On the basis of his work schedule, and not because he wouldn’t be awesome at it, I hereby rescind my nomination of doctorlit.
Sincerely, —Ls
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On the basis of his work schedule, and not because he wouldn’t be awesome at it, I hereby rescind my nomination of doctorlit.
Sincerely, —Ls
And on point with this particular iteration of the Multiverse Monitor for most of its article to be, in fact, gloriously useless.
The covering of the Boat race was a failure, one article is pure conspiracy theory, the one about time is, in fact, just someone beign grumpy for developing a bad hip at too young an age, Page 3 isn't really there, the horoscope took only one sing per system, the advert... isn't really advertising anything.
And that is what we really expect it to be. The owl with a snout was cute, though, and the articly about Dafydd took some actual effort! Though, to be fair, I'm wondering why they're still so obsessed with someone who retired ages ago...
Doc would make an excellent PG, but I do know enough of his work life to say that this is not a burden I'm comfortable giving him.
Which is the in-universe way to quarantine off canons where authors have specifically said no fanfics. I mean, since you’re explicitly allowing fanfic, even deliberately written badfic, to exist, then it’s probably unquarantined.
I thought perhaps it would be a different variety of Shield, since a Boarder is the author rather than someone who hasn’t heard of the PPC, that might automatically jettison badfic into a bubble universe?
I prefer to think of it as... hm, more like the Badfic Games the PPC sees in September? :P Whatever it is that protects the agents from deliberate badfic could possibly apply here while still leaving the canon open to missions...
Authorial fiat welcoming badfic could create a… rolls dice Creativity Sword. That attracts Glitter, because it’s shiny! Or something.
I have a shelf for exactly this sort of thing, and I much prefer reading hard-copies. Also makes it easier to take photos.
hS
By that logic, any author who says "write whatever you want" puts themselves outside the scope of the PPC. It also means there can never be a Tenebrous Trilogy mission, because the whole canon is behind a Creativity Shield.
Under the latest theories on Glitter from DAS, what this actually means is that Iximaz has been corrupted by Glitter and is actively encouraging the destruction of their canon. "I wanna see lots of badfic" is functionally the same as, oh, "the Force is actually microbes," at least according to the theorists.
(Naturally, being PPC agents, the one thing we can say for sure about their theories is that they're wrong. But that's what they say. ^_~)
hS
Creativity Shields in my current understanding derive from authorial fiat. Ix allowing badfic could be authorial fiat that automatically quarantines away badfic.
Also congrats on getting published, Ix!
I'll preface this with the fact that I do enjoy Scape's writing, and I love her way with words, her comedic timing, and the quirks of all of her characters. My favourite characters that she has written are the Notary and Bogbrush. The Notary is an excellent foil to the other Time Lords, and Bogbrush's physicality wrt his Sue Tracker issues have always been a joy to read.
That being said, being a good, or even a great writer does not necessarily mean someone is a good critiquer for beginning writers, who are the people in direct contact with Permission Givers. I have no doubt that Scape is a great beta for people who are already Permissioned, but I worry about whether or not her critiquing style may come across as too harsh for prospies. This is not a judgement on Scape's writing ability or her as a person -- not everyone has the ability to guide beginners, nor should we expect everyone to. But a Permission Giver is offering constructive criticism to beginners, and thus I do not believe the position to be a good fit for Scape.
You yourself mention that she can be acerbic and insulting, and I simply do not believe that to be a good fit for the average newbie. Once again, I do not doubt that she can give great concrit to more experienced writers, or at the least writers who have already passed muster by getting Permission. But just as not everyone wants a doctor with a wisecracking, sarcastic bedside manner, not every prospie will be able to handle Scape's concrit, and I am under the impression that this community is trying to move past being misunderstood as bullies. (Again, not accusing Scape of being a bully. I just worry that people may misunderstand her intentions unless they have had more experience with her.)
Perhaps I will be proven wrong. But with my current understanding, these are my reservations in nominating her. And since Nesh suggested I be the Not Groupthink-y person, here I am trying to be honest. Being a PG is not some sort of indicator that someone is the Best Writer Ever -- it is a responsibility to help mentor beginning PPC writers by offering concrit on their Permission Requests, and the judgement that PGs give can change entire spin-off trajectories. Scape does good work, and writes well, and interacts with people pretty well. But that still doesn't guarantee that she is a good fit for PG.
ETA: To address more specifically the "working with people who may not be confident about their writing": Scape is a tough-love sort of beta. I can respect that. I also believe honesty is best when it comes to beta reading and concrit! But once again it comes down to bedside manner for me. Scape does great with people who go out to seek her advice, because those people are prepared to take her advice in the way she presents it. I worry about prospies who may be expecting concrit in a less tough-love manner getting blindsided.
Time is so much a scam, and I particularly liked the bits about DAS and the boat race
This: https://play.google.com/books
Upload an EPUB from your hard drive to your library, and it's readable there. (At least, it worked for the "generic EPUB" Young Wizards book files.)
~Neshomeh
1) so if you bought through Amazon/B&N/whatever, they'll probably make you download their terrible program for your computer and/or phone, or use Adobe Digital Editions, which is also kinda not great. However, it's pretty self-explanatory. Basically follow the directions the store gives you.
2) Sometimes, once in a blue moon, a service will let you download a raw EPUB. Amazon never does this, but they will lie about it and tell you they do. Google makes it pretty convenient if the author has permitted it (I don't know how easy it is to permit it as an author, though...). This is the actual ebook in its pure form, without any nonsense stuck in it to try and keep you for using it however you please. If you have one of these, you can use any ebook reader to read them. On PC, Calibre tends to be the software of choice for both reading ebooks and managing an ebook library. On iOS... well, I don't own one. Can't talk about it. On android, I am partial to Librera Reader Pro, which is $3.50 on the Play Store or free on F-Droid, thus continuing the popular open-source funding model of "it costs money if you want to support the developer or just don't know any better." Anyways, it's barebones and gets out of your way, which is really what I want in an e-reader application.
I am relating all this in case anyone wants to know, because having read both pdfs and epubs, I find the latter a lot more convenient (the text reflows to fit your screen size, you can adjust font and font size and text/background colors to whatever is easiest for you to read... etc).
So if, like me, you've been fixing to get around to those but haven't had a good place to buy them ... new there is one.
I don't really know how to organize all my thoughts on why Scape should be a PG, but most importantly? Scape knows a hell of a lot about writing in general and the PPC in specific, is very good at communicating specific points about why a piece is or is not good, and for all the issues she sometimes has with her temper? I don't see her acting unfairly very often at all. Blunt, scathing, sometimes insulting - all of the above - but not unfair. And I've frequently seen her working with people who may not be very confident in their work, offering very honest, detailed constructive criticism as well as suggesting ideas that could be added, and in my book, that's possibly the best way you can truly help someone become a better writer.
I also have a Twitter if anyone wants to retweet. :)
I know they've been told about it...
~Neshomeh