May 2012 Archive, part c

Ouch. *Hands Bleeprin* Good luck.
Those agents'll need it.

That fic is just... *shivers slightly*
I've not finished the whole of the first film yet, but that is just...
...I can't think of the right word.

Either way, good luck sporking this terrible fic!

(And on an unrelated note, I don't think I knew you beforehand. Hi!)

Have a random book. It doesn't do much, but it's a nice paperweight.

FFN is a horrible mess, but digging through it can be fun...in a morbid way. Or if you don't value what sanity you have to begin with. Or that's just me... *shrugs* Have anything interesting on your ffn account?

As a side question for the person posting it, what exactly is a plover? Because I've never found a reference to it...

I'm new too! What ransoms do you like? Sorry if you've already mentioned that somewhere in the thread. Have a box of doughnuts! *gives*

Hello! I'm a newbie here too. I write mostly original fiction, but I do read fanfic and I understand what you mean by mess.

Welcome around, and let's be newbies together!

Here, have some of my sugar cookies.

What are your fandoms, BTW?

Have an awesome-laced cookie.

Sorry 'bout that.

Please accept this hydrophobic water as compensation. Perfect for joint cleaning/surface destruction jobs.

Welcome to the PPC, feel free to leave your sanity at the door. Also, have a wizard hat*. It's nice and sparkly.
*Hat does not contain magic. Hat also does not contain wizard.

Welcome to the board newbie. I'm glad to see that you're already involved in the cause, feel free to report any badfics you find to the current badfic thread. Also, have a Badfic Detector, sure to find any badfic withing a 20 chapter radius. Just don't use it around Legendary Badfics like My Immortal, it might explode.

It's good to see more people joining the cause!
Just be wary of some of those badfics... some of them are just plain scary.
Have a Box of Infinity! Also take some hot bleepolate, in case you encounter anything of Legendary Badfic standard.

Warning! Box of Infinity made in an environment where nuts are also processed. Box of Infinity may cause temporary memory lo- what was I saying?

Welcome to the board. Have a cookie.

Greetings, new friend! Have a harp. Just don't use it to catch any unicorns!

Have a biscuit.

Hi, have some fudge!

Welcome to the PPC. We'd all probably love to have you here, seeing that most other Boarders are rather energetic when greeting new people. Several topics below your intro topic should be a badfic reporting topic, so you can report any badfics you find over there.

Also, have an imaginary cake. It's good for your imagination.

Welcome to the board. Allow me to be the first to welcome you (for once!). Just take a seat, have a drink, and the doctor will see you shortly. He/she has a screw in his/her head loose but don't worry, we all do. It's a side effect of the procedure.

May I ask what fandoms you're involved in?

I think the problems with killing minis have already been pretty well elaborated, so I wanted to suggest something else: maybe instead of killing them, the agent could have some sort of other negative reaction to them that's a bit less psychopathic (and, consequently, funnier). For instance, I could see it working if they were frightened of minis- someone who saw a mini-Balrog and, instead of the usual PPCer reaction of "D'awww, wook at da widdle demon of fiery destwuction," went "Agggh! It's a demon of fiery destruction coming to eat me!" Even if they were just nervous and paranoid about them, treating all minis with a level of suspicion typically awarded only to mini-Discords from MLP, it'd allow for humor and/or shenanigans revolving around the character's mini issues without bringing up all the issues everyone has already explained.

except that minis are supposed to be cute and endearing and engender feelings of adoration in our crusty, weathered agents.

Plus, there's a reason we have rules. Gotta follow the rules.

While it looks like Mary-Sues and minis have the same source (badfic, mistakes), this is not true. Mary-Sues are all just glitter, while minis have a bit of personality and are really more like animals or helpless bit characters or sidekicks.

I admit to having my own issues, but that's just... What? I'm going with the cruelty to animals angle here, seeing as I have a lot of pets. This is just insane. Who would kill something adorable and (for the most part) defenseless? That's psychotic.

I think the general reaction (or at least mine) to something like that happening would be akin to the internet shitstorm that was raised when a moron known as Kenny Glenn hit the internet. It's not a good idea to abuse pets, and especially not the pets of people who are ax crazy enough to be PPC agents...

Just my two cents.

Admittedly, Agent Florestan really doesn't like minis, but he's not intent on killing them. 'Sides, most of the time the mini's mischief in relation to him is played for laughs, so... yeah.

Killing minis is bad, unless it's a mini-Sue. That's the rule of thumb here.

Apart from the fact that it's on a level with killing small children, sentience-wise, Minis are more than capable of defending themselves - they are, fundamentally, humanoid-eating monsters, and there are a lot of them.

Other people have already said that they don't like the idea, and explained why, but I also think there are some practical problems with even trying to do it.

From an in-universe perspective, I think minis would be quite difficult to kill. I'm not familiar with all of the creatures listed on the list of minis, but most of the ones I do recognise I would imagine are still pretty dangerous in their own right. Mini-Balrogs, for example, whilst being very small demons, are still demons, so I would expect a certain level of resilience from them (I also believe that they are capable of breathing fire, and have sharp claws, so they sound like they’d be pretty handy in a fight). Minis are used as Security for the various OFUs out there, and can keep hordes of screaming fangirls in check, so they're clearly not push-overs.

Not to mention that the minis found within PPC HQ are going to be owned by Agents (or in the Adoption Centre, which presumably has some kind of security). Anyone who manages to actually kill a mini is going to have to answer to at least one pissed off Agent, and anyone going off on a killing spree is likely to have every Assassin, Security Weed and anyone else that can grab a weapon, after them. Only a massive Sue would be able to stand up to all that lot.

Personally, I can't see how a character with that trait could be well written for the PPC.

From an out-universe perspective, minis that have been adopted tend to be characters with developed personalities etc., so if he wanted to do something as drastic as kill them off in a story, technically he'd need permission from whoever owns them. I'd be very surprised if anyone actually allowed that.

The closest that he might possibly be able to get to this would be a character who kills any minis he sees while on missions, rather than adopting them. But I personally would be very uncomfortable with that idea, because of the cruelty to animals issues that have already been raised. And looking at some of the other comments that have already been made, I think it highly unlikely that Permission would be given for such a character.

What I and everyone else said. No, killing minis is not an option (OK, excepting mini-Sues, which are a rarity) and any agent he writes who kills minis on sight will not be approved by a PG. He can rant about it being 'too restrictive' all he wants, it won't change anyone's mind.

How much does your brother know about the PPC? Is his knowledge based solely from what you've told him? If so, he really needs to read the Original Series and some of the spin-offs, just to show him that minis aren't bad. They're basically the agent's pets and someone who goes around killing other people's pets isn't going to be very welcome.

Others have already elaborated on why this is a bad idea, so I'm just going to point you to them for that.

What I wanted to add was that one of the characters I write is a Mini. He happens to be one of July's exceptions. He has the intelligence and mentality of a fully grown adult. I really don't like the idea of an agent running around that would kill him without a second thought.

As far as the PPC being too restrictive...we have certain restrictions in this community, that's true. Permission is the biggest one, and we have it for a reason. We use it to make sure that people understand what the PPC is about, among other things. Based on what you've told us, I don't think your brother has any idea what the spirit of the community is.

If your brother wants to write a story where his character kills other peoples' pets, he is free to do so. No one here can stop him. However, we will not allow that sort of thing to be done here, and we will not allow it to be done elsewhere in the PPC's name.

Long story short: If your brother doesn't want to play by the rules of this community, then he would be better off finding a community that is more in line with what he wants to write.

-Phobos

As has been elaborated on, killing minis is bad. It is not a thing. It is not a cool thing. It is a bad thing and a bad idea all around. That is not something any of the PGs will accept or allow, I would think, especially considering that the concept of minis isn't even the PPC's in the first place.

The PPC is not being "too restrictive" in not letting people kill minis on sight, because that is akin to saying that it is "too restrictive" to not allow people to kill small children on sight or pets on sight.

Because Minis, for the most part, are pets and often enough have the intelligence and rough emotional age of small children (barring some exceptions).

Does it say "Plays well with others" on his last report card?

How old is your brother? Has he read the Original Series?

The reason we don't kill minis is because they're mostly harmless and cute, in an on-fire-and-sometimes-with-tentacles way. Plus, they range from being as smart as a regular animal and being sentient, so killing them could range from cruelty to animals to murder. I mean, it might be humorous if he tries to kill them and his partner has to stop them.

Actually, why DOES your brother hate minis?

A fellow anime nerd eh? Well, welcome to the PPC, and feel free to leave your sanity at the door. Have some 2-D glasses, certain to compress that pesky extra dimension or your money back!

Welcome to the PPC! I know we've met, but what the hey.

In case you haven't seen them already, you may want to look at our Newbie Guide, Board Guide, General Guide to the PPC, and our newly revised Constitution. I hope you'll find them useful and helpful and stuff.

Anyway, since I'm sure you had your fill of junk food in the IRC, have a (totally not combustible) lemon! But only one, I need the rest for pie.

Hi, have some fudge!

Here, have a cup of tea. Just watch the leaves, they might try to eat you...

Nice to meet you! So you're from Mexico? Cool!

I think lots of people's hobbies include reading, watching anime and sleeping, or at least, all the people I know, ahaha...

Have this Box of Infinity as a welcome gift!

Warning! Box of Infinity may melt your brain. Batteries not included.

Welcome to the PPC! Here, have my everlasting friendship!

Have an awesome-laced cookie.

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Fun to play with but not to drink.

Welcome to the board, fellow traveller of borderlands. It's always nice to meet the newcomers and I will be watching your contributions with great interest. Out of interest, do you have any specific area of medicine you plan to practice in the future?

As a welcoming gift, here is an autographed copy of the latest issue of Soldier of Misfortune Magazine. I wrote an article in this issue about the benefits and drawbacks of recruiting Central Asian child soldiers, including several case studies.

Greetings again, new friend! Help yourself to the sack of venomous invertebrates. Don't worry; they don't bite!

Welcome to the board! Have an anime pie. I'm not sure whether it's safe to eat, though. Anyway, nice to meet ya!

I absolutely love reading. My favorite books are on the fantasy genre (Artemis Fowl, His Dark Materials), but I don't limit myself to it. My favorite fandoms, literature wise and besides the materials above mentioned, are the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter ones. I have been able to find wonderful fics there.
With anime I tend to prefer the short series. My favorite is Full Metal Alchemist, it was the first anime I watched and, given I'm sort of a sentimental sap, it's special to me. I'm currently into One Piece, thanks to my roommates influence (and it took her a long time to convince me to watch it) and I'm finding it entertaining. Other anime I'm currently watching is Jormungand. I highly recommend it, but it might not be for everyone.
And I love video games, rpgs specially.

Please leave your shoes and sanity at the door for the cleanliness of the community. On a completely unrelated topic, have a "Tongue of Many Tongues"*. It speaks most languages mostly fluently, so feel free to consult it if you have any translation issues. Also, what are your fandoms?

*Tongue does not speak Klingon or Fangirlish.

Here's a self-solving puzzle box, as a welcoming gift! What kinds of books and anime do you read/watch?

I already met you in the IRC, but that's okay. Have this bag of polyhedral random number generators.

I wish I could have sleeping as a hobby. Work and theatre leave little time for such indulgences.

-Phobos

Box of Infinity, Hydrophobic Water, Tongue of Many Tongues, homemade salad, tin of biscuits, a cookie, yes, you are all generous. I thank you.

On the Mini-Balrog fic, maybe I should explain the plot more.

But I'll take your advices. Maybe I should begin the study on the Original Series first.

HimochiIsAwesome,yes, it is supposed to be Aakmal.

And now, each of you will receive a gift. A replica of the One Ring, made by Sauron himself, after losing his empire and power to the pesky Hobbit. No idea how a ghost can make rings, but I digress.

If any of you experience the need to say Preciousssss..., it has nothing to do with the One Ring. And Sauron demands that we shut up about his ring already, not that we will.

First, I have to point out that mini-Balrogs aren't able to talk, so I'm not sure how one is going to ask for mercy. I tend to agree with everyone who's advised you to read up on stuff and wait before trying to write this story . . . but, strictly speaking, if it's not going to be a PPC story, you don't actually need our permission to write it. Since mini-Balrogs are technically an OFUM thing, you could write your story from the point of view of an OFUM student interacting with a mini-Balrog (which would make perfect sense), and we couldn't tell you yes or no.

If you want to make it a PPC story, though, you'll need to hang around a while and let us get to know you, like everyone else, before you can get Official PPC Permission, even if your character isn't going to be an agent.

Make sense?

Anyhow, welcome! English mistakes will be forgiven, but do expect to be corrected, and make sure to work on improving. For instance, "permission" is uncountable, so "a permission" is incorrect; it's just "permission." {= )

What kinds of plants do you study?

~Neshomeh

Have a biscuit. And another biscuit. Let's make it a whole tin, shall we?

Because you've been here a while I guess I don't need to tell you to leave your sanity behind, after a while around here you don't have sanity. On your request for Permission, it doesn't exactly work like that. Even if you're not going to write an agent, you need official Permission to write a spin-off and most of the Permission Givers like to wait until they know you to give Permission. Give it a month and try again.

On a totally separate topic, you are now one of only three owners of the "Tongue-Of-Many-Tongues". It works well as a translator and a poison tester. Just not at the same time.

Hello! I'm new on the board as well. So... Here, have some of my homemade fruit salad and enjoy.

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Warning: in case of implosion, look directly at implosion.

Concerning your suggestion that you write about a Mini and a person trying to kill it: shouldn't you wait for official Permission at the very least? Just take the time to sit back, relax, and have some fun. No need to get into stories about life-and-death situations involving Minis yet.

Welcome! Have a cookie. It's tasty.

It's nice to meet you!
Have a Box of Infinity!
Warning! May contain pigeons. Do not burn.

Hi. You might want to scroll down and read the topic on the treatment of minis.

Also, you're aware that this isn't how you apply for Permission.

Hi, have some fudge! (I think the virtual type is safe for bunnies.)

Greetings, new friend! Oh wait, I already met you. Greetings, middling-amount-of-time-friend!

Have a lucky turtle foot! (I figured you already had two lucky rabbit feet, so . . .)

I'm really confused right now. Are you in any way related to the newbie who just showed up and whose name is almost exactly the same? Because if you are the same person, please stick to one name. It gets really confusing when there are two of the same person.

But in case you're not... welcome to the Board! Have a carrot bunny-san and please store your sanity in one of the lockers by the door. You can collect it again when you leave. Just remember, although most of the stories on ff.net are less than desirable there are some hidden jewels out there so keep your eyes peeled.

Well hello there newbie! Welcome to the PPC. Have a propellor cap, it actually flies! Just don't put anything of great importance (like fingers) near the propellor. Also, what are your fandoms?

I wish you luck navigating the dark waters of ff.net. Here, have a few muffins for the trip.

I'm a new guy here. How do you do? And have some virtual coffee, virtual cupcakes, and virtual hugs.

Your name sounds very familiar. Have you visited us before?

Well, welcome or welcome back, either way. {= ) If you're not sure why you're here, do you at least know how you got here? Inquiring minds want to know.

~Neshomeh

Nice to meet you!
Have some Hot Bleepolate, in case you decide to go back to FanFiction! And then have this Box of Infinity too!

Warning! Box of Infinity may be pointy. Try not to kick the Box of Infinity, we aren't sure what might happen.

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Totally not responsible for the Great Mysterious Explosion of 2002, no sir.

Allow me to point you to the original PPC stories by Jay and Acacia, if you haven't read them yet: http://www.misssandman.com/PPC/story.html

And the guide to newbies on the wiki: http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:For_Newbies

What are your fandoms?

Welcome! Have a bag of assorted foods.

Comes from a combination of my surname and my fondness for Japanese culture.

It's also similar to my main e-mail address and usernames I've used in the past (which were all pretty much constructed along the same lines).

Back when I found the PPC I was still very much a newbie to the concept of internet in general, having had a very sheltered life, so I just used my own name (being unaware of why exactly people used usernames). And given how the PPC kind of asks us not to go changing usernames around all the time, I didn't feel I could change it once I grasped the concept better.

Besides, these days everyone knows me as Cassie anyway, so there's really no point unless I wanted to confuse everyone after four years. :P

I was rummaging through the wordlists in the Silmarillion and in the appendices of Lord of the Rings trying to put together names for characters for a fanfic I was writing. I came up with Elcalion, which basically means something like "Son (or follower) of the bright star".

El is either Elf or star - used sorta-interchangably in names: e.g. Elrond is either "Elf of the Cave" or "Star Dome"
"cal" is bright light (as in "aiya, Earendil ancalima" - "Hail, Earendil the brightest"
"ion" is either "son" or "follower"

It seemed like a good name for an Elf, and then it ended up being my Boarder name here, around about which point I basically stopped writing that particular fanfic so I never ended up using Elcalion as a character name.

I've now been Elcalion here for six years or so, and I use a variant ("Kallion") for sci-fi message boards and RPG characters.

I was rummaging through the wordlists in the Silmarillion and in the appendices of Lord of the Rings trying to put together names for characters for a fanfic I was writing. I came up with Elcalion, which basically means something like "Son (or follower) of the bright star".

El is either Elf or star - used sorta-interchangably in names: e.g. Elrond is either "Elf of the Cave" or "Star Dome"
"cal" is bright light (as in "aiya, Earendil ancalima" - "Hail, Earendil the brightest"
"ion" is either "son" or "follower"

It seemed like a good name for an Elf, and then it ended up being my Boarder name here, around about which point I basically stopped writing that particular fanfic so I never ended up using Elcalion as a character name.

I've now been Elcalion here for six years or so, and I use a variant ("Kallion") for sci-fi message boards and RPG characters.

It was one of the usernames that popped into my mind when I thought about joining. It came from the word "ocelot".

I was registering for the Young Writer's Society, and at the time I was really into star signs, so I used "scorpion" a lot, because I'm a Scorpio.

Well, "scorpion" was taken, so I jazzed up the spelling a bit. XD I've been using either this or Inksplattered ever since.

It's my middle name, and I was kind of in a hurry to introduce myself to the board. I was too lazy to change it to anything else.

I picked mine because the first part is a RL nickname and the second part because on the first board I ever joined was about a book series (Warriors by Erin Hunter) and the names of characters were two things found in nature, and Shellfur sounded good. I've just stuck with the same thing (But Youtube- it was taken. Grr...)

I needed a username for Xanga once upon a time and hit upon SilverMystic13. Silver for my favourite element the time, 13 for my favourite number at the time, and mystic because it sounded cool. When I needed a self-insert character for a semi-roleplay-esque forum, I named her Mystia Argent. Since then I've had a number of characters with that name, all of them completely different from each other and few of them bearing more than superficial resemblance to me. My PPC agent is one of those.

[[also, hi! I'm a total lurker these days, largely due to life being a thing.]]

Well, I liked the M1 Rifle a lot so when I started going online, I used it as my nickname.

The '8' comes from my birth year ('88) but I couldn't fit all of it in the required length for a multiplayer game I was playing and I dropped one of the 8. It's been stuck like this since 2003. =x

I picked up the pseudonym of PoorCynic around the end of high school. I had started up a blog (now defunct) as part of a class writing project. The pieces in said blog were almost entirely humorous articles in the vein of Dave Barry or Bill Bryson. I had the idea to present my writings in the format of letters to the audience, all of which were signed by "Poor Cynic" in a reference to Ben Franklin's character of Poor Richard. My perception of humanity had shifted by that time, leading to the "Cynic" part of the name.

I kept the name after the blog was scrapped. It's catchy, easy to break down into a shorter form, and doesn't have any unnecessary numbers in it (a practice I really don't like.)

I've been Tungsten Monk since . . . er . . . well, it's been almost ten years, I'd say, but I can't place exactly when it began. I can tell you, though, that tungsten is my favorite element (so utilitarian, so underappreciated). 'Monk' was a harder choice, but I believe I can blame the Brother Cadfael mystery series for introducing me to badass monks.

It accidentally started a trend, though. Now all my OL names are either metal plus noun, or have the initials TM. (On fanfiction.net, for example, I'm Totenkinder Madchen. :D)

It was originally going to be used as a name for a family member of my RP character, but I liked it enough that I ended up using it myself.

I was at camp one day last summer, and had sort of a nervous breakdown. I got really upset, there were tears...and hand biting... but anyways! I felt emotionally numb afterwards, and felt that I had gone insane. This was during the gaming part of the camp day, and we were playing Warcraft 3. So, for a screen name, I chose "ShatteredSanity".

I think I wanted to use something new for the PPC, so instead of using one of my regular screen names, I used this.

I don't know why, but the mass of ellipses used fascinated me.

I tried to be Korora (little blue or white-flippered penguin) on LJ, but that name was already taken. I knew there were some Boarders on the Sue-sporking Livejournals, so I used that name here.

Both names I got from a book on penguins I read as a teenager.

July is my birth month.

And as to Flame...

I uh, had a brief period of time where I was most enamored of fire.

I have been using this particular username since I was eleven or so. So around September-ish I'll have used this as my name on the internet for half my life.

Huinesoron was the first name I ever used online for more than about five minutes, and actually came about when someone at school introduced me to the concept of webmail (which was astonishing and revolutionary, let me tell you). It's Quenya, from Middle-earth, because I am absolutely an elf (half Noldor, half Teleri, all awesome, right?).

Specifically, it's an agrammatic mashup of two words - 'huine', meaning dusk, twilight, shade, and 'soron', also spelt 'thoron', meaning eagle. My back-translations have varied - 'the Eagle of Darkness' was how I put it for a long time, but right now I prefer 'Eagleshade'.

Perhaps more interesting (or sad), the nickname hS comes about because I used to write Huinesoron in real life - in Tengwar. And when I wanted to shorten it, I wrote this:



That's a small Tengwar hyarmen (h, in yellow) cupped inside a larger esse (s, in blue). So yeah. Fun With Alphabets!

hS

I majored in theater. When I started getting involved in online communities, I didn't feel comfortable using my real name, so I decided to use the name of a character I liked. I discovered immediately that a lot of people (at least, where I was hanging out then) use Shakespearean names as online handles, and forget about finding a positive female character in Kit Marlowe's work. I went earlier in Dramatic Literature 201-202, and started using Antigone from the play by Sophocles.

Then I had a few cases where someone else had already used Antigone, and the board software autosuggested putting a number at the end of the handle. I decided that if I had to have a number added it was going to be one I could remember, so I used my zip code.

Well, mine isn't anything spectacular at all - Sergio is my first name, and Turbo is a nickname I use because I like cars a lot (and I'm pretty good at driving games, too)

It's also what I used as a basis for a character I used in a roleplay-fanfictionish thing... now known as Agent!Sergio Turbo.

I chose the name because not only am I an opera fan, but I also happen to be a dramatic soprano.

A dramatic soprano is one with a large singing voice, and they most often sing heroic or grand tragic roles (ex. Isolde, Tosca, and Norma).

This handle came from the name of one of my Hetalia original characters. Anna Beilschmidt, AnnaBee for short.

She's a borderline Sue, and I'm not proud of that, but she's such a fun character to write that I used her as my handle on here.

And, um... I picked *her* name, as opposed to one of my other OCs' names, 'cos I didn't want to get mistaken for a bloke anymore.

At one time me and my friends were absolutely obsessed with South Park, especially the Coon Saga. Because I was sort of the loner of the group, they nicknamed me mysterion.
I just changed the last syllable and used it as a forum name.

I choose darklordaakmal because I am a fan of Dark Lord Sauron. I do have another nickname around the Internet, baabaaer. Baabaaer because my favourite animal was a sheep.

*chuckles slightly*
Is anyone here familiar with the Tokimeki Memorial series?
Well, for those who aren't, it's a dating game series, with games for both girls and guys. I'm a big fan. #Understatement
Anyway, in one of the games, there's a character called Himuro Reiichi. He's my favourite character (and a big Lust Object). The characters in the game often shorten his name to Himurrochi. Which I then shortened down to Himochi.
I think you can understand the 'Is Awesome' part.

This is just the literal translation of my Chinese name. Well, surname and given name. Crimson comes from my surname (It can also mean Vermilion or Bright Red, which is sort of the same thing), while my given name, which consists of only one character, means Flight.

Well, it began while I was casting about for a new forum name that wasn't so fracking pretentious or stupid and I was born in the Year of the Rabbit, so I decided on something Rabbit related. Now, a username like that is fairly common on big forums so I needed to tack something on to it and because I was playing a lot of Touhou at the time I decided on HouraiRabbit for those situations where I needed something more unique. I used to love reading those old stories about the rabbits on the moon when I was a kid living in Beijing, and I later saw its significance in other stuff like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Watership Down, Wind in the Willows, the three rabbits in the shape of a Triskelion, and so on, so the Rabbit moniker stuck.

Well, I was about twelve or so, possibly younger, I decided to sign up for a fanfiction account - or possibly a Dragonball Z chatroom, I don't remember, they were all pretty close together. The screenname my dad had signed me up for with AOL (this was back when AOL 4.0 was a Big Deal) was soccertrumpet, and I wanted something... cooler.

Anyway, I thought foxes were really cool - getting over a wolf-obsession stage, I was pretty sure being clever and witty was way cooler than being noble and majestic - and I pretty much hero-worshipped my aunts, who have always had a private joke of being the Three Witches.

So I thought, and considered, and mashed the two words together in the sort of amalgamation that fantasy-bent preteens seem to be so good at coming up with.

And now I go by other things, like VM, because I was confused with erotic furry writers. And... well, I'm not an erotic furry writer.

And now you all know!

I smashed together 'Fury' and 'Wildfire'--two nickname-things that came from weird Roleplay-ish games my friend and I did with the Warrior Cats universe when we were ten. 'Fury' was because I was into Greek Mythology and loved the Furies at the time, and I honestly cannot remember the story behind 'Wildfire.'

I live by the sea and I like turtles.

...yeah.

It was pretty. And it sparkled. The words did, I mean.

The initials of my real name are D.T.R. Since I was young, I always thought it looked like doctor. For my online name, I added "lit" to represent literature, my greatest love.

It's based off Ivan the Terrible (or Fear-Inspiring, depending on translation.)

Well, this handle comes from the Yu Gi Oh! card Des Dendle. Quite a while ago I noticed it and decided that its name was cool (it's a mushroom-ish thing that fuses with a Vampire Orchid, so the card itself is weird) and I've been using it ever since. That was quite a lot of time before I even knew the PPC existed, let alone posted in the Board.

...is actually an opera reference.

Specifically, it's a reference to Alban Berg's "Wozzeck", which is an opera in three relatively short acts about a man by the name of Wozzeck who is a soldier, is quite poor, gets exploited by pretty much everyone around him, and is more than a little bit on the insane side. It's an absolutely glorious opera, and you should totally check it out. Just, remember to go into it with an open mind: it's opera, but it ain't opera according to Mozart or Verdi or even Wagner. Oh, no, this is opera with a musical language that is stridently dissonant and as far removed from anything you have ever heard before as you can feasibly get.

As for the 'Herr'... well, "Wozzeck" is a German opera, so...

It can all be summed up to the fact that I play to many videogames. And well, I've always been partial to magic user characters. Specially the cute and cuddly ones.

Some of you might have noticed this already, but I have a penchant for hats. My dad actually called me a mad hatteress once, which gave me the idea to use it as a screen name. Other places I'm Lily of the Mountain, which is a play on Lily of the Valley.

Back when I first got into online fandom, I think in middle school, I had delusions of saving the world one person at a time, so I called myself SoulFinder after my ability to get past outer differences and get along with most people when I want to, often in cases where others find the person in question difficult. By the time I was heading toward graduating from high school I was completely sick of how pretentious and silly it sounds, and it still makes me cringe a little. ^_^; Most people just called me "Soul" most of the time anyway, so I went looking through translation dictionaries for words meaning "soul" in other languages. "Neshomeh" is Yiddish, and I like the sound of it. It seems to have stuck.

~Neshomeh, who at least has an ancestral claim on the German part of Yiddish's parent languages.

Well, when I was in high school, I was in the band, and in our band program, marching band was a requirement (which was cool because it got us out of PE). If, like me, you happened to play an instrument that you couldn't march with (the oboe, in my case), you'd end up in percussion, usually the front ensemble. Or, rather, the pit. I never much liked pit bulls, but pit vipers are pretty awesome, and at the time I was a fan of Invader Zim, so I added the required "doom" on the end, and... rest is history.

Originally I was just Albatross. It was a running gag in my Improv Team 3-4 years ago. Then at my summer job we got "Nature Names" and mine was Albatross. Coincidentally, this is where I met Tray-Gnome and he introduced me to the PPC.
The Star came after a Competitive Improv Performance which I thought I did quite well in.

Well, Phobos is Greek for fear. In some places Phobos was a god of sorts. I kinda liked that, so I used it as my name.

Before I was Phobos, though, I was Barid. You may recognize that as the name of one of my agents. He was Barid before I was. He was my main character in World of Warcraft. I borrowed the name from him. He borrowed the name from Barid Bel Medar, also known as Demandred, from the Wheel of Time series. Demandred is my favorite of the Forsaken, so I used his old name for my first WoW character.

-Phobos

The more interesting one is the handle I often use on IRC-type-things, "Tezcatlipoca." It's the name of the Aztec god of darkness, chaos, rulership, magic, and a bunch of other things. I have a (somewhat notorious among my friends) fascination with the idea of darkness as an elemental power, so I felt it fit.

I was also considering using "Itzpapalotl" (because wings made of obsidian blades are just awesome), but decided that "Tezcatlipoca" sounded way better, even if it's not gender-appropriate.

Eh, I just found the name somewhere and started using it as a Boarder name... while putting my own spin on it.

Well, I'm firemagic because that was my email for a while, back when I first started reading fantasy. I was kinda obsessed with fire-based magic at the time, so that's what the 10-year-old me made her email.

On the Wiki, I'm Karrin Blue, named after Karrin Murphy from the Dresden Files, one of the most awesome female characters ever (in my humble opinion.) Blue because... I like the color blue.

They rise up ___ up, ___ up, ___up! (insert favorite body part in blank spaces)

I just finished reading Night Watch. 'Twas glorious indeed. Also, I didn't know about it being the anniversary of Star Wars IV. I guess you really do learn something new every day.

I had to make do with a vaguely lilac shirt. But I got my towel and my tiny lighsaber keychain.

*Will be listening to the Imperial March all day on her iPod.*

Sadly, the lilacs near my house have stopped blooming. Curse you, global warming! But I'm wearing a purple shirt that's kinda close to a lilac's color.

I always forget my towel. It's in the bathroom, though, so it's ready to grab.

Happy geek pride today. I wore a Star Wars shirt with a lilac (or as close as I could get) over shirt and always knew where my towel was!

Hope everyone had a similarly day. Peace out, happening froods!

Elcalion, donning lilac.

All the little angels rise up, rise up.
All the little angels rise up high!
How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
How do they rise up, rise up high?
They rise heads up, heads up, heads up, they rise heads up, heads up high!

-Phobos, Truth, Justice, Reasonably-priced Love, and a Hard-boiled Egg

I don't have one (alas, alack), but I *am* wearing my Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy jacket today. And robot earrings. :3

Alas, the lilacs are always gone by now over here. Someday I'll invest in some fake ones so I can bring them out and wear them.

At least I know where my towel is, though. *nod*

May the Force be with you all!

~Neshomeh, celebrating her ninth Glorious 25th since joining the PPC.

Because people kept giving me odd looks. My friends get it though, even though they all forgot theirs. and I have no access to a lilac plant so I've had to make do with a drawing.

My friends and I have always celebrated towel day on the 31st, mostly because we are girls scouts. We get a lot of strange looks, marching in the Memorial day parade holding towels.

Although apparently, people give you odd looks for taking a towel into a high school. It's now in my bag for safe keeping.

I have my towel! That I am also going to a theme park today has no bearing on that...

I don't think they're a charge by themselves, as any idea can work when written well enough. However, nonsensical, foundationless, or otherwise badly written relationships are perfectly chargeable.

Averaged just below 400 words per minute, which is apparently approx. 55% higher than average.

It did put me just below 'average college student' though, which I found a bit disappointing.

I was expecting to get higher, although I do tend to skim-read stuff normally, so I guess that's given me a false impression of how quickly I read.

"You read 506 words per minute. That makes you 102% faster than the national average."

I find it interesting that I apparently read faster this time reading 15 paragraphs than I did reading just 4. I also did not realize the excerpt was from War of the Worlds until now.... which is sad, since I've actually read the book before.

""You read 2,773 words per minute.
That makes you 1,009% faster than the national average."

Also got all three of the review questions right.

:D

War of the Worlds: 251 words per minute, 0% above national average

Alice in Wonderland: 308 words per minute, 23% above national average

The Wizard of Oz: 267 words per minute, 7% above national average

I'm surprised I got fast scores at all, actually; I always thought I read slowly, due to comments from classmates and my desire to savor the action.

(I also got all the review questions right :3)

Average is 327.25 wpm (over 4 tries). Apparently that's 50% above the US average.

I average about 250 words per minute (did the test a few times), which is a bit below the average. I am not surprised. I have always found myself to be a slow reader.

-Phobos

is that supposed to happen or is the link messed up?

Hi, have some fudge!

Here, have some Bleeprin to get you through the badfic and some cookies to celebrate the goodfic with!

I'm a fan of a number of the things you're a fan of, and very curious about the things you're a fan of I haven't seen!

~Mystia

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Do not mix with hydrophilic substances. Also, have a big box of fruit flies and for your gene experiments.

So, you watch Doctor Who? What's your favourite incarnation of the Doctor? I've only watched New Who but I have to admit that I really like the Ninth.

Welcome to the board! Have a collection of varied fruit flies for all of your genetic experimentation needs. Though, seriously, fruit flies make good science fair projects. They reproduce rapidly, and are easy to get at science supply websites. I got mine from a site that sold different mutant forms.

Hello! I'm also a newbie here, so welcome aboard. And let's be newbies together.

I offer you this delicious cupcake as a welcome gift.

Greetings, new friend! Have some enchanted Tungsten slippers! While you're wearing them, click your heels together three times to turn your feet into a carbide drill!

Another Hetalian eh? We seem to be everywhere nowadays. Anyway, have some 2-D glasses, guaranteed to compress that pesky extra dimension or your money back! Also, I'm kind of celebrating in my head that I'm not the youngest one here. *Is a high school freshman.*

Please read our constitution, and the various guides on the Wiki.

Feel free to drop by the chatroom.

There have been so many new Hetalians popping up lately. I shouldn't talk because I'm one too, but still...

Have a mad-scientist lab coat for all your genetic engineering needs! And you don't need to shut up, feel free to ramble as you please. We're all a bit crazy here so we don't mind.

Nah, there is no thread for posting introductions in. But anyway, welcome to the PPC Board! Here, have my everlasting friendship!

I like genetic experimentation too. My goal is to take over the world with mutant rabbits. Except like you, I'm in middle school.

*Starts hoping that you're younger than me so I don't have to be the youngest person here.*

Nice to meetcha!
Hetalia AND Doctor Who? Are you me? *is paranoid that everyone is really me*
And no, there's no thread. Aha, I felt the same way when I joined!
Shutting up is best. You get rambling otherwise, and it can annoy people. ^^ Take it from a rambling expert!
Anyway, gifts, gifts...
Have a Box of Infinity!
Warning! HimochiIsAwesome is not responsible for any aliens that come through the Box of Infinity. Box of Infinity should not be used as a substitute TARDIS.

While it's a good thing that you cut down the length of your missions without rushing them too much, there's a number of things I don't know what to make of.

1. It's still kind of a drag. The beginning's okay, but then we get that whole thing with the Stu being aware of the PPC and Karlheinz joining the crew. There it slows down immensely.

2. Where does the Stu get his PPC-awareness from? I feel like I skipped a part, because suddenly the Stu acts outside the Words and banishes the agents to... somewhere. He specifically mentioned the PPC. Even if he noticed the agents, how does he know what the PPC is?

3. Karlheinz Scare. Aside from having a German name for no reason (Or was it revealed that Scarecrow was German later on?), he's just there. Wherever that is. And even though one of his first statements is that he wants to kill the Stu in a gruesome way, Cindy calls him agent material. Last time I checked, castrating someone could be considered torture. Also, he's a cheap copy of L.

4. As said, when Karlheinz appeared, the general quality took a nosedive. Where were they while they were delivering exposition to each other? Why is Tigress suddenly in World One? How did all that happen and why didn't Cindy at least try to follow it.

5. Show, don't tell. Even if you hadn't mentioned it, I could have told that you didn't immediately work with the whole Death Note rip-off thing. It's more or less awkwardly shoehorned in by Karlheinz L, who just happens to know the fandom. And is not in the least fazed by what's going on.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a theory. Karlheinz didn't exist in the original story. I'm not sure if the whole 'sent to three dimensions' thing wasn't there either or if it was just handled differently (with the agents returning earlier, like Cindy did). But Karlheinz really looks like an expository character.

I'd like to extend major thanks to Data Junkie for beta-ing this mission. Trust me, without him, one of the aspects of the fic that was really bad would never have been pointed out to me.

Thank the mother of FrUK that fic got sporked. It was such a bad rip-off of Death Note that I didn't even realise until it was pointed out!
Also, Glass. I approve of the nickname. It sounds like the sort of nickname I'd give.
Karlheinz is an... odd name, to say the least. I immediately think of a koala and some beans, but meh, that's me. I really like his character, though. Can't work out why, but I do.

This is one of the rare occasions where I am going to draw the 'English is my second language' card. Some of the thought and concepts below have been difficult to express and translating then have been doubly so. If anything I have said comes off as insulting or flippant I probably didn't mean it that way. If anything is unclear, please ask and I will try to elaborate.

I don't remember exactly how and when I found the PPC. My profile says 2006 and through OFUM but I have quite possible been years before that and maybe through Suedom, rather than OFUM. I remember reading the stories and also reading through lists of fanfic-terms such as 'Sue', 'lemon', 'slash', etc. Oddly enough I did not read or write fanfic and had no plans to, but I took it in as good general writing advice. I learned that there was such a thing as 'wangst' and the it should be used sparingly, if at all. Then I stopped reading and went off and wrote stuff.
I rediscovered the PPC a couple of years back when looking for a certain detail to rip off. That's how I found the Wiki and the Board. I then poked my head into ff.net and stumbled over a HP/Labyrinth fic so utterly horrible that I vowed to slay it, but, having no agents, didn't do anything about it.
Fast forward to last year, where I had a few characters to spare and, looking for somewhere to put them, thought of the PPC. That's when I finally introduced myself on the Board and, after a month, applied for permission and got it. Today, after seeing how many people's requests get shot down, I'm actually a bit surprised but there we go.
I tried to take an active part in the community, until a certain episode and later a follow-up, put a dent in my enthusiasm for the community. Note, that this had very little to do with my own role and much more to do with all the resentment and old grudges that were suddenly being aired, shattering the illusion of one big happy Board who got along despite of differences. I still tried to participate but I was much more aware of the possibility of stepping on toes.

But oddly enough, what really made me draw away from the Board was earlier this year, when there was a call for more in-depth concrit. Now I understand that giving and receiving constructive criticism is important - which is why I am in two writing groups where we do just that. I have neither the time nor the inclination to write long reviews of missions as well. But since it seemed to no longer be 'allowed' to just drop in and say 'read your mission, good work, funny' and the drop put again, I stopped commenting on missions altogether.

The concrit issues made me feel guilty for not putting in the effort and old issues were still festering right under the surface and people seemed to be slamming each other with the rules all the time. Except for rule 4, which might as well not have been there. (Note that I don't claim this to be in any way True. This is simply how things looked from my skewed POW.) I had my own real life issues and the Board just seemed to put me in a bad mood, which I didn't need so I left.
In the last month or so, I have taken to lurking, but am still having a hard time mustering any great enthusiasm.
I am writing on a new mission as well, trying to think of it as something fun and insane, and not stressing out over whether I'm putting in too many direct quotes from the badfic or whether it is too dark for some people's tastes.

This should, in part, answer question 1, 2 and 3. I am going to skip question 4. I guess that I am part of the new generation. But I am older than a lot of Boarders in the old generation and I did not come here from TV-tropes and I was perfectly able and willing to read the FAQ's when I joined. (And none of this was able to save me from being carried away by the feared drama-llama.) I don't feel that new Boarders are a homogeneous group any more than old Boarders. And like I have already complained about in length, I think that the old grudges and rule 4 being ignored are much larger problems than a steady influx of newbies asking how to get permission.

Question 5. I try, don't I? I submitted for the Swan co-write, I helped sort through the Sue-pages. I want to start reading an writing missions again.
What I would like to see on the Board is greater tolerance. Tolerance for the fact that people are here for different reasons; some are here to spork badfic, some wants to use this like I use my writers' groups, some have drifted away from the fanfics and are just staying because of the social aspect. Some are only on the Board other barely leaves the chat. And so on and so forth.
I'm am not saying that it is impossible to 'do the PPC wrong', because it has happened, I've seen it happen. But it is rare. Most of the time people are simply doing it differently than someone else would do it.

Yes, another grumpy old-timer is crawling out of the woodwork! Muahahaha.

1. What brought you here? What made you connect to this community? How have your feelings changed over the years?

What brought me here? Mary Sue.

I remember my first exposure to Mary Sue in fanfiction quite vividly. His name was Tai-Shan, and he was from the Mulan fandom. Tai Shan was a great fighter, a spectacular lover, sweet, kind, witty, saucy, and anyone who criticized him turned out to be wrong or a bad person. Suffering from an angst-ridden tragic past, he nevertheless found true love with Li Shang, the title character's canon love interest. He did this by a) stealing some of Mulan’s more endearing character traits for himself and turning her into an adulterous ice queen, b) snidely insulting Mulan every chance he got, and c) being so beloved of his Suethor that she cut off Mulan’s head in her fic, just so Tai-Shan could be paired up with Shang at the end.

Now, the author (one of the older ones back then, at 22) wrote extremely well when Tai Shan was nowhere to be found. But once Tai-Shan reared his irresistibly sexy head, all of a sudden the characters began to act nothing like the characters I had come to know and love.

I was bewildered. I was conflicted. I thought there was something wrong with the way I was viewing the story. I mean, it was obvious from what the author said about Tai-Shan that he had to be the most wonderful and perfect character, much better than Mulan herself. So why did I hate him so? I might have ignored Tai-Shan’s stories altogether, except that everyone else in the small fandom had read them, too, and virtually all the feedback was positive. I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't getting it.

This feeling drove me completely away from fandom, and it wasn't until two years later that I decided to come back...just in time for the Sue-athon that directly followed the release of The Two Towers and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But before my sanity could be shattered altogether, I was rescued: an almost simultaneous effort by Megan@Midnight's PotC:PPC on fanfiction.net, and the PotCSues livejournal. There is a line that I remember from her journal and will never forget: If your plot requires you to off a canon character so that you can pair your original character with the deceased canon character's significant other, you need a new plot. Also, your character is a Mary Sue, no matter how many litmus tests you claim to have taken. Hey, I thought, that’s exactly what had happened in the Mulan fanfiction I read! Suddenly, I understood why Tai-Shan had bothered me, and I realized that the likes of him bothered other people, too. I found a name for something that had been niggling at me like an itch I couldn't scratch, because I couldn't identify it. It wasn’t overall bad writing; it wasn’t a random jumble of character traits that I didn’t like. It was a specific, deliberate attempt to wedge a character in where he didn’t belong and accomplish his personal goals, rather than helping the canon story—to which he owed his existence—accomplish its goals.

At last, I could define the bane of my fandom. The name for Tai-Shan and all his ilk was Mary Sue (or, in that case, Marty Stu, but a rose by any other name would smell as nauseatingly sweet). Mary Sue existed to have the story serve Mary Sue, to the detriment of the other characters and especially to the canon. Fans gravitate toward Mary Sue because s/he is a character that is perfect for wish-fulfillment...as long as you don't wish for canon to be the real focus of the story.

To me, it was a genuine relief for me to discover why I hated a particular fanfiction character type that kept cropping up and getting in the way of my enjoying the stories on the Pit, even the ones that were otherwise well-written. (This is also why the idea that Mary Sue comes from bad writing, rather than encourages bad writing, is false.) Identifying a Mary Sue for what it was made me a better reader and a better writer.

If PotCSues helped me identify what a Sue was, credit goes to the PPC for actually helping me to do something about it. There seems to be a metafandom retcon about Mary Sue's reputation among the pro-Sue group: that Mary Sue was initially value-neutral, then later despised for being female, and only later did some brave souls begin to "question" this portrayal of the Sue. This is a complete fabrication. The original Mary Sue was intended as a parody, and the character type itself was treated with genuine disdain until the popularization of fanfiction with the advent of the Lord of the Rings movies around 2001. Then fandom became inundated with Sues, and no one batted an eye at it. In fact, people encouraged the writing of Mary Sues and self-inserts, even more enthusiastically and with more punctuation abuse than they do today.

Like a large part of the Mulan fandom back in the day, many writers just did not seem to understand why Mary Sue creation was such a bad idea. I hope that what I have done with my missions is deconstruct the idea of the Mary Sue and help people understand why her existence is detrimental 1) to the canon, and 2) to the very nature of storytelling.

2. What stuff have you gone through, man? I wanna know. What did you bond with people about in your heyday?

Basically, I had found a group of people who got as emotionally invested in stories as I did. Anytime I saw a particular aspect of a plot in canon that I loved, or a particular Suefic drove me up the wall, I would talk about it. I also gravitated toward forming friendships with people in similar fandoms--basically the Big Three for that time (LotR, HP, PotC). And I discovered a couple of fellow history geeks, which was pretty fabulous.

3. What keeps you here now, even if you mainly just lurk? What do you get out of it, or hope to get out of it?

Oh, these days I feel like I mostly get called in when things get messy or there's a big decision to be made. This is because I'm one of the oldest PPCers still around (and yes, getting towards the late twenties at 26), and honestly, I didn't think the PPC would survive as long as it did. By the time I arrived on the scene, Jay and Acacia had just left, and I fully expected the PPC to wither away and die within the next year or two. But now? Now, it's been 10 years we've had this silly Board! I stay in hopes that I can help keep the original spirit alive and lend a hand when things get too off-kilter.

4. How do you feel about the latest generation of PPCers? Do you have trouble relating to their interests, such as fandoms, and to their place(s) in life?

My opinion more or less matches an earlier post by Neshomeh: I've noticed a disturbing trend among newer members toward levels of power and aggression, completely unmitigated by an appreciable sense of humor, that I have no doubt would make Jay and Acacia regret ever leaving the PPC for others to write about.

I will admit that I may be biased because of how hard it is to form close-knit friendships with a group that is growing increasingly larger, more diverse, and less directly connected with fanfiction. I've already made my friends in the PPC, and while making more friends is an idea that I like, the reality is that it's very difficult with such a sparse range of common interests and a shift away from complex discussions of Sue-based issues ("Let's discuss why Sueish appearances fail to be impressive.") toward superficial potshots at badfic ("Look! Badfic! Eww! Look! Another badfic! Ewww!").

I think we need to be more stringent, not in how many newbies we allow to join, but in what kind of newbies we allow to stay. To put it bluntly, I think we are too afraid to kick someone out if that person has repeatedly made him or herself unwelcome by flaming authors, posting disparagingly about a group of people, flouting the rules of Permission, etc. My theory is that this stems from the old idea that we needed everyone we could get on our side, as outnumbered as we were back then. Now, there are a ton of Boarders, and we shouldn't be afraid to whittle that number down if some of the members are shown to be repeatedly misbehaving.

As Neshomeh said: If your goals are anything but both humor and good writing, then please, go away.

5. How do you think you could get more involved, if you want to? How can we help?

I can't, at the moment - Real Life, and all that. But I'd probably enjoy more LotR-based topics, as well as issue topics that we used to debate on (without the debates getting too heated, even!). And I'll probably finish up my mission writing within the year, just because I sense that my days in fandom are winding down. But I'll be back lurking again, because as it says on my wiki profile: much like super-bacteria, I refuse to go away completely. :)

~Araeph

I know I’m a lot newer than anyone else that has posted in this so far, but there were some interesting questions asked. I may not be able to give answers to all of them, but I can make some guesses.

1. What brought you here? What made you connect to this community? How have your feelings changed over the years?

I found the PPC through TV Tropes, as many do, although I’d only been on the TV Tropes website for a couple of weeks myself before coming here, so I don’t really think of myself as a troper. I’d decided that I wanted to get back into writing, and had found a few bits about good and bad writing (this was when I first discovered the creatures known as Mary Sues), and while looking through them I found the link to the Original Series.

I read the missions, and enjoyed them, but at first didn’t realize that it was anything more than that collection. It was only when I was trying to explain the concept to some of my friends (who were interested and asked me to send them the link), that I noticed the link to the Board. From there, I found the Wiki, and with the realization that this was something I could take part in, I started educating myself on all things PPC.

So, to summarize, I found the PPC while looking for something to help with my writing. Looking at the comments left by other people, it would seem that I’ve come to the right place.

2. What stuff have you gone through, man? I wanna know. What did you bond with people about in your heyday?

I can't really think of anything coming up since I've been here that I would consider to be stuff, so... yeah, short answer for this one.

3. What keeps you here now, even if you mainly just lurk? What do you get out of it, or hope to get out of it?

Well, the main thing that’s keeping me here right now is that it’s all shiny and new for me. The things that I think are going to keep me here (even if I do eventually walk the path of the lurker) are reading the sporkings, which are some of the most entertaining stories I’ve read, and the thought that I might be able to help out other aspiring authors. I first started seriously writing fiction as a hobby (rather than as an unusually enjoyable homework assignment) around the same sort of time that the Original Series was being written, and I could have really done with being part of a community like this at that time. Knowing how difficult I found it, and only getting ‘reviews’ from friends along the lines of ‘that’s really cool’, I would like to be able to give out some of the kind of help that I wanted at the time, but didn’t know where to find.

What I’ve got out of it so far is a renewed enthusiasm for writing, after taking an unintentional hiatus that lasted a few years. I’ve also met some cool people that like a bunch of the same books, TV and films as me, and share an interest in writing.

What I hope to get out of it is an improvement in my writing ability, and a bunch of new friends that I can talk to about things like the difficulties of writing, favourite authors, great stories etc.

4. How do you feel about the latest generation of PPCers? Do you have trouble relating to their interests, such as fandoms, and to their place(s) in life?

Considering that I am a part of the newest generation of PPCers, I’d say that we’re alright (although I admit that my opinion in this case may be slightly biased). Yeah, mistakes have been made, but I think they were mostly from misplaced enthusiasm. If that enthusiasm can be properly redirected then I think it’ll be a good thing to have. As for relating to their fandoms, to me at the minute it seems like I have more in common with the older generation; Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Discworld, Good Omens, and the Wheel of Time, to name just a few. Whereas I know nothing about some of the fandoms typically associated with newbies at the moment (Hetalia being the prime example of that).

Admittedly, this may be a misconception on my part, as it’s much easier to find out about the fandoms liked by the oldbies (reading missions they’ve written, looking up what people say they’re capable of betaing for, etc.), than it is about newbies who don’t have anything like that yet. I may well now find that most of the newbies are into the supposedly ‘older generation’ fandoms I just listed.

5. How do you think you could get more involved, if you want to? How can we help?

I do want to get more involved, and a few things spring to mind about how to do that. Firstly (and most obviously), I can make a start on my own spin-off. I could also help out on the Wiki, and I probably should check out the chatroom at some point. Other than that, if there’s ever another UK Gathering, I’d certainly try to come along.

As for how you guys can help, I’m not sure about that. Pretty much everything I’ve just mentioned is down to me to take the initiative on.

I’d say just carry on as you are, I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome when I joined up, and considered myself to be part of the community very quickly. I feel like I fit in, and I’ve already got quite a bit out of being here. I can’t remember the last time I actually wrote fiction before joining the PPC (but it was at least a couple of years ago), and now I'm genuinely excited about writing again. Thanks for that.

It's stranger and stranger to think that technically, I'm one of the oldbies around here. 0_o When the heck did that happen?

That being said, though, I've been thinking a little about the way the PPC has changed since I was a fresh-faced little snot. Herewith, my tale and reflections . . .

I found the PPC in . . . oh . . . 2006? Thereabouts, anyway. I stumbled onto them via an extensive bit of link-hopping, from fanfiction.net to the Bagenders series to OFUM and hence, to Miss Sandman's homepage and the PPC. I must have read the entire Original Series in maybe two sittings--talk about absorbing! At the time I was about seventeen or eighteen, and had been writing fanfic for four or five years, but most of it was LOLRANDOMHUMOR and Sue crap. I'd been writing since I was thirteen, but aside from my slightly esoteric tastes (I was big into World of Tiers back then, for example--not much fandom) I didn't know what to do with myself. But I'd had success in roleplaying, so I guess I approached it from that perspective.

You'll see a lot of that immaturity in my early stuff, frankly, which is why I tend to compulsively reedit and update the older missions.

Back then, the community was a lot smaller and more close-knit. I won't say everyone knew everyone else, but there was more . . . interaction, I guess. Trolls or spammers were pretty unusual; we had a troll once ("Alexandra") who was being uber-dramatic and sockpuppeting and talking about e-mail hacks, and Al's Waiter and I had some fun deconstructing the stuff she did.

My earlier RP experiences had taught me how to put ass to chair and produce; being with the PPC, though, helped me get a sense of what it was like to be part of a real writing community, and to not be so squeamish about criticism.

I drifted along for a couple of years; aside from Agent Suicide, I suppose I've never really contributed anything humongous or life-changing to the PPC community. (And I wouldn't classify Suicide as 'life-changing.' XD) I've tried to do it a few times, including helming the Official Fanfiction University of Final Fantasy, but I learned pretty quickly that I didn't have the skill to manage something that big. If I try to get involved in something too huge, where other people are relying on me all the time, I have a bad habit of losing interest. (It's a good thing I wasn't around for the Crises.)

Around the time Subjugation went up for PPCing, in . . . '08, I want to say . . . I was in college and having a rough time of it. My first novel had been accepted for publication, and on the advice of my professors I began withdrawing from online life, so I left the PPC for a while. Neshomeh kindly agreed to take care of Suicide, Diocletian, and Ithalond, and I tried to focus on non-fiction pursuits.

Alas, the siren song of the RC was difficult to ignore. By late '10, the book had been published, and Neshomeh was living in Chicago and telling me what had happened during my absence. Before I knew it, I was eager to get back into the fray, and Suicide and Diocletian came out of retirement (or were discovered after their long stretch of being AWOL, whichever you'd prefer to call it).

Why was the PPC so hard to leave? Like I said, the sense of community. It was a small community of Grammar Nazis who dealt with a world composed of text--with all the insanity that entailed. People weren't afraid to tell you if you were doing something wrong (a tradition continued by the lovely July), but it was building-up rather than tearing down, and things weren't 100% serious. Agents, too, were bizarre and fascinating characters: nerds, geeks, oddities, lost souls, confused individuals, badly-paid but on-fire passionate about what they were doing.

Nowadays, post-Crises and all the rest, I do feel that the organization has changed. For the first time, we really have too many people to keep track of, and there's a visible Younger Generation (mostly the TVTropes incomers) who aren't sure how we do things or chafe against the old authority. Change isn't necessarily bad, but I do feel that we're in danger of losing that spark of community. Agents are getting more powerful, and while the place does feel more like a home instead of a job, there's the danger of making it a kingdom.

If that makes sense. Which I don't think it does.

I think I've actually answered most of the questions in this little TL;DR of mine, except . . .

5. How do you think you could get more involved, if you want to? How can we help?

I can't think of many ways I could get involved. I'm terrible with coding and administration, so I doubt I could be any use on the wiki, and I have no knowledge of the current interpersonal wars on the Board, so I'm not sure I can help moderate. I've been through the publishing process, though, and I've tutored in English and creative writing--anyone who has need of those things, you have my red pen. :D

I was not - and still sort of am not, to some extent - a very 'fandom' sort of person. I didn't write fanfiction, I didn't draw fan art, I wasn't really involved with any major fandom communities. The deepest I had ever delved before finding the PPC was becoming involved with a RP board centered around the tabletop game of Paranoia. Heck, I even got to be one of the IC moderators before the whole board sunk into general disuse.

That's not to say I wasn't aware of fandom and the various bits and bobs that accompanied it. Some of my online friends would occasionally nudge me into reading amusing little fics or drawings they had found on their wanderings through the internet. My response was usually something along the lines of 'That's interesting, I suppose.' Nothing from the fan community had ever really hooked me.

Then, in late 2009, I discovered MSTs.

The original Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV show holds a very special place in my shriveled and blackened heart. I didn't get up on Saturday morning bright and early to watch cartoons; I got up to watch MST3K. I loved every moment, every snarky comment, every backhanded jibe. It was my Lord of the Rings, my Hetalia. It helped shape the way I view the world.

As a result of this background, I took to MSTs like a duck takes to water. I devoured them; I hunted down whichever ones I could find. Some were fantastic examples of deconstructive comedy, some were awful author-bashing nonsense, but most were just meh. They were, in some ways, an encapsulation of everything that was fanfic.

It was during my quest for MSTs and other such playful pokes at fanfic that I discovered the PPC in April 2010. I lurked around for a bit, reading this and that - the stories with Trojanhorse/Pads and JulyFlame's agents particularly stuck in my head, if I recall correctly. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I posted my introduction on the Board.

Again, it should be noted that fandoms were not my thing. What mattered to me most back then - and still does now, for that matter - was improving my writing skills. My college creative writing courses had taught me that constructive criticism, while at times damaging to the ego, was one of the best ways to improve your skills. By 2010, those writing courses had ended. I didn't really have anyone to look at my work apart from my dad. The PPC seemed like a good way to kill two birds with one stone; I could write MST-like material with a community of like-minded folks, and I could get an audience that could review my writing to a depth beyond the congratulatory clap-trap sadly found in many online writing groups. A bit selfish, I'll admit. But that's the way things go.

Connecting with the community... that's a toughie. There are times when I feel like the majority of folks here don't really know or care about me - inso much as knowing and caring is possible over the internet, of course. Part of that's my fault. I spent a great deal of my first year here still vaguely in lurker mode. I missed out on RP opportunities, writing challenges, and the like. I'm getting better about that, though, or at least I'd like to think I am.

Part of the problem seems to be that my 'fandoms,' so to speak, don't seem to be too much in vogue with large sections of the PPC population. My focus so far has been on video games and contemporary cartoons. There's occasionally a bit of Kingdom Hearts or Mass Effect talk, but not to any great extent. Nothing that would inspire bonds over. And I can't recall ever seeing someone in the PPC discuss Avatar: The Last Airbender or the Teen Titans cartoon while I was present.

I haven't really forged any close connections with anyone here, sad to say. You know, maybe enough to toss around a few jokes or whatever in the IRC, but for the most part I've remained somewhat disconnected from the sheer closeness of the PPC community. At least, that's how I perceive it.

I've been around long enough to have seen some stuff, some drama popping up here and there. The PPC2 debacle and the increasing friction between the Board and the IRC are the two that immediately come to mind. Not really sure what I can say about those incidents that hasn't already been said in some way or another.

The newbies... I can appreciate their sense of enthusiasm, but it is like trying to deal with a new puppy at times. There's a lot of repeated requests, a lot of face-palming, and occasionally one of the old guard has to clean up a mess and deliver a scolding. I can't really relate to stuff like magical girl anime shows or Hetalia (the historian in me is somewhat put off by it,) but I'm in no place to judge. The Last Airbender, remember?

Still. Despite the stuff, despite the newbies, despite the sense of outsider-ness that I still have in regards the PPC community, I have no plans to leave. Like Nesh said, I'm not done telling stories about my agents. I can't be certain that I'll ever run out of stories. Even if I did, there are still more characters rattling around inside my head. They have stories of their own that need to be told.

My writing skills continue to improve and evolve. I saw that clear enough just by going through all my missions from the time I joined until now. It's working. Take note, newbies: for all the craziness and occasional drama, the PPC can help you improve your writing. You know, provided you're willing to listen to criticism. So when the old guard says they're trying to help you, believe them.

In short, I'm like that friend in college who you invite in to sleep on your couch for one night and then can never get to leave. You're stuck with me, PPC.

P.S. - "We went through some stuff, man." I immediately pictured Nesh as the Dennis Hopper character from Apocalypse Now the first time I read her post.

Is "midbie" the right term? I've not even been on for a year but I don't exactly feel new anymore.

I can't say I have many things to write about, since I don't frequent the IRC and check the Board every once in a while but here goes...

1. It was a dark and stormy night It was a nice day outside. The sun was shining, the kids were playing outside, and I was holed up in my room derping around on TV Tropes. Granted, there was a much better way of killing time (such as mowing the lawn) but I had recently discovered the magic of bad fan fiction by following a chain of links on TV Tropes. I read the summary of My Immortal, then the actual thing itself while laughing hysterically. I read more badfic, then looked up the definition of "Mary Sue" then "Mary Sue hunter", and eventually found the PPC that way. After many months worth of lurking around the Board, reading new and old missions, reviewing newbie guides, and thinking about a potential agent pair, I eventually gathered the courage to sit down and introduce myself. So here I am!

2. I don't think I've hung around that long to have gone through the big things everybody's talking about.

3. As odd as it sounds, the PPC is my fandom. I love its characters, I love its universe, and I especially love its premise: sending underpaid and overworked snarky agents into badfic-ridden worlds to right the wrongs. I stick around to see what becomes of them- and add to the saga with my own spinoffs.

4. The latest generation of newcomers bring a lot of new fandoms to the Board. No longer it is only about Rings: it's now about Mass Effect, My Little Pony, Zelda, Hetalia, Madoka, Harry Potter, Redwall, Nanoha, and so much more. That's a really good thing: it demonstrates that the community has grown and is branching out. The main problem is that there seems to be a barrier between the oldbies and the newbies: each doesn't really know how to approach each other. From what I gather, oldbies don't share the same fandoms/interests as the newbies and thus are unsure how to strike up a conversation with them and vice-versa.

5. How to participate more, you say? If the main problem between the new recruits and the old guard is fandoms, why can't we start up a fandom discussion thread? We could go and ask questions about a 'verse we aren't familiar with, maybe ask for some recommendations, and natter on endlessly about why we love X fandom or Y author. It would be like some gigantic buffet where we could all gather around, chat and sample the wide variety of fandoms that each of us brings to the table. Maybe we might even find something new that catches our eye...

That's it for my two cents, folks. I hope it was worth your time.

I came to the PPC through a Google search, as some of you might know. Also, as some of you might know, immediately after I introduced myself I posted a badfic I wanted sporked, only to see it get deleted soon after. That was my initial contact with the PPC community at large, and... well, I stuck around after that.

It was weird, really. Once I was introduced to the PPC community at large, I started discovering all of these terrible fanfics (and taking a look back and realizing how terrible nearly all of my early output was--it's to the point where I'm dead set on making fun of a terrible crossover I once wrote). And that... well, that eventually got me to ask for Permission. It was also something I bonded over, talking the logistics of particularly bad fanfics, writing missions, doing all that jazz.

And... well, it's been a rocky road from there. Some missions turned out okay, some got shunned, and I trust you all know the rest.

And now, twenty missions and four interludes later, I think I've finally come to a realization. It's a long story how I got to that realization, but I think what it came down to is the fact that I don't look at badfic the way everyone else at the PPC does--and that this disconnect has led to a lot of my issues with some in the PPC community.

See, when most people look at badfic, I notice that it's like 'look a horrible fanfic oh no' and then the subject is dropped. For me, I don't drop it there. If I encounter a bad fanfic, it genuinely makes me angry, to the point where I will rant about a fic in real life if it's bad enough. You can ask the guys in the Arts Criticism course I took last semester about that: we were once given a writing exercise to write about something we didn't like without using any empty adjectives to describe why we didn't like it, and I ended up writing about a particularly bad fanfic that I had on the Claimed Badfic list for a short time. I ended up reading it to the class, and when I did, the teacher actually told me that I had used an ad hominem in the short write-up I had written. The crazy thing? I didn't even realize it could be taken as an ad hominem until he pointed that out. (The ad hominem, by the way, related to the use of the word 'dunce'.) So when I look at badfic... well, to quote Samara from Mass Effect 2, I tend to think along the lines of "you're a disease to be purged, nothing more".

And I think this disconnect has led me to think about missions very differently from most other people throughout my time at the PPC. I'll admit to the fact that in some of my missions I've looked at it less as an opportunity to parody it and more as an opportunity to cleanse it from my mind, and that has led to the tendency for some of my missions to be more on the not-so-funny side and a little less on the 'oh hey let's laugh at this' side. One thing that this holds true for especially was my Subject 23 mission, which got notoriety for having an original version that's 108 pages long. That one, I know that I was not aiming for it to be a parody once Part 1 of that mission was done with: honestly, I was thinking of that mission less as a parody and more as an actual story that got all mixed up in there. The point is, that I haven't always looked at the PPC as an outlet for parody, even after I got Permission.

And I think that's a pretty good indicator for how I've felt as part of the PPC, from the perspective of someone who's been in the newer generation of the PPC for a while: I've always felt like the lonely child who only had a few friends that's trying to get accepted by the community at large yet finds himself stymied at every turn because he's just not in the right place at all. I think you'll agree that I tend to clash a lot with some of the older members of the community. And the less I say about the stupid shit I've done, the better. But over my time in the PPC, I've always felt ostracized by the old guard, but lately it's become amplified thanks to some admittedly very stupid actions on my part as of late. It's to the point where now, drama within the PPC has actually taken a physical toll on me: I've lost some of my appetite, I'm not sleeping as well as I normally do, and I just feel a lot less happy now than I did when I first joined. It's gotten to the point where I've seriously been debating just dropping the PPC and leaving the community for good. (Well, that, and I've made a colossal fool of myself these past few weeks, so that feeds into it too.)

I guess the point is that this disconnect between myself and certain people in the old guard has always tainted my experience with the PPC. I've stayed this long because of the opportunity to write missions, but there have been several times (including now) where I've wondered if it's really worth dealing with the community at large just to spork bad fanfic.

This perception problem, too, is something that's plagued my reactions to some things the old guard have said. I will freely admit that some of the responses I've gotten to things I have written/said/done have been interepreted by me as being displays of animosity or just plain old ill will: it's gotten to the point where I will blatantly disregard the advice of one of the people in the old guard just because I think that the person in question is, to put it bluntly, 'out to get me'. Is it fair? No. Can I help it? Nothing I have tried has worked, so I don't know if I can.

And ultimately, I think all this boils down to a few simple things:

1) It is very easy to make me angry.

2) It's even easier for me to dislike something to the point where I start actively hating it.

3) If I'm angry at something, I cannot let it go, no matter what I try.

And when I respond with anger... my reaction has almost always been to lash back at the thing that's making me angry. And it's true with my relationship with things in the PPC, whether it's to someone who is justifiably correct about my behavior in the PPC or it's a bad fanfic that I'm sporking in my latest mission. So I think mostly, this is the main reason I can't connect with most people on the PPC.

And if I have to be honest? I'm not sure there's anything anybody else on the board or on the IRC can do about it. I've tried a lot of different things to manage my anger, but so far nothing has worked. No matter what I do, I always remain combative with some things, especially if I'm feeling like I'm being mistreated by people. And the worst thing is, I don't know how to deal with it.

This disconnect, for me, has always been at the heart of my time here, and it's only taken me until the recent stuff that's been happening in the IRC and here on the Board for me to realize that it's as massive a problem as it actually is. And unfortunately, there's nothing that I can suggest to fix it: how can you ask others to account for your own psychology? It's not fair to the old guard, it's not fair to the newer generation, and it's not fair to me.

So... I guess to sum it up, it's been a rocky road here at the PPC, and I think the main contributing factor to everything that I have experienced here is that I have one of the worst tempers here at the PPC. To put it in the shortest terms possible: I'm not a very good PPCer. And to be honest? I'm not sure I'm right for this community anymore.

... Wow, this started as a response to the questions Nesh posed, and it's ended in what I guess can be described as a rambly self-analytical session. And honestly, this is probably the most honest I've been with myself in a looooooooong time.

Man... this feels like a Serious Business topic. So I'm gonna settle down and answer it as best I can.

WARNING: On re-reading this, I think it might be rather emotional. I'm certainly being frank about my worst times. If talk of death/suicide bothers you, might be best not to read.

1. First off, I found the PPC in 2008. I was nineteen, in university and failing badly due to a hell of a lot of stress. it was also the first time I had ever had unrestricted access to the internet. I'd been able to use school and college internet, but the siteblockers were so heavy there I had trouble doing necessary research, let alone surf the web. At home... well, my mother was paranoid enough to never let me use the computer without her hovering over my shoulder in case I saw Bad Things, and once I moved out when I was seventeen my only access was the college system.

So at university, reveling in the newfound freedom, I stumbled onto OFUM while looking for LOTR stories. And then I looked around and found a link to the PPC. And, eventually, in April 2008, I peeked at the Board. A lot of things that I didn't understand were going on, mostly to do with something called a Macrovirus. I was extremely nervous; a lot of warnings were running around my head about the dangers of talking to Internet People.

But I was really hoping to find people I could talk to about things I liked, things that nobody I knew already had any interest in. So I summoned up my courage and posted a tentative little message introducing myself.

All my fears dissolved as a massive wave of friendliness washed over me. People were giving me amusing presents, inviting me to chat on MSN, helping me to shape my first Agents, and I realised that the PPC was somewhere I felt happy. Crazy IM roleplays helped on the days I was really miserable. I could chat to people about anything and everything. I made a number of very good friends who I trusted a lot.

I went to my first Gathering about three months later - I felt integrated enough with everyone by that point that I dismissed the warnings about meeting strangers out of hand. We were going to meet as a group, and PPCers wouldn't hurt me. I wasn't disappointed, and since then the PPC's been a rock for me even when there've been explosions of disagreement and unpleasantness. No matter how bad things've got, you guys're here.

2 + 3. My first experience of the PPC was the 2008 Mary-Sue Invasion, and I really threw myself into that. As people who were around then can testify, I talked Trojie into helping me mastermind the foundations of a movie/radio play based on the sheer epic that the Invasion produced. While that has sadly fallen by the wayside, I do have the original plans knocking around somewhere. I got talking to a lot of people through Trojie, actually; she was mumsy and took me around to say hello to people and made sure I didn't run away in fright, and was a great help while she was around.

Since then I've more or less dipped into and out of things that caught my interest, but I bonded with people more over how much fun we had in chats than on the Board itself. Even though we don't chat very often these days, July's been a great help to me, especially at my absolute lowest point. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her pretty much bullying me, in the middle of the night, to stop and rethink what I was about to do to myself. (If you see this, July, all the hugs for you. Won't ever forget that.)

Platinumyo, as a number of you might remember, was one of the people I grew close to early on; we were an Official Board Couple for quite some time, and being with him was my first experience of a romantic relationship. We're not together any more, but I still think of him as a special friend of mine. A number of people I knew back then have slipped away from the PPC - Oozaru Angel, Sara, Fynn, Jai - but others have stayed around, even if they lurk even more than I do these days. KGarrett, Rilwen and Lycaenion especially are the three I'm closest to these days, and I wouldn't have met them without the PPC.

And one thing I remember very strongly is that about a year after finding the PPC, I lost my brother in a road accident. My family pretty much splintered around that - my parents especially, and being the eldest child I was caught in the middle - and I had no RL friends to turn to. My mother cut her ties with me for several months for "siding" with my father, and I couldn't turn to him for help because he lived down the other end of the country. All I had left was the PPC, and you guys offered me shoulders to cry on and all the sympathy I could have ever hoped for.

I lurk a lot these days; not as much seems to catch my interest enough to comment on. I'm not much for writing missions any more, though I RP theoreticals regarding my Agents a lot in IM chats. But as I've said before, the PPC's a rock I know I can come back to. The community here is wide-ranging and often opinionated, but rarely in such a way that we can't all find a way to get along regardless. What do I get out of it? The nearest thing I can get to a proper home on the internet.

I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say the PPC's pulled me through the very worst times in my life just by being here. If that's not a good reason to stick around, guys, then what the heck is? :)

4. I don't really interact much with the newest PPCers. I have to admit it's mostly because I don't feel I see anything in common with them other than the PPC itself; my fandoms seem to be a bit older, and I'm not as vocal about them as I once was. (Although I seem to've picked up something of a reputation as a Tolkienite, if July's past hints are to be believed. :P Not that I'm complaining.) I just prefer to sit back and watch the newer PPCers develop things, and offer a bit of guidance and advice and occasionally beta-reading where I figure it'll help. I guess I feel sort of mumsy to the new people now.

5. I'm pretty happy as I am, really. I get involved as I see opportunities, and that's enough.

- Cassie, apparently essay-writing

As I read these autobiographies, I have come to realize that I don't fit anyone's description of PPCers. Now, I'm not saying "I don't fit exactly into what every person has said." I am saying that I don't fit at all.

I never read fanfiction until I started work on my first mission. I still only read fanfiction when looking for a new mission. I've never read OFUM, and I still haven't finished TOS (I blame my dismal reading speed). I never wrote anything before I joined up. I wasn't really involved in any fandoms. I don't particularly like Lord of the Rings.

So how did I end up here and why did I stay? Well, the answer to the first bit is a little cliched. I'm here because of a girl. Neshomeh, to be exact. I joined because this thing online was very important to her and, since we had been dating for a while at that point, I figured I should meet some of her friends. I stayed because some of you became my friends.

I joined the Board in the second half of 2009 (I was 23), so I missed the emergencies and the moratorium on them. I know a lot about what went on in those days because Neshomeh talked about it while we were walking the track in the campus Rec Center.

Though I have not been around as long as some, I have seen some stuff. I was here for the conversation with Boosette and So Sue Me. I was here for the departure of Trojie and Pads, and the failed push for more people to write non-Sue missions. I was here for the fiasco involving #PPC2 and all the horrendous drama that entailed.

Despite all of that, it hasn't been all bad. I was here when, to paraphrase a more eloquent writer than myself, the universe pulled Makes-Things out of its ass and sent him back to work. I was there for a Gathering in Chicago. I was here for food fights, water fights, snowball fights, shipfic fests, and badfic games.

Most of that stuff happened around me, though. What have I done here? I made the Postal Department more than just a reference. I've been praised by people whose work I respect (including a published author). I somehow managed to become a Permission Giver. I called out the entire PPC when a troll accused us of author bashing (the troll was right about the author bashing, but still a troll).

It has been a strange journey for me. I've written things, which is new for me. The very first thing I really ever wrote for myself ended up in my permission request a few months later. I made friends, mostly through the IRC, who have progressed beyond "friend on the internet" to just "friend." I have helped them through their problems, and they have helped me through mine.

So, I think that answers the first three-ish questions. Let's move on, shall we?

What do I think about the newest generation? I think they are good people who just need to slow down, read, and listen. Honestly. I know that the PPC is a big exciting place, but that doesn't mean you need to run around so fast that you miss what people are trying to tell you. Chances are good they were warning you about the coffee table you just tripped over. You can still be excited without barreling ahead at full speed. Pick up speed as you go, when you know where the furniture is.

We point newbies to the Newbie FAQs on the wiki and they don't read them. I know they don't read them because, if had, they wouldn't be asking 75% of the questions they are asking (often in the IRC, for those who are wondering). Sedri, Neshomeh, and several others worked really hard to make those FAQs as accessible and easy to understand as possible. When someone complains that they are too difficult to understand, that tells me they aren't trying.

Now, I'm not saying asking questions is bad. I am saying that the FAQs were created for a reason, they are easy to find (especially when pointed at, as is often the case), and easy to understand. We don't want to have to spend all day answering the same question for every one of the legion of newbies we've gotten lately.

Listening is also very important. When someone asks you to stop a behavior, and gives you a reason why (for example: stop doing X because it is triggering for some people), then you should either stop, or give a good reason why not. ("I don't want to" or "I can do whatever I want" are not good reasons, by the way.) If you agree to stop, but still need to be told 3-4 more times, with the other person getting more and more frustrated and angry, then you either aren't listening, or are willfully ignoring them.

As for the rest of the newbie question, I relate to them about as well as I relate to fans of the Lord of the Rings. That is to say, not well, based solely on fandoms. I relate far better on a person to person level than on a fan to fan level.

I'm more involved in the PPC than is probably good for me, at this point. In my other life, I have a part-time job and help run a theatre company, so there is a lot going on. The fact that I can give the PPC so much of my time is amazing. But I do it for a reason.

There are a lot of things going on in here. A lot of personal disputes have been left to fester and spill out into the Board and IRC. I noticed, even before I joined, that people in the PPC were unwilling or unable to speak out against the things that were wrong in the community (author bashing and the lack of concrit, for instance). So, I've taken it upon myself to speak up if no one else will.

It has not done wonders for my reputation, at times. I have been accused of trying to turn the PPC into my own little sandbox. I'm okay with all of that. If people ever get fed up with me and ask me to leave (not likely, I know) then I will at least leave knowing that the PPC has less author bashing and more concrit than it did when I joined, and is a better place for it. That's why I'm here.

I've been tempted to leave a few times. When the level of respect for other members of the community has been really low. When it looks to me like people would rather throw out all the rules and just bash authors and swear like sailors. In those times, I want to turn my back on the PPC. I don't do it because I am a stubborn son of a mother, and I won't give the people who want to dismantle the spirit of the PPC the satisfaction of winning.

So...yeah. This is a lot longer than it was intended to be. Anyway, that's my deal. I'm here, doing what I do, for Neshomeh, and July, and hS, and AnnaBee, and Himochi, and Data, and Bryn, and Maslab, and VM, and anyone else who ever has or ever will find the PPC and wants to be a part of it. The form of the community may change, but the spirit will remain, if I have anything to say about it.

-Phobos

Wow. I'm kind of blown away by the level of thoughtfulness and feeling you're putting into these responses. I want to reply to all of you and give everyone the same in return, so that may take a while. ^_^;

Meanwhile, thank you—in advance, to those who have yet to post. Old or new or somewhere in between, I really appreciate the time you're taking to engage openly and honestly with this topic. Reading your stories, it's clear that the PPC has personally touched you all in different and yet not-so-different ways, and it's really heartwarming.

~Neshomeh

I guess I fall into Oldbie status as well, having been around since just before my 19th birthday (at the beginning of 2005).

I got into the PPC via what you might call my second internet geeky phase. In 2001/2002 when I was finishing high school, I found a whole bunch of random LoTR messageboards and humour sites (Flying Moose of Nargothrond and the Barrow Downs being two notable such sites) and wasted much time that I probably should have been spending studying. Perhaps I even came across a fleeting reference to the PPC, but if I do, I don't recall it...

Then 2003 came and I started university and got caught up in doing other things and it took me a year or two to get back into online geekery. I spent a summer research project doing computer modelling, which meant I had a lot of free time in a computer lab, and rediscovered the LoTR fandom, started writing fanfic and even wrote a story or two on the Henneth-Annun story archive.

Then, early in 2005, I read OFUM and it quickly led to me reading the Original Series, and then I posted here and quickly became hooked on the PPC. I started two missions, and the gigantic crackfic that is the Les Miserables Songfic Crisis... and then they all came to a grinding halt towards the end of 2006 when I was trying to finish my thesis.

2005/2006 were the "golden years" of the PPC for me - we had a great group of not-quite-newbies ('middlebies', we called ourselves): of whom Rez, Gundamkiwi, nscangal and Eris86 are probably the most notable, and then a little later the wonderful Tungsten Monk came along and got me hooked on Stephen Pressfield books via the character of Agent Suicide, and I seem to recall Vixenmage turning up around that time.

I remember all sorts of craziness, like the great PPC Board Snowfight of 2006, hS's Odd Day getting even odder, much ado about space pirates, and for some reason an entire planet made out of cinnamon. The Board was wonderfully random back then!

We also seemed to have serious discussions a lot more frequently, without it disintegrating into flaming.

When I started full time work in 2007, I was commuting 4 hours each day and had no free time. I moved city after a couple of months, but then it took me a couple of years to get an internet connection at home - and it just didn't feel the same posting to the Board from work. When, eventually, I got back on the 'net, a year or two had passed, and it seems that my PPC momentum had passed with it, and since then I seem to have done too much lurking.

I still read the board once or twice a week, and try to post more frequently - and I even managed to finish two missions back in 2010 (even if I did promptly start on another three which are still unfinished!) but I've felt a bit more disconnected since then. I felt as though something big had happened to the PPC while I'd been away and it took me a while to work out what had happened. (E.g. it took me about 6 months to realise exactly what happened in the Macrovirus epidemic back in 2008!)

Similarly to Neshomeh, I stick around because I feel I haven't written all my Agents' stories yet (and at my current rate, I'll probably have grandkids before I do!).

I do find it hard to keep up with all the newbies (in a getting to know them sense) - partly because so much PPC happenings occur in the IRC these days, and time differences plus my hectic RL schedule mean I'm very rarely in the IRC.

Fandom-wise, there's a lot of fandoms being discussed these days that I know nothing about. Sometime's it's frustrating, sometimes I view it as a great way of getting into new interests. Although whoever pointed me at A Song of Ice and Fire, I'd like to hit, since it has now taken over my life and I get no sleep anymore by staying up to 3 am to read!

Thinking back about when I've been most active on the Board, I think it was in times when there was a sense of shared activity going on - things like the Snowfight, or having mass RPs or the Multiverse Monitor!

Obviously we're not keen on repeating the angst of the Macrovirus epidemic, but I'd love to see some more of that collaborative atmosphere come back to the Board. Of, if it's there, maybe I just need to look harder.

Anyway, this is a long ranty rant of rantiness, so I shall leave it here...

So, I sat and agonized over what I should say, since some people (July) were poking me the instant I mentioned that I didn't think three years was long enough to qualify me for olbie, or even "older in general".

I no longer remember precisely how I found the PPC. Just that it involved Tv Tropes. I do remember that I read through as much of the wiki as I possibly could in one sitting, then moved on to hS's Celebrian mission and MST, then Trojie and Pad's stuff, then Laburnum's. Some point around then, I decided to join the board, and so I did. It was probably another several months before I even bothered with the original series.

Honestly, I'm still in my heyday, I think. So mostly, this slightly disconnected bit is here to serve as a thank you. Thank you to the lot of you for existing in the fist place. Because of the PPC, I have met people who I now consider some of my closest friends. I met my first boyfriend, and ended up in my current relationship, which is arguably the healthiest relationship I've ever been in.
Thank you, specifically, to July, who may not know or remember, but who managed to remind me that I'm not such a terrible person, and to Bryn who sat with me all night when I had my first panic attack, and who talked me out of doing something irrevocably stupid. Without either of you, I would not still be here.
Thank you, too, to Dann, for being... Maybe not a role model exactly, but someone I look up to.

As for why I'm still here? As I said before, this is where some of my closest friends are. I do hope to one day have a successful spin-off, but honestly that's taken a back seat to just being part of the community.

And the newbies? A lot of them are cool. Others annoy me. It's not the endless rambling discussions. That I can handle, even if they're occasionally irksome. It's the constant asking of the most basic questions. Questions which are answered in our guides. We are a community of writers. You'd think it wouldn't kill people to do a little reading. If you have a question, take the initiative, look and see if you can find the answer on the wiki. If not, then ask someone to point you in the right direction. And by Vera's tits, listen! If you ask a question, pay attention to the answer, so that you're not asking a question with the exact same answer a week later.

I'm honestly not sure how I could get more involved, though. I mean, I actually post on the board relatively often now, I'm always in the IRC, I've been voted into DA status twice now (to my eternal confusion), and I'm a fairly regular beta-reader for the folks that ask me. Considering the fact that I'm actively working on my first mission, and I have another mission and interlude planned, I have no clue how I could be more involved in the PPC. Maybe organize more stuff like the shipfest and whatnot, but I don't have the motivation for that.

- Data Junkie, who has no better way to sign off

This probably won't be very elaborate. I'm terrible at phrasing things, but I'll do my best.

A couple of years ago, my best friend sent me a link to the Original Series. She said they were hysterically funny stories about people going into bad fan fiction to fix it, so I decided to take a look.

Back then, fanfic meant absolutely nothing to me. I didn't read it, or write it, or give a toss about it. I knew it existed, but that was about it.

The Original Series really opened my eyes. I haven't read LoTR, but I hated the badfic in the Original series because I could tell that it was badly-written rubbish that often had little to no resemblance to the canon.

After that, I started reading the spin-offs. I fell in love with everything Trojie and Laburnum wrote, especially Laburnum's stuff. I didn't think I was good enough to join, nor did I have the courage too- everyone on the Board was way out of my league.

I read OFUM, too. It was funny, and I loved it. I read other OFU, and fell for them as well.

Eventually, I realised in the course of my original-fiction writing that I needed feedback from people who knew what they were talking about. Eventually, I realised that if I joined the PPC and wrote missions, I might get the kind of feedback that'd help me be a better writer. I really wanted to join. I dreamed about working with Laburnum or PoorCynic or one of the other writers I idolised. It took all the guts I had, but I finally joined.

At first, it was fantastic. I talked to people who loved the same fandoms I did. I wrote missions that people liked. I co-wrote a few things with other writers, and I even got to work with Laburnum (though we never completed it, sadly).

And... well, it went wrong. I didn't bother using a beta. I failed to see the problems in the works I'd written. Eventually, I screwed up bad enough that July and Dann took my Permission away and told me to rewrite everything I wrote. It hurt, but I realised how badly I screwed up, accepted responsibility for my myriad mistakes and decided to look at it as a chance for improvement.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse. Amid real life struggles, I learned a lot about myself, and most of it was negative, particularly all the things I learned about some rather nasty disorders I had the 'pleasure' to acquire. A lot of people I liked left the board, and in some cases, like DML, I never learned why. I often wondered why I was still part of the PPC. There was a huge influx of newbies, so much so that I often had no clue who anyone talking was. I lost interest in pretty much everything.

Why did I stay? Ultimately, I don't want to leave. I may never finish rewriting, and thus never get my Permission, but there are a lot of people here I really like and look up to. Even if I can't write missions, I can still help- I beta'd one of Antigone's missions, and that worked out fine. All I can do now is try to help everyone, because that's what I love doing. Maybe I'll finish rewriting, when I'm not deeply depressed and struggling with university. Maybe I won't. But I'll still be here.

It's no good, I really need a cape to lurk properly.

Found the PPC when I typed 'Mary Sue' into the search bar on FF.N on a whim; I honestly don't remember how I found the Board. I feel like it may have been a link from someone's FF.N profile, but I don't know whose -- Miss Cam? J&A's? P@L's? No clue. Not even sure I'm correct. That was closing on a decade ago, sooooooooo (note that this can't be true, because I'm not old enough to measure my life in decades. Yikes).

I connected because the people here were awesome. The fandom stuff was always secondary to the community and the awesome off-topic threads -- serious ones, which stayed polite and respectful because we genuinely respected each other, and the hilarious, manic, long threads about snowballs and food and whatever came to mind.

It was the first message board I'd ever joined where people actually treated each other like equals, even those who had a real claim to being More Equal Than Others (Jay, Miss Cam, a few other BNFs). We loved newbies and welcomed them with gifts and mini-Balrogs. It was like an internet group-hug all the time. I grew my hair out and started wearing tie-dyed peace t-shirts. (I'm joking, I already had long hair and would never wear tie-dye. What do you take me for?)

And then hS joined. I won't say I fell in love with him instantly, but I will say that he joined in September and I was researching spousal immigration laws by December. What can I say? He's practically perfect in every way. And yes, we had plenty of long personal conversations on the Board, because I was terrified to add him to my MSN list (LOL MSN messenger! Wow, that was a long time ago) and I had to get my flirting in somewhere.

I've been around for most of the Board, so I've seen most of the dramas and changes over the years. The ones I actually remember are the ones that touched me personally -- Thalia, because I was very deeply involved in that one. A few dramas with GreyLadyBast, which nobody remembers but me. The ongoing years-long drama with the married middle-aged man who was dating three very underage PPC girls at the same time, that was a goodie -- oh, all the dramas that originated from the first few attempts at PPC chatrooms. Lots of personal life dramas of people who are long, long gone -- illness, depression, accidents, poverty, abuse, relationships and breakups oh my. Fandom upheavals, eh, not so much.

I said before, I'm still here because hS is. My internet activity has mostly shifted to medical blogs and skeptical science blogs at this point (oh yeah, and mommy boards), which is a far cry from the PPC. But I try to keep an eye on the Board so I know what hS is talking about when he brings it up. I dabble in PPC writings occasionally, but I wouldn't plug them on the Board anymore. hS has recently started slotting his characters and his original PPC creations into an original setting; I might try to do the same, or I might just quietly let them go.

I don't have a feeling about the newest generation of PPCers. Personal stuff seems to be shunted off the board into the chatroom in order to preserve space on the Board. So I recognise names, but I no longer particularly recognise people. But there have always been fandoms I didn't particularly relate to -- even parts of the fandom that brought me here (I've still never read Silm. cover-to-cover, so . . .). So that's nothing new, really. But the relationships have moved away from the Board, and I don't have the screentime to chase them down, so I probably won't ever be active again.

Like VM, I will never regret joining the Board. If I hadn't, I wouldn't live in England, I probably wouldn't be married or have one-point-five-whatever kids, and I certainly wouldn't be married to hS. And what sort of life would that be? I'm lightheaded just imagining it.

I admit, my experience with the PPC is not like those that have posted here. But my story with the PPC goes back a lot further than when I first joined in late 2009.

Fanfiction was how I started on the internet in earnest. I had dabbled in a few things- Lego Online games, Neopets, and- *shudder* Barbie Online. I was about 7. I’d keep dabbling in Neopets until I was about 10. And then something changed.

I got my first laptop. I had gotten my first computer when I was eight, and I loved it. But I was also eight and terminally shy. My mother had put the fear of god in me regarding the internet and the people on it and that they were all horrible people and think of the danger (This will come into play in just a moment, I swear).

It was my 10th birthday, and I had just hit double digits and gotten my first laptop. Feeling terribly grown up, I found a link to deviantart somehow, and tracked down some labyrinth fanart by Pika la Cynique. I loved her style, and her humor- and then I found her OFUM fanart. I then spent the next few weeks devouring both OFUM and its sequel (Which was still updating at the time).

Mystified by her Celebrian fanart’s notes of “Hates Vanilla Ice Cream” and “Celebrian” I did a little googling.

That is when I found my first PPC fiction. Reading hS’ mission/MST of Celebrian, my interest was peaked, but I lost the link halfway through and read it on my own time without commentary. To say it was... eyeopening would be an understatement. It being my first foray into... adult things, and fanfiction. I kept digging through Miss Cam’s site, looking for more OFUM, but instead found the TOS. I read it. And then I read her sidestory. Loving every second of it, I ventured for the first time onto the board in 2005ish. I remember sitting at my desk, my ‘Hello!’ post all typed out and ready. My username would have been Rosefairy4905.

I was five seconds from clicking post. And then the guilt and worry hit me. What if this wasn’t safe. What if they (the PPC) were dangerous. I didn’t know anything about these people. What if I was just falling into a trap. Having a mild panic attack, I closed it down and made myself put it out of mind. Better safe than sorry.

It would take another two years or so, when I moved to Connecticut, before I turned to fanfiction again. Let me clarify. When I was living in Washington, I did have friends. Not many, but a few. The kids who lived on my street, as well as two girls whose mom was friends with mine. These were kids I had played in the mud with, had chased around with sticks, and picked berries with. Had built and stormed forts with.

When I moved to Connecticut, I lost contact. I had no one. For 11 months of my life, I didn’t go outside but to walk to the bodega, three blocks down. I didn’t have any friends- and at the time, my parent’s marriage was strained. I heard screaming matches and threats of moving back across the country to my grandparent’s house. So I turned to the internet. I admit, I had some downturns. I tried my hand at writing, but my own self-critical nature stopped me from ever posting. And then, I started to read fanfiction again.

Admittedly, it was Labyrinth fanfiction, then Harry Potter, then LotR. Having been a big fan of these all as a kid, I devoured the fandoms’ output ravenously. And, I admit, I read some pretty terrible stuff. I found the PPC again, and this time there was a wiki- but I didn’t get as far as the board that time. I had decided I was going to write my own fanfiction. It was... mediocre at best. I had teetered off by late Septemberish 2009 when I killed off my penname persona. Yes it’s up on FF.net. Yes it’s a little painful. I know.

And then Twilight hit. It was big, and popular, and it’s what girls my age were supposed to be reading, so what was the harm? I kept seeing all of these rave reviews and the movie was coming out soon, so I set my heart on it. I was going to read Twilight and it was going to be amazing and I was going to love it because that’s what I’m supposed to be liking. Keep in mind I was still heavily isolated in Connecticut at the time.

It lasted for about three books. See, at the time, I was still under the impression of, if it was printed or on the internet, it was good. Mostly due to my own insecurity, and assuming that only the highest standards of books could ever pass the impossibly high standards of publishers. SURELY IF IT IS PRINTED, IT IS GOOD.

And then I read Breaking Dawn. Dear god. That book... I... Okay, even when I was reading the books as a twihard, I was rooting for Bella and Edward to be together... because I didn’t like either of them. I was Team Edward, because I thought Jacob was way, way too good for Bella. And when Book four hit, my illusions were shattered.

I got the fourth book on December 19th 2009, three months after arriving in Louisiana.

I joined the PPC on December 22nd 2009.

I loved it. I had been lurking the wikia and had already formed a crush on Dann (I was a sucker then, I’m sorry.), and July was my hero, and the thought of being in the same community as them as a dizzying prospect. The next few days after joining the PPC went as followed.

Press Post on the board.
Have a panic attack and regret it.
Go “Oh my god I’m gonna be in the same place as July!”
Have a panic attack and regret it.
Go “Oh my god July added me on Yahoo Messenger.”
Have a panic attack and regret it.
Talk to July on Yahoo.
Come off as a psycho bubbly babbling fangirl.
Have a panic attack and regret it.
Venture into the IRC
Have a panic attack and leave.

You get the picture. I eventually got up the courage to be a slightly more... permanent presence in the IRC, but... to be frank, I don’t think I was much better than certain boarders now. I requested permission two weeks after my starting post. I was bubbly beyond belief. I had no sense of grammar, punctuation, or capitalization (those who have read my fanfiction will be painfully aware of this.), and to be frank... I was probably painfully annoying. But I didn’t spend much time on the board.

While my mom’s advice had made me scared of IRC channels, it was nothing, NOTHING like the fear she put in me in regards to forums.

I still have panic attacks when I have to do things on here. I’ve deleted everything on this doc and rewritten it half a dozen times now.

From here on out, this is where my PPC experience differs so highly from say, July, VM, and hS.

The PPC IRC community was my first, and still is my only real internet community. 99% of my social circle is online. 95% of that social circle is on the PPC IRC channel. But while my board interactions have been few and far between, I flourished on the IRC. It mellowed me out, it gave me confidence. It told me when I was being a stupid whiny brat, and then helped me move past it. It helped me when I was down and heading for a nasty depression, and panicking over my first date- I’m sure Dann and Maslab remember me going into a tizzy over being in a tizzy because oh my god what if I get a stress pimple on my nose and what if it gets to be a quarter sized and then I have a quarter sized pimple on my nose, and then what if it pops and scars, and then I’ll have a quarter sized scar on my nose and ohgodIcan’tdothis.

But I never had any of the standard oldbie bonding experiences. I’ve never been in a crisis. I’ve never really participated in any big threads, Silly, fandom, RP or otherwise, beyond the shipfest. I’ve written one mission, and it was a co-write three years ago. Hell, I wasn’t even aware of the Boozette thing until it had already passed.

The IRC is my home. And while I run away and hide and self-deprecate like it’s going out of style, and while I will probably never stop hating everything I do because it’s not good enough or it’s just not right or whatever, the IRC was the one place I could carve out a corner and hide in it. I wasn’t a tablelamp or an obstacle. Because of the IRC, I found a relationship. And then lost it. Only to gain another. And then accidentally form a love starfish with too many legs shifting on and off and got wildly confused for a while. But now I’m happy. Even if my love life might as well be in Schrodinger's Box half the time.

I've graduated from high school, moved several thousand miles, coming up terrifyingly fast on my third birthday in the PPC, and just finished my first year of college. I've wreaked havoc and turned boarders into cats. I ran a madcap RP involving a wooden spaceship and several PPCers. I believe it was some mix of Peter Pan and Star Trek. Also a jungle island. And Halo.

I’ve had my ups and downs. The fighting near the end of last year, as well as a horrifyingly scarring experience made me drop off the radar for nearly 4 months. I’ve vanished from the IRC before, saying I won’t come back, saying I’m not worth it that I’m not good enough, that it’s just not fun anymore. But I always do return.

I don’t know how I’ll contribute more. To be honest, I’m still scared of the posting board. But that’s more because I’m terrified of technology and new things.

Though I don't suppose I can get y'all to sign an autograph before I go? For old time's sake ;)

For the record, the tone of the latter part of this post had me terrified that the last paragraph was going to be "...and that's why I'm not going to be around anymore." I'm very, very glad that is not the case. This place really, really would not be the same without you.

I think about this stuff more than I should, probably, because the PPC has been central to some of the most important parts of my life. I mean - this is where I met Dann. That alone makes it - this little hole of fandom, a forum for a subgenre of a subgenre of a subgenre, almost a subculture in and of itself (we have our own slang, even!) - makes it important to me. I've joked about this before, how every time I went "Bah, I'm done with that place," I was betrayed by the 'Board url being a muscle-memory reflex.

But it's true. For a very long time, the internet was in some ways the only place I could be myself; fanfiction was an escape from the life around me, and fandom friends were the people who accepted me for who I was. Sometimes it's hard for me to relate years to things, even by age - I don't remember how old I was when I started reading fanfic. I remember finding ff.net on a rainy day in my grandparents' basement, while my siblings and father battled. I remember finding OFUM and the PPC when living at my dad's then-fiancee's house, when it was very clearly, in hindsight, a form of escape. And I remember a friend from the PPC calling me, late one night when I was the closest I've ever been to a very irrevocable and very poor decision, to talk me back into sanity. I wrote stories to get away from reality, and I read them for the same reason - and somewhere along the way, the stories became important for their own sake as well.

Careful timeline-gauging, though, puts it in fall of 2005 when I mentioned the PPC to someone on an RP, and they pointed me in the direction of the 'Board. So I wandered in, looked around, and decided to stay. I'm glad I did. I will always be glad I did - no matter how frustrating drama might get, no matter how annoyed I sometimes can be with things around here, I will never regret joining the community. And I truly hope none of you do, either.

I still wince when I think about the kind of person I was back then. I posted in capslock, I ranted, I complained, I was fangirlish and loud and, I'm sure, quite irritating. I wrote angsty poetry, and purply-angsty prose, and I was convinced it was good. I had very skewed ideas of what was important. I still remember with some shame the time I posted a full-caps rant about a kids' book called Dragonology, got a raised eyebrow from pretty much everyone, and slunk into the shadows for a while. That probably wasn't even the worst of it. That, mostly, is why I growl at people when they complain about some of the newbies being loud, annoying, fangirlish. A lot of us were there. But the then-oldbies, they sighed, they made annoyed noises sometimes, and I'm sure they were often more frustrated than they let on. But nobody told us to shut up. Nobody told us to go away. Nobody told us we were Bad PPCers for it, or Bad People, or that we didn't belong. That's why we're still here, after all. That's why we've grown into this place, and along with it, rather than away from it. (And some people have grown away from it, and that's fine, too. Just to be clear.)

But that's why I'm still here, I suppose. I have fun writing agents, but as anyone who knows me, or even doesn't know me but can do the math of ((2012-2005)/3) can attest to, I'm obviously not here to Write Missions or Take Down Badfic. I'm realizing these days that I barely even recognize modern PPC canon, with a few exceptions. I'm not here for the badfic, I'm not here for the excitement of missions - don't kill me but I barely read missions anymore. I'm here because people I care about are here. I'm here because this is a place where people can have long rambling conversations about Hetalia pairings, and philosophy, and theology, and trends/tropes of Sci-fi vs. Fantasy, and because this is where my friends are. That's what keeps me here. Friendship, and, as you say, a place for people who don't fit into World One so well.

I don't share fandoms with all the latest generation of PPCers, but I have no doubt that, external differences aside, we have a lot in common. We ramble about things - it's not pedantic when it's interesting! We nitpick. We snark. We like to read, we like to write, we like the idea of universes tiny and immense, and no matter how little we have in common, I guarantee many of our Secret Worlds are quite similar. We're prepared to admit that the person on the other side of the screen has a thousand secret worlds inside them, even if the contents of those worlds might shock and unbalance us. We're strange. We're a bit twisted and a bit bent and it makes us that much more awesome. We do things like wander cities in kilt, Hawaiian shirt, and boots. We do things like propose alliances with pigeons, or declare ourselves mad scientists and anyone who signs the contract hapless interns. We have had entire threads - and this was definitely not that long ago ...was it? in which we discuss the horrible things we have done to dolls.

I'm sure that every statement up there will have at least one person go "Well, I don't," and that almost proves my point, I think. We're a contrary group who is the stronger, not the weaker, for our differences - and I will stake anything you care to name on the resolution that any generation of PPCers you care to name, anyone who pops in here, looks around, and goes "Shiny! I'm keeping them," is going to fit right in, if we give them a chance.

So - that's my answer, I think. Give each other a chance. Stop raising our hackles every time something unfamiliar hits the waters, and yes I include myself as part of that problem, and welcome the people who wander through our doors for what we have in common, including our differences.

(1) This stretches back a bit before the PPC. Way, way, way back when, in 2001 or so, I hung about on TMFFA- Tenchi Muyo Fanfiction Archive. There was a pretty solid MST community there, and my favorites back then were mostly in a group of MSTers who had a vague shared continuity going on which even resulted in them writing a non-MST mass crossover of all their groups getting together in an attempt to have a party (and instead having many, many shenanigans occur).

MSTs never quite scratched my itch, though.

And then, I found something that did.

It was an organization which was "dedicated to save everyone on a physiological level. Save them from the thing that drives most men crazy...BAD FANFICTION." The agents were crazy, and just a bit manic about protecting the canon. It referenced Monty Python, Terry Pratchett. It used word play and humor in its narrative while it went through the badfic. The agents spent their time waiting through for the worst of it before they killed the fic, bickering with each other, and accidentally breaking their electronic equipment.

This was written nearly a year before Jay and Acacia would have even been able to see the Fellowship of the Ring, and well before the first PPC mission.

That said, it was fairly cruddy, and its SPaG was fail. It did, however, set in me a desire to want to do something like that. Not right then, because I was the opinion that my writing wasn't good enough to do something like that.

So, I read MSTs. Tried to write one, never quite finished it. Read normal fanfic. Found I had an inordinate fondness of crossovers and AUs. I eventually braved up, and registered. I wrote reviews. I wrote a http://www.tmffa.com/displaytext.html?id=4277">fic, at the proud age of TWELVE AND A HALF. It is terrible and twee. Tried to write another MST when I was not quite so TWELVE AND A HALF. Never quite finished that one, either.

Around when I was thirteen, I began the migration towards fanfiction.net, and then to Gaia Online. I drifted around for a few years but nothing quite caught me the same as TMFFA with how the community felt.

Some way or another, I found OFUM and then TOS in 2005 or so. Saw the board. And promptly ran in the other direction because it looked funny and people were being a bit too intense about some fan movie in production.

Came across Laburnum's stuff on FF.net which ended with me reading her stuff and then rereading TOS and OFUM and actually posting here. And I stayed. Because it had what I had wanted since I was eleven. A premise that had caught my eye, a group of writers that had fun together and involved each other without being clique-y. That feeling of being someplace that was respectful of one another, and actually caring enough to be aware of what you were doing before doing it, and differences not mattering because it was a nonissue was amazing. Before, I was sort of always on the fringe, or being 'one of the guys', since my main hangout online before this was the Red vs Blue forums.

(2 & 3) It led to me getting sort of stuck here, in a way. Because I wanted to do stuff for the community. So, the first few months I was here, I dug in, and I read every single thing that was on the list of PPC stuff. I checked the websites with all of the PPC information organized on it again, and again, and again. And then I accidentally'd a question. And another question. And a thought. Then, a few more.

And then we ended up with wiki.

2008 rolled around, I wrote missions, and I was working on the wiki, and I wanted to do more. So, I might have ended up coercing hS and Sara into helping me produce the first radio play, by way of them recording the lines and me being bewildered at Audacity and putting old dreams to reality and making a radio play- if with someone else's work.

It still wasn't quite enough more. At this point, I was v. enamored of Huinesoron's contributions to the overall narrative of the PPC and his contributions at large. I also took a deep, intense, and probably somewhat perverse thrill at calling him 'Boss' and 'Chief' because it worried him so. (This is something that I should probably have not done. Though, I must say, it was amusing, seeing this figure, who, to my very new self was practically a deity, not-quite quaking in his boots at someone addressing him as being a leader type outright rather than actually treating him like one. It's a good thing hS isn't actually a deity or I would've been smote more than Araeph.)

So, I asked about writing an HQ-wide thing, and people were open to it. I divulged what it was, and said when I'd have it set, and asked for volunteers. Plenty of people volunteered, and were more than interested, and said they wanted to join in.

The board's anniversary party took place in the meantime, with a bunch of us RPing as Flowers. It was fantastic, and just overall hilarity. I played as the Daisy (the other one, from the plays), and Trojie as the Queen Anne's Lace, and we ended up embracing the utter crack of it and had the two Flowers get so drunk they wandered off to have some alone time, if you understand what is being said here. And then we decided it had to be an ongoing romance, clearly.

That RP, though, was interrupted with a Tawaki event. So, the RP closed with the macrovirus occurring, and Makes-Things dying, which kinda wrecked my plans, and made a whole lot of us upset because we had no idea what to do with Makes-Things being dead. What do we do? Do we ignore it? Can we ignore it? He made it be announced on the board. What will we do without Makes-Things? Why didn't he ask?

I ended up trashing my event story, because even though I had said when it would happen, it was a bit difficult to actually do it, since it was supposed to be set in late March. In HQ. And have Makes-Things be the key to solving it, and by the time late March came around HQ was filled with macroviruses and abandoned, and Makes-Things was dead.

There was a lot of upset and angry whispering in private for a few years, because no one was really sure what to do. Between Tawaki's events, and then the items later in the same year, eventually it was decided No More Emergencies. Because 2008 had way too many, and people were beginning to feel cynical of the whole thing and tired of it all. We just wanted things to continue. Write on our own without having someone order and jerk our characters around or wreck stuff we wanted to do.

Later in 2008, PG voting occurred, and it was my first time being there for it. Someone nominated me, I flailed, plead that I was too new, and resolved to avoid being nominated for as long as I could, by any means necessary. This later resulted in me consciously disappearing for months at a time and minimizing my appearances on the board when PGs started to become scarce, starting up the nominations myself, or bumrushing the thread as fast as I could to shove nominations for people who would do a good job and were well known enough that I'd be ignored completely.

That said, the cohort I was in, when I joined the PPC, we did a lot of interconnectivity in our stories. We mentioned a lot of each other's agents in interludes and missions- which were another thing that popped up all at once, it felt like; I think my spinoff was among the first, if not the first, of that group to start doing many HQ stories, and have a significant portion of my spinoff actually involve HQ, rather than it just be mission after mission with our agents- and things felt more like a huge net with all these little references and comments going on connecting everyone's spinoff together without it being a big huge crossover.

It felt a lot more organic that way, since it wasn't this intense divide where all the characters you saw in a given person's spinoff were entirely theirs or a big howdo because my gosh, it's a crossover. It just... was. At the same time, there were some changes that I think reflected a different mentality.

Agents started getting kids. And by getting, I mostly mean adopting en masse. The explosion started wth 2008, really. Marsha. Sally. Jason. Before that there was Molly and Moses, and it rolled into something ridiculously large later.

A vague idea of a 'home' life started showing up more and more. RCs with kitchens began appearing. The city in New Caledonia ended up happening.

All of this just adds up. The PPC itself just changed into being something with a sort of verisimilitude. It became its own actual little world. Rather than this disjointed mashup of mission after mission without any real suggestion of there being a beginning or an end, or events in between, or people doing things and having interests. The agents went from being little contained predefined humorboxes who were there to provide the funny while finishing the mission to people who ended up with story arcs and friends and things happening. The floating timeline that was sort of assumed before changed, and we were suddenly nailing actual months and years to when things were happening.

It was this really brief but awesome time, to me, at least.

Things started to change though, after 2009. People started to join in from TvTropes, and we began to notice a change in the demographics. We suddenly had a lot of guys showing up, one after another, when before we barely had enough to manage a decently sized boyband. The turnover rate, the amount of newbies we got, both seemed to spike, massively. We'd have floods of people show up who disappeared after a few posts and it began to bog down.

At the same time, I started the chatroom. It was kind of godawful terrible in the beginning, because the worst people were automatically drawn to the chatroom, rather than the board. I wish I was kidding. It was filled with scum. People we didn't actually want here. People who didn't belong in the PPC. And I wanted them way, way, way away from me and as far away from the PPC as possible.

I was asked to keep the chatroom running and not ban or kick them out because we didn't want them on the board. So, we had super misogynist dude who wanted to be in the PPC because he wanted to join the military and he wanted to kill Sues because they were girls, and super creepy furry dude who kept hitting on the youngest member of the PPC and then a married person and kept talking about how he wanted to write about underaged cartoon characters having sex. He kept talking about characters he wanted to have sex with- some of whom we'd classify as kids. There were a couple others as well, but they were not as terrifying, but they were still pretty bad.

Because of that, we ended up losing people, like Piph, because there were chatters who didn't give a whit about what they said or to who, even if it was against the rules of the board, or if it got others in trouble or not.

Eventually he crossed a very large line, and people were feeling more than just uncomfortable, and I banned him, and told the board what he'd been up to so he couldn't garner sympathy and so he'd hopefully clear out. Thankfully, he did.

It didn't fix very much, but it made the chat significantly less creepy and helped make it decent enough that non-creepy people slowly became the majority in there (albeit through me begging them not quite on hands and knees to please, please join the chatroom and stay in there).

The amount of people coming from TvTropes grew and grew. We had a lot of them sort of get angry or upset at us, because we weren't what they were expecting, and trying to remove ourselves from there didn't really work. We were accused of whitewashing, and censorship, when really we didn't want to be overun with people who thought we were actually policing the fandom and that we have the right of way to order people around. We still get a lot of that.

There was also the Boosette thing, which lost us a few people who didn't want to Be Like That, be fandom police, be bullies- and it reflected the change, too, with some a couple people actually going out and being in attack mode, and being insulting. The vast majority, though, took it in stride, and we made a conscious decision to make a move towards something a lot of us had already stepped towards. That, at least, helped us grow in a lot of ways.

We did our best to try and change things so everything was as clear as possible. To make it clear that we aren't misogynists. That we aren't fandom police. A lot of the guides we have today were written with this sort of thing in mind. We had people show up who didn't really know that we were here to have fun, not be mean. People who wanted the PPC to be some grimdark fascist police force who are supercool and awesome and kill things and make Sues go splat in a violent messy way. But, some of those elements have still sort of leaked in.

The verisimilitude sort of ended. Spinoffs started to become punctuated with dramatic things, in 2010. Even if it wasn't really needed, the whiff of melodrama became infused in a lot of the new stuff. There's this desire of wanting agents to be badass, or edgy. More than a few touches of glitter and special are abounding.

Then there was all that stuff in 2011. It wasn't really good. It wasn't fun. It hurt in a lot of ways. I gave in, finally, towards the end, out of utter despair and depression. A few years back, when the PPC was one of the very, very few things giving me a reason to stay alive right then and there, the way I was being treated, and the way the people I cared for were being treated might've caused me to have killed myself. I don't know, really.

(3) If I was reasonable, I would have probably called it a bad job, given up, let it go and move on. I probably should have, to be honest. The thing keeping me here then, and still now, for the most part, is that I've invested so much of myself here. I don't want to give it up.

I made the PPC my home, and I want it to stay my home. I want my friends to be able to feel like they belong here still, rather than like they should leave because they don't fit in anymore, or because outside perception, or because they're getting fed up with things.

(4) I don't really like a lot of aspects of the newbies. (What a surprise, everyone says.)

I don't really like how we've carefully collated all of this information, how we have all these guides set up, in as clear and simple language as possible but people still don't understand. There is a template in one of the guides that is almost but not quite a fill in the blank to show how to do a mission, and people still do not understand how to write a mission, or they ignore it. We still get people who are intent and want to do things grimdark, even though we go no, no way bro, we do not do the grimdark and angst of darkness and tears of blood as we violently enjam this sword in the face of the sparkly Sue.

We didn't have these guides until very recently. But, now they're something people need just to understand the PPC, somehow. Instead of people figuring it out from reading spinoffs, they need guides to tell them what to do and how. What changed? Why do newbies need these very thoroughly written out guides now? Why do we still get people asking us how to exactly do something? Why do we get people asking us questions that are more and more basic?

We're becoming a group that needs everything carefully outlined- what can and cannot be done- so people can understand and join in, and that worries me. There are things I want to write that I am afraid to publish because I can't just write it for my own enjoyment or that of others. I have to keep in mind "If I write this, how will people take this? Will they decide they have to do this too? Will they decide they can do this as well, even if they don't necessarily have the skill or tools to do it? Will people understand what I am writing? Will this cause trouble?" This is what happened with Huinesoron's most recent set of stories.

There is a time and place for everything, for the most part, but we're having to put these things in absolutes more and more because it's becoming increasingly cle

(This wasn't meant to be an essay, it was supposed to be short...)

I came through OFUM too! I think. Someone mentioned mini-Balrogs in a review of one of my stories, and that led me to OFUM, which led to the PPC. Of course, I didn't find out about the Board until ISPCE was written (oh dear, I'm not sure I should be linking to that...). The first two things I remember seeing (after a thread by Vemi asking if I should be asked to join) were Talk Like A Pirate Day and the Thalia Weaver drama - which places me in mid-September 2003, if anyone's counting.

Why did I stay? Well, by that point I'd already read TOS (and maybe some spinoffs?), and I really enjoyed them - back then pretty much everything was LotR, so I knew the fandoms like the back of my hand - witness the name - and that meant I could understand why they were funny. The Cheese Elves of Rivendell are funny all the time, of course, but the lesser things - the ones that rely on the canon being warped - are what really makes a PPC fic for me.

And that (to drop out of chronology for a bit) is what's stopping me from reading most of the new stuff - I don't know any of the mostly Anime fandoms, and 'Gasp! Ghan-k'cho said 'okay'! Doesn't the Suethor know he'd turn blue if he did that?' isn't particularly interesting if you've never heard of Ghan-k'cho.

(Right, back to the DeLorean) I have a lot of memories from the Board - it's been a major part of my life. I was pretty mixed up when I joined (personal lives are a pain, did you notice?), and it was the friends I made here - BeautyID, bjam, WriterfromRivendell, Luthien, Rath, and of course and most especially my dear wife Kaitlyn - who turned me into a reasonably well-adjusted person. In fact Kaitlyn saved me from a love life that was already a solar-system-sized halo of debris, and in less than a year I was in a stable relationship with her.

I remember, in no particular order, the Battle of Goldberg, the Snowfight, the LotR roleplay (I was Gandalf - and that's the first and last time I enjoyed the chat ;)), red wolf the weird... it just goes one.

I also have a particular fondness for the PPC Gatherings, since I started them and hosted most of them - it brought the PPC into the real world, and made me feel like a real person - again, a difficult task.

I also also fondly recall the ideas I came up with with others - things like DOGA (which is apparently quite popular) with Raven Firedragon/Selene (who left), The Reorganisation with Vemi (who left), Crashing Down with Starwind Rohana (who... left... am I the common denominator here?), and even hashing out the background for Origins with KGarrett (who may still be here!). The actual writing has been a chore at times, but the ideas are the thing.

And that's what keeps me here. I may not read many missions, but the ideas still fascinate me. Things as simple as that Unless You Hadn't Noticed - okay, I turned it into probability/consciousness-based navigation in the Playscriptes, but it was an awesome idea first. I like the world of the PPC - I'm just not necessarily that attached to all the individuals in it (hence why I can write Time Will Decide For Us, which has no characters and barely any locations in common with today's PPC - but still embodies the idea of the Protectors, at least to me).

And then there's the community. We oldbies have always had a bit of a Get Off My Lawn feel towards newbies - and I remember when virtually everyone here was That Annoying Newbie (obvious exceptions excluded - and I'm sure I was one too!) - but in all honesty, you lot are the same as we were. There's the excitable ones (hi, AnnaBee), the quiet ones, the ones who take everything very seriously - and yeah, All Of This Has Happened Before. Anyone remember Luthien? Very high-energy, stuck around for a long time.

The difference is, back then, we were the young ones. There were older people in the PPC - Bast, Miss Cam, Mum'sTheWord, Boz4PM - and I'm sure they shook their heads disapprovingly, but they've all moved on now. We're the ones who took their place, and yes, there's more of us.

But the nature of PPCers is still the same - intelligent people who don't really fit in in World One, and have a fascination with fandom. The PPC - the Board especially, to this old married codger - is a place where all of us can come together and just enjoy being... us. It's a place for conversation, for silly games and serious discussion, for fandom rambling and... everything. And yeah, I wish the rambling was more about Lord of the Rings and less about Hetalia and co, but is there a difference between their discussions of the... what, singing voices of the cast?... and our debating Do Balrogs Have Wings? No. Except now we can't get involved.

... oh oh oh! I found out some awesome things I didn't realise today while browsing Encyclopedia of Arda. F'r instance, did you realise that the last Dunedain of Cardolan retreated to the (later) Barrow Downs ahead of the forces of Angmar - and then lived there for two hundred years before the Great Plague took them out and the Wights moved in? And that Bombadil implies he knew them personally when he takes a brooch from the mound? That's a story I wish I'd written - the tale of Tom Bombadil's defence of the vestige of Cardolan against the Witch King - his protection of their struggling civilisation - and his anguish when they finally succumbed not to invaders, but to the ravages of nature.

Also, the story of Aranarth, son of Arvedui Last-king of Arthedain, puts me in mind of the Belgariad, and specifically Prince Geran - here, too, we have the sole heir to a royal house now in hiding. Aranarth doesn't have Polgara to keep him safe, or to break the royal mindset (in Polgara the Sorceress, she eventually retreats to her mansion to wait for Geran to die, he's so innately princely) - but he sent his son Arahael to be raised by Elrond, breaking in his own way that possible chain of 'I Should Be King's. And there's another story I would have written - maybe along with that of Aragost, the Chieftain of the Dunedain who might just have helped rescue Celebrian...

As you can see, I still have a fandom brain. Unfortunately, my fandom barely exists any more... and that's not something the Board can change.

hS

Wow. It takes a lot of courage to get that personal, especially on the internet where what you say is always going to be accessible in some way.

I think what brought me here was a need to understand why. Why is there so much bad fanfiction? Why do people make Mary Sues? Do they realize that what they're writing is bad? Do they know that they're twisting someone's creation so horribly?
I think I wanted answers. I don't think I've gotten them yet, and I might never get them. I think I'm okay with that.

I've stayed here because I've really found a group of people who accept me. I've always had trouble making friends, partly because of shyness and partly because I'm so different from a lot of my peers. It's difficult to find another girl who plays video games as much as I do, and the boys who do I have trouble connecting with, due to the difference in gender.

This led to a lot of insecurity about my self. The insecurity was made worse because of my rampant OCD. I was always anxious, always worried about doing things right, and I was pretty much a mess.

In my introduction post, I asked about my mental representation of myself, Mimkana. I felt that she was a Sue, and I was asking if that was okay. The response I got was "Yes. It's okay. A lot of people have Sues in their heads." The person who seemed to put the most thought into that response, was Neshomeh.

So, I started chatting with boarders on the IRC. I felt accepted. It didn't matter that I was different. No one could tell over the internet, and if they could, it was made apparent that being different was what everyone here had in common.

Over the past year, I've grown. I don't think- actually, I KNOW that I couldn't have grown so much without the PPC. I've gone to a new school for my sophomore year, but I didn't really feel the transition. Sure, my grades slipped, but I wasn't hurt emotionally. I'm happy. And the PPC is part of the reason why.

Over my spring break, I started doing heavy exposure therapy, to help my OCD. Exposure therapy is basically purposefully triggering the things that bother me, until I don't have a problem with them anymore. It was hard, to say the least.

I've grown creatively and as a person, in the past year. And I have the PPC to thank for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPG9ZFNHFqE

Thank you. Each and every one of you.

Well ladies and gentlemen, please make way for our new Chosen One, who, despite having the codename of Revan, seems to be unrelated to him (Canonically male) in any shape or form other than using the Force.

Anakin has over 20000 midichlorians, and he's the result of Sidious' master attempting to experiment with them, and the experiment backfiring with them creating Anakin.

I wonder what this OC's origins are then.

Hey! I'm new too. I really can't ask for permission until I'm leagally allowed to get a fanfiction.net account, and I don't turn 13 until July. So wait I shall. Plus, I want to just hang out for a while withought worrying about missions and such. Don't you think you should prepare mentally for the insanity of the PPC before getting permission anyway?
Anyway, here's a pack of bleeprin! *tosses in your general direction*

Now that July told you the serious stuff, I'll be the first one to be silly; here, have a cup of tea. Just mind the leaves, because they might try to eat you.

Hi there. Welcome to the PPC!

Before you get too excited, let's go over a few things first. I see you've already hopped onto the wiki. While it is super awesome that you have decided to try and help out, please work on your SPaG a bit. You've missing punctuation and misspelled words going on there, and here on the board. :)

Beyond that, we do have a few guidelines for the PPC, both the community and writing for it. As you can see up top, we have our constitution. Hopefully you've already read that.

As to permission, here, start with this guide to the board. We like to get to know people and know they're up to snuff for writing missions before you can write, so you might want to work on your own spelling, grammar, and punctuation before you start going after that of others.

Thirdly, you're welcome to hop into our chatroom- again, the link is at the top.

Beyond that, if you want, I'm contactable with any questions you might have. My email should be there under my name if you highlight it you'll get your mail thingy to pop up, and then besides that I'm on AIM as fairladypsyche and on MSN messenger as fairladypsyche AT hotmail.com. I am v. easy contactable if you want to ramble or just ask things!

Please don't spork this, anyone. Once i get permission I shall destroy it's flaws.

Please read our rules and the guides for the PPC before you continue posting.

Welcome, element number 78! Do you happen to know where the other 117 went?

Actually, I thought I saw Tungsten Monk somewhere over there...

Anyway! Good to have you here! Have a bleepolate cupcake to help you recover (oh the irony...). Feel free to join in as you please.

It's nice to meet you! Have a Box of Infinity!
I'm sort of a brony, I guess, but I still haven't watched many episodes (I blame BBC Sherlock) but either way, have a Moustache Spike plushie as well!
Warning! Box of Infinity may contain trolls of the Harry Potter variety. Handle with caution.

Have a cookie.

Hi there. Here, have a cup of tea. Just mind the leaves; they might try to eat you.

A killdeer from Fluttershy (best pony, BTW).

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event! May or may not be the secret to achieving cold fusion.

Emphasis on 'may not'.

What other fandoms are you into?

Greetings, new friend! Have a periodic table! Just don't put anything on the far right. And don't spill water on the far left. And don't go anywhere near the one edge, unless you're radiation-proof.

Oh, goodness. I'll have to look at names closely so I don't mix you up with Platinumyo. Let's see . . . I hereby dub you new!Plat. And Plat can be old!Plat.

(Gosh, old!Plat, look at how much shinier new!Plat is than you. You're letting yourself go, man!)

Nice to meet you. Have a tiny plastic Sunflower Official to commemorate the occasion.

Now, first things first, we don't hate on the authors. Saying that you were traumatized is one thing. Saying you want to strangle the author is a completely different thing, and frowned upon in this community.

Now for some helpful links:

The Constitution - Ground rules for hanging out here. Very important to read.

The Wiki - Where we deposit all of our useful information for easy browsing. The FAQs that are linked on the main page are especially useful.

The Original Series - This is the first series of PPC stories. Another very important thing to read.

Phobos' Lair - My stories...because I can. Not a necessary read, but fun anyway, I hope.

RC #999 - One of my favorite spin-offs.


Feel free to hang around. I'm sure others will be here soon to say hello.

-Phobos

Hey! Welcome to the PPC board! Here's some bleepolate to help you recover from Cupcakes.
Anyway, now you chat.

You were given a guide in the first post to you, weren't you? If not, this should be a helpful place http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/PPC_Wiki

I feel so bad for myself! I slipped up, didn't I? *HEADDESK*

"Bronies" and "hate" don't seem like words that belong in the same sentence. Aren't they supposed to be mutually exclusive concepts?

But, what I'm really wondering is what made you decide it would be okay to tell the author you were notifying us about the story. Did you see someone else do it, or did someone actually encourage you? Did you want to impress us or the author, or make the author feel bad, or make yourself look cool, or...?

I'm asking because I genuinely want to understand, because it's not uncommon for new people to do stuff like this. I'm hoping we can learn something to help prevent it in the future, or at least know why it happens. Please think carefully ("I don't know" won't do) and be honest.

Also, if anyone else reading has done this, please also respond. It could be very helpful.

Thanks!

~Neshomeh, trying something new.

I checked G3 names on My Little Wiki while coming up with a name for an OC, and one of the names in the fic should be spelled Razzaroo, not Rasaru.

It has been brought to my attention that you left a review saying that the 'fic was bad enough to be brought to the attention to the PPC, and then another that you had sporked it. Now, one of my comments is a simple aside - you haven't sporked it. A sporking is, basically, an MST (or in a generous definition, a mission), and since you have not written one of those, you have not sporked it.

The second comment is more serious. We really don't just exist to smack people down for writing badfic. Your first response to "Wow this is bad" fanfiction should be leaving concrit. If they don't respond or get defensive or whatever else, then you can very well move on to the snark, but please refrain from going "Hey, I'll be over here making fun of you, have a link to the wiki page of the group that is laughing at your story!" It is entirely sufficient to go "I'm writing a story to make fun of this, since you're ignoring my concrit," if you really want to, and then link to your sporking. We really do not need a bunch of badfic authors charging us with torches and pitchforks.

Please refrain from creating more new threads when only one is needed. We already have a badfic thread here, and it's typically bad form to create threads where there is one of it's kind already existing.

http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=199610;article=225092;title=PPC%20Posting%20Board (The current badfic thread)

Some user pointed out that it's against the rules of FiMFiction. It MUST be related to the G4 universe, and this is G3 only. Therefore, it is improper as well as poorly written.

Welcome aboard the good ship PPC. Don't worry about past mistakes, nobody can be perfect. Just keep writing and you'll get better. To help you with that I give you... *drumroll* the Generic Writing Tool! It can be programmed to become whatever writing implement you want, be it pen, pencil, quill, or crayon.

Hello there newbie! Welcome to the PPC. Don't worry about what you've done in the past, we all have a few skeletons in our closets. Anyway, have some 2-D glasses, perfect for making real life seem like your favorite shows!

It's nice to meet you!
Don't worry about being a former 'Sue/'Stu/'Ooh writer, I think lots of people have written one at some point.
*glares at the drawing of Yuki Amano on my wall*
...*twitch*
A-Anyway! Have a Box of Infinity!
Warning! Do not spill tea on the Box of Infinity. Dry clean only.

I'm Darklordaakmal, the new claimant of Arda, Aperture Science and the house next to you. Please stay and have our scrupmtious treats of virtual cookies, virtual tea, and virtual hugs.

I hope you enjoy your stay with us (and your resulting loss of sanity, mwahahaaa). Have a bag of pebbles and a Random Shiny Object - handy for distracting fan-creactions!

Hi! I am a newbie here too. Welcome aboard, I have some muffins, take as many as you want.

Hello, and greetings! Have a Holy Hand Grenade! (Do not use near Rabbits.)

Welcome to the Board! Here, have some chocolate, won't you?

Welcome to the board. Have an exploding cookie.

Greetings, new friend. Help yourself to the bag of venomous arthropods. Don't worry; they don't bite!

Oho, a writer! We like writers here! What sorts of writings do you write, writer?

(And nothing wrong with writing with the midnight ink, so long as you use the late-morning light to double-check what you wrote with it.)

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Comes in concentrations of 4M, 2M, 1M, and -1M.

What fandoms are you into?

Welcome to the board! Here, have a cup of tea. Just mind the leaves; they sometimes try to eat people.

Welcome a'board!

Please check out our Constitution if you have not already- this lists our rules.

We also have a set of handy guides on our wiki, you might want to start with the one about the board and move on from there.

Feel free to hop into the chatroom (linked up top) if you have any questions or just want to idle about.

My email is visible and clickable with my name, so if you have any questions, you are also free to ask me through that, or via AIM or MSN: My handles for those are fairladypsyche and fairladypsyche@hotmail.com.

... Let this suffice to put my username in the topic? I just want there to be more than an "Anonymous" handle on the board titles >

And apparently I got logged out halfway through making that post... I guess I should make clear that my internet handle has been Zeke Sturm for something coming on five years now.

If you looked at what I like, be it movies, videogames, books or anime, one would think I am pretty inconsistent. I love deep works that make me think and keep me guessing all the time, but at the same time I greatly enjoy silly action movies, games that don't require much mental effort, a few very, very hilarious romance novels (they are about a time travelling Viking, hilarious, really), and sports manga.

I, for one, don't take the activities and work I enjoy to be an indicator of how consistent I am. I like to think I am consistent on my ideas and views, but I have caught myself applying a double standard a couple of times. Which, as far as I know, is rather normal for common human beings.

Don't be too concerned about it, not only are we supposed to be contradicting beings (really, the left and right side of our brain are engineered to think and remember things very differently), we also have both good and bad days.

You wouldn't consider someone inconsistent if they snapped at you on day when they were in a bad mood, right? It's the same with everything we do, we have days in which the creative juices are flowing and we are full of motivation or the desire to get involved in something worthwhile, that challenges us over and over. And then we have bad days in which everything we do is either too plain, boring or just horrible, these days we don't want to think too much and turn to cheesy movies and books with simple, predictable plots for entertainment. This does not mean we are inconsistent, merely not motivated and require some rest in order to be good again.

Don't fret too much over it. I too have written stuff that I'm not proud of, but when I compare to my recent stuff, the change is pretty evident. I am horribly insecure, though, so don't expect to see anything of mine to pop up online anytime soon.

But really, we are human, we change over time, we are affected by mood and emotions. And we get tired from time to time.

I take it as proof we are alive.

I would say I'm inconsistent in that I change pretty fast over time. I mean, I look back at most of the stuff I've written on the Pit, and I can actually pinpoint the fic where I started to steadily improve as a writer. It was the fic I wrote after I got out of the Happy Tree Friends Fandom. Seriously, that fandom brought out the worst in me, both as a writer and as a fan in general. There was a time when pretty much all the characters I wrote were Sues to some degree, and it was after I left HTF that I taught myself how to stop relying on OCs to make fanfics. There're also a lot of unfinished fics that I probably will never finish.

Back in my early days as a fanfic writer, I was... REALLY annoying. I didn't even realize how squealy, loud, and just plain obnoxious I was. I actually used the "If you don't like it, don't read it!" retort to a flamer once. I got way into shipping wars, to the point of being just... really immature. I would actively seek out flame wars. And the fics I wrote? Ghastly. Didn't realize it at the time. I mean, they were fun as hell to write, and I was very proud of them, but they were complete garbage. I went back and sporked a couple of them recently. It was pretty cathartic.

Same thing with my PPC missions, really. Sometimes I consider going back and rewriting them sometimes, but then I think, why? They helped me get to where I am now as a writer. Having them, having written them, isn't a bad thing. They just represent a lower rung on the ladder that I had to step on to get farther up.

I've also gotten better at writing deliberate self-inserts by making them an honest representation of myself, both virtues and faults, rather than some ideal, unattainable version of me that will never exist. My first self insert was a golden-furred ermine in Redwall.

That's the thing about writing, or about anything, really. In order to be good at it, you have to suck a whole lot first.

I'm definitely not ever 100% consistent about writing or reviewing. I mean, I like to think my ideals are consistent, but as for living up to them, it depends on the day. Like you say, sometimes my energy is low, or sometimes I'm totally braindead, or stressed, or whatever, and "good enough" is the best I can do right then. Sometimes it turns out that "good enough" wasn't, too. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's worth trying.

All that aside, even, when it comes to writing specifically, I know I tend to hold myself back from doing as much as I probably could. I get into this obsessive state where I can't think about anything else, and the slightest distraction is a major annoyance, to the point where I'm offended that anyone would dare interrupt me when I am working, can't you see that I'm working? So... I know all the "real" writers say to write every day, but it's hard when I feel crummy, and it's harder when I'm scared I'll turn into a massive jerk. My standards about being a decent human being tend to trump my standards about getting things done.

I don't think that widely varied or even rotating interests necessarily count as inconsistencies, though. Some days greasy popcorn is the best thing ever, others it makes you want to vomit; I think everybody has stuff like that. It's possible to enjoy things even if they don't meet your ideal, and that's not necessarily a contradiction, either. We call those things "guilty pleasures," and sometimes that's a misnomer; sometimes there's no guilt involved whatsoever. {= )

Re. the policy on publishing, I don't think it's necessarily that you mustn't post anything you're not specifically 100% proud of. It IS that you must accept that people have the right to critique it whether you think it's your best work or not, and you don't have any justification for whining about it when it happens, because you deliberately put it out in public. The policy is that if you can't handle critique, you shouldn't post in a place where critique is allowed and encouraged; you should save it for a friends-locked journal, or possibly the sock drawer of your hard drive.

TL;DR - failing to live up to your standards all the time doesn't mean you're inconsistent, it just means you're human.

~Neshomeh

Also, I like how Dave's motorcycle has records for wheels.

This movie is actually a whole lot sadder to me now, because when I first watched it, I didn't know that Bro dies in canon.

I can't breathe! XD
"Because you are clown zombie!" Ahahahahaha!
It's just... just... So amazing!

I have watched it, and no video on Youtube ever feel the same.

Oh. My. Gog. That. Was. EPIC.

Hmmm, a Dreamwidth backup might be useful. My email is araeph_aflame at yahoo.com.

I would definitely love an AO3 invite, if it's not too much to ask...

I've got some Dreamwidth codes, and IIRC some AO3 as well, so... er, well, likewise.

Actually, it's highly recommended either way. AO3 is an awesome place, got a lot more of a community feel to it, and definitely much higher average quality in the stories, at least as far as I've seen. There's gentle pressure by example to comment wisely and concrit, rather than bash or flame, and it's generally just an awesome place. Their tag system is great, too - lots of lovely nice ways to warn and trigger-warn and rate sanely, and search internally by character and tag... just quite awesome all around.

Same with Dreamwidth - very much more community-feeling, and safer, and run by Persons who Get Internets, rather than committees out to make money, so they're a lot less likely to stab you in the back or play games with security like LJ is infamous for.

It's not a problem as such, and I'm sure you're just trying to be helpful, but I'd personally advise you to slow down a bit. In the past we've had new people arrive and flood the wiki with edits, to the point where the people who generally mind it wound up very cross from chasing them, and in extreme cases had to bap people with banhammers.

Giant, squeaky banhammers.

:P

So yeah, I don't see any harm in editing here and there, as long as you stick to the Wiki Editing Rules which I think Neshomeh left lying around somewhere. Just don't go charging in altering everything.

Have a biscuit. And a little pony.

A Wilson's, this time, once again courtesy Fluttershy.

Hello there, newbie! So you like MLP, eh? Me too! Well, sorta. I haven't watched much. But I still think it's awesome. :3
Gift time! Have a Box of Infinity!
Warning! Box of Infinity may contain parasprites. Do not open around dragons.

Welcome to the Board! Have some chocolate, won't you?

Hi! Have some fudge!

Oh hey, another Brony here at the PPC! Awesomesauce!

Welcome! We love newbies here at the PPC. Make yourself at home! We don't bite!

In fact... here, have some Eugene Ysaye for the road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrtjq1ASpk4

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Its amazing properties allow you to break the laws of physics*!








*Should laws of physics actually be broken, you will be billed for damages.

Hello and welcome to the PPC! feel free to leave your sanity in the bucket by the door. Have a wizard's hat, it's conveniently labled "Wizzard" in rainbow sequins. So tell us about yourself. Like, for example, what are your fandoms?

So many bronies have joined lately... *goes off to muse about the pros and cons of cartoon ponies and magical friendship* Anyway, welcome to the PPC, feel free to leave your sanity in the appropriate waste bin. If you have any questions please visit the wiki, it has many helpful guides for your Also be sure to check out the Constitution here for all the rules of the Board: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18hztHpDehxcfrjaXoFUew1vb0BdZPDAusHxMHzHiCzMconvenience.

Aside from that, have a Generic Gift. It can become something else if you reprogram it but I lost the instruction manual.

Welcome to the PPC. Have a bag of pebbles and a Random Shiny Object.

Also, please note that we do not condone bashing badfic authors in any form, either literally or metaphorically. Badfic itself, on the other hand, is something we do make fun of.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, joined less than a week ago. However, I will do as the oldbies did to me and welcome you just as warmly!
Judging by your choice of words in your subject, I can assume that you are a brony as well?

*Glod was my Copilot.

Hello there! Have some chocolate, won't you?

Welcome to the Board! Sanity optional!
I wouldn'tgo so far to say that we're all awesome, but I can definitely think of a few. Naming no names. *cough*Tawaki*cough* Dagnabbit!

Either way, have this Box of Infinity!
Warning! Box of Infinity is water soluble. Do not expose to dragonflies.

Hi, have some fudge!

Greetings, new friend! Help yourself to the sack of venomous arthropods. Don't worry; they don't bite!

We love newbies! Make yourself right at home!

Here, have some Stravinsky for the road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFRwKQqbk4

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Drinking it voids warranty.

For something that is scarce among Boarders, isn't it strange that there are three different types? Apart from you there is Shattered Sanity and the other newbie Rainbow Sanity. I usually tell newbies to leave their sanity at the door but I think you can keep yours. Just make sure you lose it once in a while.

In other news, you are now the proud owner of some SPaG candy. It's candy because I like being praised and SPaG flavored because you used the wrong type of "you're". * is an occasional Grammar Nazi*. Also, what are your fandoms?

Hello and welcome to the PPC! It feels like you're the tenth newbie that I've welcomed today. Anyway, have a propellor cap! It'll take you wherever you need to go, provided that you don't put you fingers near the blades.

If you want to make a lasting impression on this site, either for being brave enough, stupid enough, or both, (don't) read any of these stories. It's really a bad idea, unless you need standards of stories that are worse than any other story. Ever.

http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Legendary_Badfic

Do not do it, it's more stupid than brave.

Hello there new person, like every other newbie I have greeted, please accept my everlasting friendship~!

From one newbie to another, from the bottom of my heart. Here, take this bumper sticker.

*Glod was my copilot.

Welcome to PPC! By the way, thanks for telling me about it yourself.

1. You need to have an account and be logged in to edit that page.
   
   2. Your account has to exist awhile before full privileges kick in. It discourages unscrupulous people from creating an account just to go vandalize protected stuff—Wikia's smart like that.
   
   I'm afraid I don't know exactly how long is long enough, but be patient. It's gonna be a while before we can get to know you well enough to decide about Permission, anyway. In fact, have you read the Permission article yet?
   
   ~Neshomeh

The Unclaimed Badfic, if I recall correctly, has been locked to anonymous people. All you have to do is log in to the wiki, and if you haven't, then it's very simple to sign up for an account.

Maybe just ask. From personal experience, only the Marquis de Sod is mean to newbies, so if you simply ask the person who claimed it to give it up, they might.

Of course, they are more likely to do so if you have Permission first.