The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I did the third prompt first, because... well, I felt like it. Anyways, here is my redesigned character. He isn't old per se, in fact, he is actually pretty new; he did go through a lot of changes though, which is why i chose him.



Ah, my little brother, where to begin. He's pretty smart, and strong too, I can always rely on him to back me up. He can be a bit demanding at times, but I allow him his bratty moments.
-Shinonome Azusa

Kaede is great, I really admire him. He is really smart, and could always think of something to get us out of a bad situation. Although, there was that one time we were hopelessly outclassed. I just wish he would be less hard on Azusa for making rash decisions.
-Shinonome Tsubaki

I tried rewriting a song by Nat King Cole, didn't event get anything down before it started forming into a prose observation about how many RC's don't decorate their doors because both agents are from worlds that don't celebrate Kwan/Mas/Nuka or their just too busy or thinking it's October or March instead of December.

But I'm not here about the portrait, or about Priestess Scapegrace's Fun With Flags. I'm here on Armorial College business! Now, about those arms of yours...

I'm guessing it's the Alvish shield you're looking at updating. So... what would you like? The classic upgrade would be to put some kind of point where you have the birds now (moving them, presumably), though there's nothing actually ruling out a lopsided device (with the points to one side of the birds). You could also do something that comes out on either side of the birds but joins outside them.

Previous baronnings have, weirdly, tended to introduce plants: we have brambles, olive branches (though I think they were morningstars once), and lotuses. Come to think of it, my secondary points are mallorn leaves... Nesh's are kudzu leaves... okay, I guess what I'm saying is that you don't have to use plant life for your extra points, but every single Baron of Plort in history with an Alvish shield has done so.

So what'll it be? ^_^

hS

I've noticed that the last census was in September 2016. Since July, who apparently did it originally, has left the PPC community since, the position has been vacant ever since.

Now on to my actual point; does anyone object to me copying last year's questions and answer possibilities for this year's census?
Secondly, if the above is not the case, are ther any questions you'd like to see included this year?

~Akrinor

They also contain most of the maps and coats of arms, so you're missing out on a lot of the best stuff if you can't see them on the Cyclopaedia.

hS

Are infoboxes the things on the side, like on the agent pages where it has sort of statistics in a box on the side?

My phone does not show those (which is what I am using at the moment). My computer does, but I didn't notice the box on those pages. My failing. I'm used to filtering out boxes on the sides as ads, so they didn't even register.

... we have those, too. ^^ <a href="http://plort.wikia.com/wiki/Scholars%27Empire">Scholars' Empire has mouseovers for the places with no links. Unfortunately, they're done as title text, rather than through template; I shall switch over to get the dotted lines in place.

hS

But as you say, it's a big task.

What you'll find is that:

-The glossary lists all the concepts in English, with links to their Plortish equivalents.

-The pages I've gotten around to updating have a 'Reference' line in their infobox, which gives the English equivalent. For instance, Marizu... and, in fact, both 'Marizu League' and 'Pla'tool' have this already in place. Are you operating on a device which doesn't show infoboxes?

hS

Some wikis use these to explain obscure terms, with dotted underlines to show where they are, and I like them. There's a how-to here.

~Neshomeh might add the H:title template to PPC Wiki, too, just in case.

I cannot parse the Plortish names and terms into the normal names and terms. The Plort wiki has a page of terms, but the definitions read like this:

Marizu warlords are skilled in the dark arts of Pla'tool, which they use to attack the Scholars' Empire.

Then click on pl'tool and it says:
Pla'tool is the foul magic used by the Marizu to attack the Scholars' Empire.

I did finally get this one with some help in the chat, but I was wondering if it might be possible for standard English to go in parenthesis next to Plortish words? I know its a big request, but maybe it could go on someone's back list?

... And I find an old series of mugshots I started back around when I was doing the ID cards, and a reasonably decent sketch of Ilraen, too! These don't count for the challenge, of course, but I thought I'd share anyway.



These are... okay. Not great. Details in the dA notes.



I like this! Except for the hair; curly hair is really annoying and hard to get right. I might finish this at some point, though.

~Neshomeh

Better a bit late than too late!

These are awesome :D I like that you did it, and I like my flag (though it is a little complex...eh, whatever, I like me a bit of complexity. The fictional people sewing the flag can put up with it). The one thing I would like changed: there are eight stars on the flag, but nine in the original coat of arms. I'd like to keep the meaning from there and have the ninth star added to the flag. Other than that...I like the rays for dawn and that you kept the olive branches and just yeah. Good job condensing the arms into a workable flag.

Also, oh man, I would love to have a Baron With Flag portrait. That would just increase the awesomeness so much. (Also, at some point I need a baronial coat of arms; they were never updated. Then again, I also have a Plort interlude to finish, and I think I meant to update her wiki page a while back and--yeah, there are things to be done. But now there's a flag! So thank you very much for that).

~Z

I had a fair amount of trouble thinking of an antagonist I'd based on Kaitlyn - for obvious reasons, she doesn't tend to be a villain in my stories! In the end I went for this deity, who starts off her story by floating around in the sea until a poor Saxon boy comes by for her to abduct. Goddesses, eh?

This is sketched fairly directly for a photo of a woman doing the same thing; I tweaked the clothing, and a few details to try and make her look more like Kaitlyn. I don't think it was very successful, but the overall image isn't bad (I hope...!). The part I'm least satisfied with is the water, to be honest - except for the submerged parts, she looks like she's lying on a duvet!

hS

I'll never make it, but I've been blocked for so long, I'd like to try and shake out of it. I'm in.

Now, who the heck counts as an antagonist...?

~Neshomeh

(For the Imgurly-deprived, here is the full Plortrait Gallery.)



Fun fact #1: Baron Huinesoron has gotten rather more discreet since the old days. His first battle depicts him as a literal knight in shining armour; he's much stealthier now.

Fun fact #2: His outfit is based, of all things, on Kevin Costner (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). It showed up on my googling, and I stuck with it.

Fun fact #3: On a related note, trying to find images of people with their bows slung over their shoulders is apparently impossible.

Fun fact #4: Baron Huinesoron is carrying a token from his wife, along with his famous bow the Shadow of the Eagle, and his inherited black dagger Selin.

(At some point I need to go back and fix the mistakes in these - I think only Kaitlyn's doesn't have at least one thing obviously wrong with it. Probably best to wait until after I finish the set, though.)

hS

My (current) thoughts on the appropriate length of the copyright term are "14 years and 14 more if you ask"1. Term starts at some sort of publication in this scheme.

The main reason for this is that, from what I can tell, 25-28ish (some subtleties of when you start counting from might eat a few years of the term for films and the like) years from when you've published something either:

a) It's sufficiently popular/enduring/... so as to have become part of the culture (LotR very much falls here) and therefore it should be available to the whole culture to interact with free of fear of lawsuit

b) It's effectively run its course as a thing you can sell, is probably out of print or equivalent), and the only people who still are interested are archivists and the twenty remaining fans (this is somewhat exaggerated but you get the point). In this case, the remaining audience should have the right to preserve and propagate the thing since it's (near-)abandoned by the copyright holder.

c) Sleeping hits, where no one cared initially but then decades later everyone wants to buy the thing. That is, cases where almost all of the royalties would be acquired after the 28 year mark if the copyright term were longer.

I claim that case c) is extremely unlikely, and that the law should not be optimized for it. In both a) and b), the publisher/author/... have gotten their well-deserved $, and it has become time for the public's interest in having artistic works available to override the creator's interest in getting paid.

Furthermore, a shorter copyright term is an incentive for people to make more stuff because they can't just sit on their one success forever.

However, we might want to allow a non-corporate creator control over their universe and the right to live off their one big hit, so a "life of the author OR 14 + 14, whichever's longer" term could be good. Than one bit's a complicated issue.

[1]: It should be noted that I want with 14 as opposed to some other small two-digit number like 15 because that's what it used to be ages back.

- Tomash

I think what I mean is "irreverent and cheeky." Possibly impish or puckish... or elfish, even. {= ) It has been known to bug other people, but that's one of those YMMV tone things.

~Neshomeh

Have I caused offence? That sounds like the sort of sentence that might mean I've offended someone. :-/

hS

I think trying to forbid fanworks altogether is an exercise in futility, even when it's not an outright insult to one's fanbase. I'm also on the fence about how I feel about how much time it takes for things to pass into public domain. On the one hand, I'm okay with it still being illegal for anyone to do whatever they want with Middle-earth, because I, as a fan, am already fed up with the legal stuff. On the other hand, dead authors can't collect royalties, and I think art should belong to the people.

That said, looking at it on a smaller scale, if I, a living PPC author, were to say "Hey, I know you guys really like my agents, and I'm cool with people using them in the Badfic Game, but please don't write them in non-con scenarios, it's not what I or my work stand for," would that be petty of me? I don't think so. I wouldn't read the stuff if people wrote it anyway, but I think it would be fair to ask people who purport to be fans of me and my work to respect my wishes regarding said work, and fair to be upset if they didn't.

It's not about somehow damaging the original IP, legally (though that can be a real concern) or otherwise. It's about respecting the IP's creator. That's why we don't do missions in canons whose authors don't want fanfic of their works, even if we disagree with their reasons.

(And yeah, GRRM is absolutely a Tolkien fanboy, which is really weird. I don't think ASoIaF is derivative enough to qualify as a Middle-earth AU, though. As hS points out in his hS way, all stories are built on other stories. Homage is allowed.)

~Neshomeh

My most gracious thanks to Ye Scape-Grace for these banners. I'll make good use of these colors.

((Thinking about adding a photo to my wiki member profile...))

I had an idea for a Plort meme (yay, more googly eyed PPC memes!) and it requires a short cameo from Baron Huinesoron and his legendary frying pan.

-Twistey

Everything is fanfic of everything else if you AU hard enough... :)

hS