#19194 - 02/16/01 10:42 PM
Help, please
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journeyman
Registered: 01/21/01
Posts: 86
Loc: Utopia, not in literal sense, ...
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Need I state the obvious, as revealed in the text below. I am new to this Forum(is this the right word?)and rather new to this new-fangled computer and e-mail business. It does seem to be interesting. My Questions: In perusing the posts(postings?) I have observed that there seem to be certain rules and conventions regulating an observed etiquette or certain usages. I have further noted that contributors sometimes (rather ungraciously , it seems to me)publicly chide one another for alleged breaches in the unknown code of decorum. In order that I, and others new to the genre, may seek to avoid any such "fox pass" ( I should have written "faux pas" but doubtless Geoff or our Francophone friends would have advised that such a phrase means " step-father" or is it "putatative father" -There does not seem to be a "pundemonium emoticon" and I must ask you figuratively to supply your own?), please advise:
1. Where(if at all)are any such rules collected and how may one gain access to them? Purely as a matter of idle curiosity, who makes,and who enforces, such rules, and by what authority?
2. Where is the phrase-book translating such acro-breviations as "IOW" and "YART" and many other such acro-breviations. I THINK I have figured out those two, from their context, but, all the same, I would like to see a list or phrase-book. I am old enough to know the veteran "FYI" "MYOB" and BYOB". Maybe you, collectively, will advise "shut up and MYOB!" Otherwise, your assistance will be apreciated. Scribbler
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#19196 - 02/17/01 01:33 AM
Re: Help, please
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old hand
Registered: 11/12/00
Posts: 819
Loc: Portland,Oregon, USA
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My Questions: In perusing the posts(postings?) I have observed that there seem to be certain rules and conventions regulating an observed etiquette or certain usages. I have further noted that contributors sometimes (rather ungraciously , it seems to me)publicly chide one another for alleged breaches in the unknown code of decorum.
Scribbler, I can definately sympathize with you in your frustration at not finding any infomation on this stuff. I was taken to task so many times that I quit posting for a while, just to stop the criticisms. Fortunately, a couple of people came to my rescue, so that I was able to continue without constant condemnation.
If I have overdone the punning, I shall try to tone it down. However, it's the only thing I'm good at (if one can rightly say that one can be good at punning!)
I was criticized most for failing to properly quote enough of the message to which I was responding. Just highlight the necessary quote, go to file, click on cut, then type "blue" in brackets instead of quotation marks, or "red" or another color, then click on paste, which moves the quoted lines to the outgoing message, and add "/blue" or "/red" in brackets, i.e these things: [ ] instead of quotation marks, or whatever color you want at the end of the quoted stuff. This info isn't found in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for some strange reason. Somebody who has Anu's ear (or any other sensitive part of his anatomy, for that matter) should convince him to place operating instructions in the FAQs for us computer illiterate types!
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#19197 - 02/17/01 04:26 AM
Re: Help, please
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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I have never been a great fan of obsessively correcting the way that everyone posts - I make huge numbers of mistakes, often due to to doing things quickly, I sometimes correct them when I see the post again. I hadn't even realised that we had to put the quoted part of the last post in another colour! We have, from time to time, tried to put some helpful hints in Miscellany or Information & Announcements. These have not been intended to be applied dogmatically but have been intended to make things run a little more smoothly. Unfortunately, we are all inclined to wander off thesubject, especially if a particularly good pun or amusing aside distracts us! Part of the problem is that some people read in flat mode, others in threaded. I tend to use a combination of the two, depending on the number of new posts. Once a thread breaks into several strands it can become very hard to follow, hence the advice to quote part of the post that you are replying to (I use > followed by the quote, as I do in e-mail). Here, I haven't done anything as all the replies are still in a straight line and (I hope) it is obvious that I am not really replying to any post in particular, just carrying along the thread. Even if we start another thread in Info & Announcements with all the (useful) suggestions that people have made, it will get buried, like all the others, over time and we'll still have people having problems finding their way around. It doesn't seem that Anu is inclined to add anything to the main FAQ, so I'll add another thread to Info & Announcements. Let's try to keep it clear from our usual diversions. If we use a consistent format for the way things are written, then people will be able to search for it easily. Here's the link for anyone inclined to look: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=17018
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#19198 - 02/17/01 08:44 AM
Re: Help, please
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/25/00
Posts: 3439
Loc: New England, USA
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Scribbler wrote : I have observed that there seem to be certain rules and conventions regulating an observed etiquette or certain usages. I have further noted that contributors sometimes (rather ungraciously , it seems to me)publicly chide one another for alleged breaches in the unknown code of decorum. ---------------------------------------------------------- Dear Scribbler, WELCOME! The above is another way to make clear the post to which you refer. Other ways to do it can be found at the top of the "post" page ... in blue. Gradually you will learn, as I did ... small steps. That said, the two main rules of this Board are : 1. TRY to stay on the topic of words as defined in the various categories ... and puns are definetly in the word world as far as I am concerned. (You hear that TEd?) I love puns but am hopeless at them so really enjoy posts from those who are good at them. 2 Be polite. Even when you RANT on a subject. There is a great variety of personalities, and a wide age span, on this Board and as you read you'll sort them out. Finally, just jump in and take the chiding with the compliments. You'll do fine & have some fun along the way. It's live and learn! YCLIU - you could look it up. WWFT - worthless word for today YART - yet another rehashed topic. That should get you started. wow (High Priestess by default.   )
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#19199 - 02/17/01 11:34 AM
Re: Help, please
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10462
Loc: this too shall pass
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In reply to:
I have observed that there seem to be certain rules and conventions regulating an observed etiquette or certain usages. I have further noted that contributors sometimes (rather ungraciously , it seems to me)publicly chide one another for alleged breaches in the unknown code of decorum.... please advise:
1. Where(if at all)are any such rules collected and how may one gain access to them? Purely as a matter of idle curiosity, who makes,and who enforces, such rules, and by what authority?
2. Where is the phrase-book translating such acro-breviations as "IOW" and "YART"
scribbler, by now your head will be spinning, what with all the information you have received in response to your plea. and all of this information is tres excellente, particularly the yeomanlike(!) efforts of jmh in the information forum.
so now I will endeavor to answer your (so-far) unanswered questions.
1. if you think the folks here are ungracious in their criticisms, you perhaps haven't frequented many online BBSs (bulletin board systems). we are the very models of modern civility compared to most of these.
2. as someone alluded to above, and this is a definite YART - rules? we don' need no stinkin' rules! it's just that some of us have been here for almost 12 months now (since the Maculate Inception last March) and we like to try to keep things the Way They Were When We Found Them (so to speak). so, to quote someone else, pay little attention to the man behind the curtain -- cuz mostly he isn't there.
3. we have made abortive attempts from time to time to keep *this forum (Q & A about words) to be just that. things did get a wee bit testy when a legitimate question about food words digressed into a several hundred post thread including recipes and branched off into folk's favorite things to imbibe. [see Martha Stewart web sites]
4. re acronyms - many of us hate their general overuse, myself included; but I have yet to adequately explain myself for "YART"....
5. emoticons - many of us hate them, but they seem to be required since many others miss the facial expressions that are a part of communicating one-to-one. this has recently been taken to great extremes!! [shrugs-resignedly-emoticon]
6. "IOW"?? I have *no* idea what that one is -- must be from one of the threads that I don't frequent.
7. another way of quoting, which I don't think was mentioned (probably because few like it), is to use {quote} and {/quote} [in square brackets] as I did....
HTH!! *<8-)
Enigma and evasion grow;
And shall we never find Thee out?
- Herman Melville, Carel
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#19200 - 02/17/01 12:27 PM
Re: Help, please
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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In reply to:
another way of quoting, which I don't think was mentioned (probably because few like it), is to use {quote} and {/quote} [in square brackets] as I did....
Amazing, so that's how it is done. I'd always wondered how people did that. Still I think, with permission from y'all, I'll stick with my space-saving ">" Ta.
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#19201 - 02/17/01 01:15 PM
Re: Help, please
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 01/05/01
Posts: 1814
Loc: Spam Factory
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The Rules are tattooed onto Father Steve's abdomen. If you ask politely he will email you a jpeg of the tattoo in all its glory. It's rather naughty, so be sure to request the high-resolution version.
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#19202 - 02/17/01 01:19 PM
Re: Father Steve's rules
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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>The Rules are tattooed ...
Perhaps he could supply a digital image and we can upload it Max's AWADabilia site. I'd be quite keen to purchase the bathmat version!
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#19203 - 02/17/01 01:34 PM
Re: Help, please
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 11577
Loc: Louisville, Kentucky
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In reply to:
The Rules are tattooed onto Father Steve's abdomen. If you ask politely he will email you a jpeg of the tattoo in all its glory. It's rather naughty, so be sure to request the high-resolution version.
Cool! I always wondered how Bingley got those lines to appear! (Still can't follow how Tsuwm changes fonts.)
Now, about those rules: might I see the trunkated
version?
A-aah---nearly forgot: welcome, Scribbler, and you too,
Einstein of the next thread. (That was E=MC squared, wasn't it?)
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