WebOriginal An attempt at analysis of the modern PPC
The reviews of this group and the discussions they caused on this page led me to conduct some research on the community, and… well, here's the result. This is gonna be a long little research dump, so apologies for length in advance.
In short, while frasmotic’s review on the PPC rightfully criticizes the smug, early-Internet and hypocritically amateurish feel of some 2000's PPC stories, that analysis feels less relevant when looking at what the PPC transformed into over two decades. Almost every aspect of their review criticized things that the PPC has moved on from, by the looks of things. From cursory research: authors are no longer mentioned where possible, agents aren't treated as valiant heroes (A phenomena I only saw in one spin-off that is funnily enough seen as aged by the community yet heavily referenced on the PPC Trope page. Otherwise, acknowledgment that they may essentially be murderers is something even older spinoffs noted: “We’re evil. Miss Cam is evil. This is just sad.”), and the term ‘canon rape’ was used by a single spin-off so buried that I literally could not find it after a week of hunting. I assume it's an old one, however, as judging by the current PPC community that terminology would be killed on arrival.
Spin-offs as a whole are not only less frequent and spork blatantly ‘worse’ fics (I know quality is subjective, but we’re talking ones that would struggle as much as ‘My Immortal’ or any of Dakari King-Mykan’s works to find support. In fact, the latter receives heavy criticism on This Very Wiki), but have much higher quality control compared to twenty years ago. Add on that the community is positively tiny for a writing group (with there being less than a hundred members, with even fewer who write for the setting), and the claim that this fanfic-sporking group is somehow comparable to phrenology in scope and scale feels absurd. (If I can be honest, sometimes comments about the PPC feel like wild leaps to made-up strawmen or outdated ‘gotchas’ or even just projection - “I guess that's what happens when PPC fans get their feelings hurt” in response to getting a review flagged comes to mind.)
It's actually fairly ironic, considering many tropers on This Very Wiki who have criticized the PPC have done so with writing takes so dated even the PPC itself moved on from it over a decade ago. A good example of this is its now-deleted entry on the Broken Aesop page, where assassins were called hypocritical for ‘always winning’ (Trained assassins doing their job? The horror. Plus, there's a solid enough number of ‘failed’ missions in-universe that disprove the second point) and thus ‘indistinguishable from Mary Sues’ (ignore the fact that even the PPC itself has recognized that not only is ‘Mary Sue’ a loaded term, but execution takes precedence over concept when deciding whether a character is good or not. I'm sorry, but as a writer this ‘criticism’ is utterly infuriating). It's honestly strange seeing criticisms of the PPC not only be inaccurate towards the group's current state, but outdated in the sense that said ‘criticisms’ feel like they came from the bowels of early 2000's forums themselves. Considering that one troper actually vandalized the group’ Wiki on November of 2022 (something easy to prove at the time considering their Fandom name was the same as their TV Tropes name), there's also a sense of hypocritical self-righteousness. Twenty years changes a community, but it looks like some individuals never age.
Speaking of, let's look at the one (1) example that's been used to claim that the modern (at least, 2016-era modern) PPC is comparable to their older form: a review on this page that got removed after a comment suggesting said ‘review’ (see: a single sentence claiming the PPC was a bunch of bullies) stop with a grudge. Research on this topic was more complicated, but apparently the issue traces back to a former member turned troll after being banned for doubling down on bigotry and creating multiple sockpuppet accounts in an attempt to bypass said ban. It's a long story, and they do have a Wiki page recording this years-long issue, though I'm hesitant to link it here since I'm not sure if that's allowed in a review. Either way, using this to claim the community can't take criticism is a mistake I can see the reason behind, but it definitely doesn't hold up with context.
Is the group’s focus on fic-sporking for everyone? Absolutely not, to the point some of its own writers have ignored the setting’s sporking aspect entirely to write worldbuilding pieces (with one of them being a personal candidate for the best series I've read on the internet, funnily enough - Shift Twentieth and the Janitorial Division is a unique experience). In fact, from what research suggested, a solid third of active members just hang out in the community, having arrvied due to friend recommendations, which makes sense considering how genuinely chill the community seems to be despite their subject focus and what their reputation may make it seem.
Does the older age of the PPC, with its author-bashing, self-righteous claims of helping people learn, and sporking of any decent fic for the crime of not being canon deserve to be left in the bin? Absolutely, and even the current PPC has acknowledged that when asked (they're not exactly closed-off, either, so one can absolutely ask them and they seem fine with answering questions when they're not aggressive accusations).
However, the issue that comes with the only in-depth review on this site criticizing old aspects of the PPC is that it kind of creates the idea that the modern PPC is the same, which from the simplest of research is far from the truth. In fact, the difference between the somewhat aged image of the PPC that appears on TV Tropes versus the PPC itself is so jarringly different that one is virtually indistinguishable from the other minus shared terminology. As stated earlier, twenty years changes a community, but I guess reputations last forever. A pity, that.
WebOriginal When cyberbullying was heroic
Back when the world was new, FF.net was down on its luck, and everywhere gigantic brats called "Suethors" ran amok. In stepped the Protectors of the Plot Continuum: a close-knit community in ome publicly accessible far-flung corner of the internet, where the pen name and fandom of the "Suethor", alongside the numerous details of their awful writing, were discussed, denigrated, and eviscerated with commendable gusto.
No sin was overlooked - bad grammar, bad spelling, canon "rape" (a classy way to trivialize what rape victims endure), out of character moments, self-inserted modern 15 year old girls who fell into the setting through their television - all were subject to what was essentially revenge fiction. The unfortunate "Suethor" had written something that hurt the feelings of these noble internet superheroes, and they responded with a thorough verbal trashing of the offending material. Eye for an eye.
This trashing was uploaded to their publicly accessible corner of the internet, and there it stayed, waiting for Google to take note of its existence. And then inform people searching for the author by their penname, story and fandom, that such a thing was in existence. Mission accomplished. Top marks all around.
The PPC made sure to be very thorough about keeping their own reputations safe with the use of disclaimers on their also publicly accessible wiki where they collate their completed hitlists. These disclaimers explained in no uncertain terms that their actions could not in any way be cyberbullying because 1) it's not cyberbullying if they say it isn't and 2) they don't actually interact with the writer, just put out a smear piece sharing their pen name and story which makes it reasonably simple for any enterprising troll to find their way to a new victim. And also 3) the PPC doesn't condone or acknowledge the misbehavior of any such enterprising trolls. We Didn't Do It.
Is most fanfiction going to be trash since the genre has little gatekeeping? Unfortunately, yes. Is forming communities to write fanfics where their own OCs heroically bust in to brutally murder the perpetrators of the bad writing the right answer? Umm...
It's the same pattern in every PPC story. A real person wrote a bad story on the internet. The PPC characters wade in to tear that story apart, perhaps brutally slaying the offending original characters (if any), or killing a strawman representation of the author themselves. But they do it wackily with any number of monkeycheese random implements and with Good English, so they're better.
Humanity has had some pretty terrible ideas that seemed reasonable in their day and age. Phrenology, Lamarckian evolution, vibrating fitness belts. As our understanding of reality and society advances, we have rightly discarded them and made a note of why they shouldn't come back. One day, we will be ready to consign the Protectors of the Plot Continuum to this same trash heap. That day cannot come soon enough.