The comfort of knowing it's all my fault. · 2:31pm Apr 12th, 2014
So apparently the CDA recently generated a pair of responses. Ones which came in the form of other stories.
This is where it gets ticklish. I was asked on one previous occasion not to mention people directly by name if it seemed as if I might be speaking against them because of any theoretical power I might have in the community, which I currently have measured at 0.00000001 watt. And I'm definitely not totally doing so here, along with not being sure I'm doing it at all, and one of the two linked to me...
*shrug*
Maybe I just have to leave it to search engines. Looking under Canterlot Deportation Agency will do the trick.
(Honestly: what is the line here? Am I bullying if I just bring something up? I'm not looking to start any site wars: I just found out about something and I'm posting about it. Maybe I should just ban myself, if only to save time...)
Anyway... one of those stories is a flipside definition, and the author let me know it was coming a long time ago. Instead of ponies trying to keep humans out of Equestria, it's humans desperately trying to deal with the ponies arriving on Earth. It got into the Popular Stories column for a while and I have to send a belated PM to the author in reply to the one which was sent to me: it's been a busy few days.
...y'know, given that and the fact that the original CDA tale is linked in his description, I will link back to that one: right over here. I feel I have permission. (Let me know if I'm over the line and I'll edit.)
The other... not so much.
I've heard of fixfics. I even know that some writers will try to take events from someone else's work and redo them to make things come out the way they wanted. This is the first time I've ever directly seen a backlash fic. It's...
...short.
I was not told this one was coming, nor should I have expected such to happen. It just turned up. The author in question hates the CDA and all s/he perceives it stands for. And you know something?
I'm okay with that.
Because I know some people hate the CDA. That hate wasn't exactly invisible the first time around. It's a concept which is going to draw emotion. Sorry, this version of Equestria didn't necessarily hang out the Welcome mat and put the New Ellis Island Immigration Center just inside Canterlot's gatehouse. We're not welcome and it's partially because the locals are not dealing with human villains by holding out for human heroes. There's a lot of reasons we're being turned back, and I'll even agree that a few in the CDA itself have been picking up anti-human sentiments: too many bad experiences to sort out the good any more.
So I got a backlash story. People are entitled to their hate, their opposing viewpoint, and certainly their right to compose a counter. Taking one of my characters and using her within... well... I do kind of wish the author had looked a little deeper into how that character might actually behave in that kind of scene, along with the fact that as I understand the setting being used, she wouldn't have been there at all.
But for it just to exist... so it goes. And I'm not going to get into an argument with the author. (Yes, I know I'm tempting fate here: let's just say that I hope this isn't one, I won't start a direct one, and since I have never convinced anyone on the Internet of anything, I wouldn't try there.) I'm just feeling this weird mix of bemusement, light weariness, resignation, and a mild desire, quickly suppressed, to offer character perspective on that scene.
I've thought about opening up the CDA before this: establishing a group and letting other writers in There's still a number of problems there: making sure the list of incursion worlds didn't get out of hand -- and Westros is still very much banned, thank you -- working out all agency policies, and especially having the spirit of the original idea stay intact. To me, it's not the Princesses as bigots: it's a land under siege and how ponies respond to invasions they can't seem to stop, some of which can do very real harm. But that's how I see part of it, and someone will always stand ready to tell me I'm wrong.
If I opened the group... there could easily be more backlash.
But it's the Internet. No matter what I do, it's going to produce backlash.
There's a dubious form of comfort in that. Somewhere. Let me know if you find it.
And one more thing. If you search for that second story... please don't start a war in that Comments section. The last thing anyone needs is to get a taste of Amy's Pony Company. The author has formed hir opinion and was entitled to do so. Arguing in this medium doesn't work. Let's not prove that any more times than we have to.
*braces for impact*
*also outside blog post edit suggestions*
(Seriously, if you think I'm better off deleting this entire entry, say so.)
Let it wash over and keep being awesome. You are a better writer than you seem to think.
Honestly, if someone tried to "correct" a story of mine because they disagreed with the central vision, I'd ask them to take it down. There's imitation as flattery, and there's being a dick. :/
You can't please all of the people all of the time. Still, inspiring such utter loathing is flattering, in a twisted sort of way. You got someone so riled up, s/he felt the need to respond to your story. It's debatable whether this is better or worse than eliciting nothing more than a "meh," but at least you got a reaction.
Of course, it would've been nice to ask permission to use your setting and character.
In any case, I don't plan on looking for that story. I hope it doesn't bum you out of continuing the tales of the CDA. Despite the blog title, this is not "all your fault." After all, you're not the one who wrote the backlash fic.
Huh. I honestly have no idea how I'd feel if it were me. But I will say with certainty that nothing you've written crosses any sort of line, and if someone gets mad at you that will only indicate lacking sense on their part.
I think I'd be flattered, even if I didn't like the story. After all, someone had a strong enough opinion to not just flame you in the comments, but actually write his or her own 'improved' version of the story (or sequel to the story, or whatever it is).
Unless it's blatant plagiarism, there really isn't much that you can do about it anyway.
As to opening up the 'verse, that's your prerogative, of course, but if you do, you'll effectively lose control of the whole thing, unless you want to devote all your time to obsessively managing the projects. Perhaps if there are a few other authors who you trust and respect who you'd want to collab with on CDA stories, that's one possibility, but I think once you open it up to everybody (effectively) with a group, it's out of your hands.
But that just, like, my opinion.
Due to copyright an author has the legal right to authorize (or not) derivative works. But a fanfic writer complaining that someone made a fanfic of his fanfic?
That just doesn't work, in my view.
Of course you can express your opinion on the quality of the fanfic but acting as if you have some moral right to authorize/prohibit people to write fanfics of your works...
2003241
Um...
...where did I say that?
I am very anti-censorship. The only comments I've ever deleted were my own, and that was just fixing wifi hiccups. I thought I said directly in the blog post that I feel the second author has every right to their feelings and to write a story based on them. Alternate character interpretation nagged at me a little: I admit that. But I never said I wanted the backlash story taken down. I don't. Because then I'm censoring someone else.
If you can tell me where you saw 'moral right' implied in there, I'll look it over and see if I agree with you. But that's not how I feel.
Edited to add: after a quick trip, I took a wild and probably horribly wrong guess that this might be about opening things up in a group and the impression of controlling it. In that case, it's not a moral right of authorizing or prohibiting: it's just ground rules for a shared setting. The constants.
Take the Optimalverse. There are certain things which the writers within agree on, such as CelestAI's programming and the core operations. Those things stretch across the stories. The AI behaves in a certain way. This could see permutations and twists, but the core is there.
Lunaverse. This is the history, these are the current Bearers. There might be stories which explore those elements -- but if you switch them out, it's not the Lunaverse any more.
So if I opened up the CDA as a shared setting, I would ask that I at least get to set up some of the constants. These are some of the known worlds launching incursions. There's room for more, but let's not get a eighty-million-front war going and yes, I am still banning Westros. That far I will go.
And within the CDA itself, there's room for a lot of story types. Pony who thinks humans need to be free joins to try and sabotage from within: that's a CDA story. World launches giant military incursion and we get an actual war for a while: still could fit. Pony and human try to keep a forbidden friendship secret: sure.
But if someone said 'Okay, now all the humans in New Cynosure are being herded into death camps so the Princesses can experiment on the best ways of killing them before attacking every other reality in order to wipe them out, stopping incursions forever'... I think I at least get to say 'Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not putting it in the main folder.'
On one hand, I'd kind of like it if you opened up CDA setting to others, in no small part because I might want to try my hoof at writing a story for it.
On the other hand, I fear the inevitable dilution of the stories as more people got into writing them, as well as the hatefics that would be sure to come.
So... uhm. I'm for whichever option causes fewest interpersonal conflict and author angst!
I think it goes without saying that not every human that arrives in CDA‐Equestria is from some crapsack setting where Humans Are (mostly) Bastards, it’s just that CDA‐Equestria is receiving enough of them that to handle matters more delicately would be stupidcidal.
Is it simply a case of that author “just not getting it”? It’s all‐too‐easy for someone to assume CDA‐Equestria is speciesist — there is a grain of truth there, after all — but to make that assumption necessitates ignoring the context and extenuating circumstances that drives Equestrian policy on incursions.
NFI what that’s referring to.
That just a typo or is it an instance of insistent terminology by a budding Social Justice Warrior™?
2003369
*nods* Most of the worlds are considerably less than perfect: that's part of what drives the setting. And there are peaceful incursions. But a one-policy-fits-all isn't going to work...
...and before anyone goes for the irony of that statement, here's something I haven't said yet about the CDA: 'The Princesses are doing exactly the right thing.' Because there's a very real argument to be made that they. are. not.
I'm the wrong person to try and say.
Amy's Pony Company... there's a restaurant around Scottsdale, Arizona called Amy's Baking Company which is known for, among other things, having a spectacularly bad relationship with the Internet. A little Google will do you. Too much and I am not responsible for any damage done to your sanity.
And I generally use s/he and hir when I don't know the gender of the person I'm speaking with or about. Defaulting to 'he' never felt right and frequently guarantees an offended party on the other end. 'It' just feels dehumanizing.
I didn't want to put up a new blog post for this, but I just saw that Orange Is The New Blue has been knocked out of the Feature box by Hitler Steals Scootaloo's Scooter.
I can appreciate that.
2003436
I don't even....
(but I'm morbidly curious)
People who are bad at dealing with criticism are silly.
On April 5, 2014 the Canterlot Deportation Agency established an elite school for the top one percent of its authors. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of Internet retaliation and to ensure that the handful of men who graduated were the best writers in the world. They succeeded. Today, the Agency calls it Internet Fighter Weapons School. The readers call it: TOP KEK.
2003731
....okay, anyone else hearing A-Team theme music while reading that?
2003744 Close, but you need to turn the radio dial just a liiiiittle further, into the danger zone.
2003436
...
Yeah, that's the featured box for you.
The CDA is interesting. It's original. And like all new ways of looking at things, not everyone is going to respond well. But I feel, and it's safe to say that a great deal of other ponywordreaders feel, that it's a really cool verse. So don't worry about backlash.
Haters gonna hate.
Also... I'm not gonna start a flame war. But I reserve the right to criticize stories for their grammar, spelling, and other technical qualities. And with some stories I shall be decidedly less gentle than others.
I gave serious thought to writing a parody CDA themed story for the EqD Weekly Writing Challenge where Rarity defended Ponyville against supervillan invaders with absolutely no sense of fashion or color sense at all. "Spandex? You simply do not have the body for skin-tight fashion, and the colors are just horrid! Drop the ray-gun and back into your dimensional portal or I will be forced to give you a makeover that you will never forget!"
After all, she is the Queen of Deportment.
2004235
NO CAPES!
2004235
The world is so much poorer for your decision.
Also, masks. Have to say something about the masks.
To tell you the truth, a certain antisocial group are probably getting bored writing their own circle-jerking fics now that there's nobody to get annoyed at, so seeing as a lot of them need attention they'll probably be finding something else to feel self-important about by complaining about...
Regardless, setting up a group if there's enough impetus to write in that setting is a good idea so you can lay down the ground rules. I'd take the optimalverse-type approach and have "canon compatible" and "not canon compatible", and expand from there if necessary.
2003402
I recommend singular "they". It was good enough for Shakespeare, so it's good enough for us!
Never read CDA. Might give it a go someday. The only reason I haven't read CDA fics is because I'm weary of HiE fics, or the human tag as a whole.
On that note *Gives Cupcake*. Don't let it get you down, you're still a good author. I like the idea of setting up a group, laying down important guidlines that are canon to your timeline AU, and let peeps go at it.
2003402
I'm just going to say it's offensive that people get offended when I, or anyone else, uses he, she, his or her. I don't want to play pronoun games and plenty of books and manuals etc that talk somewhat in the second/third? person choose one or the other. It's ridiculous to pull shit, complain, flame war, etc over the fact that I have no idea whether someone is male/female/whatever else they claim.
'It' does feel dehumanizing, so I don't use that.
Honestly, pronouns like 'their' feel impersonal and unfocused to some extent.
2003241
Sorry, but I can't agree. They have a reasonable expectation of people not copying their work if they make an explicit statement and actually have some copyright protection merely by writing anything down at all. I think they do have that moral right, particularly if they created something original, like a character, and that's what they're objecting to the use of. If they object on principle, well, they didn't create most of the setting (Equestria and lands nearby) or it's characters (including the mane six). The reality, though, is that you can't make people do anything your way by force of will and you're better off not trying.