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Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Comment Room Archive

Comments for the week ending March 18, 2018

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It's Greg's 35th Anniversary as a writer! Happy Anniversary, Greg!!
Mara Cordova - [angelcarnivore at gmail dot com]
"That's the Beauty of it"- Reverend Thrower, The Seventh Son.

Todd>> Howard Pyle was indeed an influence.

[SPOILER] And this is not the first appearance of the Salmon of Wisdom. You ought to check out Cycles, a Pendragon/Heroes of Ulster Crossover fic. [/SPOILER]

Chip - [Sir_Griff723 at yahoo dot com]
"Even the word 'hopeless' is not devoid of Hope'~~ Blinkus Galadrigal

The spammer IS breaking the rules, though. Specifically, #6's: "But please, do NOT flood the queue. Show restraint or risk DELETION."

At what point are they going to be stopped? They're adding questions almost every single day, and now most of the 1151 questions in the queue are theirs. I can easily come up with a hundred questions a day. If I did that, and they only broke rule #6, would I be allowed to get away with it?

Lurking Lady

I don't have any skin in this particular game, but it seems to bear out what Renard said in "Outfoxed": "Integrity is never easy. It's a daily struggle: A costly struggle."
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

Masterdramon, my comment was not intended as a criticism of you. I have noticed that many of the Beast Boy-M'Gann questions have been deleted. This is one of the reasons I asked you to delete my complaint. The other is that it's just not my place to decide for Greg which questions he chooses to answer - no matter how deferentially or respectfully my complaint might have been made. I don't have an excuse. I can only explain myself by saying: THIS GUY REALLY REALLY BUGS ME!
Anonymous

I wonder if maybe it's time for a moratorium on "in-universe" questions for a while. (Most of which would probably receive "No spoilers" answers anyway.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

This is the third time I've posted this in the CR now, but I think most of what I wrote about 9 months ago still applies:

In and of itself, the fact that one person is asking dozens upon dozens of questions on the same topic does not necessarily break guidelines. I'm very aware of the user you're speaking about, and they do try my patience whenever I'm processing the queue. But they are only sometimes breaking the actual rules set in place.

To be sure, since they ask dozens of iterations of the same basic question (for example, how every character and their third-cousin feels about M'gann's comparatively long lifespan), I can and do delete the ones that aren't substantively different from a previously posted question, in accordance with Guideline #2. But if the question is new, even if I personally feel it is banal and repetitive, I have no choice but to send it through.

Still, there have been easily more than fifty questions I have deleted from this user under said guideline. So the situation could be a lot worse than it currently is.


I am indeed not pleased with this user either, but I'm not going to just laser-beam every last one of their questions out of irritation. That would be the easy choice, not the responsible one.

While it's more difficult, going through each question one-by-one and sending forward the ones that pass all Guidelines - even if I personally think they're a waste of Greg's time - is what I firmly believe to be the right call.

...Mind, while I'm no longer keeping track, the number of these questions I have deleted is easily in the 100-200 range at this point. There's simply so goshdurn MANY of these things that it doesn't look like it, but believe me, it could be SO much worse.

Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Take my revolution!" - Utena Tenjou

Todd>>> Awww. You just made my day. :)
Chip - [Sir_Griff723 at yahoo dot com]
"Even the word 'hopeless' is not devoid of Hope'~~ Blinkus Galadrigal

Sorry for the double post, but this was something that I should have posted when I was writing my review of Chapter Four of Chip's "The Crystal Cave" fic earlier this evening, and then forgot to include - and since I know Chip comes here, this might make do.

Earlier today, I was rereading Susan Cooper's "The Boggart and the Monster", a children's fantasy about a boggart (a Scottish shape-shifting critter, fond of playing tricks) who discovers that the Loch Ness Monster is really another boggart who'd accidentally gotten stuck in the "Nessie" form and is trying to help it return to normal. So reading a Gargoyles fanfic featuring Nessie and Loch Ness (with a different take) on the same day made an unusual (but pleasant) feeling.

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

I think that Anonymous is right; these questions are most likely submitted by someone who's become so obsessed with trivia about a couple of characters that he or she isn't realizing how it's coming across.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Regarding the M'Gann/Beast Boy posts... I don't think it's someone trolling on-purpose. I actually think it may be someone who is mentally challenged who doesn't realize how rude and inconsiderate his or her behavior is. BTW, I am not mocking this person. I really think that's what we are dealing with here.
Anonymous

(though really, just because M'gann CAN live for centuries, doesn't mean she will. Girl is a superheroine who also does black ops. The odds of her out-aging her friends are... very very small, comparatively.)

(that's not really pertinent to the spam discussion, it's just what I think of every time a lifespan question gets added to the queue. if anyone on the Team makes it to retirement age it'll be a miracle.)

KarrinBlue

There is a difference between 'submitted' and 'approved' in the AskGreg queue. Frustrating as it may be, I trust the mods reckon with those posts in due time (and since the last of the approved was for posts submitted in early November 2017, I trust many more aren't going to make it).

Tangent: Since last Thursday (March 8)'s ten-year anniversary, I've decided to revisit The Spectacular Spider-Man on blu-ray. I've been going with a one 'arc' per week, keeping in mind how they were originally written in three-or-four episode blocks framing out the 'Education of Peter Parker' as they used to promote. It's been a blast being properly reintroduced to such fun characters (Norman, Gwen, Vulture, Eddie, MJ, Shocker, JJJ, Sandman, and Tombstone for starters), not to mention Flash's ridiculous laugh d:

Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka

The Garfield and M'gann questions really do need to be deleted. It's not an overenthusiastic fan submitting a few too many questions, it's an obvious troll (or trolls) screwing around with the Ask Greg part of this site. Most of the unanswered questions now are their joke questions, and they're constantly adding more. It's incredibly unfair, to everyone else who wants to ask questions, for the queue to completely monopolized by some lowlife.
Lurking Lady

Really all the spam questions about Gar and M'gann ought to be deleted. They're all either spoilers, already asked-and-answered, or redundant about 20 times over. I swear half the backlog is 'how does X character feel about M'gann's lifespan' 'who was at the birthday parties' 'why doesn't Gar hate M'gann for Y reason' 'when did M'gann see Gar' or 'who is Gar's guardian'.
Elsie

Hi. I'm the person who expressed his displeasure about all of the beast boy questions in the question queue on January 15, 2018. I realize now that my post is not going to be well received, and I am hoping you would be willing to delete it? Please?
Anonymous

Alan Cumming, the voice of Castaway in "The Journey", is reportedly to appear in the upcoming season of "Doctor Who", as James I of England. Which sounds appropriate, because James was also descended from Duncan and Canmore (if less directly than the Canmores) - which probably had much to do with Shakespeare's presentation of events in "Macbeth".
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Of course they are animals just like us. I'm sure that if our numbers ever got low enough we'd make the list. (Assuming anyone still alive cared enough to update the list).

Hey Mara! Nice to see you in here.

Spen

ADAM - [Just goes to show how even though they Gargoyle race would probably fit under the critically endangered list in 1997 (and even 2018), in another 100 years, they could would probably be close to being taken off the list.]

Assuming they ever got on the list. I recall a discussion about that here some years ago, with many posters thinking that Goliath and his clan might not be so keen on the gargoyles being classified as Endangered Species, lest it encourage the humans to go on viewing them as just animals, rather than the intelligent non-human beings they are.

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

One thing that has always interested me about Gargoyles is how there reproductive cycle can be viewed so differently short term and long term.

For example, looking at the Mayan. Long term, they are set up to rebuild long term. Lets say they have 30 eggs in 1998 rookery, and those 30 eggs lead to say 12 for the 2058, 2078, and 2098 rookeries. While it might take a while to get a 30 egg rookery again, by 2098 there is a potential for around 50 adult members, 12 young, and 12 eggs (depending on if they gain members from other clans and if Zafiro/Obsidiana & Jade/Turquesa have eggs(I assume they will).

But a small clan, say the survivors of a destroyed clan, would obviously struggle going forward. Take Demona's cell from "Tyrants". Using the numbers and ages (not the actual members) as an example, they could produce at most, 6 eggs between the 3 females (1 for "Second", 2 for "Demona" and 3 for "True"). I don't know how long they can be sustained until the start getting too closely related. However, even a couple of m/f mated pairs added extends the clans future by several generations, potentially. Say they add members like what seen members from the London clan (sample for ages and number, not the actual members). Between "Constance" and "Lunette", that would potentially be 6 eggs for the clan.

Just goes to show how even though they Gargoyle race would probably fit under the critically endangered list in 1997 (and even 2018), in another 100 years, they could would probably be close to being taken off the list.

Adam

And Tenth!!

Although I don't have much to share- other than reorganizing 19 years of art in one shared folder on Windows 10 is...

Well you can imagine. :P

Mara Cordova - [angelcarnivore at gmail dot com]
"That's the Beauty of it"- Reverend Thrower, The Seventh Son.

CHIP - Thanks. I reread the chapter, and you're right, [SPOILER] it was Merlin returning from a visit [/SPOILER]. I must not have read it closely enough the first time.

I still get a kick out of your having the London gargs compare Coldstone and Coldfire to the Cybermen, by the way. (Though fortunately they're not trying to convert or upgrade other gargoyles.)

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

The Ninth Ray is the key to Barsoomian technology!

I hadn't realized how long I've been only just lurking in here without saying anything, my computer has forgotten my settings for the CR.

Todd>> You are very hard man to respond to when you review, you know that? In response to your review of chapter three of Crystal Cave, [SPOILER] I did not change the year Arthur was taken to Avalon. It's still 542. Merlin was just returning from a checkup trip in 565. That's why Nimue wasn't with him on the Skiff, as she's one of The Three. [/SPOILER]

Chip - [Sir_Griff723 at yahoo dot com]
"Even the word 'hopeless' is not devoid of Hope'~~ Blinkus Galadrigal

I was holding out for nine my lucky number. But I'll settle for eighth.
Matthew
Muscles fade and the mind dulls.But as long as the heart is willing, strength remains.

All Lucky Sevens!
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

Sixth.
Spen

Fifth.

GargWiki is mostly back. There's one small aesthetic fix we need to make, but the thumbnails are now all working. And the page is the correct color.

We're almost there...

Greg Bishansky - [<-----------My fics]

Fourth.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Third.
Matt - [Saint Charles, Missouri, USA]
"For SCIENCE, which, as my associate Fang indicated, must move ever forward." - Sevarius

2nd.
Adam

Huh, first I guess. Thank you Daylight Savings Time.
Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]