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I always thought 5+ years in the PPC makes one an oldbie, and the Oldest Oldbies have been here since 2002/2003 AKA the (almost) very beginning... which are hS and Nesh, to my knowledge.

I do not consider myself an oldbie, not by any stretch, but thank you for the compliment :).

-kA, who swore there was a hard line with oldbies, but maybe not.

Okay, I know we try to avoid talking about authors any more, but I can't avoid it here, since MS and SM are explicitly writing themselves into Middle-earth, Despatch-style. But I mostly want to focus on the implication here: stories published start shattering the canon world, but the PPC's presence was keeping the damage from spreading. When the PPC disappeared, the cracks began opening. No . . . that's not quite it, huh? Let me try again: stories published (on the Pit) start shattering the canon world, but the PPC's presence (on the Pit) was keeping the damage from spreading. When the PPC disappeared (on the Pit), the cracks began spreading. In other words, this story is written from the viewpoint that FF.net itself was the main locus of . . . all of it, all that's happening here, everything in the orbit of the PPC. It doesn't account for other fandom sites, or the in-universe possibility of fic written in other universes.

To try to tie this in to hS's theory that mirror universes were spawned from this event . . . let's see. The PPC itself is also a continuum, but unlike other published series like the Legendarium, it existed solely on the Pit. So during the time period when it was deleted, it had no form, but stories like this one and "Discontinuum" were still getting published on the Pit . . . which means the PPC's only form during that period was lines like "'They're, like, soooooo horrible!'" and "'Why do you think they hate us?'" Could this fractured and purely antithetical view point have produced the EPC? Could residents of HQ during that period actually see the cracking, the splitting off of an entire mirror HQ, complete with mirror people being formed in real time?!!?!?

Two things for fun:

"green muck smeared over their faces and hands"
Are they cosplaying as Elphaba to do witchy stuff? Cultural approp

"Sue Mary would be the first to admit the candles weren't strictly necessary, but they looked really cool"
Despite being opposed to the PPC, SM recognizes the validity of at least SOME narrative laws!

—doctorlit is still in the English, for the record

That does sound frustrating. Hope your sitch improves.

• Ls, who is probably spending too much time replying to every other post. Oh well.

This community is important to me, and that's why I make such an effort to review every story that gets posted*, including hS's +20 project, but I'm literally squeezing in my R+R during breakfasts and dinners. Most of my work days right now are sleeping from roughly 9pm to 4:30am, and being out of the house from 6am to around 7pm. A lot of my weekend gets wasted on recovering sleep, and of course, laundry and packing lunches. (I do usually have two mornings a week when I can stay a couple hours longer in my condo in the morning, but that's dependent on none of my coworkers taking days off or getting sick.) It's already pretty rough, so adding more to my plate doesn't sound wise for me, and that's putting my own personal misgivings about not having a discerning critical eye aside.

(Not to sob-story on the Board, but the current zoo situation, for anyone who cares: The extremely austere and resource-hoarding founder of the zoo passed away early this year. His daughter has taken over, but her financial decision-making is hindered by a probate agreement made between the founder and our bank, such that the bank can veto increases to our budget if they feel it will threaten getting paid back the money the founder owed them when he died. She's actually managed to make decent progress on that goal, and has secured some major benefits for us so far, including increasing our internal minimum wage by almost $3.00 an hour, and starting to give us vacation pay. Unfortunately, having more money can't buy me more free time, and the increased staff we need has only begun to trickle in so far, with Hoofstock department getting an additional keeper, and Birds & Primates, by far the largest department by exhibit numbers, finally getting a long overdue restructure into a Birds department and a Primates department. None of that helps me directly, though I'm hoping the relatively swift increases to pay and benefits are first steps towards wanting to attract other keepers here, so we can fill out the buildings departments where I work. We're currently projecting to finish paying back the bank and end the probate in 2024.)

—doctorlit, oversharing?

*As long as they don't spoil something I haven't read yet!

I like the idea of explaining why someone would want to mission a given fanfic. Helps us gently remind people not to spork out of 100% anger. There's gotta be at least 45% genuine amusement involved :P

But back to the Wiki page: Methinks a lot of people jump right to the "how do I get it". For some reason, my memory of the Permission page was simply just the "how do I get it" portion, but that could be because I hadn't really checked back on this page since, oh, the very very early days of that wiki. Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I looked at the page and saw that it was a Monster. So yeah, probably could pare the main page down to "what do you need Permission to do" and "how do you get Permission", and then a subpage with FAQs.

Also, had a chat with Tomash about potentially making a page on the Board with the cached Permission prompts set up in a random generator. I don't really code, but it's just one list, randomised, so we'll see if I can hack it.

Which would make kA an oldbie.

As for my favorite agent pair, I’d have to go with the Aviator/Rina and Zeb. The way they interact is really heartwarming; Zeb’s innocence is quite endearing, and I also like the Aviator’s arcs and how tough she is while still being a good mom to Elanor. They have a bajillion Missions, often in my favorite fandoms. And they’re tacking My Immortal, my favorite badfic ever. So...favorite non-Jay and Acacia writer goes to Iximaz.

• Ls, certain he’s misspelled something.

((Edit: typos fixed.))

Bits that still need filling in are in {curly brackets}. Mostly written without reference to the current article, and deliberately REALLY short. I don't think we need to hand-hold people through 'you should read some PPC stories first' any more.

---

Unlike some other collaborative universes you might have encountered, an author requires Permission to write for the PPC. The Permission process was started by Jay and Acacia, who asked people to email them before writing a spinoff; when Jay left, she passed the responsibility on to Miss Cam, GreyLadyBast, and Thalia Weaver, and the [[Permission Giver]]s faithfully carry the torch to this day.

== When can I get Permission? ==

There's no defined timeline for asking for Permission - you should wait until you understand how the PPC (as a shared universe) works, and until the community knows who you are. Some good markers to look for are:

• If asked, you could say who your favourite non-TOS agent is, and give a solid reason why.
• You've taken part in a range of different community activities on the Board or Chat, including joining discussions that aren't about your own plans for writing agents.
• You can get through the [Permission Self-Check] without too much trouble.
• {Other things? No more than 5 points}

== How do I get Permission? ==

The Permission process isn't (or isn't meant to be) particularly difficult: all we really want is to check that you can write decently, that you're going to stick around, and that you understand what the PPC is all about. When you're ready (see above), start a thread on the Board and give us the following:

• Brief bios of your intended agents (200-400 words, give or take). These should be the agent team you're looking to use in missions. See [[#Guidance: Profiles]] below for more on what we're after, but basically this is so we can check they're not blatant, canon-breaking Suvians.
• The first badfic your agents will take on. Don't just pick the story you hate most in the world - look for something that will make a good mission, and a good ''first'' mission (not always the same thing!).
• A sample of your writing - at least 400 words - which you feel represents how you'd write for the PPC. It can be something you've already written, or new for the occasion. It doesn't need to be PPC-related, but can be: some people have used interludes, cowrites, RPs, or the intro to their planned first mission. Make it as long as you want, but be aware that Permission Givers are busy folks - they might not read past the first couple of pages. {Some nice way of saying 'a beta reader is encouraged'.}

And that's it! A Permission Giver should be along fairly soon to check it out. They'll look at your agents, your writing (both SPaG/technical skill, and how 'PPC-ish' it feels), how well you fit into the community, and generally just whether you're ready to contribute to the shared PPC universe we all love. Whether they grant Permission or tell you to do a bit more reading and writing practice first, they'll probably give you some [[concrit]] along with their decision. PGs are long-time members of the community who are {something that's not 'looked up to'} for their writing skill, so make the most of the feedback you get! It comes from the heart.

And that's it! It's not much at all, really. Once you've got Permission, you can go and write for whatever parts of the PPC you like {or something to that effect, I dunno}.

== Guidance: Profiles ==

{Basically the current Profiles FAQ. Keep the same format for any other #Guidance entries. Slice everything else off to a separate article or, for preference, cut it completely.}

---

hS

I started glancing through (instead of reading, really) around "Things to Avoid" and stopped at "Q. Character bio? How? What? Give me some help!" in my first read-through.

I think moving the FAQ to a subpage would help.

-kA, who is sorry for not having better/clearer information

Do you remember how much you did read before you stopped? This could be a useful benchmark for the rewrite.

~Neshomeh

I would add one thing: In addition to giving a link to the badfic you intend to spork (if, indeed, you intend to spork anything), give us a paragraph summarizing why you think it's mission-worthy. Someone, somewhere, at some point suggested this, and it stuck with me. I think it's an excellent idea that will really help with giving an impression of a person's attitude toward mission-writing.

I agree that a PPC mission probably shouldn't be the first story a person ever writes... OTOH I'm not sure I want to straight-up bar anyone from trying it. A Permission request is a guaranteed way to get critical feedback, which is so valuable. But back on the first hand, using us as a shortcut to feedback isn't very nice. I dunno. I'd be interested in trying it and seeing how many complaints we actually get. {= )

I'll volunteer to rewrite the article, since I wrote most of it in the first place. I think we should probably keep the FAQ, but maybe move it to a sub-page so it's not sitting there making the main body of the article look bigger than it truly is?

~Neshomeh

So am I on there?

Btw, I noticed a mini-Agent, Davis.))

"Hmm?" David Null said. He lifted his head from the console panel.

Multiple messages flashed and flickered, several from other agents panicking at partners disappearing, some panicking about where their minis went (while other apparently still had theirs), someone demanding who was behind all of this...

David put his head back down, torn between whether this was a nightmare or if he just caused a world-ending event.

Riiiiiing

Click

"Hello?" K said, presumably to the phone. David couldn't tell.

"Paye no longer lives here," K replied. "I don't recommend calling her. She's in... a sensitive state."

"Cut the fuvg and say she's crying," David muttered. He was used to (too used to) the way K talked around things. K, in David's eyes, sugar-coated fuvg so much that he could rot teeth. K probably thought David was too harsh.

"I won't give out her number," K replied.

Clack

"David, you up?" K asked, roughly shaking the vampire.

David growled and swatted K's hands away. Did the man already forget how much he hated being touched? Apparently. David forced his head up from the console again and turned off the monitor.

"You know-" K started.

"Don't shpxing dare," David replied. He got up and went towards the door. "I'm gonna go comfort Paye."

"The door, it's uh..." K trailed off.

David tried the doorknob. It wouldn't budge.

"It's locked," he growled. "Guess they already know who shpxed up their universe, huh?" He laughed. "Guess I screwed up big time, huh?"

"David, please," K said. "You're not-"

"Cut the fuvg," David replied. He kicked the door. "I just caused a mass extinction event. Matt's gone. I'm pretty sure our minis are gone. Any badfic character is gone. Everyone, anything. And now I'm stuck, waiting punishment."

"Well, all RC doors are locked, I think," K said.

"Sure," David replied.

"No, I'm serious!" K said. "Paye partner said so! They said that they called O'Ryan and his door is locked!"

"Oh, so now we're hostages?" David asked. "I wonder how everyone is doing in World One. I hope my family is not held like us."

"They're not agents, right?" K asked.

"Oh uryy no," David replied. "They never were. I outright said for them not to."

"Then maybe not," K said.

David walked to his bed and sat down.

"How long was I out?" David asked.

"Pribably an hour? Two, maybe," K replied.

"I need to think," David said. "Mind leaving me alone for, uh, thirty minutes?"

"We can't leave!" K exclaimed.

"There's a bathroom," David said. "Through the gray cabinet. I need some time alone to think."

---

-kA

The Permission article needs a rewrite to be shorter and more casual. I'll be the first to admit that I... did not read the entire thing the first time because Long (and, thus, was super confused by it), so it could use some cutting down to not appear as... threatening? Is that the right word?

Also, not having a set time limit would be good. It allows newbies to go at their own pace. For example, if Linstar can explain his favorite PPC writer (or, heck, favorite pair of agents outside of Jay and Acacia, because sometimes one doesn't necessarily catch who writes what. Somehow, I didn't know Nesh wrote both Derik and Nume (despite their missions being hosted on the very same website) until later wiki-walking.), I think he would be ready for a Permission attempt. Of course, I'm not a PG, and I'm not an oldbie either (only been here for two years. Will be three in December, but still), so take that with a grain of salt.

Hmm. I'm on the fence about "writing sample" because I might have been exluded if we're talking about "have never written and "published" fanfic before" because I hadn't posted fanfic before Permission (although I have written surprisingly Mary Sue-less fanfic, like a Warriors fanfic for school one time), but, at the exact same time, I had written for fun before applying for Permission. I grew up in a household that encouraged it. It was a way to not be bothered as well, so bonus! So I wrote a lot, and thus probably would've gotten Permission anyways.

Also, with the "new vote," should we carry that to a seperate thread? It's getting kinda crowded here.

All the steps listed by hS are small but impactful, and I think it would really encourage people to hang around.

-kA

Zara stared at the place where her partner had been. “Dia?”

Sparklepire or not, she was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to vanish in puffs of glitter like that. Maybe she should call someone? Meg would probably know about stuff like that.

She rang her up. “Meg?”

The demon answered in her usual Cockney accent. “‘Ello, human. Is… somethin’ wrong? I mean, we just got that weird call to stay in our RC’s and my door is locked, but beyond that, is there somethin’ else?”

“Dia’s gone and Thalia isn’t picking up,” she answered. “And I don’t have Doom’s phone number.”

There was a pause on the other side of the phone, filled only with crackling static.

“Gone? Wotcha mean, gone?”

Zara scratched Bella’s ears, quietly thanking whatever had taken her partner hadn’t taken her pets. “Gone. Like vanished in a puff of glitter type of gone. Should I call up Paye? I think I have her number after that mission.”

There was a scratching sound before Meg answered. “I mean, I guess? Maybe she’d know somethin’. I’m going to try and revert back to my normal form and see wot the hell is going on.”

((I’m aware that Coco and Bella probably should be gone too since they’re badfic characters but losing both her pets and her partner would break Zara. And the last thing HQ needs is another agent gone flamethrower crazy, especially an agent with Bloodwrath))

...where if you make the overflow text wrap instead of clip, you should see the entire thing. But I don't know exactly what you're seeing with the chronology/no details of the questions. When I ran zine applications I was able to format the resulting spreadsheet so that I could keep track of all the answers.

That being said, I'm perfectly fine with PGs not having access since it's a self check, obviously. It's more for the prospie to see for themselves how well they've grasped the PPC setting and how to give and work with concrit than anything else.

As for concrit -- the Wiki background one should probably be updated, yeah. Maybe changed to just a picture of the banner and ask which flashpatches are which? I think Google lets you do that now? I could be wrong, of course.

I guess haphazardly scattering my documents across multiple Google accounts is good for something. I do like the Self-Check; it was fun to write questions for. I suspect some of it is outdated, though (one asks about the Wiki background, which is always a risk).

Also, I've just checked, and while I can technically review the results, they are a) anonymous, b) unreadable due to long-form answers breaking the spreadsheet, C) not in chronological order, and d) disconnected from the details of the questions. I don't see taking tests as a useful way for anyone else to check your understanding - though it's good for your own checking - so I'm against PGs having access.

(Also, any concrit on the Self-Check is appreciated & I will try to fix it.)

hS

We can still keep a prompt generator on hand for the sample, since some people might need that extra little push and it prevents excitable 13-year-olds from posting letters as a writing sample.

I'd probably put the Permission Self-Check into that qualitative indicator of being ready. It's very much lost in the big deluge of stuff on the Permission page, but I just took it and I think it's pretty comprehensive of an indicator of someone's readiness for Permission. Maybe PGs can have access to the results if they really need it to inform their decision? But I dunno, that'd just be more reading for the PGs.

Definitely agreed on the disclaimer that a PG may not read the entire sample or comment on the entire thing. I mean, if it's clear from page 1 that a prospie needs to work further on something, then why look further?

As for the votes...

I'd probably just vote yes to any oldbie who wanted to be one.

But I do think having a few more PGs wouldn't hurt--being a PG means you can grant Permission, not that you must always look at every request. Right?

• Ls, somewhat understanding what he's saying.