

Do you prepare an outline for your missions?
I went with "Sometimes". Actually, I did one outline as an exercise for Poor Cynic’s workshop, but didn’t write any missions yet.

HG

I now feel like I understand how to colour skin. I'm not saying I can successfully do it, but I feel like I understand how. You have explained very clearly. :) Thank you.

hS

Plugin installed.

I assume this isn't something I can set up on the Webplex (or indeed the Board); I don't know what GTP is, and Google just thinks I want Guanosine triphosphate, but it sounds 'not just HTML/CSS/Javascript', so.

But it's a really sweet idea.

hS