Another Bubblegum Crisis FAQ

The alt.fan.bgcrisis Newsgroup

What are the rules of the newsgroup?

Do not divulge any "binary" information to this newsgroup. (Post "binaries" to alt.binaries.anime or alt.binaries.pictures.anime instead.)
Do not act upon a personal grudge in the newsgroup - take the "flamewars" to e-mail.
Do not act against other newsgroups - no "cross-group flamewars".
Do not force anyone else to secede from the newsgroup - don't "troll" the group.
Members are personally responsible for any damage done to this newsgroup's reputation.
Do not divulge any information concerning BGC's plot twists, unless you put a "SPOILER" tag in the headers and spoiler space in the message body.
Do not gather informaton on your own. The task of gathering BGC-related information is to be distributed evenly among all the members. (So ask BGC-related questions here before trying to find the answers on your own - we may already have the answers.)
Keep in contact with the newsgroup regularly (as often as you want).
The members do not know whether Priss is a lesbian, so don't bother asking unless you want a "flamewar" in your e-mail inbox.
Do not get involved with a "troll".
The penalty for violating any of the ten regulations listed above is ... well, there is no penalty. (You might be thought of as a "baka" by the regulars if you break the rules on purpose, though.)

Like the "Rules of the Knight Sabers," most of these get broken once in a while, but that's pretty much the ideal we go by.

What does "DYO!" mean?

It's short for "Damn you, Overstreet!" Kris Overstreet and Larry Mann wrote a fanfic called Bubblegum Pink: Raging Fires, which was (and possibly still is) the most gratuitously hentai BGC fanfic ever written. (A copy is in the rec.arts.anime.creative archives.)

Now, whenever discussions move toward gratitous sex, many regulars will post messages saying nothing but "DYO!" (Yes, "DYO&M!" would be more accurate ...)

What do these other terms mean?

"a.f.bgc", "a.f.b.g.c", "afbgc", and "AFBGC" all stand for alt.fan.bgcrisis.

There are some abbreviations used in the OAVs:

ADP: the ADvanced Police - a SWAT force designed to fight Boomers.
OMS: the OverMind control System - a top-secret Genom system.
MFS: Mind Feedback System - a control system developed by Doctor Raven.
SDPC: the Space DeveloPment Corporation - the agency responsible for the Moonbase and the "Genaros"/"Generous" space station.
USSD: the United States Space Defence command (?) - the military body responsible for maintaining the orbital particle beam satellites seen in OAVs 1, 2, and 6.

Many other acronyms are defined in the "Acronym List" posted regularly to the newsgroups rec.arts.anime.fandom and rec.arts.anime.misc.

Are people in this group trying to dislike 2040?

This came up on 1 June 2000, in an exchange between Will Svenselius and Andy Skuse. Will asked the question I've used for the section header - this is Andy's reply:

Will, here's a little history lesson that may shed some light on the feelings of many people in this newsgroup. It is precisely because of history that the majority of people in this newsgroup are fans of the original series. And it was a series that did not just have fans. Oh no. BGC ORIG was a series that created Very Devoted Fans. They carried the original series well after its demise and continue to do so today. They helped spread the word that has kept BGC Orig selling all these years. Consider that it is over 10 years since the series was released and people here are all still coming up with new things to discuss about it. I may be a bit out of line here, being a relative newcomer to the group (about 5 years now I think), but if people hadn't continued to discuss BGC in a newsgroup like this I wonder if BGC2040 would ever have been made?

So anyway, along comes a new series, which has very thin ties to the old series. The VDF's (Very Devoted Fans) are very disappointed. Why? What's the big deal? First remember that the old fans are VDFs. This is an important fact. Music comes and goes, movies come and go, but if a movie or a band or any other creative effort manages to acquire VDFs, the potential to sustain popularity beyond the usual run increases tenfold. My favorite band Rush has been around since the early seventies and yet they continue to put out music and sell out concerts. Why is this? Because they have managed to convince their fans that they have integrity, that they will not compromise on their music or their vision, and that they will do their very best to entertain us. And to Rush fans, they keep putting out interesting music. They have always kept their fans in their minds and they have always been sensitive to what the fans like and don't like. Not so much that they would alter course drastically if a small faction demanded it, but when the fans complained about particular songs missing off their last live CD, they changed the CD. This kind of devotion to the fans is what makes them popular and keeps them there.

Along comes BGC2040. I remember watching AIC's Rumors website page very carefully for many months as the series was announced, and as it went into production. There were many promises made about what the VDFs could expect. They reassured us that "this would be no BG Crash!"

Well it wasn't. But it certainly isn't the BGC that the VDFs were expecting based on AIC's Rumors page. When I think back to all the discussion that took place over the new series while we all waited for it, there was a good deal of optimism here, that AIC would get it right. That they would make up for how badly BG Crash was received. But that didn't happen. In fact if anything, they seemed to ignore almost all of the promises they had made. The story had changed, characters had changed (and not just minor aspects), the music had changed, the settings had changed. Just about everything had changed.

That may sell anime to the new generation of fans, who haven't got any preconceived notions of what characters should look like or what hardsuits should look like. But to the VDFs, who have kept the memory of BGC alive all this time, it doesn't sell very well at all. It just says to them that they weren't really part of the equation, and yet AIC quite clearly stated on their Rumors page that they were thinking about the fans of the original series.

"This will not be BG Crash!"

Whatever.

So Will, that is what once was, and I hope it helps explain why your views are meeting with so much negativity. You are up against history here, and while you certainly have the right to discuss your views on BGC 2040 here (it's alt.fan.bgcrisis after all) you should be aware that a precedent has been set, and 2040 is the new kid in town. New kids tend to get bumped around a lot. Put a new kid in a school full of VDFs... there's gonna be a few "Out back behind the school. 3 o'clock! BE THERE!" gatherings ;)

I feel a little sorry for BGC 2040 actually. It had a lot to live up to and didn't. I imagine there was a lot of pressure on the creators to please the old fans as well as create something new for a new generation of fans. They weren't just starting from scratch with a blank page. That's not an easy task. But the result was not even a compromise. The only thing I saw that tied the old series to the new were the first hardsuit designs. And even those have changed radically as we have seen now. It is this feeling of being ignored that I think most fans are upset about, myself included.

But despite the threat of any behind the school gatherings or strong feelings from the VDFs of this newsgroup (to be fair most people here are offering solid reasons for their opinions), if you like what you see in BGC2040 then that's cool. The story has that same spirit of mystery (that I didn't think it had at first) as the original and it does attempt to challenge our thinking about the co-existence of machines and humans. If the story grabs you and makes you think, then it can't be a bad thing. It may never be as popular and self-sustaining as the original, but hey, that's usually the way it is with most new and old things anyway ;)

Like what you like.

I just wrote a BGC fanfic! Can I post it here?

Certainly. Some of the newsgroup's "regulars" will even give you feedback on your story if you ask for it.

However, there is no central archive of fan-fiction posted to a.f.bgc. If your story is complete and you want a copy of it kept with the other fanfics, please also post it to rec.arts.anime.creative.

I just drew some BGC fan art! Can I post it here?

Sorry, no - that would violate Rule #1 of the newsgroup.

Fan art is accepted on the rec.arts.anime.creative group. However, a copy will be kept in the rec.arts.anime.creative archives (mentioned under "Where can I find BGC fanfiction?"). If you don't want this to happen, post your fan art to alt.binaries.pictures.anime instead.

Alternately, you can put your fan art on your website.

Once you post fan art to rec.arts.anime.creative or alt.binaries.pictures.anime, or put it on your website, feel free to post a short note saying you've done so to alt.fan.bgcrisis (so we know to go look for it).

Someone posted something that offended me! What should I do?

Nothing.

alt.fan.bgcrisis is an unmoderated Usenet newsgroup - there's no central authority to tell you what you can and cannot post. This means everyone has complete freedom of speech in the newsgroup. Some people are going to use that freedom to say something that you think is wrong. Others are going to take advantage of that freedom in inappropriate ways (spamming, trolling, and so on).

However, just because people use (or misuse) their freedom of speech doesn't mean anyone else is forced to pay attention to them. Nobody is forcing you to read every message posted to the newsgroup. If you find someone's messages offensive, don't read them. You might even want to use your newsreader's "killfile" in order to ignore that person completely.

How can I avoid being mistaken for a troll?

There is at least one troll who posted regularly to alt.fan.bgcrisis. (Since the aim of most trolls is to gain recognition, I won't name names here.) However, you probably don't want to be mistaken for this person/these people, so here's a few pointers on how to avoid being mistaken for a troll. You can break one or two of these rules safely, but breaking them all is a sure sign of "trolldom":

Use a single screen name, and an e-mail address at which you can be reached. Trolls hide behind false names and e-mail addresses because they believe that makes it harder for other people to track them down. (Many of the "regulars" on alt.fan.bgcrisis use their real names, but they've been on Usenet since before that became dangerous. If you're already known by a pseudonym in other Usenet groups, it's okay to keep using that "screen name", but don't change it! Changing pseudonyms repeatedly is a sure sign of being a troll.)
Avoid using profanity. Trolls like to use emotionally-charged words and phrases in order to get people to reply to them, and profanity is some of the most emotionally-charged language in existance.
Be willing to admit that other people are entitled to an opinion that doesn't match yours. Even if you aren't a troll, telling people anything that amounts to "I'm right and you're wrong" won't win you any friends.
When you do reply to someone else's post in order to disagree with what they've said, don't flame the other person. (Saying "I think your opinion is wrong" is okay; saying "I think you're an idiot" is not.)
Be willing to defend your opinions if and when someone says they think you're wrong. Some trolls will post messages saying they believe one "side" of particularly-divisive topics, then watch in silence as everyone else argues the topic. If you are willing to take part in the resulting debate, people will be less likely to think that you are a troll.
Make an effort to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. Many junior-league trolls will purposely misspell words and use incorrect grammar because they expect other Usenet readers to reply to them, pointing out their errors. (The list maintainer assumes these trolls, and the people who reply in this manner, haven't learned the difference between Usenet and grade school yet.) This includes proper capitalization - e.e.cummings may have made a career of writing poetry without using any capital letters, but you're not e.e.cummings. (If you were that good with your words, you wouldn't be wasting your time posting them to Usenet.)
Stay on-topic. This group is for discussion of the anime Bubblegum Crisis and related works. If you insist on talking about model railroads, or weather forecasting, or live-action movies, or computer operating systems, or anything else that isn't related to Bubblegum Crisis, expect to be ignored (if you're lucky) or labelled as a "troll" (if you're unlucky). (This is the rule that the FAQ maintainer breaks most often ...)
If you choose to critize someone else's work of fiction, avoid insulting the work. Constructive criticism helps the original author; insults do not. (If you feel the fiction is utterly bad and you have to reply, consider giving the story the "Mystery Science Theater" treatment, or "MST" for short. The MST approach requires you to actually do some work, and shows everyone else that you're at least as good a writer as the other person is.)
Make an effort to follow the "Rules of the Newsgroup". While they're written in a humourous manner, the rules themselves are for the most part a re-cap of good "netiquette", with only a couple of group-specific guidelines.

Where did this newsgroup come from?

(Okay, this question isn't asked frequently. Indulge me, ne? - Rob)

Way back when, Ben Cantrick decided it was time for a newsgroup all about Bubblegum Crisis. He sent a "new group" message creating "alt.fan.priss-and-the- replicants". Unfortunately, many news servers aren't able to handle newsgroup names with more than 14 characters between the dots, and "priss-and-the-replicants" is 24 characters long. Ken Arromdee ended up sending this "new group" message for alt.fan.bgcrisis on July 13, 1993:

After alt.config discussion for a while, here it is.  The new group name
(originally alt.fan.bgc) has been changed due to the discussion.

For your newsgroups file:
alt.fan.bgcrisis	The Bubblegum Crisis series and related material.

(This, BTW, is probably why variations of "alt.fan.bgcrisis" are used as an example of what not to do in the FAQ So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup, posted regularly to alt.config, alt.answers, and news.answers.)

Another Bubblegum Crisis FAQ

About This FAQ

Original BGC and BGC2040

BGC Fandom