Terminology

The Ratings System

Each piece examined on this site receives a grade from one of the following:

A: Perfect, marvelous. Wonderful development, intriguing characters, good writing and development. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. A work of pure genius. Can I have your autograph?

(You'll never see one of those here. This is for pure reference).

B: Overall very good, with a few small errors that can be glossed over, like a misspelled word or slight conflict in plot.

(You'll never see any of these here either. Reference only).

C: Average. It's good, but there's one or two major things to deal with that are an issue that cannot be ignored. It's either a bad formatting problem, bad spelling/grammar, or a seriously messed-up plot and/or characters. We can see the good stuff in there somewhere, and we know it can be brought out!

D: Barely passable. We know the good stuff is in there somewhere, but it's almost impossible to see due to the clutter. It's still salvageable though. An extensive rewrite is highly recommended.

F: You've either mangled the plot so badly that it's nothing but incoherent babble, or have written a really, really bad Mary Sue. There are less than 5 good points about your story/profile. There is no hope for it. It's a lost cause. Scrap the piece and start over. Please.

BONFIRE: Not ONLY is this as bad as an F-rated piece, but it has insulted the genre that it is a part of. It's a detriment to society. It deserves to burn in the Burning Dumpster for all eternity. Pure vomit.

All works that are clearly cheap rip-offs, plagiarisms, throw the main characters completely OOC (parodies excluded), insult the genre, and/or are of Sera quality get an automatic BONFIRE grade. No questions asked.

NUKE: Nuke is officially the newest grade. This is when the Bonfire grade goes over the edge forcing those who read this fic or profile to constantly convulse and retch periodically over a couple of hours. In other words: The thing doesn't deserve to live.

Fanfiction/PBEM Terms

Burning Dumpster: Once upon a time, someone in the FFVII RPG chat room pretended to throw someone else into a dumpster. Then someone set it on fire. We proceeded to resort to the Burning Dumpter when all else failed in our disputes and we were tired to arguing. It eventually became our mascot.
EPS: Endless Paragraph Syndrome. The paragraphs are either really, really, really long, or non-existent. A serious formatting problem.
Flame: When someone is rude and basically says that your piece sucks. Basically, what we're doing here, right? Wrong! Here we point out what's wrong and try to be positive about what's good about a work. But...yea. I guess it is flaming. But this is CONSTRUCTIVE flaming!
GM: Game Moderator or game owner of a PBEM. The person in charge, basically.
Godmoding: A Mary Sue in action. They pretty much kick everyone else's asses in a PBEM because they're Sues with magical powers. They constantly evade attack and yet somehow manage to beat the crap out of others. Kaiyu, Maddie, and Alina DETEST Godmoding.
Mary Sue/Gary Stu: Take Mary Poppins' slogan "Practically Perfect in Every Way" and remove the 'pracically'. They're perfect little characters with no real flaws that can do whatever the hell they like. No one can contradict them or oppose them because they're always right. In fanfiction, they're boring. In PBEM, they are a royal pain in the ass. Also known as an avatar.
PBEM: Play-By-E-Mail (with the RPG, Role Playing Game) intended.
Powergaming: See Godmoding.
Sera: A term used to describe the worst possible PBEM character profile possible. A profile is a Sera profile when it is incomplete or plaigiarized, is a blatant Mary Sue, and is completely illegible. The name Sera comes from the player notorious (To Kaiyu and Alina anyway) for these kinds of profiles.
Anything dubbed a Sera is automatically given a BONFIRE rating.
Sue Logic: The use of contradictory items in a way that is supposed to make a Sue look good. It doesn't.

Prime examples of Sue Logic at work:

1. "Born in darkness, but imploded with light..."

2. "The sun had just set, and its rays caressed the girl's face, causing Legolas to faint, overwhelmed by the surging, passionate, yet quiet expression that he was being faced with."
(I actually wrote this one myself. I feel really dirty right now.)

3. "Corrine is so naive. She can just step in the middle of a gunfight and not even know the danger."

(Later...)

"...I know about what happened before. I only acted as though I didn't. I'm not all that innocent as you think. I'm not that naive." "

(Yanked from 'New Destiny')

Take me back!