The different style by different group of fans

[Edward Yee]

Blergh, shit -- shoulda made that just one unit off. (As if I recall it's platoons that lieutenants command, but I concede re: the error of one rank.)

[Knife]

Blergh, shit -- shoulda made that just one unit off. (As if I recall it's platoons that lieutenants command, but I concede re: the error of one rank.)

Correct; a platoon commander is usually a lowely Lt.

[Darth Wong]

Blergh, shit -- shoulda made that just one unit off. (As if I recall it's platoons that lieutenants command, but I concede re: the error of one rank.)

Correct; a platoon commander is usually a lowely Lt.

That reminds me; one of the things I was going to put in my unfinished fanfic was somebody in the Maquis griping that their forces were totally unprofessional and that they were giving themselves all kinds of impressive-sounding ranks. Colonels and majors everywhere.

[Knife]

Blergh, shit -- shoulda made that just one unit off. (As if I recall it's platoons that lieutenants command, but I concede re: the error of one rank.)

Correct; a platoon commander is usually a lowely Lt.

That reminds me; one of the things I was going to put in my unfinished fanfic was somebody in the Maquis griping that their forces were totally unprofessional and that they were giving themselves all kinds of impressive-sounding ranks. Colonels and majors everywhere.

That would be interesting. I think some SW EU has touched on that as well, well; the rebellion side anyways. Too many Generals not enough Lt's.

Star Trek has the same problem, though mostly between officer/enlisted ranks. It would have made a good side story.

[RedImperator]

The problem (In my opinion) is that FF.net lacks any sort of "Hard" reviewing system.

The problem with FF.net is that it's stuffed to the gills with garbage.

So is the internet, thats what good filtering and search systems are for .

You'd have a point if I looked for reading material via Google.

There are a lot more people who think they can write than there are people who actually can, and FF.net has no editorial control whatsoever.

Yup, but marking good/bad by the other "Authors" (As bad as most are) would allow filtering of a sort, due to the fact that the better fics will start getting the lion's share of "views" (Rather like web-pages in that respect).

All the filtering and reviews in the world won't help if the site is absolutely overwhelmed with trash. The sheer volume of incoming material means that most of it is going to wind up lost in a virtual slush bin regardless of quality.

[Surlethe]

A question to those who have read more fanfics than I have: is this board's insistence on properly using English a factor in differing fanfic quality, or is the general technical level of writing the same all over?

[Feil]

The trouble with that dedicated military sub-forum is that it's not open to the non-military bunch, so far as I know...

I had a captain leading a platoon of Star Wars Stormtroopers and a Lieutenant leading a 12-man-squad. There was a sergeant in the squad, but he played the second-in-command.

Maybe the Stormtrooper Corps suffers from an inappropriate Chiefs:Indians ratio, or something... OK, probably not, but at least I did it in Star Wars, where destroyers have a thousand times the volume of cruisers, and pistols have sniper scopes, and generals command the fighter wings of naval vessels.


I really wanted an officer in the group for the dynamic I was working at, though. I think... The grand total of my military knowledge comes from a bit of research and a few war movies.

Are Sergeants high and mighty enough that they could be viewed as trusted masters of life and death (assuming they do their jobs properly)?


...Who the hell came up with the idea of having O-1s command platoons, anyway? Wouldn't you want to have someone with experience for the job, like a senior enlisted or warrant officer, or an O-2/O-3?

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Surlethe: I doubt it. The ability and will to write in sentences with punctuation and reasonable dedication to spelling and grammar is a characteristic of almost anyone who writes stories, whether good or horrible; nobody writes stories who doesn't write sentences.

Too, great command of the language isn't really needed to write a good fanfic. Contrast Firewarrior's Guide with... anything written by Kevin J Anderson, for instance.

[phongn]

A question to those who have read more fanfics than I have: is this board's insistence on properly using English a factor in differing fanfic quality, or is the general technical level of writing the same all over?

The average technical quality of fanfiction on this board is higher than normal - but honestly not as high as I'd like. I'm picky, though (ask any of the old ASVS crowd who remembered when I reviewed fanfiction). Still, if someone spends enough time actually trying to write proper English it's a sign that they might well have put some attention to detail in other parts of the story.

I doubt it. The ability and will to write in sentences with punctuation and reasonable dedication to spelling and grammar is a characteristic of almost anyone who writes stories, whether good or horrible; nobody writes stories who doesn't write sentences.

You clearly haven't been to fanfiction.net or haven't read much there.

The trouble with that dedicated military sub-forum is that it's not open to the non-military bunch, so far as I know...

There's also a subforum dedicated to military affairs but not limited to active or former military personnel called the Heavy Armor Brigade.

[Knife]

Are Sergeants high and mighty enough that they could be viewed as trusted masters of life and death (assuming they do their jobs properly)?

Each platoon would have a platoon sgt too. Anything from an E-5 to E-7 really, who runs the day to day operations.

...Who the hell came up with the idea of having O-1s command platoons, anyway? Wouldn't you want to have someone with experience for the job, like a senior enlisted or warrant officer, or an O-2/O-3?

They're officers, they have to command something. But like I just mentioned, each platoon has a senior enlisted as the plt sgt.

[Darth Servo]

That reminds me; one of the things I was going to put in my unfinished fanfic was somebody in the Maquis griping that their forces were totally unprofessional and that they were giving themselves all kinds of impressive-sounding ranks. Colonels and majors everywhere.

Sounds like the Maquis took their inspiration from Starfleet.

BTW, how is "Reign of Terror" comming? Will we see the next chapter any time soon or are you still too busy with other projects/still have wrighter's block?

[frogcurry]

I always assumed that the high officer / trooper levels in most SF was due to the higher amount of automation reducing the need for numbers of lower ranking personnel. Once you eliminate certain duties the resulting reduced workload means less grunts, but you still need officers and a command chain. The levels of hierarchy we see in SF militaries don't tend to have that many ranks that we see but more peees at higher ranks -i.e. they are quite flat and square in shape.

Plus Star Trek can beg off having too many officers to an extent as the ranks don't necessarily reflect their current normal meanings - no sergeants in TNG, the ensigns are pretty much at E1-3 level (if I recall the US army ranking system correctly).

I've noticed in the past that a lot of fan fiction by poorer authors that is set in only one universe (i.e. non-crossover) tends to embody some of the elements of that source quite strongly, i.e. Star Trek stories often over emphasise the Roddenbery ideals of TNG.

[Darth Servo]

Once you eliminate certain duties the resulting reduced workload means less grunts, but you still need officers and a command chain.

You still need grunts to send into dangerous, unknown situations (read: planeteary landings) as opposed to the command staff of the fricken ship.

[RedImperator]

Once you eliminate certain duties the resulting reduced workload means less grunts, but you still need officers and a command chain.

No, what you need is an overall smaller crew with the same ratio of officers to enlisted personnel. Right now Starfleet is sending officers through four years of Academy training to do the kind of bullshit work an Able Crewman ought to be able to handle.