The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I'm quite sure I've read a Narnia OFU before. Is it completely inactive?

(And I quite agree; the poor Narnians...)

(I voted in it. Would you let me know when you close it? I'd like to see the results.)

Plus I love that flashpatch imagery! ;p

Personally I don't see a problem as long as you can keep updating both of them semi-regularly.

While I'm still working on the Good Omens OFU, I agree with you that Narnia NEEDS one. And if you need a hand in any capacity, I'm so there.

And if you don't need a hand, may I be the first to put my hand up to enrol?

...given I've sent it twice :)

I'll send it to Cassie and get her to forward it to you and we'll see if we have any more luck that way, yeah?

-Trojie, cursing gmail and its magical ability to eat emails.

Please send to just t the doctor @ gmail . com (without the spaces, of course). Won't be able to get it done quick, but will do it soon...

I've looking for a reasonably well-written yet still utterly cr*p badfic that I once saw. It's a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings crossover with (I believe) a bit of Dragonball Z lumped in. It involves Harry getting booted into Middle-Earth and randomly becoming Harold the Black, the sixth Istari (or something, I really can't remember much).

I believe the title was 'BLANK BLANK Arda'. Can anyone point me?

Question: Arda means 'Middle-Earth' in Sindarin, right? *is probably very wrong*

It has twelve thousand reviews? That's gone up by six thousand since the last time I saw it. What the hell happened? Did it eat the fans of another fandom or something?

Narnia desperately needs one.

It's a good idea for the PGs and any potential Mods to be kept seperate. Absolute power will corrupt absolutely, as the saying goes.
Rather, why don't we keep the Moderators a secret? We hold the vote, etc, or rather, Techno-Dann does, deleting everyone's vote as they come in. Once done, he tallies the votes, and the selected Moderator would gain their position, and be notified, with no-one else knowing the result.
That way, if a Moderator tries to lord it over people, they can have their position removed because no-one is meant to know who it is. If they reveal it, then a new Moderator is chosen.

The PPC Secret Service, or something like that. Techno-Dnan acts as the visible head *Coughs* Target *Coughs*, while the other one works behind the scenes.

The spambot itself? Not really. The person running the spambot? Certainly. Then they'd have an unstoppable spambot.

These people have not handed in their lines yet.

No pressure at all, people, these posts I make are just nudges to your memories. And a kind of guarantee that Trojie and I haven't forgotten about it either. So no need to run round apologising. As usual, contact either of us if you have questions, but send your lines to Trojie.

Ansela
Artic Blade
BattleHamster
BeetleFire (insanegrrl got the wrong script and has sent in those lines)
Chatvert
Crystal
Elcalion
Fichunter
Fynn
insanegrrl
Jai
just_theDoctor
Laburnum
Leto Haven (hasn't sent Lucien lines yet, and has only sent .aups)
lynxihez
Oozaru Angel
Paddlebrains
Pigeonarmy (hasn't handed in Archer/Sabbat lines)
Platinumyo
Rohirric Monkey
wingnut

I just thought I'd raise my voice in agreement with the majority.

We don't need mods. The PPC is run on the grounds of modding ourselves and each other. What we do need is an admin to fix the technical problems. As others have said, Techno-Dann is our most internet-savvy person, and has been handling the problem since day one. If we do need to vote, I'm going with him.

If he decides to retire or something, we can decide on a new admin then.

As long as being a PG isn't synonymous with having Board powers, or vice-versa, I don't see a problem. I do imagine, though, that anyone given Board power will already be a PG, and I have no problem with that.

Frankly, I think we'll only need one (or two, in case of emergency) administrators, and indeed, we don't need moderators. So I'm all for giving a few people the technical power and just letting it go.

There are two ways of looking at moderators:

One, and it's the way most moderators seem to see themselves, as authorities -- people with the power and authority to keep the peons in line.

The other (which I think is the right way to look at it) is as garbage collectors, hired to clean up spambot droppings and similar detritus.

The trick is, first, to appoint people with the garbageman mindset, and second, to make sure they don't drift towards the dictator mindset.

The problem is, of course, that there's no 100% reliable way to go about it. Or if there is, in 14 years of moderating everything from a BBS to numerous Web forums, I haven't met anyone who's figured it out. The best solution seems to be having a stable, sane, steady, and well-trusted person in charge -- Techno-Dann, in our case -- and having that person act as "benevolent dictator", able to appoint mods as needed to take care of shoveling up bot droppings if and when needed.

Moderating users' posts can be a slippery slope, because there's always the matter of lines and where you draw them. The "what is a flame?" poll in my FFN profile is still live, and it's interesting seeing the spread of the responses. There are people who draw the line maybe a little harsher than I do, and people who think all but the mildest and most apologetic concrit is a "flame", and many somewhere in between. The same thing happens on forums: What exactly constitutes a "personal attack"? How far is it to "off topic"? What exactly is "unfriendly" and is it different for different people? When you have people making judgment calls about that, you get drama.

My rules as moderator:

1. Never mod a discussion you're participating in. At the very least there is a perception of a conflict of interest; at the worst, you'll turn into a modzi.

2. Use the least-destructive moderation possible: For instance, move a post rather than editing it; edit it rather than delete it.

3. If you edit or delete a post, put a copy of the original on the mods' board for review.

Obviously 2 and 3 require a forum that has editing and moving capabilities, and somewhere to put the mods' board. The basic principles, though, remain the same.

Resentment and distrust of the mods is more destructive to an online community than any amount of off-topic posting, flaming, and board drama. 99% of the time, that distrust is self-inflicted, as the mods get above themselves (much like politicians) and see themselves as your masters, not our servants.

So, I propose that the title of anyone given moderation powers on this board be "Bot Manure Shoveler" and they be issued a patch depicting a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

Moderators, like fire, make good servants but poor masters.

I agree with what everyone's said for the most part. Mods should be seperate from the PGs, though I don't see why someone can't be both if they fit the criteria, they should be internet savvy and responsible and they should not be planning on fading out anytime soon.

I vote Dann keeps the admin powers, he's our resident tech expert, right? He's as good a choice as anyone else.

It's actually possible for a spam-bot to get admin powers? What kind of world is this?