Big ups to folks who keep IC antagonism IC and maintain a cheerful OOC environment all round. Fairen/Harlan/new-Grazia@Arx (didn't know old-Grazia!), here's looking at you! It is so much easier to have a scene where characters openly dislike each other when everyone's on the same page about it being strictly IC. Frappuccinos for all! (I would if I could.)

Well, fuck.

I teach Left Hand of Darkness each time I get Science Fiction to teach (last time was 2015). The students always love it, even the ones I know are very socially conservative. The discussions are great, and especially for college kids, super respectful. Last time, when we read it at the very end of the spring semester, I had a graduating senior student come out as trans to me and then (through her own initiative, not my doing, of course) to the class. The highest compliment I can pay LeGuin is that she changed that young woman's life through her writing. Thank you for that, Ursula, from someone who witnessed the power your words had.

• General spelling and basic grammar: I used to be bitchier about this than I am now. I teach English literature, and although my writing style on games is pretty practical as opposed to well-written, it's hard for me to overlook really egregious cases -- but I'm less weirded out by the odd comma splice or whatever than I used to be.
• Pose length and detail: please don't overwrite. There is a place for a one-liner now and again, but that place is rare: 4-5 lines is a sweet spot, provided (of course!) there's something to react to.
• Tempo: I am on the slower side, especially if I play characters who are more thoughtful about their actions. It takes me a few minutes to write up a pose. But even my attention will drift and I'll start WHOing and the like if we're rolling towards 15 minutes without a reply.
• Personal peeves: don't care about either of the listed. I hate when people pose in past tense in a present tense game, though. Follow conventions, whatever they are.
• Pose ordering: don't care mostly, but with the caveat that I'm a slow poser compared to some, so if someone talks to my char, and then fires out another pose while I'm still writing, that pisses me off. No worries if the chars aren't interacting with mine, though.
• I'm kind of weirded out by you-posing, because I am very much not my characters in a billion different ways, and also because of the level of familiarity that implies. I won't avoid a scene with a you-poser in the way I will with a past-tenser or the like (which breaks my immersion even more), but I won't be as likely to make that person a long-term RP partner.

I've been around since time immemorial (OK, since when WORA had a meaning for the acronym), but I'm admittedly a flake on games (I run for about 6 months and then burn out.)

Here's where I'm at now, after a 2+ year break:

• Spencer (mage) and Jeremy (in cgen) at New Prospect: From the Ashes
• Gonzalo at Eighth Sea (maaaybe. Still trying to sink my teeth into the character, and I had to go to sleep midway through a TP last week and felt badly about it. Things that start at 9 EST are difficult!)
• Derovai at Arx

From earlier:

if you are still having trouble, you can ooc that you're still getting your bearings as you're new.

Except people are free to ignore that as they wish, and screw you up anyway, per your own statement.

Let me put it this way: I just started on a game with a very expansive theme. I am two weeks in. I am still learning. I know I'm still making mistakes, because I'm still learning (though I think I'm making less of them now than I was two weeks ago!). One of the first things I OOCly asked, two weeks ago, was how to refer to a certain character in manner of speaking, and that person responded. Two seconds. Done. Now, I'm asking more different, complex questions, because I'm starting to get my bearings.

The website is all well and good, as is going to a Discord or message board or whatever, but if I can't OOC simple corrections, or ask for more complex clarifications, and get a straight and reliable answer each time without being left to my own devices for it, and if I run the risk of my character dying for unknowingly getting it wrong (as opposed to "knowingly," which is a whole different ball of wax), that's not an environment that would make me come running back to play.

Not social awkwardness, but: people publicly spitting weirds me the fuck out.

This didn't used to be so common ~20 years ago as it is now. I'm a woman IRL, and I'll see guys walking down the street, just spit like it's completely fucking normal, and it repulses me. I want to bring back spittoons and make them mandatory at every city block.

Is anyone else weirded out by this? Why is it so prevalent nowadays beyond the obvious answers? I can't be the only one out there who finds it not only gross but odd. Also it's going on 5 AM and I'm still awake because ???. Send help please.

• +roll/+check/etc. code that follows logical consistency. I'm finding it hard to think of an example where it doesn't, but I know I've seen games where it doesn't, and I'm looking up the helpfile every time to do a simple +roll.
• @mail code where it gives you a preview/write-as-you-go instead of forcing you to construct the message in one shot.
• Breadcrumbs in helpfiles. +help main --> +help main/subtopic. If you file everything as top-level topics, then it makes it impossible to find it unless the person knows just what to look for.
• A +census command for WoD games or others where there are different distinct roles. I know there's some debate over this, and recognize the validity of people's opinions who hate it. However, as someone who likes filling in the gaps with my characters, this passive information is much less awkward for me than asking 'So, what do you need?' on guestchan.

Brand new to the game! Also haunting the info channel like a specter at the feast, because somanycommands and somanythemefiles and I apped a PC who should know things (might have been a mistake, but getting hooked in hasn't been a problem).

Good things:

• People have been generally receptive to RP, and working out connections that my PC might have with theirs prior to him going IC.
• Good OOC respect for all: my PC was in an +event scene last night, and I didn't feel crowded out by the noble PCs, even though he's a commoner. He even asked a question! Similarly, I haven't felt shunted out by noble PCs or players, though I've been dividing my time between noble and commoner RP.
• I've punched up one ETA: two of his stats already from the XP I got on Sunday (when I apped the character), and I don't feel hindered in advancement (though we'll see in two weeks, once I come off @randomscene). Then again, I don't play a combat PC.

Suggestions/Questions:

• Please set up a way, if possible, to page shortened names. Sure, that can lead to mispages, but it would be about 1000% (totally real percentage!) easier to me to page foo=Stuff instead of page foobartholicus=stuff
• @clues should auto-refresh with new PCs: some of mine I know are defunct. Others, I'm just wild-ass guessing whether they are or aren't. Investigative PCs should (maybe randomly?) have new @clues added. This is being worked on, though.
• Does the startup gear (I forget the command) include stuff you can have made from crafter PCs? If not, it should, as it would be a nice way to RP with them and get them some decent crafting tasks while new PCs have money to burn.
• Themefile wiki, or an updated glossary with bullet points from the themefile, would be spectacular. I think I know about 25% of it, but it's still a morass to work through.
• I'm still not sure how journals work (not white vs black, but the thematic nature of them). I play a PC that probably wouldn't do much writing in journals, and I don't OOCly see the point, to be honest. But, from references made, they seem to be IC as much as OOC. Will I get penalized for not using them?
• I have zero interest in pretty ANSI described clothing. Is there a functional bonus to wearing a fancy tiara? My PC is in the "wouldn't bother IC" camp, but if there is a functional reason (does it affect stats?) for him to have better clothes (I know steelsilk etc., but the rest of it?), let me know.

Also, I'm Derovai (at least 2.0, maybe 3.0). Hi.

Hi! I teach English literature and occasional nonfiction writing (Business Writing, etc) to college kids, so I'm going to pull a little bit of rank here and say that, though I'm not a prescriptivist, grammatical rules, including guidelines such as what typesetting to use for emphasis, exist for a reason. That reason is clarity.

@evilcabbage: In your second link, by Grant Barrett, the author makes the following point:

But as examples on both sites show, there are proper, natural, widely understood rules behind using shout quotes, even if they’re taught in no grammar or style book that I can find. They’re appropriate when you have no other easy way to indicate emphasis.

Emphasis mine, because I do have an easy way to indicate emphasis. And so do you! It's called using the code above. Single asterisks are italic, as a for-instance. You'll note I use them frequently here, to demonstrate the facility with which one might employ them.

Let's take a look at the article from The Sun too (see, there I go, using bbcode again to its proper effect).

It is an understandable mistake. Quotations set off something, and it's a short step from setting something off to emphasizing it.

And the quote you picked out:

Thus wearing my linguist hat, I am inclined to treat the new boldface as a variant usage of punctuation which, since it is used consistently by users, cannot on any logical grounds be rejected as "wrong."

That's not arguing what you think it's arguing. It's arguing against stating linguistic drift as inherently wrong, but it is also (emphasis again! I just keep doing it somehow!) arguing that written linguistic patterns are "more resistant to change" (quote verbatim) than spoken ones, and that this change itself is not settled and is still in flux.

We can argue about singular "they" and the like all day, but even from your own articles, this is not a debatable issue either in layman's practice or in academia. Emphasis using quotes is not an acceptable practice because of its potential to be confused as scare quotes. I'd mark it off in my students' papers at the drop of a hat, just as I would an errant apostrophe or a comma splice.

Peace, but you're in error here, speaking as someone with at least a dash of authority in the field.

Another Ph.D student (ABD candidate) checking in. Let us talk about the lovely Ph.D stipend of $16k/year, the expectation of teaching two courses and writing a dissertation, the classes that start teaching at 8:45 AM in the snow, the utter lack of useful health insurance, the fact that you are "forbidden" (supposedly) from taking other jobs during the summers...

At $16k.

"But you get summers off and a whole month and a half of winter break!"

That's not a fair trade. And no, we don't really.

So, as a lot of you know, I live local to the area (about 20min from the crash, and my parents live 20min past it -- I drive by the exit to the store's town each time I go visit them). I don't know anyone yet who died in the accident. I know the store owners in passing.

If anyone wants to donate to the rural county's first responders (a volunteer service), please go to:
https://www.facebook.com/applebarrelcountrystore/posts/10160938872865582

Sorry for making this its own thread, but Schoharie County is a small rural area of 30,000 people. The town of Schoharie was flooded and all but destroyed from Hurricane Irene years ago. Their first responders need all the help they can get in light of this accident. Thank you for any help you can give them.

There are also GoFundMes up for the families but it feels a bit personal posting those. You can Google or message me if you're so inclined.

@misadventure All good; I'm an attorney and I make them sign a contract, put short. But thanks!

@Tyche Here I was anticipating Single White Female.

@cobaltasaurus When I teach, I only lecture for 20 minutes tops. I read a study once -- don't ask me to find the link -- that that's the amount of time the human brain can actively listen, process, and figure out information in a single, attentive sitting.

After 20 minutes, the students do group work, or something else active, or they read a different article. Something calling on a different part of the brain than the auditory-listening channel.

As someone who is not an auditory learner at all, though, I probably would have done this anyway without the study, too, because I take information in a lot better through reading than through listening anyway.

Renting out half of my house, and why do so many people want you to instantly talk with them on the phone about it?! We're not even past anonymous Craigslist ads and you instantly give away your number? I get people want to know it isn't a scam, but aaah.

That said, if anyone wants a pet-friendly studio with kitchenette, full bath, and parking in Albany NY...

@shincashay If you're curious...

No help entry found for 'tupac'

Suggested: put, autoattack, +autoattack, @spectate_combat, Compact

@ixokai No prob! But yeah, I find not being able to use the Penn/Tiny/Brandy @mail invoker with the -newlines forever annoying. I'd put in a +request, but it's a) not annoying enough to request and b) probably somethng that would require recoding the @mail from scratch, and @Tehom and NV get enough code +requests from me that I feel I'd make their brains explode if I put this in.

@ixokai Nope, Arx, but same thing.

@mail - lists all mail in player's mailbox
@mail # - read mail by the given number
@mail/raw # - read mail by given number without ansi evaluation
@mail/quick [<player>[,<player2,...]/<subject>=<message>
@mail/org <org name>/<subject>=<message>
@mail/delete # - deletes mail by given number

• +roll/+check/etc. code that follows logical consistency. I'm finding it hard to think of an example where it doesn't, but I know I've seen games where it doesn't, and I'm looking up the helpfile every time to do a simple +roll.
• @mail code where it gives you a preview/write-as-you-go instead of forcing you to construct the message in one shot.
• Breadcrumbs in helpfiles. +help main --> +help main/subtopic. If you file everything as top-level topics, then it makes it impossible to find it unless the person knows just what to look for.
• A +census command for WoD games or others where there are different distinct roles. I know there's some debate over this, and recognize the validity of people's opinions who hate it. However, as someone who likes filling in the gaps with my characters, this passive information is much less awkward for me than asking 'So, what do you need?' on guestchan.

I'm a professional knitter -- not tippy-top expert, but 8/10. Currently working on this sweater, "Hamilton". I like the chevron design; it's a nice and subtle texture, and is working up quickly so far.

@thatguythere said in RL things I love:

I am just intrigued by a Pearl marrying a Pearlie, that could lead to almost as much confusion as when two friends got married, Christopher and Christine but both went by Chris.

Belated, but...
My last name IRL is Shelly. My mom's name is Mary. "lol Frankenstein" all the time, like she's never heard it before.

But worse: my paternal uncle was once married to a woman named Kelly (now divorced). Yes, for about ten years, there was a "Kelly Shelly." Her maiden name was the rather discordant "Wieand" (WEE-and), so I suppose she was SOL either way.