The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I'm a little late, but... yeah.

...Coming here felt like coming home.

Like, if we picked a body of smart people to vote on our behalf, then yes?

I mean, theoretically a certain level of education, intelligence, or at least life experience is already something we select for in our various representatives (except for when it very obviously isn't >.> ). So if we're a republic now, we'd be a republic then, too.

... Is suggesting that providing an equal education to all citizens ought to be a priority of any democratic republic/state/nation/whatever the same as suggesting there should be education requirement to be an elector? I feel like there's an important difference in nuance there? I hope so, 'cause I do think everyone should have equal access to education, and I do think compulsory basic education is a good thing provided equal access exists...

Yet almost all that stuff you said already happens as it is. -_-;

~Neshomeh

I like that they specify compassion as a requirement alongside intelligence. It's notoriously difficult to assess intelligence objectively, but whether or not you have a history of showing compassion to others is easier to spot, and hard to cover up if you don't.

Can't say I'm not a little skeptical of any movement proposed by a guy who also started a religion that insists humans were created by aliens, though. It sounds like a pretty friendly religion on a quick skim, but, um, pass on the aliens, thanks. ^_^;

~Neshomeh

Yes, Dumbledore still should have a chance to mentor Harry, even if he has several other mentor figures too. I think Harry in general, here and in canon, seems to dislike not knowing about things--in canon it's compounded by the Dursleys keeping him in the dark about magic for a long time out of fear and hatred, here it's Lily keeping him in the dark about his father and magic because she believed it safest for him. The problem with giving Harry too much information, though, is that he also tends to go off and do something with that information and that might put him in danger :'D

Anyway, canon Harry did have his angry moments, yeah! This Harry is more throwing a tantrum than anything else, but he did express some very valid reasons for his anger, and Lily is taking that seriously because she's trying to do her best.

Purityworld has "acts of contrition" people may perform to earn forgiveness, so your point about it being given not earned is very prescient!

You'll see about Quirrell!

You can change your author name per post (although it's still possible to see which account created the post by clicking) so I decided to take advantage of it.

Link.

At least, kinda.

And, apparently, Switzerland is a somewhat-direct democracy.

—Ls

Requiring a certain education level to be a member of the electorate, I mean?

Which isn't what you were actually proposing, because it would be SO open to abuse, of course - you start by closing schools in areas that vote against you for trumped-up budget or performance reasons, and then go on to require a specific form of "proof of education" not available everywhere. It's also fab for excluding immigrants of any kind, and anyone old enough that they didn't have access to the education system as a child. That access would be wildly different depending on demographic groups... oh, and it means institutional racism, or any other -ism, would reduce the number of electors in the affected group, because they would be disproportionately excluded from school.

But would it be a Republic? :D

hS

As you must learn to drive before getting the keys to a car, I reckon you should at least have basic history, civics, and economics under your belt before you're expected to make informed decisions that will affect national policy. All the core subjects, really—knowing basic math, science, and language tends to help with a general grasp of reality. {= )

If I ran the world, I'd add critical thinking to the roster, too. I had a class like that in college, and IMO it should happen (or at least start) in primary school.

~Neshomeh

I think Wikipedia explains it fairly well.

—Ls

I really don’t think allowing minors to vote is a good idea.

—Ls

Other characters taking up bits and pieces of Dumbledore's role as chief dispenser of wisdom is pretty cool, but it's nice to see him reasserting himself every once in a while! The dynamic between Harry and Lily is really good, too. Of course Harry wouldn't be too happy with having secrets kept from him! Although I don't remember if he was quite so angry when Dumbledore revealed everything, but I guess it was. Overshadowed. By... that. Heh heh.

I also like the nuanced take on forgiveness. You can't say sorry and earn forgiveness right away, because forgiveness isn't earned, it's given. It depends entirely on whether the other person wants to forgive you, and even then it takes work to forgive someone. Even your closest family...

Ooh, Quirrel's still up to no good, I see? Although it definitely hits way harder knowing that he's secretly racist. Secret bigotry that reveals itself at the worst time possible (say, for example, Election Day) is The Worst. Can't wait to see what he's gonna do!

The reason the senate looks like it does, in particular with regards to the wildly uneven representation, probably has less to do with the "tyranny of the majority" issue than it does with other factors (however, a whole lot else about the senate is. Like its existence and consideration as the "more mature" legislative body, and the fact that senators were not originally directly elected).

The reason the senate is the way it is is because before The Constitution, there was The Articles of Confederation. Under these laws, the United States had a very weak central government that was barely effective at all, and couldn't really enforce laws. The states were reluctant to give up any powers to a federal government, but then they were convinced. By, among other things, the poor people revolting, and a total inability to deal with this.

Anyways, there was a debate over the legislature of the new government. Under the Articles of Confederation, since the barely-existent federal government was a confederation of states, each state was proportionally represented. The Constitution would be creating a governing body that looked a lot closer to an actual nation, and a number of states proposed a proportional representation model. The Virginia plan called for a bicameral legislature, with the "lower" house having its members directly elected, and its "upper" house having its members chosen by state legislatures. Which was how our house and senate worked until senators became directly elected later on, but with a proportional senate. Meanwhile, smaller states tended to prefer a system where each state got the same number of representatives (for reasons that should be obvious: these smaller states still wanted to enjoy the equality of power and influence that they had had up to now). The New Jersey plan suggested a Unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state and a weaker federal government overall.

Nobody was yielding, and so there was a compromise: the Virginia plan would proceed, but with equal representation for each state in the senate. In the house, representation would be proportional. But this is also where the three-fifths compromise comes from... and why it's called that.

So that's why the Senate is wildly uneven in how many constituents it represents: a struggle for power between the states, a fear of the dominance of large states, and a bit of horrible horrible racism thrown in for good measure.

I honestly believe that young people (14 yrs minimum) are old and wise enough to vote, but maybe that's just me.

Wikipedia explains better than I can, but honestly it's bewildering.

When it comes to "direct democracy" vs "indirect democracy," ruling out an illogical scenario like expecting small children to vote, I think it's worth distinguishing between "all citizens" and "a body of citizens" where the body could be white male landowners (as it was here in the past) or any other specially entitled group.

Re. the Senate, the Founding Fathers made some decisions based on worries about a "tyranny of the majority," which I interpret to mean non-white, non-male, non-wealthy people having too much power. That's one of them.

I'm not sure that actually clears anything up, because it's all a mess, but I tried?

~Neshomeh

1. Yeah, I'd agree with hub pages for works we don't still have access to. It's a better idea.
2. The board mechanism was proposed as a fallback because I didn't want to subject the board to extra traffic that could be avoided. Given, we don't get much traffic so I'm not overly concerned about that. The other reason I proposed it as a fallback is because I thought it would be more work for people. After all, what's easier: copy-pasting urls into links and having everything break if you get it wrong, or adding <script src="https://github.com/location/of/script.js"></script> in your header, and <div id="ppc-webring"></div> somewhere in the page, and having the rest take care of itself? However, given relative usage of that vs board routing, it might not be worth the bother to go make (although it is pretty quick...).
3. Yes, routing through the board would make it work with the wiki. And google docs. And tumblr, livejournal, dreamwidth, AO3, ff.net... really, anywhere you can insert hyperlinks.
4. Automation. I assumed this would be hosted through github (and then fetched by the board service periodically, if that's how we're doing things). So... yes, if you can submit an issue, or know JSON well enough to edit the thing yourself and submit a PR, you can use Github's tooling to get the attention of me or someone else on the technical side (we can have more than one person running that). If that's too intimidating we could use something like an application form, or something. Or look into further automating the process of adding people so that non-technical folks can help manage the list (which is a good idea either way, we're only human and could make mistakes, but it's more time and effort). I don't want to entirely cut humans out of the loop because if webring additions are 100% automatic it can be abused.

(this reminds me to get board-to-discord crossposting working. I actually have a patch, but it hasn't been tested yet...)

I've wanted to talk about this for a little while. Sued!Bilbo talking in bad pseudo-Shakespearean English has provided an excuse. ^_^ So, under the header of Things You Only Know If You Read the Appendices:

Tolkien was very specific about how he used "thee" and "thou" in LotR. In Appendix F, Part II, he notes that Westron has "familiar" and "deferential" second- and third-person pronouns—like tú (informal) and usted (formal) in Spanish. In the Shire, the "deferential" mode has gone out of everyday use, so what appears as English "you" in LotR typically represents the familiar/normal mode. Tolkien uses thee/thou to show that a speaker is using an older, more formal mode of Westron. But he also uses thee/thou occasionally to show, "there being no other means of doing this, a significant change from the deferential, or between men and women normal, forms to the familiar."

In the conversation between Aragorn and Éowyn when she begs him to take her with him into battle, and he tells her to stay because it's her duty and she has no errand in the South, they both use "you" all the way through it, up until the very end, when Éowyn says:

"Neither have those others that go with thee. They go only because they would not be parted from thee – because they love thee."

And thus we know just how very plain she has made herself there.

Absolute genius.

~Neshomeh

Working backwards, my vague thought for inaccessible files is that we just fudge together some hub pages for them. A lot of older stuff has made it into one archive or another by now, and the stuff that hasn't... could be. ^_^ It's not perfect, but it should function.

If nothing else, your proposal to run it through the Board means it should work with the Wiki, right? Make a page called Oaken Thorinshield's Writings, categorise as a Spinoff, add the Webring, bam, done.

What are the problems with the Board 'hack'? You said it would be a fallback option, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason to use the more complicated-for-the-hoster version. Is it just because two page changes is going to chug on some computers, or what?

I'm guessing - or maybe hoping - that there's some way to make adding sites to the list at least partially automated. It wouldn't be ideal for the way to get on to be "message Thoth and hope he has time"; even assuming you always did, having to directly message a person seems to cut down on takeup. I know the example talked about GitHub; would that still work with the Board Hack?

hS

I agree with you on that--and I'd add that Jane Austen's female characters are definitely more feminist than the way fem!Harry and friends are portrayed in this. It feels like Purityworld made no attempt to understand either Harry Potter or Jane Austen.

Thank you for clarifying. It was not easy to parse the true intent of your statement.

The old thread fell off the main page, but here's a new one: Harry finds the Mirror of Erised.

Hope you enjoy!

"Republic", specifically. Because most of the time, in most of the world, it seems to mean "not monarchy". The French First through... Fifth, I think, Republics use the same word as the People's Republic of China, to pick two of a great many examples; anti-monarchists in the UK are also called republicans.

Historically, I know the original split in US politics was between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, so I think there's something about States as distinct governments in there? But then you're talking about having Electors who are not the whole population, which is what everywhere does (at a minimum, on the basis of age). But also Linstar's reference wants democracy = direct democracy, which as far as I know no country does, so the distinction is meaningless.

And where does the Senate fit into this? The fraction of a Senator your vote represents varies wildly between US states; is that a Republic thing, because it's not directly connected to the population? Or is that something else entirely?

hS

Part of the reason we count as a republic is that we utilize indirect democracy via "a body of citizens entitled to vote" (i.e. the electoral college) as opposed to direct democracy via popular vote, right? I admit I forgot it's not actually involved in a midterm, but your emphasizing the republic aspects of US government whereby we empower others to make decisions on our behalf is what got me thinking about it.

I agree with you about secure, reliable election results being important. I'm glad that's a thing we've repeatedly proven to have, despite ongoing scaremongering to the contrary.

~Neshomeh

On AO3 and Blogspot; join Carlisle, Fáelán and trainee Émilie on the first part their adventure into a hilarious HP bad slash. Warning for Harry suddenly developing Twu Wuv for a teacher of his.