#19194
02/17/2001 3:42 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 86
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 86 |
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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#19195
02/17/2001 6:21 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Dear Scrib ~
Suppose you were rooting around in your grandmother's attic and you came upon an old board game which had all (or most) of the pieces but was missing the rules. That seems to me to be pretty much how this board works. Under the "land mine" principle of law, you discover that you have broken a rule when and as your foot is being blown off. The other rule is that, when correcting newbies, it is to be done gently, until their skin thickens, I think. Another way to come at this is to eschew all of this nonsense, pitch in and have a good time. I recommend the latter.
Father Steve
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#19196
02/17/2001 6:33 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
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
02/17/2001 9:26 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
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
02/17/2001 1:44 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
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
02/17/2001 4:34 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
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
02/17/2001 5:27 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
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
02/17/2001 6:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
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
02/17/2001 6:19 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>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
02/17/2001 6:34 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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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#19204
02/17/2001 6:50 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
jackie, as I'm always prepared to drag folks, kicking and screaming, into the new millennium, here are my helpful hints for today [putting on M. Stewart hat]:
1. the font changes automagically when I use [pre] and [/pre] to insert spacing into my text -- be forewarned that you have to do a fair bit of mucking about to get the spacing where you want it though....
2. the code for getting the superscript for MC² is [alt]0178
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#19205
02/17/2001 8:57 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>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, what you perceive as ungracious chiding may simply be joshing amongst old friends. Remember that some have been here for nearly a year, and others, by sheer volume of posts, have become part of the family really quickly.
Once you have stuck around for a while you will see that, even when in disagreement, nobody is really hostile or mean. This is, by a wide margin, the nicest bulletin board on the net.
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#19206
02/17/2001 10:13 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>even when in disagreement, nobody is really hostile or mean
Oh yes we are!
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#19207
02/17/2001 10:25 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Really, and I missed it? 
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#19208
02/17/2001 10:34 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>Really, and I missed it? No, no, no you were meant to say "Oh no we're not!" We'll make a "Widow Twanky" of you, yet!
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#19209
02/17/2001 11:14 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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#19210
02/18/2001 11:02 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>"Widow Twanky"?????? And this is something I want to be, is it? Sounds like those old ladies that run around town in tattered housecoats with rollers in their hair (hidden under a kerchief out of modesty of course) and old stocking rolled down to their ankles.
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#19211
02/19/2001 5:00 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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More or less right bel, but you missed the crucial point that Widow Twankey is actually a man. Perhaps you don't have pantos in Canada. These are re-tellings of traditional stories (Cinderella, Puss in Boots, etc.) put on in theatres throughout the land round about Christmastide and much beloved of children. Stock characters are the dame (older woman played by a man (Widow Twankey is Aladdin's mother by the way)) and the principal boy (our hero, played by a young woman in tights who has a habit of slapping her thighs every so often).
A fair amount of audience participation is expected, for example arguments between the villain and the audience (Oh yes he is, oh no he isn't, oh yes he is, oh no he isn't)and warnings shouted out by excited tots as the villain creeps up behind our hero: Behind you.
The dialogue usually includes lots of double entendres and political references despite frequent complaints that these spoil the spirit of the thing.
God, I miss them.
Bingley
Bingley
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#19212
02/19/2001 8:49 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Thank you for your comments Bing. I have only one thing to say:
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BEHIND YOU!
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#19213
02/19/2001 9:13 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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And what are us poor panto-lovers living in benighted countries where it isn't popular at all going to do when Julian Clary finally hangs up his stilettos or discovers he has cellulite, dahling!? You always need the good fairy, don't you?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#19214
02/19/2001 3:10 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ye Gods, I was beginning to think "panto lover" was some kind of transvestite!
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#19215
02/19/2001 4:05 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I'm sure there is famous sketch where someone is explaining pantomime to an American. I thought it was Bob Newhart along the lines of his "Sir Walter Raleigh Monologue" but I can't see it mentioned so maybe it was a spoof.
It goes something like:
- So the principal boy ... is a girl dressed up as a boy
- Yes
- And the dame ... is a man dressed up as a woman
- Yes
- And you say that you allow children to see this?
- Yes!
No you are safe "panto-lovers" are not always transvestites!
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#19216
02/20/2001 2:03 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 17
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 17 |
Welcome, Scribbler. Having followed all the thread from your original post, and being a fellow new guy on the block, I, too, wondered about the proper etiquette required to participate in the, at first, bewildering array of these fora. I hope you will not let discouragement overwhelm, dang the discretion being the better part of valor, plunge right in and let the chips fall (only 8 more posts to matriculation to newbie emoticon), say whats on your mind, follow as best you can and have fun with your own words. It will become clearer and clearer the more you browse and respond or initiate that one does not have to be a Webster or even a Garg to simply speak ones mind.
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#19217
02/20/2001 2:33 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
You may fire when ready, Gridley!
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#19218
02/20/2001 2:42 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! You may fire when ready, Gridley! Funny, I just read "Gridley's interests, "reading, hunting, fishing, swimming, biking, rollerblading, singing, websurfing". i didn't spot torpedoes anywhere , is that a side-line?
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#19219
02/20/2001 3:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Spoken by Admiral Farragut on entering harbor of Manila in Spanish American War. I think.
Correction: Encyclopedia says it was Admiral Dewey. Sorry about that.wwh
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#19220
02/20/2001 3:11 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>Spoken by Admiral Farragut And he wasn't speaking to someone called "spelchkr" by any chance?
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#19221
02/20/2001 3:46 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
re: Admiral Farragut--
No-- he was talking to David Porter--his second in command-- (since he was order not just his ship but a fleet!) and there end my knowledge of US navel history.
and as for me, i loved it when i got picked on-- i felt like i had "joined the family"-- since most almost everybody (starting with Jackie!) is unfailing polite to strangers and newbies-- but once you've been here for a while, your typo and mistakes or poorly phrased posts are fair game-- so for now, you are "company" and treated with decorum, but keep posting, and soon you'll just be a provider of fodder (as i am) or will fill the board with witty puns, neatly turned phrases, and literal inquires as to the meaning of a post!
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#19222
02/20/2001 3:57 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>US navel history
As in "The House of Orange"?
ooops, sorry .v (duck), couldn't resist it!
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#19223
02/20/2001 4:07 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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well, this thread too has gone beyond the pale... one has to wonder if scribbler ever came back to read all this.
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#19224
02/20/2001 8:04 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
In reply to:
It will become clearer and clearer the more you browse and respond or initiate that one does not have to be a Webster or even a Garg to simply speak ones mind.
-- Thanks, I think.
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#19225
02/20/2001 8:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
All scribbler has to do now is go full speed ahead and fire at will (exemption for me I hope)
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#19226
02/20/2001 11:59 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>Now, about those rules: might I see the trunkated
version?
ARGH. I torso through the thread to make that pun before you did. It was abdominal!
TEd
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#19227
02/21/2001 1:29 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear TEd: careful lest you get your keister punted.
Actually I have enjoyed them
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#19228
02/22/2001 12:27 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 1,027 |
well, this thread too has gone beyond the pale...I didn't notice any red faces here of late .
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#19229
02/22/2001 4:37 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 11,613 |
well, this thread too has gone beyond the pale...
I didn't notice any red faces here of late. Well, wsieber, some of us are more modest than others.
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#19230
02/22/2001 7:23 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 5,400 |
a pale is just a palisade-- a wooden frontier wall to keep out invaders.
but the pale refers specifically to the wall about Dublin-- (one of the newer cities in the old world-- a few years past 1000) that keep the irish out of dublin. It was one of the improvements the english made to ireland when they first occupied it.
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#19231
02/22/2001 8:04 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
>but the pale refers specifically to the wall about Dublin--
...and who amongst us would dare question Helen of Troy's credentials on the subject of walled cities?
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#19233
02/23/2001 2:39 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
thank you max and marty-- NY's North River (north of NYC it is commonly known as the Hudson River)--has a Palisades-- Steep high cliffs, they are so named be they in effect became a effective barrier-- the shores of the river north of what is midtown, about 42nd street-- on the NJ side of the river are high -- several hundred feet, sheer cliffs of cystaline granite. (Very similar to the "devil's steps stones" in North Ireland.) It is a ancient volcanic layer, that has be twisted and turn 90 degrees. A similar structure exist in northern Manhattan-- but not till 168th St--
the George Washington bridge-- (180th street) has almost no "Up Ramp" on either side of the river-- there is slight grade-- but not the steep grade common to suspension bridges-- the bridge is almost level the ground--until the ground suddenly drops away in a sheer cliff.
Very unlike the ANZAC, for example-- which was shown as one of the challanges in the Olympic Marathon race.
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