Mar 2018 Archive, part c

(Yeah, I was writing some... stuff.)

Hi, I'm Twistey. I'm a derp with too many fandoms and a lot of original worlds. Minecraft being one of the fandoms, I plan to make mods and maps sometime. Hey, I take it you too are proof that not every Minecraft fan who's active enough to state their fandom is an immature kid/bad endergirl OC factory, so high five.

Do you have any agent ideas? What do you plan to do with your time here? I'd like to know?

As for your newbie gift, here's a flask of purple liquid. Drink it if you need a brief period of invincibility against being Sued in certain ways, but don't depend on it too much, because it might mistake some perfectly fine characters for Sues because they have a few shared traits.

Welcome to the PPC! Have a great time here!

-Twistey

It's always nice to see new faces!

Hi there. Have a pile of multi coloured pens.

Welcome newbie! Here, have some chocolate and enjoy your stay! And don't worry, we don't bite... much.

This shovel digs up fancy cosplay!

So, uh, have a bonus Barnum costume from The Greatest Showman!

Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!

And if you'll excuse my being self-serving, there's my own PPC writings if you're interested in explorations of continua that weren't previously visited in the PPC, and I especially recommend starting with Falchion and Rashida due to them being my first pair. "Connecting The Dots", my very first PPC mission published, is still one of my absolute favorites for sentimental value, though it might not be the best place to start if you aren't fond of fetishes, gore, and eleven different continua smooshed together. :/ A lot of other missions of mine require a bit more context to get up to speed on, but another rec from my archives is "In Other News, Water is Wet", co-written with Voyd, which we tried to write as a relative standalone and is still one of the missions I am most proud of. Ditto for my most recent collab mission, "Girls' Night Out" with eatpraylove and James Shields, for the same reason (though that one may still take quite a bit of Steven Universe canon knowledge to understand).

And as for recs of other PPC writers... Florestan and Eusabius, full stop. One of the first RCs I archive-binged and still one of my favorites, they're the reason I wanted to write a DIC team in the first place and their characterization is hilarious and awesome. Kinda sad that I haven't seen any new missions from them since late 2013...

Welcome and have some stroopwafels!

Please have this bag of black-hole chocolates and my welcome.

I second whoever recommended Ring Child, and would like to expand that rec to all of Neshomeh's writing because I think she's the coolest.

Yay, another LotR and Minecraft fan! Have some cake and a mallorn-leaf pin! :)

Have a randomly generated Harry Potter chapter:

http://www.botnik.org/content/harry-potter.html

I recommend the "Ring Child" mission as some good old-school ppc:

http://starshadowhall.tripod.com/ppc/rc999/05rc.html

Hello, and welcome aBoard! For your newbie gift, take this plate of freshly-made SPaGhetti!

As for other spinoffs to read—Neshomeh's. Definitely Neshomeh's. That means Supernumerary and Ilraen, and Derik and Gall. Her stuff's my favorite for a good reason. :)

(If anyone recommends my stuff, ignore them. There's way too much of it to wade through and you'll miss out on better stories.)

A relatively obscure book: Ransom, by David Malouf, which is a rewriting of the last parts of the Iliad - specifically, the events of the Trojan king, Priam, travelling to Achilles to buy his son's body from him, and give him a proper burial. It's a plot I wish I came up with first and darn you Homer, you sneaky git.

It is easily my favourite fantasy (if, er, that's correct to call it?) story of all time. It's as beautiful as I remember having read it (read it for school, in fact, as a set text!) and even better, being that I understand the whole thing more clearly.
It is a sad, brilliant story, and it all goes into exploring the relationship of death and life, and of mortality and what being mortal means, and so on and so forth.

Achilles and Priam are both greatly detailed characters - broken, flawed men, in different ways, but ultimately more similar than either of them realise. It has such a bleak tone and feel and conclusion, but, at the same time, is incredibly uplifting, as it were. It's one of the only fantasy stories I've read that's touched me, in that sort of manner.

Also, it is a tiny book. Only 200 or so pages.



And for poems, I am deeply in love with the works of Coleridge, and also T.S. Eliot. I recommend the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which feels like a fantasy story before everyone started ripping off Tolkien, and Kubla Khan, which feels just as surreal and fantastical, if a lot shorter and easier to ingest.

T.S. Eliot took me a bit to get into but, man, is he brilliant. I consider his Preludes to be some good stuff - it's basically just a series of descriptions of scenes in a city, but he creates such a fantastic mood and tone and symbolism with it. It's some of the best descriptive prose I've seen, and it's not even a prose story!
The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock and The Hollow Men are similar.
It's all pretty bleak though so, iunno, maybe play Kirby or some such after reading it.

I see someone's already suggested All The Sanderson. I will second that. Because Sanderson. Especially Mistborn, which is excellent.

Also, Ciaphas Cain is a good time. So if you like 40k (or want a good way in), check those out.

Since we're talking what I've been reading recently, I'd be remiss not to mention webcomics. Because I have been reading/watching/playing/listening to the insane multimedia phenomenon that is Homestuck. Sadly... I really can't recommend Homestuck. Yes, it's FANTASTIC, but it has outrageous pacing problems. If your are not a patient person, Homestuck isn't for you. If you are a moderately patient person, Homestuck may still not be for you. And don't get me started on the problems with Hivebent that make me want to ask Andrew why he thought it was a good idea and if I could somehow travel back in time convince him to do something that doesn't break all the rules of good narrative pacing. As if the rest of the story wasn't already doing that.

For something more solidly recommendable, I go to Order of the Stick, which is funny and heartwarming and cathartic and amazing and way easier to get into than the mess that is Homestuck.

Oh, and I will once again suggest that you familiarize yourself with 1/0, AKA quite possibly the greatest piece of metafiction ever written. It is cleverly-written, with some of the best actual exploration of metafictional concepts that I've ever really seen. It also has better narrative chops than you have any right to expect from a daily four-panel gag strip, with a genuinely smart ending and a set of well-developed characters who all have their own arcs over the course of the story. And by the end, you'll be able to identify with all of them. Yes, even the eyeball.

And over this entire thing, it still manages to be a fairly consistantly funny daily 4-panel gag strip. I cannot recommend it enough. In what other story can you ebbg sbe gur ybir orgjrra n yvgreny fgenjzna naq na rnegujbez jub pnzr bhg nf fgenvtug va qrsvnapr bs gur nhgube? (rot13ed spoilers for 1/0)

If you can get your hands on a copy of Rolfe Humphries' translation of the Aeneid, it's a very good epic poem.

Also, a new translation of the Odyssey by a woman (which is the first thus published) just came out and it's lovely and a little more critical of Odysseus than usual.

In terms of contemporary poets, I love Nikki Finney, who is a queer Black woman and writes about this. You can find a few of her poems on the internet but she's also published a few collections.

And if you like comic books, I've always had a special place in my heart for Batman The Long Halloween and Batman and Robin -- both of them are pretty quick reads and very good.

Some of my favorites:

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline
Yes, in know, but if you like video games and 80's pop culture then this is a book for you! (I can't wait to see the movie, and forget all the haters.)

"Soon I Will be Invincible" by Austin Grossman
An somewhat different take on the superhero genre, with interesting characters and concepts. Shame there's no sequel, the universe on display is worth another look.

If you like superhero comics, I highly recommend the novelization of "Kingdom Come", which takes an already good story and adds more to it. The only downside is a lack of Alex Ross' gorgeous artwork.

Enjoy!

I'm reading Dune, Mr. Flood's Last Resort, (those are the books) and Paranatural, Kill Six Billion Demons, and lots of other webcomics.

But when it comes to 'actual' books, the ones I'm reading at the moments are Sanderson's. Warbreaker and Stormlight more recently, but I received pretty much all of them (sans the Mistborn ones I already had)... and have to find the time to read them, despite usually being able to read quite fast.

I also been thinking about reading a trilogy from a certain Justin Cronin. If I got it right, it would be 'zombie apocalypse, except the zombies are replaced with vampires'.

(And to discreetly feed your videogame distraction problem, did you heard about this mod of FFVI with its own story with Ponies, aptly named Filly Fantasy VI?)

*flying tackleglomp*

I haven't read anything new lately—all rereads—but I'd recommend the Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney. It's about witches and boggarts and things that go bump in the night, and the people who fight them. It's also genuinely scary at some points, so if you like horror lite I'd recommend it. :)

I've been reading a whole lot of great sci-fi lately. I recommend the Keiko trilogy by Mike Brooks, the ongoing series The Expanse by James S. A. Corey, and the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu (you may know it by its first book, the immensely popular The Three-Body Problem).

Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson. That's always a good recommendation.

• Volcarona
  - Infernape
  - Victini
  - Heatran
  - Torkoal
  - Charizard
  - Arcanine

Haven't really managed to get my brain in gear to think of it, so this is as good a time as any to break out:

Team Second Worst Swordsman

Fuzzball the Togekiss
Snowball the Glalie
Baseball the Golem
Beachball the Aurorus
Hardball the Skarmory
Goofball the Greninja

And for substitution...

the return of Katie Boundary the Death Malteaser (Minior).

It looks like we're at six signups now, plus I assume Iximaz, so hopefully that's enough for a tournament? I'm happy to bring along the Baby Firestarters (Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Tepig, Fennekin, Litten, with Chimchar watching from the sidelines) as a 'joke' team so the person who gets a by in round 1 can still play a battle, if you want.

hS

The team will come later, once I understand the doubles/single differences better... And I can choose a monotype myself (Why break this poor combo, EPL?). Like hS, I'm looking for tips here, and perhaps opinions on what type choose (I'm hesitating between Psy, Ghost, Dark and Fairy).

As of last year.

hS

Both for personal reasons, and because of the Circle. I can't count on having enough Internet time left to play a match of Pokémon Showdown.

Best of luck to those who are participating, though!

Are we doing a monotype tournament again or is it just coincidence that the three folks who've signed up already all have a monotype team?

No team as yet, though. For you Pokeknowledgeable types, what are the important things to consider when putting a Doubles team together?

hS

Will we be using Pokemon Online or some other sim?

Let's keep the theme going:

1. Ninetales-Alola
2. Lapras
3. Mamoswine
4. Articuno
5. Aurous
6. Glaceon

7. Kyurem-Black

Although I have to ask Ix, did you know my Top 500 team *before* banning half of it? (despite only one of them now being banned on the Doubles OU ladder?) :p

Oh well, time to come up with a different team.

All I can say for the moment is. Winds will change.

• Beedrill
  - Nihilego
  - Nidoking
  - Gengar
  - Crobat
  - Venusaur
  - Reserve: ZE RETURN OF DOKTOR TROLLENFISCH

The last one on the list is so common it does not deserve mention.

I know it was nominated in the previous Legendary discussion, and everything said there still applies. But I also want to toss in another fic by the same author. This one was a Naruto Legendary.

Chunin Exam Day seems like a pretty good candidate. Published between 2007 and 2010 and still heavily referenced on various sites within the last year, it fits all the qualifications for a Legendary.

As for the fic itself: Naruto gets stuck in a Groundhog Day loop and quickly uses it to start winning over (romantically) all the ladies with massages and simple gifts. This includes adult women. He also uses it to make himself incredibly overpowered. All good characterization is tossed out the window immediately so Author tracts can begin, and the fic is just awful.

The Tropes page, with a link to the fic:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/ChuninExamDay

PKH is one of the few badfics I read waaaay before joining the PPC. It's... it is a riiiiide, folks.

I've seen this thing mentioned around a few places, and... wow. Just wow. It definitely qualifies as bad enough.

...that it's not just the Middle East, there's also a ton of sexism, Alice (from Wonderland) is in it and awful, Luna is one of the worst people in it, Voldemort takes over at one point and puts in laws to breed purebloods (yup, you read that right), and all those dryads are generally too old for Harry and also brainwashed in multiple ways. And so, so, so much more. It's extremely loud and incredibly detailed.

Oh, and the kicker?

This takes place over third year.

Harry is thirteen.

So are his closest companions.

Yeah.

I claimed it a bit ago and have been reading through it since. And, uh, hard though it is to believe--he actually wrote all of these details and more. 103 chapters of it, between 2008 and 2012.

It's a wild, frequently hilarious, equally frequently off the rails or horrifying ride. Apart from chapter 99 (the nuclear fallout), I've rather enjoyed the process because such big chunks of it are so weird or out there.

Missioning it is going to be interesting.

~Z

How about a story where they go to a thrift store or antiquing? Has it been done yet?

This is, unfortunately, not a great time for this to come up (seeing as we're having a state of the Discord thread above), but it needs posting anyway.

When Mythcreant came to the chat to complain that they couldn't post on the Board, I figured out that their IP matched the one that Makarra (zdimensia's most recent account) had posted from. I sent them to talk to the Nameless Admin about getting it fixed, since there wasn't any immediate indication this wasn't a case of a blocked IP address being reassigned to someone who wasn't banned.

However, over the few days since then, evidence that Mythcreant is another account created by zdimensia/Bramadin/... has accumulated. A lot of it can be found in the following chat logs, which contain just about any conversation Mythcreant was in. I've had several people point out zdimensia-like behavior (such as going "they said they're autistic" and "they did apologize" when looking over all the previous drama, showing up with agents almost immediately, knowing a whole lot of oddly-specific PPC trivia, sharing zdimensia's views on Breath of the Wild, and a certain "treated unfairly to the point it might be abuse" line that sounds like their thing.) in those messages.

Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that, based on their behavior (and the IP address match, especially since ISPs reassign IP addresses a lot slower than I thought they did), Mythcreant is very likely another one of zdimensia's occounts, and I propose kicks, blocks, and other such technical measures (unless Mythcreant has some very good explanations).

In other words, it looks like I was wrong about Mythcreant initially, paging the Nameless Admin.

- Tomash

Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!

This shovel...

...

Whoops, I grabbed a mundane one this time. Well, instead of a magical shovel, have a couple terrible puns!

What do you call a bunch of female bunnies hanging out with one male? A hare-em!

The defendant was a runty beetle. His innocent plea was "I'm not bad, I'm just a little weevil."

What do you call a lemon with a degree in architecture? Acidic engineer!

Thank you, Cincinnati, I'll be here all week!

Hello Hello Hello
Glad to have you with us, please accept this plastic spork.

Welcome to the Board! Here, have some chocolate and enjoy your stay!

Have the PPC newbie survival kit: A half-kilo of lembas and a laspistol (short for laser pistol).

Please have a pot of black-hole coffee. Did you read the Constitution and the Original Series? Did you have the occasion of visiting the wiki too? And last thing, if you read spin-offs, what are your favorites ones?

And now all the questions I could think about are asked, let me wish you welcome here to the PPC. Hope you'll like it and stick around.

What are your fandoms, BTW?

PPC2
I enjoyed reading this, despite not being a Warcraft fan. I liked your agents' personalities: smart and positive, but still capable of descending into sarcasm.

I liked the set-up going into the mission. A fic-in-a-notebook is a new idea, but I like that you portrayed the console as being able to pinpoint the fic's "position" in "space" despite the story not being online. The weaving of the pencil sketches into the physical action is unique and fun, too. And the out-of-order pages affecting the flow of time was hilarious. The Lich king's dramatic return at the end was also cool.

PPC3
Also fun! I like how you use real!Sylendre's presence as a different, more emotional perspective on Azeroth's corruption, in comparison to Mei's more technical fan-based annoyance. (I take it Sylendre is your actual gameplay name/avatar?) I especially liked the quiet moment of dialogue between Sylendre and Erron, where he shares his view on being "fictional." It's a nice, calm moment in the middle of all the hectic madness elsewhere.

I feel really stupid for not figuring out the cause of the rain earlier than I did. At the point when the journal first got wet, I even remember thinking that it was going to come back and affect the story in some way. But you introduced the rain elements so subtly and slowly, I didn't make the connection until the same point when the agents did. And you really put the sogginess to good use as a way to make things difficult for the agents. I especially like that this gave Sylendre, the only one with the capability to solve that problem, to have a moment to shine and fix her home world mostly on her own.

All in all, I think you've got a good grasp on constructing a mission in a funny, entertaining and demonstrative-of-canon way. Well done! I look forward to reading more.

—doctorlit, glad to have another quality spin-off under our roof

Not receiving further notes is not indicative of anything. Your beta reader(s) may just be distracted (or procrastinating), but still intend to come back later. If they know their job, you should either receive a final email or get a clear "go" in a final comment on the Gdoc. In case they appear to have forgotten you, but you see them on the Board, it’s okay to ask what’s going on in an off-topic response (like "OT: Are you still beta reading?"). Asking by email is also okay, regardless of whether they are or aren’t active on the Board, but may not work if lost emails are the problem.

I generally default to email, and in your case I wanted to include some advice on further procedure that appeared to be too long for a note. In hindsight, doing both (the note just saying “email sent”) might have been the best.

I feel sorry for your losses, and I apologize for not asking what was going on. This wouldn’t have been the first time that something I beta-read was never posted, and I didn’t see you anywhere on the Board, so I wondered whether you had silently changed your mind and left (I’m glad you didn’t), and I didn’t want to pester you with further questions.

HG

What exciting opening missions! The bit about multiclassing made me miss when players could do that in game... good times. Looking forward to more adventures that are hopefully less waterlogged.

I think this is the post I will try to answer the majority of questions on since I am still having a lot of trouble navigating the board itself, being unfamiliar with yourwebapps myself.

1. To address the cries of "it sends up red flags that he didn't post on the board": I did mention this in my original post that my main reason for not wanting to was that I find the structure of it archaic and hard to navigate and use. It's also relatively difficult to have a conversation over it in my opinion, and I would rather have live dialogue with people. I don't think that's a crime. I am still honestly having trouble navigating. Should I perhaps hav made a post on the board before getting too into the discord? Maybe, but honestly it just seemed like an unnecessary pleasantry that probably would not have changed people's opinions of me too much anyway. Maybe that's wrong, but even so.

2. To address Delta's issue of my pronoun usage in my original post: It's just how I speak and there is no offense meant towards you. I advise against looking for hidden slights in everything a person might say.

3. To address the "He was actually told to stop the discussion: The problem I have is that the discussion I intended to have on "What does Delta define prejudice as" was taken to a different channel and was intended to be a separate discussion than the one I was instructed to stop having, which if I recall correctly was the one on multiplicity (again, it's been a few weeks, so forgive me if I'm misremembering) which I did stop having once i was instructed to stop having it.
Its intent was to sort of understand Delta's frame of mind a little better, since I was having trouble doing so in the first place, I think. Now, had Delta said "I don't want to talk about this", that would have been the end of it for me. The issue is that this was never said. What was said were essentially "Go read this book before I talk to you," which is not saying "I don't want to talk about this". It is something I took both as a personal slight -- it is insulting, to me, to insinuate that I could not understand where a person is coming from simply because I have not read a single piece of literature. Regardless, had the words spoken been "I don't want to talk about this", it would have been over right then and there.
For the record, the gun control meme being deleted discussion was actually not something I was a huge part of, if I recall correctly, and while I was fairly confused as to why it was deleted without warning or mention I decided it would probably be best to drop the whole thing.

4. My big issue with the reasoning for the kick that I am only finding out about now is that it makes no sense to me. Not from an "I didn't do this" standpoint, but from a logical and moral one. If asking somebody to explain their viewpoint and getting frustrated when they give non-answers that come off as offensive to me is an act of 'violence' simply because it might possibly maybe cause someone at some point to poke fun at that person, then why should anybody ever open up to another person? If asking somebody who is a minority to explain their reasoning or their thought process is an act of 'violence', this sets a VERY scary precedent. Am I supposed to take everything everyone says only at face value and never try to figure anything out simply because they are not part of the majority? If this is true, then I suppose I am an abusive boyfriend because I ask my girlfriend -- who happens to be a transgender person -- to open up to me so that I may help her when she feels upset and is not always so forthcoming with these things due to past trauma. I cannot express how frightening the concept of 'asking somebody to explain their point of view is an act of violence' is to me. Badgering is annoying, certainly, but as in my point above I would have dropped it immediately had I actually been asked to quit asking Delta these things -- which did not happen.
In short, 'you committed violence against another member by asking them a question and getting frustrated that you weren't getting an answer' is NOT a reason for a kick and very much less so for a ban. That makes absolutely no sense to me from any frame of reference. Had I flipped out and started slinging insults at Delta? Sure. Had I started swearing up a storm and throwing a big hissy-fit? Sure. But geting a little bit frustrated and saying "Hey, telling me to go read a book is not helpful, can you please answer my question" is neither of these things -- and as I said, a simple "I don't want to talk about it" would have very easily been the end of it.

5. For accusations of "they were working together to troll": I honestly don't think the fact that we agreed on some things is reason enough to believe we were in cahoots, and my joining came after finding out about the place from some trawling of fanfiction sites. Admittedly I will say it definitely looks suspicious -- we joined on the same day hours apart, and had a few similar opinions on political issues -- and ultimately I do see why it would be suspicious to the admins. However, I do not believe this is clear and decisive evidence that we were working in tandem in any way. Using the same logic, I could say that the admins were conspiring against me to ban me simply because the two who were largely active during my time in the Discord chat agreed on many topics and were both admins. Of course, I don't believe that, but it seems just as ridiculous to me.

6. Lastly, on the topic of sealioning: Admittedly, I do ask a lot of questions. However, this is generally to gain a better understanding of a person and their position on something, or to clarify something that may have been unclear.

Also, I would like to apologize: I do remember now that the 'demanding an apology for twenty minutes' thing was not Delta but somebody else. My mistake and apologies to Delta for the mistake.

I was in the #heavy_stuff room during this debate. I think I convinced myself in that moment that I was being far more even-handed and civil than I actually was. I was angry about all the lives that were lost at Stoneman Douglas, and I directed that anger at you, inappropriately.

I also realize that I failed to tell my fellow PPCers to tone down their words. I knew the discussion was getting out of hand, but again, my anger led me to overlook it and make excuses for it—I'm fairly certain that "better than open aggression" line came from me.

So, Grimalkinii: I'm sorry I contributed to your negative experience in a community I love. And I'm sorry I didn't treat you with the respect you deserve.

I'm so used now to being critical of literature and other media I consume, but it's not as easy to turn a critical eye on live dialogue. I intend, though, to make the effort in the future.

—doctorlit

Hello. I'm not really around the Board anymore for various reasons that I won't get into here, but I am still on the Discord. I have to be, because I'm the channel administration, And as the channel administrator, I'm the one who makes the final decision on bans and the like (upon taking proper consultation from my moderators, of course). So if anyone should be taken to task for bans, let it be me.

Now, regarding the incident being discussed here. First off, I removed the Heavy Stuff channel because of both user complaints and concerns from the mods. After looking at the channel itself, I agreed that it should be removed and did so. As for the trolling, Delta and Maslab showed me logs pertaining to the behavior of the two individuals in question. I found the details presented to me sufficient enough evidence to warrant bans. In regards to Grimalkinii himself, I (and the mods) came to the conclusion that he was not presenting himself in good faith, and was instead acting as a sort of supporter for Pentagon.

I trust the judgments of the mods. They have demonstrated to me on multiple occasions that they are more than capable of doing their jobs without great bias. Yes, they're not perfect, but no one is.

And their jobs? Personally, I'm in agreement with Nesh's description. A good mod should make the Discord a safe and engaging place. They must fairly enforce the rules. They also have to address issues like trolls or overt hostility in a timely and effective manner. These are not easy tasks. We are but mortals. And the Constitution only works when people are going to act in good faith.

I am more than willing to take suggestions regarding the Discord into account. I liked the idea of creating a specific chat channel dedicated entirely to writing, so that's been done. I am also open to the idea of additional mods. It's tough for three people to monitor a 24-hour chatroom. I'm not sold on the idea of splitting the channel, but I'm open to receiving arguments on the subject.

PC

Having thought about this overnight, here's what I see as the main concern that needs to be addressed:

Are the mods doing their job to make the Discord a good, comfortable place for all* members?

This is not the first time I've heard concerns that, in the Discord, saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time can get you ostracized, shamed, ridiculed, insulted, or otherwise punished, with no way of knowing what to avoid ahead of time. I can think of several members in good standing off the top of my head with such concerns, actually, some of them for quite a long time. This is especially bad if "the wrong person" is a mod with the power to kick or ban anyone they don't feel like dealing with that day.

So, what I propose is to take this opportunity for a sort of performance review of the current mods and state of the Discord. I could set up a brief Google survey with a few fairly standard questions: do you enjoy being in the Discord, are the mods doing their jobs, if not why not, what would you improve, etc. I think I would require a username to help filter out any opportunistic trolls, but I'm pretty sure the results could be kept private, and I'd present the data free from any identifiers.

First, though, an important question: What is the job of the mods? We'll have to agree on that before we can usefully discuss whether they're doing it or not.

I believe the job of a mod is to ensure that the Discord is a safe, fun environment for all* members. They have a duty to first ensure that everyone knows the rules, then to ensure that the rules are fairly and consistently enforced, always assuming good faith when possible. I believe this requires a certain level of detachment, so that one's personal biases and moods are managed such that people you disagree with* are not treated differently from people you do agree with.

What do the rest of you think? Is a review a good idea? Is a survey a good idea? Is that definition useful? Let me know.

~Neshomeh

* Those in neither flagrant nor repetitious violation of the Constitution.

I wasn't really there for much of the politics discussion but I WAS there for the write-your-own badfic. I've looked over the logs and I'm not sure what to think. I don't know how much of what Grimalkinii is saying is true, but I did think at the time that the banning of them was a little sketchy. Since I personally implicitly trust Maslab, though, I decided to leave well enough alone. Anyways, I think that maybe it might have been a bit hasty to just ban Grim like that, and I think, if they wanted one, they should totally have a second chance, if only to see how they behave without Pentagon around. *shrug* It's up to y'all, though. That's just my two cents.

Neither you nor Pentagon attempted to engage with the PPC outside of the Discord. I just did a search for your username and you didn't post a newbie thread here, which seems really odd considering you want to have such a massive effect on PPC culture.

Regardless of your views on the matter, the Board is the primary means of engagement with the PPC community as a whole. This isn't up for debate. Choosing not to be a part of it at all seems to me like a rejection of the PPC's community ethos, but that could just be me. I'll leave it to everyone else to decide that, because we're a community and that's what we do.

I'll leave the bulk of this to those more coolheaded than myself, but I'd like it to be known that the creation of a dedicated writing channel in discord has my full support.

It's looking to me like we need an on-Board discussion about this so we can get a sense of the consensus (or lack of consensus) about how the chat would like to handle the whole politics thing.

On the one hand, many folks want to talk about politics in the chat. It's an important topic that's often relevant to Boarders (and even more so in the case of some Boarders in marginalized groups - we've got at least a few trans folks around here). We're also a community that prides itself on the ability to have mature, civil discussions about this stuff, and we very often succeed in doing so.

On the other hand, as Delta put it a few days ago, "[T]his is not a space that focuses on politics." Furtheremore, there's other folks who've expressed their desire to not have certain heavy political topics (like mass shootings) pop up when they open up the chat, and there have been a few cases where some person has been asked to tone it down with the political posts because it was getting a bit much.

The "I don't want all this mass shooting stuff" is the main reason why #heavystuff (which just about immediately became #politics) was created. Unfortunately, "let's cordon off the politics into its own channel, so people can mute it if they don't want to see it" didn't seem to work. My theory is that an effect of making the channel was to encourage way more political discussion than previously, now that there was a place to put it, which wasn't something we wanted as a server. (This is, incidentally, why I'm supporting some form of #writing - we want to promote discussion of it.)

What seems to be the case is that there's such a thing as "too much politics [right now]" for most people in chat (which is person- and topic-dependent). It's rather unclear where the line is, other than "the point at which folks start asking you to tone it down".

I'm not sure how to articulate the standard here (or if there even is a way to do that), and so I'd like people to please chime in on this.

I do, however, want to repropose a suggestion that I remember someone making (even though I can't find it) from after the #heavystuff debacle: links that're very likely to tank someone's mood (the main example being heavy politics - shootings, police brutality, etc., but probably also suicides and similar) should be rot13'd. The reasoning here is similar to spoilers - let's not expose people who don't want to see this to such things by default.

- Tomash

Why not just keep all political discussion at the door? Seriously, we riff on bad fan fiction. Collectively intelligent political discourse is out of our league.

With regards to the current purpose of the PPC Discord Chat, Grimalkinii is right, it is *not* a place for anyone to come in and talk about original fiction to say it is is a massive mistake. What it is is a place for real time conversations about various things, both serious and inane, although the serious ones tend to end... badly. For a newbie coming in who just wants to talk writing, especially writing that doesn't involve the PPC Universe it is simply not suitable and as Grimalkinii says and I (for the most part) agree " I feel that the bottom line here is that the discord chat is barely even a writing community anymore and more of a political one focused on socialist ideology." But then, should it be? While the PPC Community as a whole promotes good writing, nowhere that I can see does it say that the Discord is a place to go for talking about writing. Should it be? Would a Writing Stuff channel be a good idea for those who want that sort of thing? Maybe. I don't know, it's just a suggestion that I think should at least be discussed. And it would put the writing back in writing community for the chat.

As to the rest of the post and the rest on the conversation at the moment, from the logs that are currently available I can see where people are coming from with regards to saying that Grimalkinii broke the Constitution, specifically Section One, Rule 4. But you never see any warning about strikes, you never see anyone telling Grimalkinii to check the Constitution as to why what they were doing could be seen as wrong. At the same time, I think that you could just as easily get Maslab under Section One, Rule One for not respecting Grimalkinii and kicking him 'because of his (Maslab's) blood pressure' and not respecting Grimalkinii and their views. In my opinion I would then question what should be done with Maslab's status as a mod. I think it also highlights the fact that the Constitution is, to me, not followed anywhere near as much as it should be on the Discord chat.

When it comes down to 'write your own badfic' for all of those pointing at the Constitution in this conversation while saying it's OK to write your own badfics, I'd suggest you read Section 7, more specifically Rule 25. But then again, that's just me.

Overall this complaint has made me realise several things. 1) I know I lurk in the Discord a lot of the time, but I should speak up more, especially when things are not right. 2) The Discord is flawed. Simple. Should it be removed? No. Should it still be called the PPC Discord chat? eh, I'm out on that one. My current idea is that we should split it into two, one for writing things, including RP like Rudi's and one for the chatting/community, that'd solve a lot of the problems I think. Name one the PPC Discord and the other The Chat Lounge (or something like that). 3) If Grimalkinii deserved to be kicked and banned from the Discord there are others who should also be kicked for breaking the Constitution (and I'm not just talking about Maslab, there are others too) 4) We need more permanent logs for Discord, even if it's just screenshots of posts before they're deleted/asked to be edited, we need to see them. 5) Maybe Des was right after all.

Novastorme.

One, the Heavy_Stuff channel was removed for a very simple reason: in the week or so it was up, it had caused at least three major arguments and large amounts of drama. It was removed because the place for people to vent about the bad things happening had become a bad place for anyone not looking for an argument.

Two, the topic change mentioned was a very serious affair regarding a member. For the sake of privacy, I won’t give details, but I will say that they were shut down again because they were demanding an explanation from someone who was very clearly uncomfortable and did not want to give it. It was not as if they were shut down because it was them.

As for the final banning, it was the same sort of situation, with Delta clearly unhappy with what was being asked, and the demands for answers not stopping. Given the actions in HS shortly before that, it was clear to me at least that they were banned because they were repeatedly violating Section 1, Part 4 of the constitution.

Could someone please find and make available any and all logs of the conversations Grimalkinii has referred to, up to when he was banned? These are some serious concerns, and ones that I'm sorry to say don't immediately ring false to me, so let's please take them seriously and get some more complete context for what happened. Then we'll see what, if anything, needs to be done next.

Thanks.

~Neshomeh

I mostly listen to heavy metal, supplemented by small amounts of everything else.

Bands/Artists: Sabaton, Powerwolf, Gloryhammer, Manowar, Miracle of Sound, Mac Lethal, Broken Pixels, Dan Bull

I don't go for particular genres or artists in general. I can pretty much like any song, if there's something in the lyrics I find True, or if the beat is fast-paced enough to get stuck in my head at work and help me move faster.

There's no way I could give a reasonable list of all that I like, but here are some examples:
Old stuff.
New stuff.
Popular stuff.
Obscure stuff.
Stories.
Messages.
Mashups.
Medleys.
Songs whose lyrics I don't actually understand.

The few bands I semi-follow, rather than just knowing one or two of their songs, are:
Paramore.
Fall Out Boy. (NSFW lyrics, violence warning in video)
Gorillaz.
Eminem. (NSFW and homophobic lyrics)

I don't generally like instrumental stuff, except for video game soundtracks. I drive my coworkers nuts sometimes, because I love those thirty-minute-plus YouTube videos that loop a video game track over and over. My favorite game composer is probably Yoko Shimomura, because she uses so much piano. I also love how moody and atmospheric the soundtrack from Epic Mickey is.

—doctorlit♪

I play rhythm games (which is difficult, given that I'm hard of hearing), so I've recently developed in interest in Japanese artists.

Oh right, precisions. Not so sure about genres, but I have preference for music with lyrics. I listen mainly francophones singers, Tits' Nassels, Lynda Lemay, Bénabar, Renan Luce, Bensé...

On the anglophone front, I prefer mainly Gabriel Aplin, with an eclectic selection after that (Killers, Skillet, Adele, Bonnie Tyler, Brandon Heath,...). I also listen many Nightcore songs.

Another thing I listen a lot are anime/videogames musics, with or without lyrics. And when it comes to anime songs, it's the Japanese lyrics and the englis translations of a Youtuber called LeeandLie (plus a few original songs).

I like your picks :)

Genres: Rock, jazz, pop, instrumental (classical), metal (covers), some dance, showtunes, Disney soundtracks (is that a genre? It should be), a handful of video game soundtracks, folk

Bands/artists: U2, the Dave Matthews Band, Sting, the Police, Genesis (and Peter Gabriel), Paul Simon (with or without Garfunkel), The Beatles, Imagine Dragons, JT Music, insaneintherain, John Williams, REM, Linkin Park, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, The Script, Yugo Kanno (wrote music for Stardust Crusaders), Zoe Mulford, Brother Sun, Train, Led Zeppelin, Pentatonix, The Piano Guys, Sara Bareilles, Walk the Moon...the list goes on.

I am a fan of rock and roll. AC/DC, Metallica, and a whole lot of others. I am also a fan of... vaguely confusing other tastes. I like classical music, like piano, violin, but I also like dubstep. I'm also vaguely emo.

And now, some artists!
Touching on the emo bit: I like Panic at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots, MCR, but *not* Fallout Boy.

On the more rock side of things, like I said, AC/DC, but also Queen. God, I love Queen.

On the more odd side of things, here's a few interesting artists. Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema Club, and a lot of others.
The artist 'grandson' has some hard rock and alternative influences, and has sort of a harsh vibe. You'll know it when you hear it.
(Kiss Bang, by grandson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGAeJiOfXOw

There's a lot of other artists and stuff I'm not mentioning, but there is a lot of stuff I am into.

I’m mostly into folk and rock/alternative rock but I really enjoy a wide variety of music. I guess the most attractive thing in a song to me is a good beat.

Though in terms of favorite artists: Sufjan Stevens hands down.

I generally listen to Jpop and video game ost. At one point, I listened to mashups from soundcloud one after another.

I'll go for pretty much every genre, even Country on occasion. My taste in bands and artists ranges from Beyoncé to My Chemical Romance, which is the ONLY thing I have in common with Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven/TARA/Raven??? Way, to Coldplay and weirder bands like Nero's Day at Disneyland. They kind of creep me out, but it's nice to be a little creeped out once in a while. I like Classical and heavily favor Tchaikovsky. I also really like video game music; my favorite ever game composer is Inon Zur, and I absolutely love the stuff he did for the Dragon Age franchise! It's my favorite ever writing track. My current favorite song (which changes just about every time your average celebrity changes outfits) is Soldier's Grin by Wolf Parade.

I've actually got Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, and Green Day on my iPod, as well as Fallout Boy and Evanescence. Really should add Dave Matthews and Gorillaz at some point.

Also on my playlist are a lot of fan songs by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls and Chameleon Circuit.

And let's not forget Tartanic! We go to see them perform every year at the Highlands Renaissance Festival—if you like bagpipes, definitely check them out. If you don't like bagpipes, they'll convert you. :P

I've also had the Greatest Showman soundtrack on repeat for... basically the last two weeks? Never going to go see the movie, but damn the music is amazing.

I mean, seriously, let's take a look:

Genres:
Indie Pop, Alt-pop, Synthpop, Dance-pop, Alternative Electropop (by which I mean artists like Oh Wonder and Twenty One Pilots), Indietronica (basically the same thing, but it's considered a separate genre, for some reason), Alternative Rock, a bit of Folk-pop, and uh... normal Pop, I guess.

Artists (hoo boy, there's a lot):
AJR, Alessia Cara, Amber Run, Andrew Belle, Bleachers, Bridgit Mendler, Carly Rae Jepsen, CHVRCHES, Colbie Caillat, Duffy, Dustin Tebbutt, Echosmith (only their synthpop stuff, though), Ed Sheeran, Enya, Fleurie, Grace VanderWaal, Halsey, Hedley (again, only the synthpop), Hey Violet, Imagine Dragons, Ingrid Michaelson, Katie Herzig, Lenachka, Lindsey Stirling, Lorde, Maggie Whitlock (to be fair, I wouldn't have started listening to her if she hadn't been my babysitter), Mansionair, Meghan Trainor, Nina Nesbitt, Oh Wonder, One Direction, Rachel Platten, Regina Spektor, Ruelle, Ruth B., Sara Bareilles, Seafret, Syml, Taylor Swift, Twenty One Pilots, VÉRITÉ, Walking on Cars, and Yuna. Shout-out to Betty Who, Lemaitre, Passion Pit, The Chainsmokers, Vance Joy, and Zedd for making a few songs that I love, even if I'm not a fan of all their work.

Gosh, that took forever to type out. But, anyway, I recommend all of these artists; especially the really unknown ones that deserve a lot more love.

Have a Ned Flanders themed metal band called Okilly Dokilly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejzde32zdVw

My favorite genres are rock and metal, maybe with some occasional electronic dance mixed in. I don't tend to listen to EDM, though, because I think a big part of why I like it is the thumping bass (headphones don't quite cut it).

Bands: Linkin Park, Queen, Imagine Dragons, Metallica, Tool, Papa Roach, Fall Out Boy, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown.

Also known as "what comes up on Pandora because I don't know enough about music to find new artists".

Have the PPC survival kit, invented by me: a half-kilo of lembas and a laspistol.

Hey, I'm Twistey, the one who periodically does something stupid and regrets it. I have several original worlds as well as a ton of fandoms... and joke fics. Lots of joke fics.

For your newbie present, I shall give you this Very Flat Flamethrower. It's great for hiding inside of things, but the fireballs it shoots are a bit slow.

Welcome to the PPC and I hope you have a good time.

-Twistey

Here, have some chocolate and enjoy your stay!

And don't worry, you're not the only one tired of drama. Thanks for the heads-up though.

Have a pile of multi coloured pens.

Ignore the drama and get in touch with your creative side! Enjoy this metaphorical notebook for you to practice writing (if that’s your style).

Yeah, this is a rotten time to join up if you have a Thing about drama. But we're keeping that on the Board for now, in its designated threads, so that the better parts of our community can continue to be.

But hey, since you're here, have a full set of dice! You get to choose your pattern. And as consolation for the shoddy patch you joined during, have this set of steel-plated trousers. You never know where the spikes will be when you're trying to sit down.

Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!

Welcome (again)!

If it helps, I wasn't much of a writer when I joined up either.

- Tomash

Welcome aboard!

Sorry you had to show up during... this...

But that's no reason to not show courtesy! Here, have an edible computer.

I'd be happy to help make sure all the jokes land etc!

I can help with SPaG as per the usual, but familiarity with the canon and characters concerned is always a plus. ;)

...I don't think I'd mind pretty much any direction this goes in ('this' being Deadpool knowing about the PPC and how long/when he'd know about it *for*). What I do know is that Deadpool is hilarious and this thread is awesome :D

Personally, I think it could be very fun for him to know, even if it maybe faded when canon reasserted itself. A bit like Jack Harkness, maybe? He seems to more or less know what PPC agents are, even if he repeatedly forgets the specific instances when they appear. Seeing through perception filters helps with that, of course. At any rate: more Deadpool=good. I'm in favor. Would love to see a mission where he shows up.

~Z

Do you like chocolate?

My take on these questions of "but X character is omniscient" is always that they're only omniscient about their own canon. The PPC is not part of any canon (unless an author someday makes it so), therefore knowledge of it will vanish when the canon reasserts itself.

OTOH, Deadpool might get a pass purely because it could kinda hilarious for him to randomly pop up in HQ and/or the Board whenever he feels like it. Kinda like how Gaspode the Wonder Dog knows about the PPC, because dogs can't talk, duh, and no one would ever believe him anyway. Rule of Funny. {= )

~Neshomeh

Thanks for dumping me here, uh... 'Voyd'. How do you even pronounce that? Is it the same as Void? Or is it like 'Vo-YUD'? Can I call myself Dydpool? No, that's terrible, forget it.

Right, so I've no idea what you're talking about; I'm kinda trapped in a mostly-infinite white plain right now, and it feels like I'm... texting? Or something? OH wait, I'm on the Internet, aren't I? HI MOM!

Yeah, basically, you already brought me here, so that ship? Sailed. That horse? Bolted. That rat? ... nah, you probably wouldn't appreciate that metaphor. End result, that fourth wall? Broken. I know about the PPC now.

Whatever the PPC is.

;)

It was nice to see Ix opening up to someone more, and how that happened seems in-character for her.

I also wonder if Jacques's feelings at the end of the mission are going to become significant later.

- Tomash

Okay, so my big comment is that you did an excellent job of cowriting. Too often, Cowrite Disease strikes, and characters end up rattling off half-page paragraphs to which their temporary partners flawlessly respond point-by-point. (Not that I speak from experience, hem hem.) This story doesn't do that - it feels like all three agents got the opportunities they need to respond and to comment. (The advantage of having one person write the two in a relationship - when they start talking only to each other, it's for valid reasons!)

That said, time for a flashback: remember all my comments about missions that sound like MSTs? Well... you didn't do that either! The agents were definitely more than talking heads, and I don't feel like you over-quoted.

The vestige of MST-disorder that I did notice is that I had a hard time connecting where the agents were to where the Suvian was. Partially because I'm tired, of course (always tired), but it didn't feel like they were occupying the same space. I didn't flag any sneaking around, or having to peer through windows, or suchlike.

I want to throw a particular highlight on the scene in the middle, where I did know where they all were - the whole 'spend the night' section. It was an excellent portrayal of the agents, and kept them firmly anchored in the physical world. I couldn't say whether it's the best scene, but it's certainly the one that stuck in my head.

hS

Wow, you two really found a bad one this time. I don't have much to say that isn't incoherent squeeing at Ix coming out of her shell and Jacques's introspection at the end; I only noticed one thing to critique.

Near the end of the mission, Jacques summarizes the bit with Samanthea speaking French, but then that scene is quoted just a few lines later. I think it may have worked a bit better to just have the French scene and then the Agents reacting; the way it's written, quoting the fic just seemed a bit redundant to me. That's a really small thing in a long mission full of awesome, though, so great work!

This is why I wish we had a better-referenced Wiki... so from the name, I'd guess logicillion applies logic to the Suvian-ness to make it go away. That suggests that giving it to an unreformed Suvian would essentially have a milder version of Reality Room effects.

-Unnatural abilities would be weakened.
-Characters who liked them for no reason would go off them.
-Impossible colours and the like would be muted.
-Impossible biology would start to be rejected.

&c &c. The best place to use it would be when something has happened in the story that would directly debilitate them - for instance if the Suvian has had a transplanted arm grafted onto them, logicillin would likely cause immediate rejection.

Alternately, maybe it acts as a sort of internalised Reality Room - it helps ex-Suvian agents by making them see/feel the illogic of what they were before. By that measure, you could use logicillin poisoning to shatter a Suvian's worldview. Imagine them falling to their knees in front of their designated Lust Object, yelling, "Why was I even after you? You're not interested in meeeeee--!"

And then they get shot in the head. Because PPC.

hS

I am... not sure. But here's my take on it:

Yes, Logicillin might make a Sue easier to defeat. It should definitely have funny side effects. However, within a Sue-warped canon, a sufficiently powerful Sue may be able to shake off the effects. It's hard to say, and I'd take it on a case-by-case basis on rule of funny (or rule of drama, if you're Iximaz. :-P)

It looks like it's been a week since the last post was made.

By my count, the Permission Giver votes look like this:

LARFEN: 11
HG: 11/12 (depending on whether Nesh counts)
doc: 6

I'm inclined to think doc would've gotten more votes if he'd been mentioned as early as the other two, but on the other hand, he's also the one who's said he kind of doesn't want it. So it's up to you whether you intend to just call it there, or ask for more opinions.

hS

Specifically one of these hats, since it seems like it'd be useful for him at work.

More seriously, I nominate doctorlit as a Permission Giver. He has been a longstanding and helpful presence in this community, reviews a lot of stuff, and has published a bunch of well-written PPC stuff over the years. I don't have direct experience of him as a beta, so I'll leave comments on that to others.

I realize doc might not end up being the most active PG (given that he's got a rather time-consuming job), but I think that, if he ends up being the person who's around to Permission Give at a particular moment, I'd trust him to make that call.

- Tomash

Because I find it distinctly worrying that only one person is trusted enough by the PPC community to be considered for Discord mod, and that only two are options for Permission Givers.

So, rather than propose people myself (because I already did that), I thought I'd share some data to help people consider other options. I've come up with two lists: who posts the most, and who has been here longest. Current Permission Givers are marked with a *star. Current moderators are marked with a ^caret.

Top 10 Most Prolific Posters During March 2018

Thoth - 109
*Neshomeh - 96
*Iximaz - 79
*Huinesoron - 67
Scapegrace - 44
Tomash - 43
Novastorme - 35
Calliope - 33
61516 - 31
twistedwindowpane - 30

10 PPCers Posting in March 18 Who Joined Longest Ago

*Kaitlyn - May 03
*Leto Haven - May 03
*Huinesoron - Oct 03
*^Delta Juliette - Oct 03
*Neshomeh - Jun 04
Tawaki - May 06
*Phobos - Jul 09
doctorlit - Oct 09
OpinionedAngel - Dec 09

... that's a pretty useless list, since it only has Tawaki, doc, and OpinionedAngel who aren't PGs, and Tawaki at least is an intermittent visitor.

Next 10 Oldest Posters (You Know What I Mean)

*^PoorCynic - Apr 10
Sergio Turbo - Jun 10
Tomash - Jul 11
Ozzielot - Sep 11
World-Jumper - Dec 12
*Zingenmir - Jan 13
Hieronymus Graubart - Jul 13
Novastorme - Jul 13
Scapegrace - Dec 13
*Iximaz - Jan 14

As I say, this shouldn't be construed as endorsing anyone (indeed, one - Sergio - has left the PPC and isn't eligible); all I'm doing is putting up the names in case they make anyone go 'oh hey, PERSONNAMEHERE has actually been really great for the community!'.

hS

It looks like there's not that many candidates running around, so feel free to just stick your +1s, objections, or whatever else you have to say either all at once as a reply somewhere or as replies to each nomination. Since we're not dealing with too many nominations, we don't really need to bother with the second thread, I think, and we can just vote here.

- Tomash

He's one of our more persistant reviewers, and his work on the Uncanonical Department of Inaccuracies shows that his knowledge goes beyond simple technical errors and into understanding the PPC as a whole. He's a friendly and trustworthy part of the community (unlike all our existing Permission Givers, he's never been embroiled in a scandal or drama!), and to the best of my knowledge, is the only person in the PPC's long history to be given Permission unasked-for, by common acclamation from the PGs.

hS

Out of the current mods, (most?) are on the west coast. Therefore, we would need someone in the European region to keep are friends in Europe in check while Mods are asleep.

Larfen has been around for a few years now. He's written several rather funny pieces of work set in the PPC universe, including the Flaming Broomsticks cycle, which significantly expanded the Janitorial Division.

He seems to have a good sense of the universe and is around reasonably often. I'd trust him with the keys to the universe, and therefore I nominate him as a Permission Giver.

- Tomash

It wasn't a legendary already? Huh... Okay, yeah, fifthed!

God, I read the first few paragraphs once. It was...not fun to say the least.


For those of you who don't know, this is a Sailor Moon fic involving a lot of NSFW and disturbing content. If you want to google it, be my guest, but I won't be held responsible for the brain damage. I can post a rot13'd summary if needed, but I would prefer that sort of thing to remain off the board, even rot13'd.

I’m not sure but I think I read this MST ages ago... and if it was bad enough to make Mike and the ‘Bots quit... then this is the kind of story that needs to be killed. Preferably with fire.

(What is WRONG with some writers!?!?)

I saw the title and instantly remembered the fic, despite having had had no contact with the fandom in well over a decade. While I only got 4 recent results out of 20 when searching, it's a 20 year old fic, and that fact that people are still remembering it speaks volumes about how awful it is.

I'm sure it's bad, but I'm totally lost as to what this fic is, what canon it's referring to, and how infamous it is. I imagine "Mike and the 'Bots" refers to a relatively well-known MST-er. Can you give some more information to orient me?

In fact, it's healthy to let your IRL life take priority over anything on the internet. In most cases. If you need somewhere to vent, we can be there for you if you want. But if you just want space and privacy, we won't pester you.

-Twistey

We all have times like that. Who are we to judge you for having A Life and being stressed out? :-)

Just let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

I've said this before (the topic came up years back and kind of dropped), so I'll just say briefly:

My worry in having too much publicity is that we'll attract trolls, or other people who want to attack us in some way. I think we're at a good place "enrollment"-wise, and don't need to stick our necks out towards the internet at large.

—doctorlit, boiling pasta

First video for the PPC channel is right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Tell me what you think.

Novastorme