The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Your first post to the Board was on April 4^th, 2017.

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HG

I'll work on what you've said

First, my confession: I have known that Bramandin is zdimensia since approximately September of last year. I'm sorry if anyone feels that this was a betrayal of trust, or if my silence otherwise caused anyone any harm. I didn't say anything about it because I was told in confidence, and because Bramandin had already been around for about half a year at that point; since she'd been doing fairly well, I didn't believe that spilling the beans so long after the fact would be worth all the drama it would entail. Since the secret is out, I am no longer bound by those concerns, so I will share what I know. I have told Bramandin/zdimensia I would do this; it should come as no surprise to her.

I have a record of the e-mail correspondence I've had with her. It's in a Gdoc. I've done my best to preserve the original formatting, and I have deliberately changed only a) places where I accidentally switched from my "Internet" e-mail address to my "real life" e-mail address, and b) places where Bramandin reveals private, personal information that she has not yet mentioned on the Board. Since she has now shared her diagnosis and the fact that she went to the hospital around the time of her ban, that information does appear. The bits I've removed are clearly marked as redacted.

Here is the document.

I leave it to the PPC community to evaluate what they find there for themselves.

Due to my involvement, I will not participate in any formal vote on what is to be done now. However, I will say that at this point in time, I agree completely with doctorlit: I do not think we have the resources to give Bramandin the kind of assistance she needs to participate fully, happily, and safely in this community. I cannot myself be a full-time mediator and translator for her, and I don't know anyone else who can, either. I believe it would be best for her if she gave us up and found another way to express herself through writing.

~Neshomeh

This is an interesting little piece. It actually feels more like a character study of Headquarters's typical hallways than anything else. It works pretty well in that regard; there are definitely some new and unique ideas here. Ventilation plotholes are a logical idea, but also a bit dangerous in the sense of letting wildlife, diseases, and potential allergens like pollen through, not to mention the question of what happens when a larger aircraft flies into the plothole's space. Then again, the narration mentions it's the first one Daniel encountered that directly opened to sky, so maybe that's not the standard. I just generally like some of the imagination you put into some of these concepts: breaking concrit exposing fossilized words, physical locations marked by different sensations and feelings, the implied backstory of a couch blocking a stairway. They all feel like they fit into HQ, and it's a bit surprising some of this design space hasn't been touched on before.

You've put so much focus on the setting, however, that I do feel like the characters have suffered for it. I can infer some sense of Daniel's personality, insofar as he's clearly a bit of a dreamy personality: spending his off-time wandering HQ alone, learning tiny details about the walls and such. His position as a Cafeteria worker adds to this impression, since he doesn't need the aggressive mindset of most action department agents. His dialogue . . . I think you were aiming for a bit of an airy Luna Lovegood voice? You succeeded with a few lines ("'I thought you would find it interesting. Now I remember what happens when you assume.'"), but for the most part, it just comes out as a bit dull and basic ("'Why were you following me?'" "'By the way, where are you going?'") The female agent has almost no development at all, though it appears she is indeed just a background character, rather than an agent you're planning to use, so maybe that was intentional? But it still contributes to the blandness of Daniel's dialogue, since they make no real attempt to get to know each other. Neither one of them is described, either.

So ultimately, very imaginative descriptions and world-building, but the characters need more description and development.

I have gone to the trouble of reconstructing the links in the post prompting zdimensia's ban discussion, which can be found on the Altchives here. The links represent my best guesses, but I'm pretty sure of most of them.

---

You have ignored a direct request to expand on an apology for blatant racism which was only extracted from you with extreme difficulty, specifically three separate statements [These are my best guesses based on the timeline. Others that might be being referenced are this and this. ~2017!hS] that you need to do so to continue posting on the Board. Said apology reads very clearly as you feeling hard done by and only giving it under duress. It also contains explicit confirmation - not that any was needed - that you consider yourself genuinely racist.

As a consequence of all these factors, your statement that 'she hates Nazis slightly more than what is socially necessary' reads, to me, as 'I don't believe hating Nazis has any foundation, but sigh, it's socially necessary to pretend to do so'. Which would be an incredibly racist attitude to express.

However, all of the above is my interpretation of events, not an assertion of fact. Therefore, I am requesting the PPC community to offer opinions:

-Has zdimensia, during or after her apology, violated the letter or spirit of the PPC Constitution, or any other standards of behaviour you believe to apply to the PPC Board?

-If so, what should the community's response be?

hS

---

A few other posts are relevant here:

In this post I proposed a 1-year ban, and also suggested that violating it should lead to a permanent ban. You can see the responses to that underneath.

This post marks the top of the (short) thread in which the ban was formalised.

Bramandin has already linked to this thread, in which she returned two months before her ban expired. As a result of this, and multiple requests in the thread, her IP address was blocked by the Nameless Admin (as is standard when someone violates a ban).

And this is Bramandin's introduction post, which came a full six months after her original ban would have expired, and eight after her early return.

A key question which needs to be answered by the PPC community is: should Bramandin be considered a banned user? She did not appear until after zdimensia's ban would have expired; however, there is an argument to be made that zdimensia's violation of that ban made it permanent. If there is a community consensus that she should not have rejoined the Board, the ban should be re-implemented.

This post was originally written before the permaban uncertainty was brought to my attention, hence the slightly odd format. Given the discussion underway, I felt it might be useful to have the reason zdimensia was banned shown as clearly as possible.

hS

We had four or five different church choirs thrown together for the first time just before the performance. Some of us had been working with a different arrangement of one of the pieces than the one we were using. Fortunately, it was simple enough to pick up, but still frustrating. Plus, two songs that we hadn't practiced and I, at least, didn't know, and had to pick up without music on the spot. >_>;

But, I don't think anyone in the audience noticed. It was a big enough group that the people who knew what they were doing could cover up those that didn't, and I was told by a couple people that we sounded great. So, I guess that's all right.

~Neshomeh

Thank you for your promise. I'm not in a position to forgive you, or to forget, but I believe you will try not to repeat your errors. Not everyone will agree with me, and perhaps I'm wrong, but frankly, I'm too tired of this to push any further right now. If you somehow make a monkey of me, I'll have to deal with that then.

Mel says you're working on getting real help, which is great. I wish you all the best with that, and I'll hope to know a happier, healthier Scapegrace in the future. {= )

~Neshomeh

Hello! Thank you (assuming that message was for me otherwise I am appearing a total idiot right now)

I have been following the boards a while and would like eventually to become more involved, I love to write and have a fair few fandoms of my own.

Right now life is a bit mad but in the meantime nice to meet you all!

I find this interjection to be inappropriate. I don't think any reasonable person would interpret "staying out of each other's way" as including an exception for making remarks about the other person to which, if they kept to the agreement, they would not be able to respond. That is not fair.

Furthermore, your input was not required. I was aware of your position—so much so that I specifically mentioned your name at one point—and I was already doing something about the situation. I'm not sure what you thought you were contributing, but from where I sit, it looks like pure spite. True or not, I think you'd do well to bear in mind that you, too, have an image problem around here, and if that doesn't make you sympathetic, it should at least make you think twice about throwing stones.

Regardless of your motives here, if you intend to have nothing to do with Scapegrace going forward, then I expect you both to do what Herr and Nord are doing and each act as though the other does not exist. If either of you has something you really must say to or about the other, do it through a mediator.

~Neshomeh

I want to focus on writing. Trouble is that I have this backlog of old stories that need a second look before I can move forward. Can anyone help me?

The first three are all My Little Pony Despatch stories. I think that I've approached the Despatch well, sometimes speculating whether a character represents their author or not, but only saying for sure when I'm positive that they're just a character.

The first story has meth use, nudity, and references to Cupcakes. Rated T.

The second story has cussing, romance, and an obsession with Deadmau5. Rated T.

The third story is NSFW.

The second

I mean, regardless of the size of the fandom, not everyone shares the same reference pool. If that was the case and anyone took it as a personal attack, I apologise.

I used to watch the original MLP and collect the toys. I've watched FiM, though I might slip and think a Friendship is Witchcraft episode is canon.

I'm willing to research. I've got plenty of time on my hands.

For betaing, you might have to ask me to clarify some things.

I read part of the story with Feratu, not sure if I finished it in the past. How many agents are on that mission? Plus with mentioning other members of Skarmory's army, there were too many characters to keep track of.

My time here has been a little bit rocky, but I don't think it's been irredeemably bad.

There is a nightmare PPC. The first six months of my ban were somewhat relaxing since I could work in peace on what went wrong. But then I found my answer.

I started yelling at the wall because I felt I couldn't tell you what had happened. Of course I felt un-listened to because you couldn't defend yourselves.

I need for you to say that things aren't true.

I feel that every person on the board will live happily ever after if I kill myself, or even just go back to suffering in silence. That's right, I feel like I'm not considered a person.

When I realized that I felt abused, it hurt not to say anything. You dismissed me, even saying I was delusional. People who gaslight say their victim is crazy. You took away my ability to speak.

Scape and I have already agreed to avoid each other, it seems. That's also why I said I really feel like someone who isn't me should spearhead any drafts written up. This isn't about me making jabs at her, attacking her, anything like that, and I'm doing my best to divorce my personal feelings from the matter at hand.

I have been on the receiving end, which is why I'm questioning the fairness of this.

When I got out of the hospital, I was told that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, which is flawed. I'm really questioning if my very life means anything in the face of their discomfort.

My name is mentioned, while not in hushed tones, as a shorthand for a terrible memory.

There's a lot of stuff I'm not saying.

I don't care what she's going through. If anything, it's a greater responsibility to stop and think if her hands belong on the keyboard at any moment.

I wouldn't be speaking to the board if it weren't for the fact that not speaking to the board is the major cause of stress right now.

I got that it was supposed to be a reference for something, but I did not recognize it. I came across this fascinating article. http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/nitwit-blubber-oddment-tweak-four-words-for-other/

You were trying to be funny. You were ultimately not that helpful.

My knee-jerk reaction was to call you a nerd. This could be seen in so many ways, but I view it as a positive word.

Even though the article says that they were insults, I viewed it as simply a quote.

I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about this.

That's a good reference, appropriately used.

That said, I still feel you should consider an apology for using something that could be easily misunderstood as a flame. And I would say the same to Dumbledore if he was here. :)

hS

Oddment and blubber were the wrong way round, in the catastrophically unlikely event anyone's interested.

In any event, I'll issue an apology for pretty much anything that causes offence, but I don't think referential humour really warrants one. I mean, come on, how many Potterverse missions and agents have we had over the years? =]

Albus Dumbledore gives a speech at the start of the year, and ends on the following: "It is customary for the Headmaster to say a few words. Nitwit. Oddment. Blubber. Tweak. Thank you."

Whilst I am loath to write this here I will seeing as my partner is seemingly akin to a penny dreadful monster currently on the boards with some cheering for her and others wishing to haul out the pitchforks as it were...

Scape IS seeking help for her mental health. As the person who lives with the woman I can assure you of that. She has registered with a GP close to our home. Scape knows her anxiety paranoia and rage needs assistance. I know it needs assistance and we are making it happen..

You guys don't know me from Adam and frankly this wasn't the ideal way I wanted to introduce myself to the board. Have you guys noticed Scape has for the most part stayed away from this thread? She is trying.

At the moment we are going through a lot as a couple. Not that it is anything to be used as an excuse as such but rather you know... Scape won't say a word as it is "my" business. My best friend is fighting the big C for the third time. Surgury before chemo today. She has animals and will be unwell for a while and as such I am moving into her place to care for them. The issue is I am also a carer. The gent we live with has epilepsy diabetes and mental health issues so needs someone there.

Scape is basically gong to be splitting herself between homes. Supporting the both of us. As I am sure anyone here who has ever had anxiety will understand that is immensely damn hard.

This whole situation has been weighing on my girl. And things that effect my girl impact me.

If you want her to go by some sort of code then please lay it out, get it done. I would however ask that in regards to Ekyls suggestions for Scapegrace, if that is put into place that he abide by them too. No jibes, nitpicking, jabs or antagonist acts. Frankly it is evident there is no friendship there from the posts I have read/researched. I suggest the "rule" goes both ways.

Mel

I think you were trying to use four random words here (to 'say something'); however, unfortunately the first word ('nitwit') ended up being an insult, which - given how pretty much anything can be used as an insult - ended up colouring the other words as well. Obviously deliberately being insulting would be an issue under the Constitution; I feel it would be appropriate for you to apologise for your choice of words giving the impression you were flaming.

hS