Talk:FAQ: For Other People/historic

Stuff That Could Be Better
I'll try to get the ball rolling here, though I don't think I'm necessarily the best person for the job&mdash;I'm rather fond of this FAQ. Still, changing with the times and all.


 * I did see a complaint from a non-PPCer about the heading "The Gender Card" being an immediate turn-off, meaning they were unwilling to take the section seriously just because of that. I'm not sure what else to call it myself, but maybe someone else can think of something?
 * There's "you" language abounding, which is always more confrontational than other kinds of phrasing. That sort of thing can probably be changed around to be more about what we think and less about what we think they think. This line is pretty bad:
 * And if, as I suspect, your "sugar high" has more to do with hormones and lack of self-discipline, you should write for the drawer until you're mature enough to go public without embarrassing yourself.
 * Much as it pains me to say so, someone has to: I've seen people call us on our writing skills, and frankly, even the Original Series wasn't perfect SPaG-wise. (So many ellipses with more or less than three dots. So many ellipses, period.) Some of us over the years have not been above-average writers. What we are, though, are writers who are all willing to make an effort to improve. These bits might have to go, or at least be modified to account for that:
 * Furthermore, if we didn't write our PPC fics well, we would long ago have been called on the fact that we bash poor writing while writing horribly ourselves. We do not. Sorry to burst your bubble.
 * Our only claim to superiority is this: if you are a badfic author, then we are better writers than you.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully people more worried about it than I am can point out some more specific things.

~Neshomeh 02:47, November 13, 2011 (UTC)

Some Proposals:
Overall: A Focus on Critical Thinking vs Outright Superiority


 * I would add in a section about what criticism is. It seems a lot of this FAQ is basically defining that we are critics and satirists and not flamers, however defensively. It would save a lot of 'but we are better than you' talk not to focus on the fact that we are more experienced writers and therefore better than less experienced writers, but to focus on the fact that the PPC is a bunch of critical thinkers.


 * Not 'critical' as in 'we say things are bad.' Critical as in 'we examine the work carefully and determine if it makes sense or not.' We may not always have been better writers. We may not always have been superior in any way at all, actually. But we always have been critical thinkers that have deeply examined the facts of fic we encounter, match them up with the canon, and think about their implications. You don't have to be 'superior' to be a critical thinker.


 * Criticism itself has gotten such a bad rap: on par with being a 'naysayer,' a flamer, or a bully. Being told 'It's bad' or 'No,' is dreaded and hated nearly everywhere... when critics don't exist to tell people they suck (even if sometimes, it has to be said). Critics exist to point out where things went wrong: which we do, in our missions, our charge lists, and in nearly everything we do. In a perfect world, I'd like anybody who read a PPC mission and was offended, to be able to step back and then read it as a satire and then laugh at it, "Oh boy, that thing in the story is kind of silly, isn't it?" This probably can't happen; many writers have attachments to their work that prevent objectivity in that way... but we at least try and make enjoyable criticism. I think we should focus on that more than 'we all are better writers than some less good writers.'

Renaming 'The Gender Card'


 * I would call it 'Misogyny Complaints.' Although I wish I could just call it 'ism' complaints, because there are probably more 'isms' that could be complained about... I do see Misogyny brought up in Mary Sue discussions a lot. Though I would say that for all complaints about Misogyny, there should be equal address for homophobia or other stuff... I KNOW there are slash writers that complain that badslash is empowering for the GLBT community and shouldn't be criticised, either...(we all know at the PPC that strong male characters being weakened for the sake of badslash/badyaoi isn't empowering at all, though.)

'You' Language


 * Most of the best points in the FAQ are sensible ones, ones that don't rely on insulting the person. However, there are some examples that require some 'you' not as an insult, but as an example. I likethe stage analogy under the 'if you don't have something nice to say' point, even though it uses 'you' language to put the recipient on the stage, in the place of what's being critqued.

Aster Corbett 04:02, November 13, 2011 (UTC)