FORKNI-L
Digest - 10 Mar 2011 to 11 Mar 2011 (#2011-32)
Fri, 11 Mar 2011
There are 6 messages totalling 304 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. The History of the Perkulators (WAS: Re: Other Factions)
2. Joke factions
3. Other Factions (WAS: Re: Joke factions) - Morgues
4. Safe from the Tsunami
5. Other Factions (WAS: Re: Joke factions)
6. When Tracy was new
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Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:38:12 -0800
From: Anne Jensen <ajensen@w.......>
Subject: The History of the Perkulators (WAS: Re: Other Factions)
Originally posted by "Greer Watson" <gwatson2@r.......> on Thursday, March 10,
2011 1:17:54 AM
>My impression is that, when she was first introduced, Tracy was not exactly
>popular... Would I be right in thinking that the original Perkulators faction
>was not, therefore, likely to attract a lot of members? ... The Dark Perks,
>on the other hand, were created a couple of years later...
(Greer, if you want to use any of this for the FK Wiki, let me know, and I'll
try to re-edit it into a more coherent version.)
As a Perkulator (the few, the proud, the only--so far as I can tell...), I
thought I'd chime in on the Perks/DP question, since I was on the list right
through the transition. :)
I was introduced to FK by a friend of mine who was very involved in the fandom
in its second season, and started watching--though not actually participating in
the fandom--for its third. The fandom was always of interest to me, however,
and I found myself following War VIII eagerly (again, still not participating),
some time later. Because of when I'd started watching regularly, I naturally
felt a closer connection to Tracy and Vachon than to Schanke, so I read all of
the posts from the Perks during that war, only to have them drop out mid-war,
never to be heard from again...
Later on, Mary, the DP Godmother, joined the list and introduced her "dark" take
on Tracy, and I was as intrigued by the "dark" take as I was by the "normal"
one. By that time, I'd started lurking on FORKNI-L, and joined the DP to take
part in active discussions on Tracy. When War IX was starting, none of the
former Perks were active on FORKNI-L, so, figuring I was the only remaining
"bright and sunny Perk" on the list, I joined up with the Dark Perks and have
played with them ever since, creating a united Perk and DP faction.
I do try and give a nod to the original Perks during the wars: as had happened
with them, my "call to arms" involves a sudden run of good luck, and I've even
gone to the old Perk HQ a couple of times, looking for answers about what's
happened to them. (There's a story I was setting up there, which never got
told.) On the Real Life side, I did email PartlyK, the original Perk faction
leader, that first war, to get permission to use the old Perk HQ, and I
technically still have my Perkulator homepage up, though it hasn't been updated
in almost 10 years.
This last war, the DPs had been hit by real life and yes, GAFIAing, so I was
pretty much playing as a faction of one, and mostly because I thought the war
wouldn't be the same without some kind of Perk/DP presence, (hence our getting
dumped in jello for most of the war, when real life got out of hand for me,
too).
Personally, although I liked Nick and Natalie (and Schanke, and Janette, and
everyone else), I felt a pull towards the (relatively) cheerful blonde character
who seemed out of place in the middle of a vampire show--recalling that this was
long before Buffy made such things seem more common. I never figured myself as
the type to be into a vampire show, so Tracy, as out of place
as I felt, was a natural connection for me. Ironically, as I see kids getting
into things like Twilight and the host of other vampire books and shows these
days, I feel like one of the "old-timers" of vampire fandom.
Still Perky after all these years,
Anne Jensen
ajensen@w.......
Perkulator Librarian
Token "bright and sunny Perk" of the DP
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:38:40 -0500
From: Bonnie Rutledge <nunkies@l.......>
Subject: Re: Joke factions
Nunkies Anonymous was totally a joke faction. Its roots came from a series of
comedic fanfic written by Nancy Young (with some contributors) called
"Noctambulist." I think "Noctabulist IV" was the first installment that
mentioned Nunkies Anonymous specifically. It can be found in the main fanfic
archive at http://www.fkfanfic.com/fanfic/n/noct2329.txt
If I recall correctly, Nunkies Anonymous started as a small e-mail loop of
people who loved this fanfic and the "Noctambulist" creators, and developed with
the idea that war stories (or stories inspired by Wars 5 and 7 as "Noctambulist"
was) are too much fun to limit to wartime only. We continued joking and
daydreaming along these themes outside of War, which is why the amount of
non-War Canon 'adventures' by NunkAnon members and friends rivals the volume of
our actual War stories. :) Members of the faction flowed easily with the
Cousins, because that is essentially what we were (with some Ratpacker and
Vaqueras thrown in for spice). We just had a bunch of silliness we'd created
outside of War that we wanted to continue. Nunkies Anonymous has always been
irreverent in spirit. Sometimes it went over well (barfights and llamas) and
sometimes not so much (Nameless, Faceless Victims, you know who you are!).
I also remember at some point getting a cease-and-desist from Narcotics
Anonymous about using NA as our acronym, NA in our logos, and making fun of
12-step programs. I switched to using NunkAnon more often as the shorthand for
the faction after that.
One other note - I think War 8 was an opening to an explosion of creativity
faction-wise. Since the theme was all about Alternate Universe FK characters,
there were factions born out of the premise, such as the General's Secret
Service, and list jokes come to life, such as Brickman. Newcomers didn't have to
beg or wrangle access to the canon characters, and anything PG-13 was possible.
There have been more structured Wars since with exquisite results, but none that
I think were as accessible to people with unreasonably fantastic imaginations.
:)
<waves>
Bonnie Rutledge
nunkies@l.......
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:53:42 -0700
From: Walt Doherty <wdoherty5@c.......>
Subject: Re: Other Factions (WAS: Re: Joke factions) - Morgues
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greer Watson" <gwatson2@r.......>
What I guess I'm saying is, you don't see a lot of Nat-focused
stories set in the morgue that focus on her contribution as a pathologist to
the solution of a crime.
- - - - - - - - -
I think the simple reason for this is that not many of the fans are pathologists
and therefore feel that they cannot convincingly or accruately describe or
write about pathologists, morgues, and morgue procedures. It can be hard
enough to write a police procedural let alone one with morgue procedures
added to it.
:-)
Walt
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:03:13 -0500
From: "Marla K." <mrkkaye@a.......>
Subject: Safe from the Tsunami
Many people are aware that Ger has family in Thailand. The following was
posted 2 hours ago Eastern Time.
Bangkok Post: 11 Mar 2011
Japan tsunami won't hit Thailand
Bangkok Post * Published: 11/03/2011 at 03:15 PM
The 8.8-magnitute earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan today will not have
any impact on Thailand, Somsak Kaosuwon, director of the Natural Disaster
Warning Centre, confirmed on Friday afternoon.
"We have monitored the strong earthquake since it first hit Japan about noon.
There will be no affect on Thailand and Thai people should not panic," Col Somsak said.
Thani Thongphakdi, director-general of the Information Department at Foreign Ministry,
said there are about 50,000 Thais in Japan. About 300 of them are living in the
coastal area of Miyagi, near the earthquake's centre, on the main island of Honshu.
"The Thai embassy in Japan is now coordinating with the Thai community in Miyagi to
see if they are all right and what assistance they need," Mr Thani said.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/226169/japan-quake-won-t-affect-thailand
--------------
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:24:02 +0000
From: Susan Bennett <nnpacker@h.......>
Subject: Re: Other Factions (WAS: Re: Joke factions)
----------------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:17:54 -0500
> From: gwatson2@r.......
> Subject: Re: Other Factions (WAS: Re: Joke factions)
> To: FORKNI-L@l.......
Just adding in a couple of thoughts
(not relevant to Joke factions, but
character factions)
--snip--
> People have pointed out that the size of a faction is related, in part, to
> the number of active writers. Basically, if I've got this right, this has
> two effects.
IMHO, I think that the size of the faction depends on fans' favourite
characters/character combinations, although the "activity level" of the
faction could definitely be related to the number of writers. (There are
many fans who join faction lists, but have no interest in reading fanfic)
> (1) Within the context of war, the more people there are in the
> faction who are active writers, the more members the faction can sustain
> during a war, since that makes it possible to write more fans into the
> plot, since plot threads can be shared out among multiple writers.
I know from my experience with the NNP, that everyone who wanted to
participate in the War was welcome. While the number of writers determined
the quantity and complexity of stories, it never influenced the number of
War participants.
> (2) The other effect, I guess, is be that--out of wartime--factions
> with more writers post more stories (and other things) to their
> loop/list/group, and hence attract more people to join.
I'm not quite sure what this means as people would already belong to that
particular list to be able to read those stories, etc.
--snip--
> What I guess I'm saying is, you don't see a lot of Nat-focused
> stories set in the morgue that focus on her contribution as a pathologist
> to the solution of a crime.
IMHO, I don't find that surprising, given a universe that includes vampires,
guilt, bloodlust, good and evil, flashbacks, cops, criminals, etc., to write
about.
> Of course, Natalie plays an ensemble role in a lot of FK fan
> fiction. However, since a lot of Nat stories are also Nick/Nat stories,
> there's a natural tendency for the Natpack and NNatpack to run
> together--like one of thoe Venn diagrams with overlapping circles, except
> that in this case there's almost all overlap and no bits sticking out.
I don't believe that was the case in the early years, as I recall there were
Natpackers who weren't particularly fond of Nick or a Nick/Nat relationship
(just as there are Knighties who feel the same). Natpacker (and other
faction) members who liked the Nick&Nat combo also joined the NNP. It's
also worth noting that Nick&Nat's romantic relationship evolved in the third
season with eps like LNMTA, NiQ, MBiaV, LK, so it's not surprising that more
romantic Nick/Nat fiction came out of that.
Susan B.
nnpacker@h.......
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:16:35 -0500
From: Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
Subject: Re: When Tracy was new
McLisa wrote of Lisa Ryder/Tracy:
> Actually, Ger directed her first episode and he cast her.
Now, I didn't know that--that it was Ger who'd decided, I mean. Obviously,
TPTB would have had to sign off on it. Their desire to "sex up" the show is
notorious; and I don't doubt that, as you say, they saw Tracy and Vachon as
a young couple designed (yes, I think *designed* is the right way to put
it!) to attract a younger audience.
> I'd like to be clear that even those of us who didn't care for Tracey
> respected Lisa Ryder. She did the best she could in the situation.
It must have been a very difficult situation for the actors. Hard for the
ones who *weren't* fired, who had their working conditions radically
altered, and had to get used to new colleagues. Hard on the newcomers, who
knew they were entering a dicey situation. The fans' resentment couldn't
have helped! However, I'm sure no one consciously blamed the *actors*:
they weren't the ones who made the changes, after all.
>It didn't helo, IMHO, that there was no chemistry between her and Ben Bass.
And this is why we have factions!! Because *I* thought there was a lot of
chemistry between them--but on a friendship level, not a romantic one. (So
much for TPTB wanting to make them a "young couple"!) Actually, I was very
disappointed that, as Season Three wore on, they more or less ignored
Vachon. I thought both the character and the friendship had a lot of
potential.
Greer
gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/
------------------------------
End of FORKNI-L Digest - 10 Mar 2011 to 11 Mar 2011 (#2011-32)
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