[META] Story Elements from Missing Authors

[robkelk]

I tried mining my Fenspace archives today for information about the TSAB, only to discover that there isn't any beyond what's already on the FenWiki - there's never been anything substantial posted about Benjamin Franklin station or Stephen Caldwell or Amy O'Connell. Now I know ECSNorway is still posting here on occasion, so this isn't a matter for immediate concern, but it did get me to thinking. And we all know how dangerous that is...

There are some folks who started filling in corners of Fenspace, then... left, sometimes with their contributions unfinished. What do we want to do with these works-possibly-still-in-progress? (For example, should the Professor become an open character, or is CattyNebulart planning on coming back and doing something with him some day - and how can we know? Likewise with Candy Apple Red's and His Lovely Wife, The Island and Acyl, and a few other examples.)

I don't want to simply ignore these contributions, but the unfinished state of some of them makes it difficult to do anything with those. Should we try fleshing out these writeups, risking upsetting the people who created them and seem to have dropped out of Fenspace, or should we just leave them as stubs and redlinks in the FenWiki, leaving small holes in the setting?

[size=smaller](Oh, yes... Does Amy O'Connell happen to look like http://pagesperso-orange.fr/inukiblog/c ... ha-amy.jpg]this? )[/size]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Foxboy]

Well, to be fair, HLW has a bit of a more important project taking up her time in the Darkling, so...
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[robkelk]

Very true, which is why I doubt she'll be back here any time soon. Family always comes first.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

I'm pretty sure that they trust us to use their contributions as 'open resources'. After all, that's pretty much how the game goes here, isn't it?

[Duane Peters]

I've been intending to do this for some time and had forgotten; the Stingray and her crew are free for anyone to use.

[robkelk]

Thanks!
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[ECSNorway]

A few notes on Colonel Caldwell, since the issue's come up elsethread:

He was always intended to be a bit of a cipher; he's a faceless The Man compared to the fendanes that make up most of the TSAB. More George Hammond than Jack O'Neill, the Jean-Luc Picard to our Jim Kirk. He avoids fen politics for obvious reasons, and a lot of them consider him to be more than a bit of a stick-in-the-mud by-the-book Herbert. He isn't, he just plays one on TV. He's the US Government's Face in Space, and right now, that Face is mildly disapproving of all the ruckus you young whippersnappers are getting up to. Not that -he- necessarily disapproves - witness his covert acquiescence to Marsden making off with a few scrapped Tomcats and such - but he's constrained by his duty in how he can express that, and he takes that duty seriously.

If you can get past that, he's a fairly decent guy; most of the TSAB staff really like him because he - from their point of view - Gets It, even though he still has to enforce the rules and come down on them sometimes. Most Fen have never seen that side of him, and Marsden is sworn never to mention the three occasions on which they have shared a beer.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.