Subject: And we are led to those
Author:
Posted on: 2019-10-17 09:02:00 UTC
Founder of the Department of Out-of-Character Hobbits, one half of Mari and Mip, Luthien is still the person I think of as an archetypical newbie - even if she's been gone for well over a decade.
In two weeks, the PPC Board will be shutting down. Delta, Tomash and Thoth have built us a new home, and the community will continue there, but this old place - the one I've been coming back to day in, day out for over sixteen years - will be gone.
I have so many memories of the Board; there are so many people I met here, made friends with here, and ultimately said goodbye to here. And their names, and the memories that go with them, deserve to be spoken one last time.
...is that some of the people you posted about are fanfiction authors whose names I recognize because I first read their stories years upon years ago, but was never completely sure if they were affiliated with the PPC or not. Finding out that they *were* is...I can't quite name the emotion, but it's a positive one. And the whole song was interesting to read through, too.
I'm going to add a couple Boarders:
Karen DuLay was thankfully active on the Board right around when I joined in 2013. I say 'thankfully' because she was very likely the first good friend I made here. We, uh, still haven't quite gotten the MCU OFU into publishable form, but that's okay: deciding to cowrite it led us to start communicating off the Board and went on into a whole lot of cowriting and enthusiastic plotting of stories (much of it non-PPC, hence the lack of posting). I don't know if she'll drop by the old Board before it closes, but it's my hope she'll eventually come check out the new one and maybe say hi :)
SeaTurtle is really just a great person overall, and I'm very glad we had the opportunity to become friends. I expect I'm not the only one who could tell you he's interesting to talk to and fun to write with. The Reader would have been very different without his DIA characters in the mix--Emiranlanoamar (the Guardsman), Naya, and Terabyte. I'm grateful on her behalf and on my own that those years of cowriting and chatting happened.And I guess this is my self nudge to contact both of them more often this year, since I don't actually want to fall out of touch.
~Z
I've been especially bad at lurking over the last few years but I saw hS's post on livejournal... The Board is where I really got into online fandom for the first time *counts* 15 or so years ago. For all its clunkiness and ypur invasions, I'll miss it, and the friends I've made over the years (too many of them sadly no longer around, at least digitally).
Elcalion, nostalgic
Welcome back; I am utterly shocked that anyone still reads LJ. ^_^ I still find it hard to remember that you've actually gone; you were here for so long that it just feels like you've gone a bit quiet.
hS
I swing past and lurk on the Board every now and then but I haven't posted anything for a couple of years, so it wasn't really an official parting of ways or anything.
TBH I actually just got an email notification saying that you'd posted on LJ is how I even knew about it.
Hopefully I will stick around and who knows maybe even finish that third mission I started almost 10 years ago!
Elcalion, procrastinatory
I actually got an email from Creepy Stalker LJ the day after I posted telling me that Anchusa had just posted. Anchusa! I don't think we've seen her here since 2004! Now that you've confirmed they emailed some people about my post, I wonder whether I accidentally triggered her returning over there...
hS
[Delta Mike Lima]
DML was here for all too short a time before some mysterious job posting forced him to remove all publications from the internet. His primary agent was Pam Ritchie, a vampire from a tactical military setting, and DML approached the PPC from the perspective of realistic equipment tracking and the difficulties of keeping a vampire sufficiently screened against sunlight. His spin-off was also designed to be all crossovers with other writers, during the the co-write heavy years of the early 2010s. I wish circumstances hadn't forced him to retire from the PPC after only three missions, but I hope he's doing good at whatever his current assignment is.
[Miah]
We still see Miah pop into the chat every now and then, but this Board was where she posted her many, many missions. She was another participant of the co-writing years, and crossed over numerous times, especially with Caddy-Shack. I continue to be impressed with her characterization of canon characters, especially the ones from Sherlock Holmes. I wish her and her husband all luck and all skill in raising their gaggle of children, whether we see her around in the future or not.
[Guvnor of Space]
A fellow member of the stalwart adult Animorphs fandom, Guvnor had such a headspace for his Yeerk characters, and thinking what life would be like living in that version of Earth, that it really lent his stories in that universe a unique feeling of authenticity. Although not everyone enjoyed the ongoing animosity between his agents, I appreciated the slow build-up in the conflict, and the excellent use of a mini in making both characters see their own weaknesses.
[Lily-Gnome]
The zombie fiction-focused spin-off was quite unique, especially with one of the agents zombifying very slowly due to the weird time shenanigans in Headquarters. I'm thankful that she finally got away from her bigoted parents, and is now happily shacked up with melancholicPoet, another former Boarder, as well as one very old cat.
[Pretzel]
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I barely remember interacting with Pretzel, yet I can't help but see her screen name and think, "friend." Her spin-off is a good example of a slow-burn, fairly straightforward relationship developing inside the zany backdrop of PPC missions.
[Khajidu]
Although Khajidu never published any missions, her trio of anthropomorphic tall ship AI androids are still memorable from RPs, for probably obvious reasons. I hope the boat love and the sea squirt research are both going well, wherever she is.
[Keily Shinra]
I know hS already listed Keily, but I wanted to do a personal shout-out to her for the exciting day she covered one of my filks. I miss our lady of YouTube covers!
[PitViperOfDoom]
PitViper's spin-off remains my favorite of all time, even though it's an old shame to her now. Even though she doesn't want the missions posted online any more, I'm excited for the day I'll get to read her agent characters again, in their very own canon that she's working to write and publish as we speak!
[Ellipsis Flood]
It was my great honor and privilege to be this fellow nerd's primary beta reader throughout her PPC career. She's probably the Boarder I chatted with one-on-one more than any other, and I miss her dearly. Good luck and good skill, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, friend.
[JulyFlame and VM]
hS mentioned July already, too, but she and VM deserve a special mention for, well. For making me the person I am today. With more patience than I deserved, they debated me out of blindly accepting my parents' politics and made me start examining the world for myself. The song applies very literally here: because I knew these two, I have been changed for good.
Even though most or even all of these folks will probably never read this, I still feel obligated to state it clearly: I miss you all, love you all, and am glad to have known you all. Thank you for being my friends.
—doctorlit, perhaps for the last time on this Board
May your hearts be your guiding keys.
It's going to sound strange to say, but it's heartening to know that Boarders who joined after the decline of LJ still know each other's life stories. It's kind of obvious that people talked to each other about things other than writing, but it highlights the fact that we're not just a gaggle of weird writers - we're a community of close friends.
And the spinoffs... when you present them one after another like this, it's startling how wildly different people's PPC spinoffs have been. There's not a lot of fandoms that can naturally shift into so many different genres... this is a special place. :)
hS
There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall,
And the bells in the steeple too.
And up in the nursery, an absurd little bird
Is popping out to say cuckoo.
Regretfully they tell us,
But firmly they compel us,
To say goodbye...
To you!
(Totally ripping off hS's idea, but it's a good one)
So long, farewell
I haven't been around anywhere near as long as some of you have - I wasn't even born when some of you joined the PPC (scary thought!), but I'd like to think it means something to me as well.
Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight
I joined almost a year and a half ago (another scary thought!) in late April, 2018. I still can't work out if it seems like forever or yesterday, but the Board has become very familiar.
I hate to go
I've changed a massive amount since I joined the PPC, and my writing has improved an awful lot - partly as a result of finally getting some feedback and concrit, but also because I've grown so much over that time.
And leave this pretty sight
And the PPC has been a really great place for me - I've learnt an awful lot from it, not least patience and self-restraint. When I first joined I was expecting to get Permission in only a few weeks!
So long, farewell
In the end it took me eight months. I probably could have got it sooner, if I wanted to, but I'm glad I waited, because otherwise I would have just dived straight in the deep end, written a mission a week and completely burnt myself out.
Auf Wiedersehen, adieu
It's also been really nice to get to know you all. I know I'm still not the most sociable person, and I'm not on the Discord, but everyone here has been really friendly, helpful and supportive whenever I've needed it.
Adieu, adieu
Obviously the PPC itself isn't shutting down, but this seems like the right kind of point to reflect on the time I've been part of it at the same time as saying goodbye to this Board.
To you, and you and you
I think most of all what I've liked about the PPC is having a community of other writers. Writing can be quite a lonely thing, and it's always nice to know that you're not on your own doing it. There are other people out there.
So long, farewell,
I'm going to miss the Board. It seems kind of silly to be missing a computer screen, but I will. I've adjusted to it so much now that anything new will take a lot of adapting to.
Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen
The sheer variety of the knowledge the PPC have between them is amazing. I've never (yet) needed it myself, but I'm sure if I asked a question, however obscure or niche, someone would be able to find the answer.
I'd like to stay
You have to move on, though, and the New Board seems like a pretty good place to move on to. Thank you so much to everyone who's helped build it!
And taste my first champagne
I'm looking forward to the next however-many years (a big number, I suspect; I have no plans to leave any time soon) that I'll be part of the PPC. I hope to become a bit more active and get better at reviewing.
So long, farewell
Thank you to every member of the PPC who's made the experience so far more fun and memorable. It would take too long to list them all, even though my list wouldn't be anywhere near as long as hS's, but thank you to everyone.
Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I hope the New Board proves just as memorable, productive, and slightly insane a place as the old - but it's the same people, so I'm sure we can carry on just as well somewhere else.
I leave, and heave,
(I've used up all my writing time on this and I still have a short story to post by Tuesday and a one-shot by the end of the month. It's worth it, though.)
A sigh and say goodbye
I'd have liked to be able to do the full song properly, but I couldn't think of enough to fill the space, so I cheated a bit.
Farewell, Board. I shall always treasure the memories I made here.
Goodbye
I'm glad to go
I cannot tell a lie
I flit, I float
I fleetly flee, I fly
The sun has gone
To bed and so must I
So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen,
goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
I love the fact that everyone has their own stories here, and different ways of sharing them (even when those ways take the same approach). Objectively, I know the Board isn't all that special - that it's the community that made it what it was - but at the same time... it is, actually.
hS
I saw the announcement over on Facebook and decided to come peek back in.
This is where I made my very first friends online, over ten years ago - some of whom I still keep in touch with today. I know I drifted away from the PPC over the years, but it was a formative part of my online presence and it still influences me strongly today. I've even checked back in a few times, although I never said anything.
This Board was my home for a long time, and while the new place looks awesome, it's... just not quite the same.
Maybe I should start looking back in more often.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
For the sake of auld lang syne...
'Scuse me, gonna go dust off my Agents.
I've been in a state of mild shock since the day I pulled up the login page and found a message saying YourWebApps was shutting down. I'm glad at least one person was able to come back and see the Board one last time before it goes.
hS
I... never really imagined this day would come until a few months ago, and even then, I forgot about it until recently. I guess it's time for a dramatic goodbye.
SkaterTheDJWolf.
Most people don't remember this, but I actually joined the PPC under this name, toward the end of summer before last, when Twistey was still here. The reason I'm not remembered is because... well... I kind of disappeared after a couple weeks. I still have that doc with all the newbie gifts I was given.
When I joined back then, I was pretty toxic. Not intentionally so, but I was quite bad at taking a hint. I won't go into the dirty details, but I was on a specific forum and I spouted a heck of a lot of highly offensive stuff there that would have been the cause of a supermassive dumpster fire here. As a matter of fact, that forum I was on had to ban me from the Debates section for a while because of my conduct.
I rejoined sometime last year after I'd done some soul-searching and outgrown the tendencies that would have gotten me banned before I could say "Mary Sue." By that time, I had evolved into a new person, Neo Skater. This was the name I used, and it's the name I still use now. It signified my evolution, my shedding of that naïve, self-absorbed, toxic, unaware skin that had infected my time before here... or so I thought.
I would still have a long way to go. There'd be mishaps. There'd be miscommunications. There'd be terrible, terrible, terribly Suvian ideas for PPC stories. There'd be panic attacks and being literally unable to read old posts or criticism because they represent my mistakes. Heck, there still is on occasion, especially that last one.
But through it all, you loved and accepted me. No matter what mistakes I made, no matter how I screwed up, no matter how far my sense of humor strayed past the line... you stuck with me. That acceptance was something I really needed to grow and finally move past my past self. And as someone who left his last community on very bad terms, that means a lot to me.
I think this is the only community I've been involved in I'll be able to look back at without regretting everything I'd ever done. And I... I really appreciate that.
And you wanna know what? It all started here. On the PPC Board. All on that one introductory post...
Thanks for the memories, PPC Board. Now let us move on to the future.
So long, SkaterTheDJWolf...
And most of us made a pretty grisly spectacle of ourselves along the way. I've had some internet-serious fights with quite a few of the people whose names I posted, but in the end, I've come out better for it. I'm glad you have too. :)
hS
I'll be sorry to see the old Board go, but it has changed every one of us in many, many ways - me included. Reading this tribute made me smile, and I definitely needed it this morn. I look forward to where this community takes us - all of us - in the future.
It just makes me sad that we won't be able to do it here.
hS
This was... a very touching surprise, to wake up to this morning.
It certainly had nothing to do with me, but thank you, for writing this. ;;
(Also, this is a very clever songfic. ;) )
These are my memories, but everyone has their own. There are things you've done on the Board that are meaningful to you, I'm sure, and people who've gone now but who you remember for being here.
The reason I took the risk of irritating people by bolding all the lyrics is so that if people wanted to add their own memories - either at the top of the thread or mixed in - you could still make out the song running through it.
And thank you.
hS
Our very own Morale Officer, and one of the most vibrant personalities of the early Board, bjam (it took me a year and a half to establish that that's 'bee-jam') was a great friend. You can tell - I went to visit her.
BiD wrote the very first thing you're required to read when joining the PPC - the poem at the top of the Constitution. Another great friend, even if she was a filthy Maglor-loving Feanorian Kinslayer.
WfR was the fifth member of the Five (with myself and Kaitlyn as the surviving pair). She was never as active in the PPC as the rest of us, but on LJ and MSN Messenger, she was brilliant.
Founder of the Department of Out-of-Character Hobbits, one half of Mari and Mip, Luthien is still the person I think of as an archetypical newbie - even if she's been gone for well over a decade.
Vemi was my second coauthor, and the driving force behind the Reorganisation until she left. Without her, 'Huinesoron the Historian' would likely never have come to be. She also started the thread which led to my invitation to the Board.
Creator of the PPC's favourite tabloid, and the person who pushed hard for Crashing Down to be completed, Starwind was a wonderful friend at a very trying time in my life.
Cofounder of DOGA and creator of Selene and the DOGAPlex, Raven was my girlfriend who joined the PPC with me and hung around until we went our separate ways.
My oldest friend, though I don't see much of her nowadays; I knew her both before and throughout university. Her Diary of an Undercover Sue was a spinoff of my own stories, which was and remains a huge honour.
Rath, AKA Saphy if you knew her through the Barrow-Downs, was the Nightmare Before Christmas-loving founder of the SilmFilm project. She was also very kind in ferrying me around Utah.
PDT was one of those people I got to know very well on Livejournal, but she was also a lively part of the inaugral PPC Gathering in Oxford.
Ek'y! Writer of musicals and adorable kids, Ekwy was one of those mad people who travelled to the UK for the sole purpose of having a Gathering with me. She was great.
You can't mention Ekwy without Milano; they went together like Swedish fish and… I don't know, something else Swedish. Another random Gathering attendee.
"It's all Newmoon's fault!" ~ me and Kaitlyn, about anything and everything, from 2004 down to today. Why is it all Newmoon's fault? I haven't the foggiest, but it totally is.
Fondy! It wasn't that long ago that Fondy reappeared briefly, and it was great to see her. Back in the day she was a constant presence on LJ.
Undeadgoat wrote a parody Suefic of me and her. That's all you need to know about what sort of person she was.
Hawkelf is an elf who lives in the ceiling. What more need be said?
Fawkes is one of those old PPCers who's been on my mind a lot - because I keep writing about her characters! Agent Chelsea, original partner to Agent Kaitlyn, is hers, and OFUDisc's Phoebe is based on her student submission.
Not so long gone… Cassie was an enthusiastic PPC member and the driving force behind at least one Gathering. She was good people.
It's hard to believe Lily has left, with how deeply she invested herself in the PPC while she was here. I have so many memories of Lily, but the biggest one has to be that she drew fanart of my wedding (it's about halfway down).
I don't remember talking to Sara; what I remember is working with her to make the PPC Radio Plays, which are just about still available.
Ekyl could be melodramatic, but he was also probably the PPCer most invested in the Histories (after, y'know… me). He was the push that finally got me to write some version of Origins.
AnnaBee was only here for a brief while; she was a young, religious Tolkien fan who was sort of a protege of mine for a bit. Ultimately she ran afoul of some of the High Drama taking place on the Board; it's a shame, as I think she could have done great things here.
Kitsune's spelling was kind of terrible, and he was one of those very excitable newbies you see from time to time, but he was a valiant ally in the legendary Snowfight.
Pippa was very tricky to understand, and had a habit of taking attempted analogies extremely literally. She was also a deep-digging Tolkien fan whose Rohirric agents I am waiting for an opportunity to pilfer.
She came, she meme'd, she departed, but it would be very hard to forget Twistey.
I think Aakmal had trouble with English, with it being a second language, but he still became a core part of the Protectorate of Plort.
In many ways KittyEden was Just Another Excited Newbie, but her PPC Camping Trips were an absolute delight.
Creator of the Wiki, founder of at least one iteration of the Chat, the reason Dafydd has a giant robot in his back garden: sometimes I fought with her, sometimes she was a close friend, but I'm never going to forget her.
Des really put the feud into feudal interpretation of the PPC community, which was an excellent way of checking my megalomaniacal tendencies. The Librarian canonises the existence of the Crowded TARDIS, and he was a central player in the burst of PPC crossovers a while back.
It took me a very long time to finish reading Blank Sprite, but it was an excellent addition to the PPC.
I didn't know Fish very well, but his agents were spectacular, and as a founding member of the Continuity Council (and its most cheerful member by far) I have a soft spot for the Fisherman.
Anybody who sets an entire PPC interlude in Knightmare absolutely deserves a spot on this list.
Sci-fi loving, leather coat wearing, weirdly odd and weirdly normal Irish. He wrote an excellent chapter for The Ispace Wars, which I… haven't yet gotten round to including. It'll happen someday.
Hail to War-Queen Alleb! Who, alongside being an active Boarder for quite some time, was one of the most open-to-change religious people I've known. As in, she read The Origin of Species to inform herself on evolutionary theory. Yikes.
Keily was the only luster the Clover ever had. She was brilliant.
Artemis' Aerilyn & Zera were the very first conscious effort to take missions back to the basics. Stack onto that the creation of the DIA, and the very phrase 'Flaming Denethor!', and Artemis is one to remember.
Oracle mostly haunted the Chat, but she was friends with Kaitlyn, and wrote her into a very early story. I've written her into Plort as something of a villain, but that's kind of a slight against her: she was a huge part of the early community.
Twiggy wrote the very first hS/Kaitlyn shipfic. What more need be said?
Gunny and Wayne were the first agents who made me want to read anime missions. Given how huge a part of the PPC that was for a time, I don't know what I would have done without them.
W_M, the Boarder with a wonderfully chemical nickname who gave us all hope by becoming a genuine published author!
"Boromir for Prime Minister!" Whether you knew her as the author of classic girl-falls-into-Middle-earth 'Don't Panic!', or through her entertaining tales of life with a Bozling, Boz was amazing.
Winner of the coveted 'most likely to be told You Can Just Choose A Screenname' award, I'm also nearly positive noname was the author of the modern Middle-earth series The Modern Age.
AW has shown up a couple of times recently, but back in the day he was The Blue Elf and the greatest MSTer in the PPC. Also a designated Lust Object for 2/3 of the female Boarders (but then, they didn't have many options).
I was privileged to cowrite a mission with kippur, who was not only an active part of all aspects of the early PPC, but is now a genuine published author.
The PPC's original Elvish language geek, Hellga is someone I've looked up to since my first forays into Quenya. She showed up not too long ago; I squee'd.
Ella is a promising candidate for youngest PPCer ever, and her farewell absolutely broke my heart.
The AV division remains my touchstone for 'how do you kill a Suvian without weapons'. I love these missions.
Andtauriel Longwood-Baggins, one half of Andy-and-Saphie (the original PPC OTP), and one of the authors of the sadly-unfinished Suedom.
You can't have Andy without Saphie. Saphie was the author of the original PPC constitution. These two are utter legends.
Leto may have been the very first to write about life in HQ outside of missions. He fought against us all in the Snowfight, and was a fixture here for many years.
Long-serving Permission Giver, author of the Department of Technical Errors, brilliant fun at Gatherings, Araeph was one of the most dedicated PPCers for a decade or more.
I never knew Thals well, but she was a huge part of the early PPC and OFUM before it - she was one of the three Permission Givers created by Jay herself. She was also a great friend to Kaitlyn, which means she must have been a nice person.
Hail the Great Goddess in her Most Holy Hat. One of the original Permission Givers, I still remember Bast grouching about Newbies These Days and how they don't understand the true spirit of the PPC. That was back in 2004. ^_^ The more things change...
Permission Giver, founder of OFUM, Mistress of Minis… I don't think the PPC would ever have taken off without Miss Cam.
I never spoke to Acacia; she was gone before I joined. But TOS wouldn't have been the same without Agent Acy's snark, and none of us would be here without her author.
I did speak to Jay; I saw her once on the Board (as Otik), and received an IM out of the blue to talk about Jaycacia (she approved, and told me Acacia did too). I can't put into words how awe-inspiring it was to actually sit down and talk to the creator of the PPC herself.
The PPC Board has changed my life. I've been here through virtually every major life event, and I would be a completely different person had I never found it. The community will go on, and I will follow it, but my memories of this Board, and of the people I've known here, will be treasured forever.
Thanks, old place. You've done us proud.
hS